How to use photography in social advertising to engage your audience
19 August 2019
19 August 2019
In today’s fast paced world, people prefer visual information over text in order to digest information quicker. This is why high-quality imagery is essential for engaging with your potential customers online.
Social media has experienced a visual transformation over the years, evolving from text-based statuses into to a visual gallery where images can be shared instantly. This is why, when advertising on Facebook and Instagram, photo-based ads are highly effective. A recent Facebook study found a series of image-only ads perform better than other ad formats when driving traffic. Using an image in Facebook campaigns also generates 65% more engagement than those without.
With consumers being more likely to favour ads that emphasise photography than those with just text, it is important to ensure that digital ad creative contains high-quality imagery that accurately portrays your brand and its products/services. Below are our top tips for achieving effective digital ad creative with photopraphy!
Tips for effective Digital creative;
As Facebook and Instagram ads usually appear in user newsfeeds along with content from their family and friends, lifestyle imagery usually performs better than graphics as consumers find the brand more relatable.
(Image source: Facebook Business)
A striking image with minimal text is advised when advertising online. If an ad contains too much text within an image, it can cause the ad to become cluttered and it will be shown less frequently to users, which results in less engagement.
Additionally, under Facebook’s new guidelines, if an ad image contains more than 20% text overlay, its reach becomes significantly limited. In some cases, the ad may not even be approved if it contains too much text. Facebook categorises your ad image based on the ratings outlined below:
(Image source: Facebook Business)
Use high quality photos that have one main focus, to avoid confusing messaging. If you want to include multiple products in one image, consider using the Carousel Ad format, which will allow you to use multiple photos and showcase multiple products within one ad.
With only 3 seconds available to engage first-time users on your landing page, it is essential to keep potential consumers engaged with visual content on your website. This is particularly important for e-commerce websites, as 70% of e-commerce shoppers consider product images to be an influencing factor when purchasing.
Your landing page is really important, as it will influence and drive conversions from the time, money and effort you have put into creating your social ad. Therefore, it is essential that your landing page and ad imagery are relevant to each other in order to engage with users who clicked through to the website from your ad.
Using high quality photos is essential when advertising online as websites that use captivating imagery receive up to 94% more views than those without. As photos represent your brand it is advised to hire a photographer to capture high quality photos instead of using low quality, unprofessional photos. However, not every business has the budget for a professional photographer. If you can relate, many smartphones are now equipped with high specification cameras that can take great quality photographs to be used online. There are also many brilliant photography websites that you can download stock images from. Have a look at some of the stock image websites below to see if you can find a photo that meets your campaign needs.
If you would like to find out how a Facebook or Instagram Advertising campaign could help generate more leads or revenue for your business, get in touch with us today!