No matter the quality and design of your site, or your social media presence, you need to be paying attention to your website traffic, and ensuring as many people as possible are visiting your site. There are a number of ways you can drive organic traffic and, ultimately, boost website purchases- we’ll be going through five of these in today’s article. 

 

1- Blogging

A blog (like this one!) is a great way to attract new visitors to your site. To create the most effective blog to boost organic traffic, consider your target audience and their needs and questions – what might they find valuable to read? Keep your blog content original, relevant to your brand and engaging- this helps build a loyal audience, plus it increases the chances that your blog gets shares as a useful hub of information. 

 

2- Active socials with clear CTAs

Be smart with your socials – the goal is to build brand publicity and ultimately drive traffic to your site, in a way that seems natural to followers and visitors to your social platforms. Utilise CTAs that encourage website visits, such as to product pages or to your blog, to initiate visitors’ site experience. Include and draw attention to your website link, and ensure your branding is present on all creatives that you post.

It is also important to consider the different stages of the customer journey, and how your social presence moves customers towards conversion. A portion of your social media content, for example, should address those at the awareness stage, who have just come across your brand via your socials, by building hype around your products/services and informing them what you offer and who you are as a brand, to spark interest and drive website traffic. Another portion should target those visitors who are at the interest/research stage – how can they be pushed to your product pages?

Plan a social media optimisation strategy to drive organic traffic to your website, ensuring content you publish covers different buying personas and the different stages of the customer journey.

 

3- Pay attention to target keywords to boost SEO

Ensure you are smart with your keywords to rank higher in search results. Consider what your target audience might be searching for, what questions they might asking on search engines, and ensure your copy and content matches likely search queries. This includes keywords in your URL, headings, subheadings, meta title and meta description on search listings, as well as image and video descriptions. The higher you rank in results, and the more relevant and engaging your content looks to your target audience, the more people that click on your site, driving website traffic.

 

4- Email marketing

Formulating a strong email marketing strategy is a great way to remind subscribers of the products/services you offer and encourage them to visit and return to your site. You can promise and deliver exclusive offers and discounts to subscribers, sending out a regular newsletter that incorporates both product pushes and blog-style emails that offer valuable, relevant content to your target audience.

 

5- Perform a website audit

As well as ensuring your website keywords boost your on-page SEO, you can further optimise your web content to rank higher in search results, and ultimately boost organic site traffic, by performing a website audit. A site like www.seooptimer.com will tell you exactly how your site ranks in search results alongside any competitors, and factors you should pay attention to and improve to drive greater traffic via search engines. From here, you can develop a website optimisation strategy to boost your organic traffic.

 

So, that’s five key ways to drive traffic to your website. In need of further assistance in optimising your website SEO and social media platforms to boost organic traffic? Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today – we have an expect in-house team who would be very happy to help you scale your online presence and get more visitors onto your site.

 

The arrival of iOS 14 has meant we can no longer see accurate purchase data on Facebook Ads Manager. iOS 14 users have been granted greater transparency and choice with data sharing, and we are now unable to track users’ activity outside Facebook-owned apps if they opt out of ads tracking. 

 

This means the efficacy of Ads Manager has dropped as regards to audience targeting and hence measuring ad campaign performance. Ads Manager doesn’t always include purchase values which means ROAS is calculated incorrectly, at a lower value than it actually is. In addition, delayed attribution means we can be without a truly accurate performance report for around three days.

 

In order to grow your business’s profits, we are making sure to observe complete results and revenue. Instead of being restricted by Facebook ROAS, we’ll be using MER. By using platforms such as Triple Whale, we can include any additional marketing costs which will give us a more accurate ROAS. (We’ll use Facebook ROAS for reference if needed.)

 

To compare, as an example, Facebook ROAS was calculated at 3 for the same client achieving a ROAS of 16 with Triple Whale. An incredibly significant difference in accuracy that we’re making sure we attend to while tracking your ad campaign performance.

 

Key data measurements we’re looking at to optimise ad performance, explained :

• MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio) provides higher level analysis of ad spend than simply focussing on the ROAS of individual ads. It’s calculated by dividing total revenue by total paid ad spend from all channels.

 

• CPM (Cost Per Thousand) helps us see how effective our audiences are. If this is higher, it means Facebook is having to work harder to find potential customers, and hence we need to optimise within the ad group, or test new audiences.

 

• CPC (Cost-per-Click) helps us determine the efficacy of creatives in driving website traffic. If this is higher, it means that Facebook is working too hard to get users to click on ads – hence we need to switch up the ads we’re using.

 

• CPA (Average Cost per Action) is calculated by dividing the total cost of conversions by the total number of conversions. For example, if your ad receives 2 conversions, one costing £2.00 and one costing £4.00, your average CPA for those conversions is £3.00.

 

So, there you have it. Our updated reporting practices to ensure your ad campaigns are fully optimised and high performing. If you need any help navigating your ad reports or wish for more information about our reporting changes, get in touch with us. We have an expert in-house team of paid ad specialists who would love to help you with ads reporting, ROAS, optimisation, and more.

Eye-catching visual content is incredibly important when building and developing your brand identity. When you invest time in creating engaging visuals that impress and inspire on socials, these help forge an original brand identity and make it more likely that viewers remember your brand. Interesting, visually-pleasing creatives give people a reason to follow and engage with your brand – leading to conversions from customers impressed by your social output.

While it’s important to let your creativity run wild with visuals, we’ve put together five tips to follow to make sure you stand out on socials.

 

1 – Keep it simple to be effective :

It’s important to have a clear focal point, without any overcrowding of imagery and text, so that your creatives are easy to process and quickly obtain information from. If you consider an Instagram user, for example, encountering your ad on their scroll, you have a matter of seconds to get their attention. Creatives that are too ‘busy’ might cause information overload, resulting in this user scrolling past.

Instead, by keeping it simple in layout and content, with minimal text and imagery, you’re more likely to garner interest in your brand/product. With simple yet eye-catching visuals, you can attract attention with ease, and gain brand awareness. With consistency and uniformity, visuals can make you instantly recognisable.

 

^ This Instagram post by Spotify keeps things nice and simple, with minimal text and graphics to communicate its message. Spotify’s visuals are stylistically consistent, meaning their creatives are instantly recognisable as Spotify-owned. This gives them a strong brand identity.

 

2 – Use high quality images :

Always aim for the highest image quality (pixels, resolution and aspect ratio) to avoid any stretching, cropping or blurriness. Poor image quality and appearance will not be a good reflection of your brand and your product quality. To build trust, ensure the imagery you use in visuals is always the highest quality.

 

3 – Less is more with word count :

The text you include in visual creatives should be as concise as possible, and easy to read and comprehend. Whether it’s quote images, text overlays or stylised typography, ‘less is more’ is the way to go. With text, make sure you :

• Have a clear colour contrast between the text and background so it’s easy to read
• Keep line length and phrasing short
• Choose a legible font that fits the tone you wish to convey
• Pair serif and sans serif fonts when you use more than one font
• Remove any text that doesn’t add value to your visual , aiming for less than 20% text in a visual
• Check spelling and grammar for any errors/typos.

 

^ This simple graphic by Organic Basics uses minimal text organised in a format that is easy to read and obtain information from, with text and imagery clearly differentiated in colour.

 

4 – Add animation to stand out :

Adding GIFs and videos add engaging movement and narrative to static visuals, which allow your creatives to stand out even further. Storylines maintain interest for longer and lead to increased engagement in a post. Consider including moving images to your social output to boost your brand engagement.

 

^ This Instagram post by Chamberlain Coffee was converted into a short video with animated graphics, creating effective and engaging content to promote their subscription service.

 

5 – Include your brand logo :

Finally, where appropriate, it’s a good idea to include your logo, so that social media users associate your high quality creatives with your brand straightaway. Add subtle, yet noticeable, branding to visuals, and change to a neutral/greyscale form if your logo’s original form would make the visual too ‘busy’.

^ This Instagram post by Innocent is clearly yet subtly branded.

 

To sum up, ensure you invest time in your creatives, keeping them simple, yet eye-catching and visually-pleasing, for effective messaging and strengthened brand identity. Still need some assistance with crafting effective visual creatives? Book a call with us today and discover how our expert team can help you escalate your brand identity and social media presence.

 

Whatever your business, competition is inevitable. There’s always going to be someone out there, doing something very similar. Customers are often overwhelmed with options, and they want to understand what makes your product better than everyone else’s. This is why all businesses need to identify their unique selling point (USP) to help build your brand image.

 

However, it’s all well and good identifying your USP, but it’s also equally as important to understand which USP’s actually convert into sales. And thankfully for you, we’re here to identify them. We’ve put together some examples of great USP’s that have been used by brands all over the world, to hopefully inspire you to when taking your next business venture.

 

• Customer Loyalty

 

As a business, you want to show customers that you have their best interests at heart, and that is exactly what AVIS did in 1962. For many years, AVIS landed in second place to Hertz when it came to car renting in the USA, until they hired Doyle Dane Bernbach who turned being number two into the best argument for better service. Their USP was the ideas that because they were not yet number 1, they absolutely must put their customers first to get to that top spot. And boy, did it work. Avis’ market share grew from 29% to 36%. Take a look at some of their genius ads below.

(Source: www.dailycitizen.news) 

 

• Play on pain points

 

Making your brand stand out from its competitors is always super important and one way to do this, is to play on customer pain points. Now, we’re not telling you to bash every one of your competitors, but if you can playfully hint at your competitors’ downfalls, go for it. M&M tried their hand in this technique in the 1980’s. They introduced the clever, yet playful slogan “The chocolate that melts in your mouth, not your hands”. Now, as all chocolate lovers will know, chocolate melting before it’s even reached your mouth is a big no-no, so M&M’s chocolate coated shell brought an end to this. This slogan highlighted their products versatility whilst also covertly bashing other chocolate brands. It made their chocolate superior, playing on customers pain points and as a result saw sales skyrocket. So, the next time you’re thinking of a USP, always refer back to customer pain points. How can your product solve these issues in ways your competitors can’t? 

 

(Source: www.pinterest.co.uk)

 

• Customer Guarantee

 

As customers, we like to be promised the world, but for most brands this isn’t possible. However, if you introduce a realistic customer guarantee and use this as your USP in the right way, you can benefit immensely. Domino’s Pizza did exactly this in the 1990’s, when they guaranteed that pizza would be at your door in 30 minutes, and if not, it would be absolutely free. Although this guarantee has since been dropped, when it was live, it worked wonders for them. The concept of a possibly free pizza enticed many customers and as a result, drove their sales massively. This is a very good example of using a guarantee to bring in customers, and if you can do something similar, you will be well on the way to creating a very strong USP. 

         (Source: www.dominos.com.au)

 

• Relatability 

 

A really strong USP takes into account inclusivity. Most of the time, you want your brand to relate to a wide audience. Excluding certain genders, races, and ages normally isn’t the way forward. Fenty beauty used inclusivity as their USP when launching in late 2017 and created ‘beauty for all’. Founder, Rihanna was very clear from the start that her vision excluded absolutely nobody. She launched with forty shades of foundation, which was astonishing at the time considering usually brands only launch with seven to ten. Today, she has released 50. This inclusivity lead to the brand being named one of the ‘best inventions’ of 2017 by Times Magazine. The brand became available and relatable to women everywhere around the world, and I think we all can learn something from this specific USP.

 

(Source: www.thinkwithgoogle.com)

 

• Affordability and Simplicity

 

In today’s climate, people are always looking to save money where they can, which is why affordability is always a good USP to go for. The biggest mistake to avoid here is to brand your product as the cheapest around, as you’re essentially starting a race to the bottom, which you don’t want to do. It can eliminate a lot of value and credibility from your brand. However, when marketed correctly, it can be a very powerful tool. For example, Dollar Shave Club. You’ve probably heard of them before because they ran an extremely strong marketing campaign upon launching. Razor blades are a product that have been around forever, and you’d think would be very hard to market uniquely unless you were to reinvent the whole thing, right? WRONG. Dollar Shave Club took a completely different approach and marketed the traditional razor but focused on simplicity and affordability. Their shaving packages are completely affordable, and magically arrive on your door step the next day – what more could you need? No other brand in the shaving market tried this approach. Whilst they focused on appearance and blade technology, Dollar Shave Club offered the very opposite. Less blades and less tech. So, it’s important to remember that sometimes, less is more when it comes to your USP.

 

 

(Source: www.coolerinsights.com)    

 

So, there you have it, the USP’s that actually convert into sales. Still looking for some help with your USP and want to get your brand kickstarted? Book a call with us today and find out how our expert team can help you create a truly unique USP.

 

Writing creative ad copy is one thing. But writing creative ad copy that converts is another thing. There are some vital steps you need to understand before attempting to write ad copy. General copywriting and direct response copywriting are two very different skills, but nonetheless interchangeable. Once you have one nailed, picking up the other will be a breeze.

This post is going to walk you through the tips and tricks we have accumulated over the years and hopefully provide you with some fresh knowledge and inspiration to kickstart your awesome ad copywriting skills.

Before you get started, it’s super important to understand your target audience. What’s the age range? Gender? Location? There are so many aspects you need to know before writing good ad copy, so make sure you understand this before you start. If you’re writing for a cold audience, you want to avoid using jargon or any other technical terms. However, if you’re writing for people who you know will have specialist knowledge, you can afford to use some technicalities to create a sense of enhanced value.

There’s no point stabbing in the dark when it comes to your target audience as we promise you, you will not see any valuable results. Once you’ve established your target audience, you can conduct some market research. What are competitor brands doing that have the same target audience? How have they written their ads? Once you’re clear on this, you can really get stuck in!

How to Develop a TOV

Your tone of voice is super important to writing creative ad copy. A lot of businesses dismiss TOV, thinking it not important but this can lead to their downfall. It’s so important that you nail your tone of voice early on as it helps build your brand image and keeps it strong. Having a strong TOV allows customers to instantly recognise your ads, feel familiar with them, almost at home with your work. It allows customers to put some trust in your brand. The TOV you write with becomes familiar to them and builds rapport from the onset. A strong TOV will always be listened to and it ultimately becomes the way you connect with your audience.

Not sure how to create your TOV? An effective TOV is all part of your branding strategy, You need to understand your backstory, what your brand stands for, what you set out to achieve tec. These conversations within your business will usually help you establish a TOV that can be adapted or maintained as you grow.

Top Tips for Writing Facebook Ad Copy

Writing effective Facebook ad copy is much like writing a great novel (or a blog post). It takes time, skill, and great understanding to learn all the industry tips and tricks. Luckily for you, we’re experts in this field and we have compiled a list of effective techniques that we know will work.

✔️ Punchy headlines – Your Facebook headline will likely be the first thing prospects see. This is where you can use a CTA (call to action) such as ‘Shop Now’ or ‘Order Yours Now’ etc. However, these can be a bit repetitive and boring, so why not add some incentives. Change ‘Shop Now’ to ‘Shop Now – Just £59!’ or ‘Order Yours Now’ to ‘Order Yours Before It’s Too Late’. Adding a sense of urgency or an incentive is always a good idea.

✔️ Placements – It’s important to understand your placements before you write your Facebook ads. Your ad can end up in multiple places, such as the Facebook News Feed, Marketplace, Video Feeds, Right Columns, etc. If your ad is going to be shown to audiences in the right Column, for example, they will only ever see your headline, not the body text. It’s important to make sure you adapt your text correctly to each placement to maximise sales… so you may want to have another read of the above bullet point.

✔️ Bullet point your USP’s- Another technique we find works very well when it comes to Facebook ad copy is bullet points. Audiences don’t want to sit and read blocks of text. If you make your copy too long, it’s likely they will scroll past your ad without a second thought. Bullet pointing your USP’s or sales pitches in short-form copy is likely to attract more attention and give your prospect all the information they need quickly and effectively.

Emojis vs No Emojis

Emojis have been a crucial part of ad copy for years. Since Apple released them in late 2012, they’ve come a long way since being just cute little yellow faces. They’re now regarded as a serious part of copywriting, especially when writing Facebook ads. In many cases, emojis in ad copy leads to much higher click-through rates and a whole load more engagement. Emojis can also increase the number of reactions and comments on your ads, which is important for beating the Facebook algorithm. They allow you to convey a simple and clear message, ensuring readers don’t misinterpret your intentions. Emojis have been accepted as part of our contemporary culture, so they immediately make your post more relatable. There will be some clients, however, who have a more professional and serious TOV, so for these guys, it’s maybe best to avoid emojis (again, this is just another reason why establishing your TOV is super important).

Google Ad Copy

Writing Google ad copy is slightly different. Many of your competitors are using dynamic keyword insertion and bidding on similar keywords. You’ll notice a lot of their ads say the same thing so it’s easy to get lost in these ads and hurt your chances of getting those clicks. So, how can you stand out? Focus on what prospects want to accomplish with your product or service. Give visitors that end solution they are looking for. Tell them what they want to hear.
Summary

So, there you have it. Our top tips and tricks for writing creative ad copy that WILL convert. If you still don’t think writing ad copy is for you, get in touch with us to see how we can help. We have an expert team of copywriters in-house who love what they do and will be just as passionate about your business as you are.

TikTok Creatives Tips

 

The world of social media is ever-growing, with new platforms, channels and possibilities for consumers and brands alike. When it comes to new players in the social game, no name has made as big a splash as TikTok. In fact, the platform’s growth has been so exceptional that it recently overtook Google as the most popular website in 2021!

 

With millions of users logging in every day, it is no surprise to see that many businesses are trying to utilise some of that traffic. However, as it is such a new space, many are struggling due to not knowing the conventions, the tools available or the content that performs best.

 

If you’re thinking of setting up TikTok campaigns for your brand, but don’t know where to start, read on, as we go over our top TikTok Creative Tips!

 

Use The Tools Provided

 

The first thing to take note of is the comprehensive toolset TikTok offers you when creating content. It’s a simple, easy-to-use interface, but one where you have a huge variety of options to tailor content and posts in whatever way you need.

 

Text overlays, video effects and even automated speech are all available for you to play around with. It’s not going to rival the efforts of dedicated professionals with a high budget set up, but it’s more than enough to make TikTok users take notice.

 

Authenticity

 

This is important for any social media, but it is especially so for TikTok. The platform is filled with raw content that doesn’t have a huge budget behind it. The DIY nature of the posts is actually one of TikTok’s biggest unique selling points though, with clever use of TikTok’s native toolset valued over professional, high-quality posts.

 

User-generated content has seen a huge increase across social platforms in general over the past few years, it is the focal point of TikTok specifically. People don’t want to see faceless clips of products with no personality behind them, instead, they’re looking for strong personas to latch onto.

 

Trends

 

Following current trends is simply common sense for any social media marketing strategy. While it’s obviously desirable to be the trendsetter, if you’re not taking note of what is working for other brands and influencers then you are making your job a thousand times harder.

 

Look at what your competitors are doing, the type of content influencers in your field are putting and, of course, any specific trends that are going viral. Attaching yourself to a hashtag or dance craze can genuinely see your engagement levels skyrocket. Imitating and reinventing content based on these trends can be tremendously profitable, you just have to take notice of them.

 

Speak to your Audience

 

At this point, TikTok has over one billion users and in an ideal world, you would want every single one of them to watch your content. Sadly, this isn’t realistic, but the upside is that there is a huge consumer pool sitting there waiting for you. The trick is not to appeal to everyone but to hone in on the communities that will offer the most to your brand.

 

Don’t be afraid to go too niche; an engaged audience that is patiently waiting for your next post is far more valuable than an open one that might take a passing interest. Make sure you establish the audience you should be targeting before you make any campaigns, then tailor them accordingly.

 

Engaging Copy

 

TikTok is mainly a visual medium, but that doesn’t mean you can just completely forget about copy. Captions, text overlays and even scripts for the text to speech are hugely important for delivering context and key information to people viewing your post.

 

Taking advantage of hashtags or using captions to prompt interactivity from users is absolutely crucial. The platform itself seems to understand how vital this can be, as there is even a ‘safe zone’ included which will show you if your message is blocked by the various buttons on the interface.

 

Interact and Post Often

 

The final, and perhaps most important, point is to make sure you are regularly interacting with your audience, influencers and even other brands. Frequent posts will see your engagement rise naturally, but can also see huge spikes if you are taking part in current trends or utilising hashtags as much as possible.

 

Interacting with both your audience and fellow brands on a regular basis won’t just boost your engagement levels, it will also help you build connections which you can then make the most of through collaborations. More often than not, when two profiles work on the content together, their respective audiences take note, so this is something that can be hugely beneficial.

 

Make the Most of TikTok with Social Nucleus

 

These TikTok creative tips can help you get the ball rolling when it comes to content creation. However, if your business is looking to generate sales and fully take advantage of this new medium, then you might need a bit of help.

 

At Social Nucleus, we have already started rolling out TikTok campaigns for our clients, generating engaging content and increased sales. We can handle the creative side, as well as ensure your ads get sent to the right audiences.

 

It’s not just TikTok though, we have a comprehensive set of services that can help make the most of your social campaigns, with dedicated copywriters, graphic designers and account managers on hand to help with whatever you need. If you’d like to take your advertising to the next level, get in touch and start connecting with your audience now.

As we wave goodbye to 2021, we say hello to another year full of potential and success.

While the new year may mark the end of Q4 and the holiday seasons, it’s not the end of your digital marketing strategy. Going into the new year with a strong marketing plan is just as important as going into the holiday season with one. Q1 is the perfect time for reflection and growth and we’re here today to share with you 6 ways in which you can kick-start your digital marketing strategy in 2021!

 

Email Marketing

 

Email marketing is a great tool that allows you to retain a loyal customer base and discover new winning audiences. It’s a great way to keep customers up to date with your business, any offers you have, and new products you plan to launch. With email marketing, it’s important you remain strategic and effective, and to do this, you can set up email flows and campaigns. You can easily collect the email addresses of your visitors from your landing pages or previous sales.

 

 

Social Media 

 

What better time to up your social media game than the new year? Social media is definitely the one place you cannot neglect when it comes to your marketing strategy. You can use social media to excite customers about upcoming products, offers, services, etc. It’s estimated that 3.6 billion people currently use social media and by 2025, this is projected to increase to almost 4.41 billion. That’s a LOT of people you could be reaching.

 

Something that goes hand in hand with this is your content. Content is a big must when it comes to social media. Platforms like Instagram are huge for businesses nowadays, as younger generations tend to engage with content now more than they do words. Take some time to work on your content. Put together an effective plan – we promise, it’ll pay off.

 

New Year/Boxing Day Sale

 

Take advantage of the season! The new year calls for sales. People are always after a bargain and the new year is the perfect time to experiment with this. Sales bring in more customers and encourage people to buy when they might not have before. This is a great way to kick off sales and start the new year on a high with extra conversions!

Get to grips with SEO (Search engine optimisation)

 

Building an SEO strategy for your business is absolutely essential and requires hard work and a lot of technicalities that do pay off. SEO is what brings visitors to your site organically, and if you have a strong strategy in place, you rank higher in search results. If this is something you can do in-house, that’s great, but even outsourcing this work can provide many benefits to your business!

 

Facebook Ads

If you haven’t dabbled in Facebook ads before, now is a great time to start. Facebook is a great platform and has many features ANY business can utilise to their advantage. You can reach relevant audiences and visitors who are interested in your brand and fit the demographics of your customer profiles.  You can also examine your analytics across all platforms and determine which audiences you want to target, what key locations you want to look at, what age range, etc. You can use all this relevant information to refine your campaigns and heavily increase your conversions.

 

Most paid ad platforms offer retargeting services, allowing you to target website visitors, people who have engaged with your posts, and so on. This will allow you to retain those valuable customers who have expressed some interest in your product/service.

 

Revisit what worked well last year and what didn’t 

 

And last but not least, reflection. Looking back at this year and determining what worked and what didn’t is the most important step in building a successful marketing strategy for 2021. What content did you see perform? What audiences engaged the most? What products/services sold the most? Answering all of these questions will give you a better understanding of what works for your business and what doesn’t and will allow you to build an effective strategy for the new year.

 

 

We’d like to take this opportunity to wish our readers, clients, and employees a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. We hope this post had been helpful, and if you’re still feeling unsure about your marketing strategy for the new year, get in touch today. We can help you smash those 2022 business goals.

 

 

It’s Christmas! Well, not yet, but you can certainly see it’s getting closer. Whether it’s the invasion of Christmas songs on the radio, adornment of lights in the streets or the sudden presence of mince pies in every supermarket aisle, the festive season is steadily approaching. That also means that a new batch of Christmas campaigns is being wheeled out by the top brands.

 

We all know the drill by now; slow, acoustic covers of massive songs, tear-jerking stories and sometimes even a few laughs. However, there are always a few that stand out from the rest, so stick with us as we go through the best Christmas campaigns of 2021!

 

 

John Lewis

 

Of course, no Christmas marketing round-up would be complete without Joh Lewis. The department store has become famous for its festive ads. Over the years they’ve tugged at the nation’s heartstrings with short narratives filled with emotional twists and turns, ultimately guiding us towards buying a cuddly toy or woolly jumper.

 

This year, their ad is literally out of this world, with a short story focussing on an alien girl who crashes to earth during Christmas. It’s a pseudo-E.T set-up, one that lacks much of the charm of previous John Lewis. However, it’s still impressive to see the brand pump out stories that connect with customers year after year.

 

Sports Direct

 

It wouldn’t be Christmas without the various sporting goods brands pulling out world-class line-ups for their campaigns. While there have been a few good ones, we think Sports Direct’s effort takes first place this year.

 

To start, there are a plethora of sports stars on display here, including the likes of Jack Grealish, Mason Mount and Emma Raducanu. The premise involves these athletes competing in the most star-studded snowball fight in history. There are plenty of great moments, such as Raducanu serving a snowball straight into Grealish’s back. It’s a nice bit of festive fun perfect for this time of year.

 

Aldi

 

Kevin the Carrot has become an unlikely mascot over the years, with the sentient vegetable capturing hearts up and down the country. This ad parodies Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol and features a host of characters based on fruit and veg. This includes Ebanana Scrooge and Marcus Radishford, played by Marcus Rashford himself.

 

While it’s humorous and more than a little bit silly, there is a good message behind all the laughs. Aldi partnered with children’s charity Bernardo’s for this campaign and Rashford’s presence drives the point home: Christmas isn’t just about the getting, it’s the giving that really counts.

 

M&S

 

After taking a break from saving civilians and swinging through the streets of New York City, Tom Holland has landed another iconic role; Percy Pig! He’s not the only famous face in the ad either, with the Vicar of Dibley herself Dawn French getting involved.

 

They do a great job of bringing the story to life, but the true stars of the show are the various dishes taken from M&S’ festive range. They are shown in delicious detail and, with the spotlight firmly on them, make a great case for taking centre stage on your Christmas dinner!

 

Disney

 

It should be no surprise that the master of family-friendly animation has delivered a wonderful festive ad. This is one of the few stories to be part of a wider narrative as well, as it continues the story told in their 2020 campaign. It sees a new stepdad adjust to family life with his wife, who incidentally was the little girl from last year’s ad, and her children.

 

There are numerous emotional beats, with a lot of references to Disney franchises like Frozen, Mickey Mouse and more. However, the standout here is the gorgeous animation, which could easily be used in any full-feature length film from the brand. It doesn’t do too much to push a product as such, but it is a wonderful display of the storytelling they are capable of.

 

Build a Better Voice with Social Nucleus

 

You may not have the resources to make a small motion picture, but that doesn’t mean you can’t create your own effective campaigns. One of the most effective ways to draw customers to your brand during Christmas and beyond is through Facebook marketing. However, to make the best of this, you need expert knowledge.

 

At Social Nucleus, we have a dedicated creative team, account managers and digital specialists who can help take your brand’s marketing to the next level. From bespoke copy and content to audience targeting and more, we can help. If you want to know more, get in touch now!

 

Today, most Facebook users access the app via mobile. This means, in order to maximise success, your Facebook ads need to be optimised for mobile use.

Today’s post is going to cover everything you need to know about creating content for a mobile world, through using high-quality creatives in your campaigns.

• Videos

Movement can make your ads significantly more eye-catching and by utilising videos where you can, you can connect with audiences across all platforms. You don’t need to spend loads to produce a show-stopping video. Simple bits of content such as animations and GIFs can work very well, depending on your brand.

• Aspect Ratios

When optimising your Facebook ads for mobile, ensure your videos and images aspect ratios are adjusted accordingly. You want to cover as much of the screen as possible to grab users’ attention.

• Ad placements

In order to get the very most out of your Facebook ads, you should use automatic placements. Automatic placements allow Facebook to use machine learning tools to determine where your ads will be the most effective across all channels, including Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, and Messenger. This ensures you make the most out of your budget and viewability on the platform.

• Branding

When it comes to optimising your Facebook ads for mobile, it’s important to remember that the first few seconds of your ad matter the most. The most effective mobile video ads include branding in the first few seconds. You must remember to convey your brand’s key message in the first 3-5 seconds in order to grab attention and make your ads easy to understand.

In order to increase brand awareness and ad recall lift, you should aim to show your brand or product at the start AND end of your video. We recommend using colours and themes that communicate your brand throughout the video.

• Sound

Surprisingly, many people choose to watch videos with the sound off – likely in public places. Mobile ads that work best when designed for sound on and off. To do this, you can include text overlay/captions where possible. This makes your ads more visually appealing and ensures they have a clear focal point and message.

• Attention

It’s well known that people consume content quickly via mobile. For this reason, it’s important that you grab consumers’ attention in the first few seconds. You should aim to make an impact as quickly as possible. A few ways you can do this include moving images, as they are usually more eye-catching. You can also bring the most exciting frame to the front of your feed ads.

 

So, there you have it. Everything you need to know about creating optimised mobile ads in order to maximise your campaign success! Follow these best practices to get the most out of your ads.

Still feel like you need some extra help? Get in touch today to find out how we can level up your Facebook ads!