Social Media Ads Design: A Complete Guide to Sales-Converting Ad Designs

Social media has grown to become a powerful force in the present digital marketing space.

What started as a social network to foster interactions and closeness among family and friends has become a powerful digital marketing platform that a lot of businesses are using to reach out to their audience, increase their brand awareness and promote their products and services.

The latest reports from Datareportal on social media users suggest that

59% of the entire world population is now on social media with 4.7 billion people around the world with a social media account and an average daily time of 2h 29 m.

This is a clear indication of the fast rate at which social media is growing. The digital transformation of marketing has facilitated the use of social media channels for marketing and advertising purposes.

The good thing about this is that a lot of businesses and creative individuals have easy access to their target audience and can effectively develop content strategies to boost their brand identity and increase sales of their products or services.

The downside of social media advertising is that a lot of companies are constantly creating and sharing content on the platform with the same audience which can result in information overload. As a result of this, businesses have to create catchy, visually appealing social media ads designed to gain the attention of their target audience and boost sales.

In this guide, we will take you through all you should know about creating stunning social media ads design for your business.

Table of contents

• What is social media ad design?
• Why do you need stunning designs for social media ads
• Examples of the best social media ads in 2023.
• Social media ad design tips.
• How can Alltime Design help you with your social media ad design needs?

What is social media ad design?

Social media ad designs are visually appealing and clickable designs that a business entity, freelancer, or marketer uses to promote their brand on social media platforms.

Considering a large number of individuals and businesses operating on various social media platforms, social media ad designs are a combination of high-quality images, text, shapes, and other graphical elements to showcase a product or service and call social media users’ attention to the products.

Before we talk more about social media ad design, it is important that we understand what social media ads are.

What is a Social media ad?

Social media advertising is a form of digital marketing that uses social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tik Tok, and YouTube to deliver a company’s paid ads to its target audience.

They are a quick, effective, and cost-effective method of connecting with customers and boosting your marketing campaigns for better business results.

Digital technology continues to support the digital transformation of social media marketing which explains why social ads differ on different social media platforms.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin combine static images or graphic design and video content for their ads, while YouTube and Tik Tok mostly use video ads.

Although so many factors determine the success of social media ads such as compelling copy, honest and truthful information, ad format, running ads at the right time, targeting the right audience, effectively portraying the brand identity, etc., a visually compelling design can ultimately make a big difference on how target audience interact with the ads to achieve the desired business results.

Why do you need stunning designs for social media ads

Following reports that we are visual beings and 90% of information processed by an average human being is visual, a lot of businesses back up their social media ads with creative and high-quality designs to gain better results. Here are some of the reasons why you need stunning designs for your ads:

1. It makes it look professional

One of the key reasons for creating designs for social media ads is to give your brand a professional look. It gives your brand a professional image that gives your target audience an idea of what your brand is like and makes them trust your brand as a professional brand they can trust and do business with. Check out the top graphic designers to follow on Behance.

2. Provides the expected brand recognition

Visual content such as images, graphics, infographics, Gifs, and videos often have a higher engagement rate compared to texts. As a result, social media ads with high-quality and compelling visuals enable your target audience to recognize your brand when they see your campaigns.

If your customers remember you from your social media designs, it makes it easy for them to come back to learn more about your products or services – which can encourage sales.

3. It helps you gain the attention of your target audience

Several researchers have shown that the attention span of an average human is below 9 seconds. As social media offers a large pool of creative visual and textual content, users go through so much content that they most likely don’t pay too much attention to its content.

However, when they see an ad with striking visuals, it catches their attention and compels them to interact with the ad.

4. It fits the preference of “Digital Natives”

The name “digital natives” refers to the people that were born during or after the advent of digital technology. They are tech-savvy and have a good understanding of what works and doesn’t work in the digital space.

Since these individuals form the majority of social media users and will most likely see your posts, you must create social media ads with creative, high-quality graphic designs that can suit the preference of these individuals.

5. It sends a clear message across

According to the popular saying that “A picture speaks louder than a thousand words.” Creative images and graphics not only help your brand gain the attention of your target audience but also help you send your brand message across to them in a way they can easily understand and relate to.

A good design can accurately express what your brand stands for and help you connect with your audience better.

Examples of the best social media ads in 2023

Various social media platforms have different ad formats based on their form, operations, and style. In this section, we will look at some of the best examples of social media ads shared on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok this 2023.

Facebook Ad Design Examples

Facebook is the world’s biggest social media platform with 2.93 billion active users visiting the platform. A lot of organizations run Facebook ads to connect with their target audience on the platform and increase their brand awareness on a global level.

Reports show that Facebook’s potential advertising reach is 2.11 billion people. Here are the top 5 best ad designs on Facebook this 2023.

Meta 1: Best Self Co

Best Self Co. promoted an ad around January for Valentine with a creative design with bright love colors and gift boxes with key emphasis on the word “date night” and “reignite your spark.” The ad reportedly saw an increase of 11% in return on ad spend.

Meta 2: Mathnasium

This ad creatively combined vibrant colors, graphics, and storytelling to ask entrepreneurs and business owners critical questions about their business growth. This ad reportedly saw a 37% decrease in cost per action (CPA).

Meta 3: Swolverine

This ad takes a different approach by creatively showcasing their product in the background with cool colors and a powerful copy that addresses the general pain point of taking on protein shakes. This ad reportedly saw a 136% in return on ad spend (ROAS).

Meta 4: Rothy’s

This ad has an exciting look and feels to it that instantly attracts a user and makes them stop to read more. The professional photos in the ad tell an average user what the ad is about and adds to the professional image.

Meta 5: The honest company

Social proof is an interesting way to sell a product or service on social media as it provides people with evidence of the product’s effectiveness. This ad by the Honest Company is a sweet blend of color, text, font, and high-quality image with a powerful copy.

Instagram Ads Design Examples

Instagram is the second largest social media platform with 1. 440 billion active users visiting the platform. After Facebook, many organizations also run ads on Instagram to connect with their audience with high-quality images and videos.

Reports show that Instagram is capable of reaching 849.3 million users for advertising purposes. Here are the top 5 best Instagram ad designs this 2023. Explore the best Instagram highlight covers.

Instagram 1: Feetup

This video ad highlights one of the major pain points of most yoga enthusiasts and shows them how the product can help them solve the problem. While this might not appeal to all Instagram users, it would definitely catch the attention of yoga practitioners.

Instagram 2: The New Yorker

This boomerang-style ad offers discounts and a branded tote bag to New Yorker subscribers. It uses a powerful copy ” The magazine for people who like to read”, easy-to-read font with bright color and animation is one ad that will definitely make one stop to interact with it.

Instagram 3: Eczemahoneyco

This ad catches attention with a sweet blend of popping vibrant colors and a clear image of the product and client feedback and rating at the top. The ad caption adds more context to the ad expressing the company’s interest in solving customer problems with eczema.

Instagram 4: McDonald’s

This ad by McDonald’s combines various graphical elements to catch the attention of the audience. Firstly, if you have been a customer of McDonald’s, then the color yellow and red and the “M” shape slippers would already tell you that this is a McDonald’s ad. Even without the logo and text, it still increases brand recall.

Instagram 5: Sony

This sony ad to promote its Sony Eye AF (AutoFocus) camera evidently showcases its product solution for everyone to see. A nature lover and photographer with an interest in high-quality images.

Tiktok Ads Design Examples

Tiktok, one of the newest social media networks has experienced immense growth and popularity in the last 6 years with one billion users across 154 countries in the world.

It’s the new big thing in this digital age and it’s not surprising that a lot of organizations are hopping on TikTok to reach their audience, increase their brand awareness and promote their products or services. Here are the top 3 best TikTok ad design this 2023. Check out the guidelines for the best time to post on TikTok.

Tiktok 1: Mercedes

Mercedes launched this brand takeover ad on Tiktok to promote their #MBstarchallenge to connect with its Gen Z and millennial audience. With 180 million video views and a click-through rate of 17.5%

Tiktok 2: V Energy

This TikTok from V Energy challenged Tiktok users to create their own creative trick videos, an initiative which resulted in 5000 follows in a day

Tiktok 3: Guess

Guess rolled out this ad to promote its back-to-school season with a brand takeover ad that gained them extra 12,000 followers and an engagement rate of 14.3%.

How to create engaging social media ads that convert?

Tip 1: Define your goals

Before you start creating designs for your social media ads, you must ensure you have clearly defined your business goals and what you intend to achieve with the ad such as increased social media presence, more followers, sales, etc.

Understand that different social media platforms have different functionality and content that works for them, hence to create ads that drive engagement, it must clearly help you achieve your business goals.

Tip 2: Decide on the ad format you want to use

Social media marketing can be pretty overwhelming, especially if you are just starting out. An easy way to create ads that help you get your desired results, you must decide on which ads format you want to use – video, image, carousels, story ads, slideshow, etc., on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, etc.

You can also choose to run the same ad format on various social media channels or create different formats, either way, choose what works for you and will interest your audience. Explore the various Instagram categories.

Tip 3: Create more video ads to get better conversion

If you want to create ads that not only gain the attention of your audience and engage them but also help you stand out, you should consider creating more video ads.

Following reports that social media videos have 1200% share and 54% of social media users prefer video to static images. Videos with motion graphics designs and exciting fonts do the trick and would definitely get you your desired result.

Tip 4: Use consistent branding across all your ads

Even if you create a beautiful ad with stunning, high-quality design, it can still underperform if it doesn’t connect users to your brand.

All your social media ads must have a consistent visual identity that looks, feels, and sound like your brand. Consider adding your brand logo, watermarks, brand color palette, and fonts to increase your brand recognition and help you achieve your desired results.

Tip 5: Be smart and creative about the Fonts you use

Fonts are amazing graphical elements that can add a magic touch to your social media ad design. Even if you decide to create a silent video (videos without sound) you can use expressive fonts in attractive colors to engage your audience and get them to perform your desired action.

Tip 6: Always a call-to-action

A call to action is a guide and instruction that marketers give their target audience after seeing the ad to encourage them to take business-related activities that can help them achieve their business goals. Every robust and compelling ad must have a call to action that tells your target audience why they should care and what to do after seeing the ad. It is your pass to getting your desired results.

Tip 7: Stick to the right size

Different social media platforms have different size and style that is distinct to each of them. A Facebook ad size is different from an Instagram ad and TikTok and so on. If you want your ads to be viewed in the best way, you must ensure that your social media ads stick to the right size. Find the detailed guide for social media image size.

How can Alltime Design help you with your social media ad design needs?

All Time Design is one of the leading creative design service providers well known for its excellent service delivery and proficient graphic designers.

With a robust and intuitive platform, All Time Design enables you to access incredibly fast and professionally vetted creative designs to empower your marketing efforts.

We offer a wide range of creative services to clients such as presentation designs, booklets, brochures, presentation designs, product packaging designs, books and journals, flyers design, branding, web design, infographics, product marketing designs, custom illustrations, apps, and website UI designs, motion graphics, and animation, and front-end development.

Our team of professional and dedicated designers has a deep understanding of brand and marketing design solutions that will help our clients promote their products or services on social media and other digital media platforms.

We are confident we can help you create stunning social media ad designs that can help you convert leads and boost sales.

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