Editor’s note: Marija Smuđa and Sandra Panić are part of EyeSee’s advertising insights team, based in the company’s Belgrade, Serbia office. This is an edited version of a post that originally appeared under the title, “[EyeSee Podcast] Breaking the social media clutter: which ads make an impact?”
Do consumers notice your ads while scrolling through their social media feeds? How do thumbnails, colors and sounds impact your ads? Does your industry affect ad performance?
EyeSee’s team of researchers tested 36 ads from six different industries (food, beverage, cosmetics, banking, telecommunications, services and technology) on over 2,000 respondents. Each of the ads was tested both in context (Facebook feed) and in stand-alone mode using eye-tracking, facial coding and survey to try and uncover best practices, rules and tips for brands.
We found that not all social media ads are equally successful. Discover why the top-performing ads:
- hold attention for 6 seconds longer,
- have a 16% higher emotional reach and
- a 50% higher stated purchase intent.
Seeing doesn't equal watching
Our study shows that Facebook ads, on average, have an 87% chance to be seen. However, there’s a caveat – you can have high visibility, but low attention; meaning people are just scrolling through the feed and notice the ad without stopping to read/view it.
The advertisements in this study were watched for 4.1 seconds on average. When it comes to attention, the results contain clear advice: you only have 4 seconds to make an impact and relay the desired message to the viewers! The top 15% of ads in our study held attention for 6.3 seconds, while the bottom 15% had only 2.5 seconds.
Emotionally engaging
Facebook ads are emotionally engaging 3% of users (on average). How do you get your ads in this group?
Ads on a Facebook feed typically have little or no emotional impact. Average emotional engagement in our study was 3%, meaning that on average, 3% of viewers reacted to the particular ad with positive or negative emotion – most watchers remain neutral to the content. Additionally, 56% of ads had some kind of emotional engagement, while 44% had none.
This stat varies depending on the ad industry – unsurprisingly, the food and beverage ads garnered more interest than the other industries. The services industry had the same emotional engagement as the two, but a different emotion – surprise, instead of heightened interest.
What works?
Showing people or showing your product (if you have one) in the thumbnail is likely to elevate the emotional reach.
- Showing the product in the thumbnail boosts the probability of your message being received by up to 20%. For food and beverage marketers, show a product being consumed instead of only the package shot.
- Ads that have light colors in their thumbnail (first scene) will draw attention to your ad. They had the highest visibility, and emotional reach was higher for ads that used more intense colors (light or dark) than those that used colors with medium intensity.
- GIFs provide a better message recall since they are seen multiple times and are shorter than a video, but there's a downside – they are more likely to be found as boring or irritating because they are repetitive.
- Videos have a better impact on brand perception, are more persuasive and ensure better brand differentiation. Depending on the purpose of your campaign, you should choose one or the other.
- Ads with music are more likely to be rated as entertaining and pleasant to watch, however, music can draw attention away from the ad message (by up to 10%, compared to ads without music).
- The industry of the advertiser affects ad attention. Ads from the food industry got the most attention, while those from banking, telco and services got the least amount of attention.
- The industry of the brand also impacts perceived clarity. Ads from food and beverage industries were regarded as the clearest.
- In case there is no product to show, you can show your brand logo on the thumbnail or in the first few seconds, especially if your brand is well known and likable. To make a stronger impact, make sure your brand logo is visible.
- The lowest-performing ads are too long for social media. All of the lowest-performing ads were too long, had lower attention, almost twice lower brand recall and consequently, triggered negative emotions.
Pretesting ads
There is no magic recipe for creating the perfect Facebook ad, but pretesting ads is the way to go for ensuring you make it in the social media advertising arena. Here are the key takeaways:
- The product itself is the king! Show the product in the thumbnail for higher ad clarity and more credible ads.
- If you want to evoke emotions, opt for video and go big. Always adjust the length of the video for social media! Use music and intense colors; show the brand name/logo in high contrast with the background, positioned centrally.
- The industry the brand is coming from will dictate the type of effort companies need to apply for success in a busy social media setting. And be sure to communicate the experience that the product brings in the first 4 seconds.
If you’re interested in learning more, listen to our podcast!