At Xelsion we see and produce ad creative every day. Some of the creative is great, most of it is alright, and some of it is horrible. Designing and producing great creative is hard and even the best designers don’t succeed every time. Producing creative which avoids being horrible isn’t so hard.

The difference in performance between the ‘horrible’ and the ‘alright’ is huge. While the difference in performance between the ‘alright’ and the ‘great’ may not be so big. Aiming for ‘great’ with whizzy visuals and interactivity while forgetting the basics is a recipe for the ‘horrible’.

What brand, venue and event is this for? Not easy to tell is it?

This short guide highlights some of the key elements which impact creative performance. It is not meant to be a treatise on the role of creativity in advertising or a tome on branding or direct response. There is plenty of material and research on these topics elsewhere.

Objective

What is the objective of the ad? There is little time to communicate a message and your audience is only paying attention with half their brain at best. Make sure the message fulfills the objective of the ad.

Audience

What is the audience of the ad? Is the language and imagery relevant?

Walk-throughs

Can you show the product in use and demonstrate it provides the solution to a problem?

What are the merits of your product or service?

Why should a user choose your offering? Emphasise benefits not facts. “Our customers generate savings of 50%” is more interesting than “We maximise efficiency”.

Compliance

Does your ad comply with the local advertising laws, codes and best practices? An expensive video ad which can’t run for legal reasons is a waste of budget and may leave you with nothing to run at a crucial time to be in front of your audience.

File size

Many media owners have restrictions on the file size of creative which can run in their ad slots. Sometimes it is fine to go over these restrictions though there are often additional charges for this which will impact the Return On Ad Spend.

Ultimately file sizes are there to protect the ad serving capacity of the technologies being used to deliver the ads and to make sure the ad loads quickly for the user giving them a) a good browsing experience and b) the opportunity to see the ad before they head off to another page. Oversize files may mean the ad is less likely to be seen. If an ad cannot be seen it cannot influence behaviour.

Animation length

Similarly, many media owners place restrictions on the length of time an ad may animate or move. Google and Microsoft have a maximum of 30 seconds. This restriction is there to give the user a good browsing experience and prevent an ad from distracting overly from the content of the publisher’s page.

Publishers with the best content tend to want their audience to have a good experience and so have the greatest restrictions on the kind of ads which can run alongside their content. Ads shown to users against the best content perform better than those on filesharing and celebrity gossip sites so you want to make sure your ads are eligible to serve in the best environments.

Branding

Ads should, unless there is good reason, contain the advertiser’s brand on every page or frame. Ads without the advertiser’s brand cannot influence a user to remember, like, or buy from that brand.

Last frame

When the ad has finished animating it will remain on the final frame. Users may only see the ad once it has finished animating which means the final frame should work in its own right. HTML5 ads will only animate when the ad is in view but it’s still worth having the last frame summarise your message, include a call to action and display your brand and product/service clearly.

 Context

Consider the context of the page on which the ad will appear. Banner ads may appear on many kinds of website and page and need to communicate a message well across environments. They may also be specific to a type of content like autosport in which case they can assume more knowlege on the part of the audience.

Native ads in social media environments need to fit into the user’s experience. The Facebook newsfeed is seen by users as their personal space. No one likes their personal space invaded. LinkedIn’s newsfeed is a place to stay up to date with the latest on your network and industry so ads should be relevant to a users reason for being there.

You can see more on the Facebook advertising environment here.

Test

Testing different messages requires time and delivery volume for statistically valid results. Not all campaign timeframes or sizes are compatible with testing but where they are, test, document and feedback the results into the design process.

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Have you got any examples of amazingly good or horribly bad creative to share? Or essential additions to our checklist? Let us know @XelsionMedia or get in touch.