Facebook and Google’s optimization capabilities have dramatically improved. Advances in machine learning and event bidding are radically reshaping and simplifying mobile user acquisition. As bidding becomes automated, creative becomes the differentiator of campaigns’ performance. Creating effective videos for Facebook mobile app install campaigns that will meet an organization’s financial objective can be challenging.
Creating Effective Videos For Facebook Mobile App Install Campaigns
On average, 95% of direct response creative fail to outperform best-performing ads on a portfolio making heavy creative testing necessary to achieve and sustain ROAS. At a high spend velocity, creative fatigues quickly. Constant creative testing is imperative to produce winners that will offset fatigue and maintain ROAS goals.
Producing the quality and quantity of creative necessary to combat ad fatigue is not an easy task. Common frustrations with creative that Facebook advertisers share are not having enough creative, creative that has stopped performing, creative has gone stale too quickly, too many IAB format to produce, and scaling without burying teams.
To solve some of Facebook Advertisers’ most common creative challenges, our team at Consumer Acquisition has identified several ways to extend the life and performance of your existing creative – something you can try before starting from scratch, and Facebook has provided agile best practices for videos, and tips on how to create high-performing videos with limited assets.
But before you go on producing creatives, here are some creative questions to consider.
Design tips to extend an ad’s life
- Story Telling
- Image Format (Square, Horizontal, Vertical)
- Image Layout (Split Screen, Grid, Horizontal Vertical)
- Video (Length, Start & End Screen, CTAs)
- Use of Primary Colors
- Call-To-Actions & Placement
- Types of Images (User Generated vs. Stock Photos)
- One Product vs. Multiple Products
- Mobile Device vs. No Mobile Device
- Text in Image/Video (non-header)
- Text Headers (Short/Long, Placement, Color, Font)
- Background Images
- Apple Store/Play Store Badge
- Logos & Brand Placement
Agile Best Practices For Video
- The first 0:03 really matters, so open your video with a strong image.
- Don’t rely on sound, unless it’s important. In that case, emphasize it!
- Text can help support the message, so use a clear & concise copy, in your videos.
- Make it only as long as it needs to be. If it’s too long, shorten it.
- If you have great characters, use them. Lean into your art and story.
- Think about people’s motivation. Build for emotions, benefit & fun.
Creative best practices for creating new high converting videos with limited assets
A group of brand marketers, strategists, and creative directors at Facebook’ Creative Shop, reviewed hundreds of top-performing ads, identified four different categories in which all of these ads fell into:
- Basic in motion
- Brand in motion
- Benefit in motion
- Demo in motion,
and provided tips and best practices on how to improve videos to increase your ad’s user value.
Basics in Motion
A simple video or animation. You can start with a still image and add some movement like a few layers with different characters moving. You can also use music to add excitement.
Brand in Motion
A video with an emphasis on your brand. You can add excitement by showing a portion of the video and then showing an aspect of your brand. Imagine a brand in motion followed by a logo in motion.
Benefit in Motion
A video with an emphasis on your products’ benefits. Tell the user what to expect and why they should play. You can achieve this quickly by showing characters, levels, actions, etc. Using a short ad copy to highlight benefits is a very effective strategy.
Demo in Motion
A video with an emphasis on how your product works. For mobile games, screen capture gameplay and place it inside a phone. This simple video works because it shows actual gameplay on a mobile device. Also, it shows the viewer that it’s a mobile game to be downloaded.
Final Thoughts about Mobile App Install Campaigns on Facebook
Facebook advertisers must constantly test fresh creatives in order to reach and sustain ROAS. Producing high-quality creative at the necessary volume can be challenging. However, there are cost-effective ways to achieve this goal. Before testing brand new concepts, advertisers can always breathe life into their existing creative to extend their performance by modifying several aspects of an ad such as colors, copy, background, and more.
Advertisers can also follow Facebook’s suggestions on how to produce high-converting videos with limited assets by animating certain aspects of a still such as a logo or a game character. Finally, all Facebook agencies and advertisers should be following Facebook’s agile best practices for creating high-performing videos.
