How effective is your ad library?
As a digital marketer who has worked with large enterprise brands and startups, I know nothing will have a more significant effect on your digital marketing performance than launching the right content. And while there's a wealth of information on creative best practices, you need more than just following these best practices to ensure that you'll find the secret sauce that will unlock scale. In this article, I will discuss what a great creative presence looks like on Meta/Instagram (or TikTok).
What I mean by a "Great Performance Marketing Presence"
When I say a great performance marketing presence, I'm not referring to a singular channel, creative, or even creative campaign. I'm referring to the entire ecosystem where potential customers can discover your brand and enter your sales funnel. And the performance piece of that means we care about purchases and revenue (not that brand awareness and perception aren't important, but that's just not what we're referring to here).
How this applies to Facebook and Instagram
In my experience as both a performance marketer and a chronic online social media addict, a great performance marketing presence is evidenced by
1) A variety of creative concepts & formats.
2) Tailored messaging to convert prospects of all levels of product awareness.
3) Intentional testing to figure out why top performers are resonating.
4) A creative quality that matches or surpasses competitors
Scour the ad libraries of digital marketing behemoths such as Dr. Squatch, True Classic, Mud/Watr, or Huel (all companies that have been crushing their digital marketing creative for years), and you'll see the above consistently throughout the year.
Creative testing is a rinse-and-repeat process where you utilize your proprietary data, signals from competitor ads, and social proof to develop creative tests and roadmap them for as long as you can project. If you're wondering if you need a better digital marketing creative presence, look at your own brand's ad library and ask yourself the following questions:
1) Does this content directly address consumer buyer decision questions?
2) Is there enough variety in my content, or are prospective consumers seeing the same content repeatedly?
3) Does this content measure up to the content of my competitors?
4) What are we hoping to learn from these ads (besides what performs the best)?
If any of the questions above are hard for you to answer, fire your creative strategist and hire me ;)