First, let’s focus on tweaking our first knob. Attention. When scrolling through your social feeds, what is most likely to grab your attention? Large text? Bright colors? Someone talking to the camera? Dogs? Cats? Explosions? Developing an attention-grabbing opening shot or line of copy is an incredibly important piece of an ad. Think of this as the hook! When designing the opening text or visual for an ad, look for punchy, attention-grabbing copy or visuals. Compared to the already concurrent noise in your feed, your ad must cut through this cacophony to steal the spotlight.

Most of us have Facebook, IG, YouTube etc., no doubt we’re exposed to ads on a daily basis. (Fun fact: Americans are exposed to 4,000 to 10,000 ads PER DAY). The next time an ad begins, note just how effective it was at grabbing your attention. 

Some examples of highly effective attention-grabbing openers are:

Opening lines that challenge the viewers conceptions, or more often will propose a common “problem”:

“Love plants but don’t know how to take care of them?”

“Shaving shouldn’t give you razor burn”

“Want to work out but don’t have time?”

Someone stating or acting out a problem (think of those ridiculous overly-dramatized black and white shots in infomercials).

Combine these lines of copy with a strong visual, and your ad is on its way! Other notable attention-grabbers are before and afters, split screens, tactile use of the product (using the product with hands, hair, feet, face, etc), as well as a strong reaction to the product.

As a designer, use principles of Information Hierarchy when designing your opening shot or still image. The arrangement of product and elements must compliment the natural flow of the eye and order of importance, so that your opening Design maximizes the space and dimensions of the ad. Information Hierarchy is an important design principle that should be used in every shot and image you produce as a Designer! This will improve your eye, as well as knowing where to place certain selling points throughout your ad creation process

After our initial hook, we now have to hold the attention of our viewer. This next sequence should introduce the product with a benefit, or more directly, the “answer” to the “problem” we visualized in the hook, while building tension with a story.

“Bloomscape teaches you how to take care of your plant”

“This stainless steel razor eliminates it altogether”

“This in home gym is perfect for busy moms”

(Then show it!)

Depending on your client, there should be some rules to follow when displaying and revealing their product. Oftentimes as a Designer, it will be up to your own discretion when choosing product stills or video to incorporate into your ad. Also, to cement brand recognition, your client’s logo should be near, or close to follow the product reveal (logos should appear near the top of a still ad OR within the first 3 seconds of a video ad!). Often times, clients won’t have the budget for nicely photographed or filmed product shots, in which case they’ll have to rely on UGC (user-generated content), but don’t be dismayed if this footage isn’t the best “quality”, because historically, data has confirmed that UGC actually performs better than it’s high quality “studio” counterparts, both in captivating attention AND keeping it throughout the ad!

Attention will rely on what kind of ad and audience, but there is a wide range of tools at a Designer’s disposal that can keep the ad engaging and fresh, in most situations. Some other points of product focus include:

• FEW WORDS, BIG TEXT
• USE PEOPLE. Authentic UGCS testimonials, unboxings, reactions, product usage, how-tos, humor, genuine and strong emotions, face movements, or even breaking stuff. Have fun with it!
• A unique product reveal, either by clever animations and video, or by an engaging photograph.
• A fast-paced reveal of the product, for example, a new product shot every 1 second.
• For food ads, food shots are very engaging. Either by prepping the food, cooking, eating, displaying, etc
• Blend both still images and video in unique ways! Think of popular Mashable formats.
• Use brightly lit and well-colored product shots.
• Use new visual effects, like fun transitions, text reveals, and animations. Keep copy snappy! Text shouldn’t take much longer than a glance to animate in. Long animations will break the viewers focus and attention.

After our hook and interest, our ad must now make the viewer fall in love! Desire usually comes with copy and use of visuals, but there is some room for the Designer to make these points as strong as possible. Let’s review some Copy + Messaging tactics that can result in a strong desire (and a little push) towards the viewer.

Authority – SHOP NOW! SWIPE UP! LEARN MORE! ORDER NOW!

Scarcity – While supplies last! Clearance sale!

Urgency – 2 day sale! First come first serve.

Reciprocity – Offers, offers offers. Free shipping, bundles, free gifts!

Social Proof – 5/5 stars. “This product is just too amazing” “Bought 7 for my GF!”

As a designer, find fun ways to call out these specific desire points. Could be as simple as a circle ballooning out to reveal these points, arrows pointing to offers, bright bold fonts, or fun 5-star animations.

Finally, after desire comes action. Our attention-grabbing visual was enough to catch their attention, our story solved a problem with our product, we dazzled them with a shiny product, our call-to-action and 5 star ratings were compelling enough for our viewers to click “shop now” and make a purchase.

To recap, our ads may look something like this:

Problem (Hate Fire?) > Solution (Try Water) > Product Reveal (Water pouring into glass)> Features (Reasons to buy, tastes great, can freeze, can swim, keeps you alive) > Social Proof (“Water is amazing! 5 stars!”) > Call to Action (Shop Now!)

This format works incredibly well with video ads, but these same principles can be used with stills ads as well. Instead of using a 30 second ad, try starting from the top of the still ad, to the bottom, using these same principles (and Information Hierarchy ;D).