How to create Facebook Ad graphics that sell your products

The average Facebook user sees 36 ads on the platform every single day.

😱

While ads are a great way to reach new people, they can also get lost in the never-ending scroll. If you don’t spend time creating eye-catching graphics, you might miss out on potential customers who simply scroll straight past and onto the next food, sunset, or baby pic.

This is the last thing you want, especially when images are such an integral part of the shopping journey.

One survey shows that campaigns with images have a 42% increase in click-through rate. 

That means you need to choose your visual content wisely. Whether you’re creating your own product shots or outsourcing to a designer, here are some tips for creating eye-popping Facebook ads.

How to create eye-catching visuals for your Facebook ads

1. Experiment with different ad formats

Facebook offers a whole host of different ad types you can play around with. From video ads to 360 degree mobile-only ads, there’s a format to suit every type of graphic:

• Photo ads: A simple image and text format.
  
• Video ads: Like photo ads, but with a video instead of a pic.
  
• 360-degree ads: Use your mobile to shoot a panoramic pic and Facebook will turn it into a 360-degree photo. Perfect if you want to show off an interior.
  
• Stories ads: Ads that show up in users’ Stories.
  
• Carousel ads: Spotlight up to 10 pics at once in a single ad that viewers can swipe through.
  
• Collection ads: Let shoppers browse your product catalog and get more info without ever leaving Facebook.
  
• Dynamic product ads: Personalised ads served to people who have already shown interest in your products.

Want to learn more? Check out our post all about setting up Facebook ad campaigns. ✨

2. Choose the right colour scheme

The colour scheme you use can create a sense of urgency and evoke certain emotions in Facebook users. How powerful is that?!

According to psychometrics, reds indicate excitement, passion, and ambition. Yellows evoke a sense of optimism and blues indicate reliability and strength. This should give you some guidance on where to start with your Facebook ads. But remember, Facebook has a very familiar colour palette. Make sure you avoid them by using colours that contrast the blues and whites.

Daily Harvest uses a yellow colour palette in this ad, which gives off a happy, optimistic vibe. It also complements the brand’s colours whilst standing out against Facebook’s palette.

3. Consider your font placement

You want your ad to make sense when seen on a small screen, too. To do this, make sure you’re not using tons of small text or a really busy image that loses all meaning when it’s zoomed out. You’ll also want to make sure you can actually see the text against the background.

Quip uses a simple product shot with minimal text. This ad quickly conveys the most important information and the contrasting colours make it easy to spot when you’re scrolling through your feed.

4. Appeal to people’s emotions

There are some general rules of thumb when it comes to the psychology behind images. For example, people love pets. In fact, they’re the fourth-most shared type of image online. 🐶 And research has shown that people respond better to a smiling face than a frowning (or neutral) face.

Bonobos feature eye contact and smiling faces in its Facebook ads. This feels more welcoming than staring at a row of moody faces.

5. Include user-generated content

Reviews and user-generated content (UGC) add a splash of social proof to your ads and work as digital word-of-mouth marketing. It’s something we see some of our customers doing with the help of Dash (that’s us)!

Take one of our customers, Forthglade. They use UGC to fill up their Facebook page. Their ‘dog of the month’ competition encourages customers to submit pics of their gorgeous dogs directly through Forthglade’s website. These images then get sent straight to Dash using Zapier. From there, the team can go through and pick their faves to post to social. (We know, what an awful job!).

6. Use a product-focused image

75% of ecommerce shoppers rate product photos to be very influential in their buying decisions. So, make the most of those product images! To do this, you could use some simple product shots that promote a particular feature or lifestyle shots that show your product in action.

Goli’s ad is not only eye-catching in colour, but it also spotlights the specific vitamins in its product so customers know exactly what to expect.

7. Only use clear visuals

Blurry or pixelated pics are a big no-no. This goes without saying – quality over everything else!

Arch Bags uses high-quality pics of parents using their baby bags in its Facebook ads.

Tip ✨If you use a digital asset management (DAM) tool such as Dash, you can download high-quality images that are Facebook-ready with a click of a button.

8. Test various images and graphics in your ads

Run tests to see which images perform best with your audience. Is it the one with the dog? Or the one showing your product in action? Either way, you’ll find out soon enough. In one test, a brand found out that adding a simple border to their ad graphics doubled the number of click-throughs 😱

Once you’ve collected your data, you can use a star rating in Dash to organise which images performed the best. This, in turn, will help you know what to pick for future Facebook ads.

9. Mix up your ads with videos

Do you go for a static image or a video?

It depends on the aim of your ad. Videos can be a great way to show your product in action, while images can be a powerful way to create brand awareness. In fact, a 2019 study found that videos helped 50% of online shoppers decide which product to buy.

Crossrope Jump Ropes uses a video in this ad to highlight one of its benefits: Lightweight equipment.

10. Keep landing pages consistent with your ad

Keep the ad journey smooth and seamless by making sure the landing pages you direct users to look like the ad they clicked on. Use similar colors and images, and mention the key point in the ad if possible.

Laithwaites’ ad and accompanying landing page feature a similar colour scheme and the same image so users are left with no confusion.

11. Optmise for mobile

81% of Facebook users only access the app through their mobile. To get the best results from your ads, consider a mobile-first strategy:

• Make your videos and images vertical rather than horizontal
• Make use of Facebook’s mobile-only ad types, like the 360 vertical ad
• Create and optimise images especially for mobile (don’t recycle desktop ads)

Thomann International’s 360-degree posts make it easy for mobile users to explore the product range by moving their devices around.

What resources do you need to design your Facebook ads?

Before you begin creating your ad graphics, you’ll need to know where you’re going to store them. If nobody can find all your beautifully designed ads, how can you get any value from them? A tool like Dash will provide a place for you to store, manage and share all your visual content. You can even filter your images by star rating to quickly see which ads have performed the best.

And, it integrates with the following design tools that you can use to create FB ads:

• Photoshop: If you’re a dab hand with Adobe’s suite, use Photoshop to tweak your images. If you’re creating video ads, use the suite’s built-in video editor to create slick footage.
  
• Canva: If you’re a design novice, tools like Canva have pre-made Facebook ad templates and video format templates you can use to create on-brand visuals.
  
• Sketch: Get your hands on templates for single images and other Facebook ad formats to get started. The repository has a ton to choose from and you can edit them on-site before uploading them to Dash.
  
• Figma: Design Facebook ads in bulk using a top design tool. You can get an overview of all your ad graphics in one place.

What about using a designer or photographer?

If you’d rather bring a professional on board, you can.

Designers and photographers will be able to bring your ad vision to life with your chosen color schemes and branding. Whether you want to use an emotional image or location-specific images, a designer will know exactly what to do.

Caveat: You’ll have to pay out if you want to work with a top designer or photographer and it can cost anywhere between $15 to $150 per hour depending on their level of expertise.

Tip: Make sure you create a detailed photography brief to work from so everyone is on the same page. ✨

Next: create killer Facebook campaigns 

Once your visuals are on point, have a go at experimenting with different ad types to see what works best for you. Check out our guide that covers everything you need to know about creating a stellar FB ad campaign.

And don’t forget to store all your visuals in one handy place! Dash makes it easy to upload your designs and manage them directly from the tools you use to create them.