It’s easy to get lost in analysis paralysis when you don’t know how to move forward with creative testing.
You run your analysis on the most recent week of performance data and your Excel report shows your latest batch of creative tests flopped.
Yeah… let’s go back to the drawing board. Here’s how you can get a little inspiration from your competition.
Step 1. Facebook Ads Library
Click into each ad and note the following elements:
demographic of the content creator
type of ad (image, carousel, story, video, etc)
duration of the videos
type of video (UGC, 3D, 2D motion, etc)
aspect ratio (4x5, 9x16, 16x9, 1x1, etc)
any captions, and if so, what colors?
what are the value propositions conveyed?
color schemes
layout/composition (meme headers, checklists, emojis, animated arrows, etc)
script (testimonial, explainer, unboxing, skit, etc)
Here’s a handy worksheet for you to copy and fill out for your business (free).
Step 2. Industry research on TikTok
https://ads.tiktok.com/business/creativecenter/inspiration/topads/pc/en?region=US
Follow the same steps above for your industry and note all of the different elements in your worksheet.
You can filter for country, industry, objective, likes, duration, and timeframe. For objective I’d pick conversions or app installs.
You know that UGC ads work better on TikTok so you will only see UGC ads. That doesn’t mean you should only create UGC ads. This is true especially if you are running ads on Facebook/Instagram as static and 2d/2.5d/3d illustrations can perform better.
The main takeaway is to constantly be testing different formats, concepts, messages, etc.
Step 3. Organic Research
This step is more advanced but I like to do research on social platforms for things that can be unrelated to my industry. When I was working at Calm in growth and creative strategy I was browsing Reddit for inspiration. I came across a live stream of a farmer driving a tractor across his field. I noticed there were ~18,000 people watching this ‘oddly satisfying’ stream. We tested visuals of tractors and aerial shots in our next few rounds of creative testing and guess what? We were able to get a couple winning ads!
Subreddits I like to go to for inspiration:
/r/midjourney
/r/blender
/r/aiart
/r/stablediffusion
Remember that we are data-oriented. Look for posts with lots of organic engagement. That signals there is something about this visual that is resonating with people. Do this on Instagram and TikTok as well. Don’t just mindlessly scroll! Dig into how it makes you feel and why it could be making you feel that way. Is it the motion, colors, and pacing?
Consumers are able to sniff out an ad from a mile away. This is one reason why authentic UGC ads work so well. Trending background visuals can lower the consumer’s guard for a few seconds to get your message across. The average video view on FB is 2 seconds and dropping. Can you cut through the noise?
Step 4. What are the comments saying
Another advanced step for competitive research is to go into the comments section of your competitor’s organic posts and ask yourself the following questions:
What are people emotional about?
What are the common objections?
What are they happy about?
If they have an app, go into their App Store ratings and read the testimonials. You can paraphrase these comments to make your copy more authentic to your target personas.
Step 5. Create a swipe file
If you’ve been in this game for long enough you’ll have a place to go to for creative ideas. You can use Google Docs, Figma, Notion. Use a screenshot tool on your laptop and a video recorder to copy and paste videos. A simple Google search for the best apps will do. I like to go on Reddit to bypass the review sites that get an affiliate bonus for recommending software.
Step 6. Planning
Once you have all of these steps finished you can move on to planning your next round of creative concepts. You should have some clear ideas on what your competitors are strategizing and where your ads can do battle. I like to think of your ads as your army. Are they trained properly to succeed in the battlefield against your competition?
In a future post, I will show you how to write a creative brief so that your designer and UGC partners are able to execute on your vision without all of the unnecessary back and forth.