The Full Ad Matters
While the first 5 seconds are critical, don’t just ignore the rest of the body of your ad. Unless you’re talking to a high-intent viewer, you probably need to keep your viewers engaged long enough to drop a CTA and make the sale.
Make It Interesting
There cannot be any dull moments after the 5-second mark. Keep viewers engaged with:
- Regular cuts (every 2-3 seconds for younger audiences, 3-5 seconds for those over 50)
- Engaging people on screen
- Clips of genuine testimonials
- Product demonstrations
- Visual variety
The Age/Length Correlation
Consider the age of your audience and how it relates to attention span. If you’re targeting 20-30 year olds, don’t go over 30s in length.
For the most part, older consumers haven’t been exposed to as many brain-rotting reels and TikTok dances that plague the feeds of younger generations, so they typically have a longer attention span. When you’re targeting an audience with an average age over 50, you can afford to extend your ad with engaging product explainers. Just make sure you stick to what you know will perform.
Must-Have Ad Elements
Obviously you’ll never cram all of these into every ad you produce, but effective performance marketing requires that you incorporate (we’re going to say) at least 3 of these these:
- Identification of a problem
- An audience identifier (“If you’re a new mom like me…”)
- A clear promise
- USPs
- Product features
- Social proof (customer reviews/comments)
- External proof (press/expert endorsements)
- Risk reversals (guarantees, free trials, etc.)
- A specific CTA
The Imperative CTA
This is a non-negotiable: end every ad you make with a CTA. We’re making ads to drive specific actions — most importantly, to get people to buy now.
Remember that your ads must generate sales, or else you’ll lose your clients and potentially all of your money… no pressure.
Speak The Language
Remember that you’re talking to actual people who doomscroll the same apps that you do. You know the type of content that makes you ignore a phone call from your grandmother to finish a 30s video after your third consecutive hour of scrolling. Use your own experience to create content that resonates with your audience and gets them to buy shit.
If you can picture your ad appearing as an organic (platform-native) post that’d get your attention during a scroll session, you’re on the right track.
How to Create Platform-Native Ads
To create ads that feel native to a platform:
- Scroll, scroll, scroll, and study the ads that appear in your feed
- Keep a swipe file of hooks, cuts, and editing styles
- Identify what makes certain ads stand out
Just keep scrolling, saving, and stealing (read: iterating upon) good ads when you encounter them in the wild.
