Social Media Ad Design
For businesses, social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest are excellent spaces to engage directly with the real people who support you. It’s where you create connections with content that entertains your followers while fostering brand awareness. As useful as social media is, it is also highly competitive. Once you publish content, it immediately joins an endless stream of not only content from other brands but also with the platform’s ranking algorithm. In social media, only the strong survive, but the good news is that standout social media graphics are the best tools in your arsenal to create memorable, engaging content.
Profile Picture Design
Your profile picture (or avatar) is, along with your handle, your online identity. It is the part of your profile that will be seen outside of your profile page acting as a signature for your posts. This is why profile pictures are generally small, to give more attention to your actual posts. With that in mind, focus your avatar on simplicity. Some brands can get away with using their entire logo if it’s legible at a tiny size. Many brands will instead opt for an abbreviated version (either the first letter in the brand name or the logomark by itself). Backing this version of the logo with a bold color or pattern can help it stand out. Also, keep in mind, that although dimensions are given in a square orientation, most platforms use circular avatars.
Cover Image Design
Not all social media platforms include cover images. It is common enough that your design strategy should account for one. The cover image is the wide, rectangular banner that sits at the top of your profile page. It shares an intrinsic relationship with the profile picture—they are commonly positioned together. In some ways, you can think of your cover image as the expansion of your profile picture, the space in which you can fit more text, photos and graphics.
Why Social Media Ads Design Can Make or Break Your Campaign
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How can one small part of your campaign create a make-or-break situation?
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Ads directly correlate with conversions and here’s why:
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A great ad design stops people from scrolling past it, while bad ad design can easily be missed.
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Great ad copy entices users to click, while subpar ad copy means users might not be interested.
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If you fail to consider all aspects of social media ads design, chances are users won’t even pay attention let alone click them — resulting in a lack of sales and a waste of marketing budget.
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When you design ads for social media, you essentially create a billboard for your product or service on platforms that boast millions, if not billions, of users. It means that your design can reach customers all over the world based on targeting options including qualifications like previous purchases or demographics.
Even if your ads reach the right people at the right time, the design of your social ads (including both visual and textual elements) ultimately determines whether you make a sale.
