The Storykit blog

We know that the competition online is extreme, but we still seem to think that we can be successful as long as we spend enough money on our content or ads. The truth, however, is brutal; it doesn't matter how much money you throw at a project if your content isn't spot on. Your ad will still drown in the ocean of happy babies and fun videos.

How to create paid social media ads that work

If you want to succeed with paid social media advertising then here are the building blocks that you need to pay attention to.

1. Know your audience

Use every data point within your business (from your Product to Sales teams) to figure out the myriad hard and soft facts about your audience that will help guide your ads: who are they really, what do they know (and what don’t they know)? Think of it as a few steps beyond customer personas; if you uncover in-depth insights like these, you’ll win. 

Josefine says,

– The first step is to understand your target group, what you want to create, and what's best for the brand.

You may use the ad tools on the platforms to hit these targets.

– A very common mistake people make is that they think they already know the answer instead of casting a wider net and learn from the results. Your job as an advertiser is to understand your target group, while it's the platform's task to reach that target group, says Josefine Billström.

– Take into account that it's difficult to predict what will work. I notice this as well, although I have worked with this for quite a few years now. At times I am surprised by how effective certain ads are or vice versa. It's healthy for the ego to be reminded that you can, indeed, make mistakes.

2. Use the funnel way of thinking

It’s simple: if people don’t know you, they probably won’t take action. And you should be creating content for every part of your marketing funnel, because you don’t know where your audience is in their journey. Higher up the funnel, “testimonials and how-to videos provide great social proofing”, says Sofia. After all, other people can be remarkably convincing in ways that brands just can’t, so use people to add depth and conviction to your message. Bottom of the funnel content should always revolve around driving action, but that doesn’t mean it has to be dull: you can use video content to tell a whole story…

3. Create more ads!

The best way to learn is to keep on testing new things, even if you are a seasoned Facebook advertiser.

– It's easy to get stuck in old ways. You may have a message that works well in one instance, and then you just copy it across the board. After a while, it won't have the same effects. A way to tackle this is to create different ads for different target groups. We usually recommend that you have 3-4 ads with different messages for different target groups. Test them on your regular target group, invest in a wider span, and look at the data to see who you've reached. Don't try to create a "one size fits all".

So, you shouldn't be afraid of using a variety of ads?

– No, absolutely not. We clearly see that advertisers who use more ads get better results.

How many ads do you recommend that people use?

– It certainly depends on the nature of your work. If you create branding ads, you can try 3-4 different ads, but from a performance standpoint... Then you can put out as many ads as you like.

– It's essentially a matter of allowing the system to tell you when it's time. You'll notice when an ad has been "exhausted", and it's time for a change. But when you do make a change, it's essential to keep the old one to check whether the new ad actually performs better.

So, I don't need to feel bad about using an old ad as long as it's still delivering?

– No, but you should, of course, create a new ad and see if it can deliver even better results. Don't remove something that's working, but what if you could create an ad that converts twice as well!

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4. "Relevant"  trumps "pretty"

As an advertiser, it can be nice to know that your success rarely depends on whether you have made a "pretty" ad or spent a lot of money on it.

– No, the main thing on our channels is the creative content. We have seen that 56% of a brand's sales boost can be attributed to the look of the ads, and not in terms of how we tend to think of "quality". There is no need to use an advanced camera or a super expensive director, but the focus is rather on relevance.

Should I use a different approach when promoting editorial content in comparison to ads?

– You should always start with the user perspective. All ads are delivered in the same flow, and from the users' point of view, it's often difficult to notice the difference. You simply need to have equally high demands on everything you produce because the competition in the feed is so extreme.

– It's also important to get these parts to work in harmony. Sometimes I meet companies with a performance team, a content marketing team, a branding team, and an influencer marketing team, and at times they don't even adhere to a concise visual identity. It will end up being quite expensive, and you won't get the same value from your investment.

But is visual identity really that important?

– Absolutely! We did a large meta-study that showed that advertisers with a clear visual identity got a 67% boost in optimized conversions and advertising recall. 71% had a higher return on ad spend. Those who also incorporated their branding in the entire had got an even bigger boost.

– I think this comes down to the fact that we are bombarded with so many messages on a daily basis. Your ad shows up between posts from friends or groups, and for it to be effective, the receiver needs to know who's behind the ad.

How can we sufficiently incorporate our branding?

- We usually talk about four parameters in particular:

1) The logo. Make sure that it's clearly visible. Maybe you can animate it?

2) Colors. It's imperative to work with distinct branding colors.

3) Your fonts. Especially if they are a branding characteristic.

4) The last parameter is what we call mnemonic. It relates to other things associated with your brand; a jingle, a character, or a slogan.

– You can work with this in different ways, either with all four or place more focus on one or a couple of them.

Video is favored – if you do it well! 

Video is not only favored by people, who can watch a story from start to finish, but increasingly favored by algorithms too. We have short attention spans (are you even still reading this?) and need to be won over. “Using the first 3-4 seconds of your video is a great way to stand out in the feed” says Sofia on capturing your audience’s (small) attention span. But video alone isn’t the silver bullet to your marketing woes: it has to be good. Really good. After all, a good image can outperform a bad video. How do you make good video? We’re glad you asked…   

Is it essential to work with video?

– Yes, it is. On social platforms, you want to engage as many senses as possible, and video is perfect for that. But "video" doesn't need to be a perfect, highly produced video. I also see many good examples of using motion graphic design with still images to create video content.

– We have also seen that you get the best results when you use a mix of both still image ads and video ads, so create both!

What should I do if I get stuck creatively?

– There are many ways to deal with that; for example, you can start by asking three questions: Why do people need this product? What IS this product? Perhaps it isn't apparent to everyone. It's easy to lose perspective and expect everyone to understand the product as well as you do. You can also take the emotional route: what feeling do we want to evoke with this product?

What does a beginner need to consider?

– Just get started! It's very easy to set up an ad account and start testing. I think that's a great way to get started. Create an ad or boost something you have published already and see how it performs and ask yourself why.

– We also offer a vast number of guides, courses, and other free resources that you can use to become really good at advertising, but I really think that it's best to get started in a simple way and learn along the way. Nobody gets it all right from day one.

4 creative best practices for video ads from Facebook

1. Mix still images and moving content.
2. Clarify the brand and the main message during the first three seconds.
3. Make sure to show them the product or service. Don't try to be a bit mystical or obscure. Instead, be direct and very distinct.
4. Use short copy. It's better to stay under 280 characters for optimal user experience, although it isn't a requirement.

5 thumb-stopping techniques for your videos

• Place your product against contrasting colors to make it pop. Preferably one of your brand colors.
• Start with the thing that stands out to draw people in.
• Feel free to work with animated text to make it easier for people to read. The usual subtitles can be difficult for people to read.
• Use engaging questions.
• Be quick and use fast clips and movements.

Test, test, test

We’ll let you in on a secret: sometimes, we test static images ourselves even though we’re a video tool. Crazy? We don’t think so! By A/B testing different content types, you’ll understand your audience’s wants and needs – and, crucially, it’ll lower your cost per result too. Now that we’ve tested, we know for certain that video drives website traffic for us at a lower cost per result than static ads do, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be the same for you. Test and learn, don’t assume!

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Every other week, we host webinars, which is your chance to put questions to our team and delve deeper into the topics that matter to marketers. Make sure you don’t miss the next one, and start your journey into making better video with our handy tool here.  

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The need for content is high, the cost of content doesn’t need to be higher

“The buyer journey now is much more fragmented, because there’s not one single point where you can reach more or less your entire buyer universe”, says Peder Bonnier, CEO of Storykit and long-time marketing expert.

And he’s right.

But it’s an opportunity for you; with more eyes in more places, the ability to leverage your message becomes more democratised. But only if you know how to reach your audience in the first place. 

If you’re relying on an agency to provide you with the insatiable thirst for content you (reasonably) have, you’re losing out.

We’re not saying there’s no place for agencies anymore, but if they’re running your day-to-day, they’re likely missing the nuanced perspectives of the person in your organisation writing the briefs.

Not only that, but your spend on content will be through the roof too. 

Spoiler alert: we think YOU should be producing your content. But how? 

Make the process work: by bringing it in-house

When the person ordering the content isn’t the person delivering it, it’s natural for a bloated briefing process to seep in.

You know what we mean: more meetings, lengthy review times, missed opportunities and a creative process that feels anything but creative.

Briefs are important, but only when done properly.

For many organisations, the briefing process is an unnecessary drain on resources. How do you get that creative essence back where it belongs?

Simple: stop ordering, and start producing. 

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“But we don’t have the skills!” 

Yet. Content production is a hard, skilled role, but there are myriad tools that make it fast, easy and rewarding.

Our CEO knows how you feel:

“It can be hard to tell, for example, a talent acquisition manager that ‘now it's actually also part of your job to create and promote a video."

But that’s not the biggest hurdle. The big challenge is convincing someone in the organization that this person should have the authority to do that in the company's name.” 

And to that we say, fail. Fail hard. And fail again.

Getting over the fear of putting control in your teams’ hands is crucial.

Unlike other marketing channels, it’s completely okay for some of your video content on social media to fail. After all, nobody will see it, and good content will be rewarded by the algorithm. 

Have safeguards in place, but never kill your team’s creativity. Your job is to set up the safety rails and the (as loose but necessary as possible) brand guidelines so your brand remains cohesive.

Let your team tell the story the way they want to tell it, and you’ll probably get better engagement. 

Video is indispensable to your business; make it indispensable to your team

Your team consumes video on a daily basis. Spend some time training them to think critically – why did they tap that? Why didn’t they stop scrolling? What stands out on their own social feeds? When they know what to look for, they’ll know what works – and, even more importantly, what doesn’t. 

Don’t keep feeding briefs. By using Storykit to put video production in everyone’s hands, you’ll obviously save time and money, but you’ll be able to communicate your message across more touch points, more effectively, and with more conviction.

After all, people trust people.

This is an excerpt from the latest Storykit Talks. Want to see the whole thing? Check out, or listen to all of our latest Talks, here!

How long should my video be? 

As long as it needs to be. And no longer. Facebook’s own data agrees with us here: there’s no perfect length, just make your story compelling.  Focus on the story rather than the length, and you’ll increase your chances of being viewed. “But that answer doesn't really help because how can you know if you have my viewer's attention?” asks Jonna. Of course, it's always nice to have some guidelines. We often use 10-15 seconds for our bottom-of-funnel ads, and 40-60 seconds for our top-of-funnel storytelling, such as our thought leadership, how-tos, and company news. Experiment with different formats and try to work out what works best for your audience. 

What size should my video be?

When it comes to social media video sizes, the size of the video depends on the platform you're posting on. Typically, if you post on LinkedIn you should go with 1:1 and 4:5. For Facebook aim for 1:1 or 4:5. For Youtube, go with 16:9. And finally, for TikTok, 9:16 is your go to.

What narrative formats work best? 

We’re not talking 16:9 here – how can you frame your story in a way that stops the scroll and gets viewers hooked on what you’re about to say? Put yourself in their shoes, think about what their needs are, and work from there. Once you know what your audience wants, create formats or templates for your videos – that way, you can optimize for performance and save time, too, telling stories again and again, without starting from scratch. 

Trailers for articles

Using videos as trailers for articles can tell a whole story without telling the whole story, to inspire your audience to want to read more. Create teases of the articles with a clear and direct angle, and you’ll get more clicks. 

Listicles

It’s an oldie but a goldie – and it works well, as your audience knows how much of their time you’ll take upfront (known as a cognitive placeholder).  The content itself doesn’t have to feel samey – it can be as lighthearted or serious as you like, from sharing how-to guides to sharing the funniest customer reviews. 

Telling employee stories 

If you want to feature employees who are camera-shy, you can do this with Storykit: use images and slides to tell their story in an engaging way, without needing much video at all. That’s the power of templates. 

Events

Rather than pushing webinars with a simple static, try using video templates and narrative arcs that you know work to compel your audience to truly want to attend. Always provide value: never take your audience’s attention for granted.

How do I go viral? 

For most companies, viral successes are fun if they happen. But as Jonna says, “As a B2B company, it's not what we strive to do every day. We need to get so much information and education out, and if we want all of those things to become viral successes, we will be so disappointed because it's not going to happen!”. 

“If you start with the wrong goal, you’ll produce the wrong content” says Jonna. So focus on the impact of your content: do you want to increase sign-ups, web traffic or educate about a specific topic or feature? 

Virality can be great for increasing your reach. So keep your tone on brand and get the timing right – trying and failing is better than not trying at all, and you’ll be reinforcing your stance as a relatable innovator in your niche. 

How should I measure my videos’ success? 

How do you know that your video is a good one? Tie it back to the goals of your content. For example, if you want webinar signups, you might not even care if viewers watched the whole video: it’s not the point of the content. 

The golden rule is to usually measure retention: how many people are still there when the video ends? Facebook shows you this, and it’s a harsh truth you should be paying attention to. 

Says Jonna, “One of the mistakes that we often see people make is creating a video to do something, and then worrying about the number of likes. We all like the hearts and the smileys and the laughs. But if that's not the goal, maybe you shouldn't care that much, because you’ll start optimizing your video for the wrong thing”. 

What we see is that when we share something on LinkedIn, we see that people reached out to us on the back of the content. So you can also look to the qualitative signals, especially for podcasts, but also for videos. You need to dig a bit deeper than the vanity metrics. 

Of course you need the clickthrough and the retention. But also are we seeing the right signals from people who are actually consuming our content and are those the right people? Well, that's a sign that you’re doing something right. 

Got a question for Storykit on your video content? Drop us an email and we might feature it in a future episode of Storykit Talks! 

Firing out memes before they go stale, reacting to live events and amplifying their colleagues’ posts to turn them into internal influencers — here's how you keep your socials strong, and up to speed, without compromising your brand.

What does “on brand” even mean, anyway? 

Your authenticity is far more valuable than one viral moment. If you’ve ever caught yourself saying something doesn’t “feel” on brand for you, take a step back and consider why it isn’t resonating. Is the messaging not aligning? Is the tone off? You should be able to clearly illustrate that feeling to everyone in the business. 

Go back to basics and rip up your rule book. Your brand guidelines are probably written for a very different era of content marketing, where you’d dust off the guidelines occasionally. Now, when there’s more content to approve more quickly, make sure everyone’s on the same page, even if that page is a live document that’s constantly evolving.

Here’s how to nail your content guidelines properly 

1. Know your values

‍When you know your values, you know where to draw the line. How provocative is your brand willing to be, and what do you stand for? If you know your brand inside out, you’ll be able to align your messaging with trending moments easily. That means your whole team can equip themselves with knowing which bandwagons to jump on, and which are better left to die. 

2. Shift your tone

‍Adopt a slightly different tone for each social channel if you haven’t already, and ask yourself if your tone is restricting you creatively. Meet your audience where they are: people on LinkedIn aren’t looking for the latest riff on celebrity gossip, and people scrolling Stories don’t need to watch a seven-part series on your company culture. Social media is all about having a conversation, and nobody wants to talk to the boring guy in the suit still talking about work at the bar! 

3. Tool up

‍The phrase “work smarter, not harder” has never been truer as more assets are needed more often. So expand your content toolkit. Keep your content engaging and on-brand in just a click, and let Storykit take all the hassle out of great content creation by speeding it up. You write the words, we’ll automagically create social-ready videos. 

4. Get specific

‍What colours and fonts should you use on Instagram Stories? What sounds are appropriate for Reels and TikToks? What kind of punctuation should you avoid in blog posts? What are some examples of trends that would work for the brand, and which definitely wouldn’t? Illustrate the guide with real-life examples so you’re all singing from the same hymn sheet. 

Experiment, test and prepare to fail

‍Play with emerging features and platforms to find the right fit for your brand. If you’re trailblazing a trend, you’re subconsciously showing your audience that you’re innovative, and opening doors for new audiences at the same time. It might just pay dividends! Or it might not. As long as you know your parameters, that’s okay too – after all, if no feelings are hurt, then failed efforts on social will all be forgotten with the next scroll.  

Keeping your content on brand at scale doesn’t have to be an impossible task. Join Jonna Ekman, Marketing Director at Storykit, and Fredrik Strömberg, our co-founder and CPO, as they discuss keeping your content on-brand and on-message in the latest episode of Storykit Talks Live. Watch the webinar on Youtube, here, or listen to it as a podcast, here. 

If you work in content and are faced with a dizzy sensation every time you open your social apps, you might just be tempted to try and “hack” the algorithm to improve your social performance.

Spoiler alert: you can’t.Truth is, it’s easy to scapegoat the algorithm (and it certainly does play a part). But often it’s because your content isn’t resonating with people. After all, what won’t change is that every content platform wants the same thing: for viewers to stay right where they are.

So here are three ways to improve your content's performance, with practical examples so you can start experimenting.

1. Treat social as a dialogue, not a monologue

How can your brand seamlessly slot into the conversation of the day? Reflecting what’s already trending gives your content broader appeal, giving you a stronger chance of cutting through. Not only that; it’s a great way to subtly reinforce that you’re innovative and more forward-thinking than your stale competitors. Social isn’t an exact science.

Before you post, always ask: would I want to engage with this if I saw it on my feed? After all, you’re trying to appeal to your audience’s waning attention span.

2. Grab attention, then reward it

Make sure the first line of your captions and first frame of your social posts are scroll-stopping enough to pique interest. You can tell the rest of the story later. For example, you could use a refreshingly human quote rather than a predictable testimonial, use strong imperatives, make a controversial statement and then challenge it or evoke the power of FOMO – think of it like a newspaper headline.

3. And, yes, you should be posting videos

Regardless of algorithm updates, videos already make sense on every social platform, meaning you’ll be able to grab more attention, for longer. Hello, improved engagement rate.

But we know the last thing social teams need is more work.

So what if creating seriously good videos took seriously less time than a graphic? Just pop great text in, and we’ll pop great videos out. See for yourself. You could start enjoying a longer coffee break as soon as tomorrow!

1. Hack your routine

Only you can truly know what will work best for you. Take a moment to review your calendar and be honest with yourself – what times and days of the week do you feel most productive? When do meetings work for you? When do you get more distracted?

Then, you can compartmentalize your day – setting your tasks in chunks according to how you work best. Audit how long a task takes on average, and block out time in your calendar accordingly. This will help you predict your workload better in future, and keep you free from last-minute meetings so you can focus.

2. Delegate, delegate, delegate!

Wearing every hat when producing content can make for a very heavy head – so don’t juggle it all alone! While you might not have the luxury of a massive team for support, you do have powerful machines on your side. You just might not have met them yet.

Here are a few of our favorite tools to keep your day running smoothly:

• Create videos from a line of text with Storykit (of course!)
• Get content inspiration from AnswerThePublic
• Have your captions written by Copy.ai
• Distribute and schedule on social with Later.com
  

3. Set realistic expectations and boundaries

If you’ve said yes to everything since you joined your team, you might just find yourself swamped with unachievable deadlines (and a caffeine addiction). Don’t say yes to everything – you risk burning out! Make sure your workload is fair for the week ahead, and don’t be afraid to push back on tight deadlines.

You may want to try to implement a “deep focus” day or regular work session, so you can get more out of your working hours.

Make sure you have a really tight process that takes as little admin time as possible by putting together a quick Google Form for new requests, so you get the information you need pre-filled instead of needing to chase for it.