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Instagram Ready – Making effective ads

By Jeffrey Valerio, Freelance designer

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The Drum Network article

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November 17, 2016 | 3 min read

Instagram is currently one of the most engaging platforms to introduce a product, service or an app. Unlike other advertising solutions, Instagram ads differ from the rest because as much as possible, it must feel native to Instagram posts. I have come up with some tips on how to create good-looking Instagram ads that work, or in short, effective ads.

instagram ready photo
Are your ads Instagram ready?

instagram ready photo

Are your ads Instagram ready?

Disguise your ad – design it to look like a normal instagram post

Most ads work well when they are camouflaged in someone’s Instagram feed as a normal post. Create ads using subtle filters and minimize copy (sometimes just the logo will do.) Make sure you create beautiful composition but stay relevant to the brand.

Make the ad relevant to people’s imaginary daily life

Instagram ads with just a product might look like forced ads. Designing so that product is part of a real life setting helps.

For example, instead of just posting sports equipment, try to include a person using the product. Instead of just showing a box of nutritional food, why not add an image of a person eating and eventually benefitting from it?

Inject the brand elements subtlely

Use the brand elements of the product in subtle ways if possible. For example, use the brand colors as accents. Remember the overall feel of the ad should reflect the brand. For example if the brand exemplifies class, the ad should be consistent with this.

Keep it simple

Working ads for an app? Place it on a phone and then on a beautiful background such as a wooden table (so that it looks real). For games, it might be useful to blend a character or element into the real world. An ad with too much graphics is easily recognizable as an ad, which many users tend to skip.

Try a different perspective

Think your image looks stale? Think of a creative way to represent the image strongly. The angle looks typical? Think of another perspective for the image. If you have people in the image, choose those which portray emotions and movement. Nobody likes a stiff image.

I hope you found this useful. Happy designing! And remember a good ad is an effective ad!

Good luck working on your next brief!

Winner of Facebook’s Innovator of the Year, ReFuel4 is the world’s leading data-driven creative platform, delivering assets from 10,000 global creators backed by predictive AI technology.

ReFUEL4 Technology Singapore

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Winner of Facebook's 2016 Innovator of the Year, ReFUEL4 is the world's leading online ad creative management platform. 

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