Apps & Services: Top Ad Creative Formats

Key Takeaways

hey everybody it's Savannah Sanchez here from the social Savannah today I am so excited to be talking about the best ads with no physical product so let's get right into it great so for you for some of you who may not know me my name is Savannah I work with a team of 40 creators and 10 editors that I've personally trained over the last five years to create top performing ad content for some of the top brands on meta and Tik Tok and today I'm very excited because I'm going to be going through the ad Hooks and formats that have specifically worked well for apps and service-based businesses now we all know filming engaging ads when you don't have a physical product can be difficult but my goal is that you'll come away with some examples today that will enable you to create some top performing engaging ads with no products needed so all the examples I'm going to be showing today are all ones that I have developed uh on my team all righty let's get into it so the first example I want to show you is this before and after skit where essentially we talk about how their lives were not as great before the service of bumble for dating service but one thing to pay specific attention to is the sound choice so we created a custom sound where at the beginning beginning it's screaming it's scary music and at the end it resolves itself so I'm going to play that so you can hear [Music] it and here's another example with the same sound [Music] awesome so the perfect the purpose of this is to show how your life was not as great before using your app or service and then how it improved once you started using it and so the last example on the screen right now I'm just showing that you can also do this without stitching together music you can also just show pointing at text on the screen about how your life improved once you started using the app like we did here for Mumble of her now she's found genuine connections and then ending with the CTA of downloading the app now this format is very top performing among a lot of my clients it's called the self skit whenever I'm starting with a new client this this is one of the formats that I like to do as one of the first things that we execute so as you can see in the first example we did it as a face time of her FaceTiming herself with a different outfit on and talking about how the app has improved her life in the second one we set it up to where we filmed the same Creator but in a different outfit sitting across the room and then editing it together as if she's having a conversation with herself and she's asking herself about oh this app does this and this it actually doesn't do this and it improved your life how and dating app that doesn't suck yep so this one is a very great format test and then on the far right we have another example of this of showing the same Creator different outfits but doing the self skit with yourself and then okay I have to download this what is it called Bumble and then you can even do the overlay of the app on top to make it even more engaging now this one is a slideshow format so you don't always have to do videos when advertising apps and services one thing that I've tested for clients is creating these slideshows so rating things that bubble has done for my dating life and then going through it helped me feel empowered 10 out of 10 helped me make genuine connections 12 out of 10 so this is a very easy format to do but it's very eye-catching and works really well on meta and Tik Tok next we have success stories so whenever you're advertising an app or service you want to tell people what is the end result of using your app and service so if you can find b-roll of people looking happy in this instance or advertising a dating app so showing them on dates out on adventures and telling people what their life can be like once they use your app or service success stories are always great and people always want to see how other people have benefited from the app or service next we have the class walk and talk so essentially the Creator is walking and talking about why she likes the app for service uh maybe talking about some comment objections like oh I used to not like dating apps cuz this and this but it's actually not as scary as you might think but now that I've tried it it's great and you will like it too and this format works really well because it looks like an organic Tik Tok or Instagram story it doesn't look like an ad it looks like an influencer just picked up her phone and started talking to her camera on her stories so it's a very engaging format and one that I would definitely recommend testing next we have the man on the street interview so we set it up with the Creator interviewing her friend about a horror story of her going out with her guy and then she introduces the app as a potential solution to her dating woes so we Lov to man on the street interviews it's a very engaging format uh we coordinated it with two creators so that we could give them the talking points and scripts for it so we're not just interviewing random people on the street we're creating this uh prefabricated environment as you can see from a lot of my ad examples we use a lot of the same creators each week across a lot of my clients that way I can train my close-knit team of creators on how to make the best content and we use them week over week the next format to share with you all is the Whiteboard format so buying a whiteboard is probably the best $10 investment I've ever made in terms of buying things on Amazon for my business we use the Whiteboard all the time for filming especially when filming an app service it's really engaging to show a graph or write down the main value propositions as well as emphasize specific words you can cross out words like you can see in our example we have just found so many uses for the Whiteboard and it's a great way to keep people engaged especially when you don't have a physical product just talking to the camera is great but mixing it in with physically writing can help make your add that much more thumbs stopping next we have the notes app so this is great because it looks very organic on the first one we're actually showing her ticking off things from her Notes app and showing that she's reaching her goals using this service in the middle ad you can see that we start the ad with writing down your dreams of becoming IG famous can be a reality and writing it in her Notes app with the green screen format on top and then lastly an ad we did for n we're showing adding different things to a checklist in N for your weight loss goals and then to make it that much more engaging we added some ugc at the bottom just to make the ad a bit more interesting which is something you can test with this Notes app format next we have the paper flip so this is great if you want to advertise an offer like for the first one we're saying you're getting your 100 nights free looking for struggling sleepers I think this format can apply for so many different services and it's very thumb stoping people definitely stop to watch to see what all the pieces of paper say they want to see the Creator get through all the different options so would highly recommend testing this one it's so easy to set up to all we needed was a printer and a Creator to stand on the street and flip through the pieces of paper there's no talking or any other elements needed so this is a very easy one to do but has a very high payoff next we have the interesting riding hook so I'm always trying to think about what are some unique ways we can get our main value propositions across and we always try to figure out how we can write either in sand write with food uh do do something interesting with writing like we mentioned write on the Whiteboard write on a mirror so in this case we wrote on the cake how to make your Instagram famous and then we go into the normal ugc ad of showing a lot of girls being happy once they used the service to grow their Instagram following I also wanted to show you some specific examples for a client Alma therapy so for this one we actually put the Post-it notes on top of the computer screen to call out certain value props so this is a great way to look more eye-catching especially if if your product is kind of boring like it's just a website you can add elements like putting the Post-it note on top just to make it more interesting than just filming a computer because that would be pretty dull and as you can see we always add the text overlays on top so that it's easy to watch with or without sound on this next format is all around saving money so I'm about to save save you a lot of money on therapy costs so it's always great to start the ad with a bit of a cliffhanger we have her pointing above at the text and then we go into the benefits of the service and then b roll of her looking happy now that she's used the service and how it's improved her life the next and last format is the myth versus truth so you could say a common myth about your industry myth you have to settle for a therapist who's not the right fit truth Elma can help you find the great therapist and then showing the green screen format over the website having the Creator talk to the camera and explaining the different value propositions in a 30 second ad next we have the Tik Tok comment response so this is a classic ad format it's one I use across both services and products because it honestly just works so well starting the ad in the first 3 seconds with the Creator talking to the camera and having that organic Tik Tock comment overlay just looks incredibly native to the feed and definitely stops the scroll next we have some examples from affordable health plans so this is for all of you out there that are running lead generation ads the first hook to test is reasons to visit X so we did reasons to visit affordable healthplans.com we put the text we put the website overlay on the hook so that you can see what the website looks like showing the Creator go on the computer filling out the form and then showing some b-roll of the Creator looking happy now that they have affordable health insurance so this is a really great format to test another great format to test especially for lead generation it's about saving money so everyone always wants to know money saving hacks which is why in the hook of the ad we actually showed her throwing money at us throwing money in the trash to get that ey cat cing thumb stopping effect in the first few seconds and then we talk about how the service helps her save money on health insurance and lastly we have here's the secret so here's the secret to getting Affordable Health Care people always want tax tips and secrets to save money and then having the green screen over the website makes it very engaging and relatable so as you can tell from all these examples all of them feature real humans in the ad talking to the camera about their experience in a testimonial style and then overlaying that with elements from the website or the app next we have some examples from my client zapier so the first one is a skit of your current self versus your future self so you could be a little bit exaggerated you can dress yourself up as the character as his future self with the cool glasses he's all relaxed now that he's discovered zapier and then comparing it to his old self where he's pulling out his hair and he's so frustrated so so in these skits it's always great to be a little bit more dramatic to get the message across the same thing for the second format you versus a friend so showing your friend looking all cool and happy that they've tried this product or service versus you before you discovered this service you were pulling your hair out and all stressed so you can apply this across so many different Services showing how you were before you discovered the service versus showing how you are now that you've discovered it and how that it's improved your life and and lastly we have the classic green screen we've used green screen elements in many of the ad examples that I've showed today because it just works so well especially if you're having to show a website or an app having that green screen overlay will keep it that much more engaging instead of just showing screen recordings you're having a face over it as well so we will usually have the Creator try to film in front of a pretty neutral background like a white background like here so it's easy to crop him out and put him on the website next we have some examples from jackpocket lottery so the first one is answering FAQ so this is a really great one to do for retargeting ads if you are advertising a service so you can answer some common objections and questions that people have about your service we also integrated the Tik Tok comment overlay as the question to make it that much more engaging like what happens if I win and have that as the overlay so you could even mix and match Styles you can do answering FAQ mixed in with Tik Tok overlay the next one is POV you found an easy convenient way to find uh Mega Millions lottery tickets and as you can see we are a little bit exaggerated with her reactions she's all happy and excited you want to show very emotional responses to using the product or the service and then we show the app screenshots to show how easy it is to use the app and the last one is problem solution the problem wanting an easier way to order a lottery ticket this the solution having the Creator point with the green screen format showing the app as the solution lastly this is a great hook to test if you are searching for this then you need to try this so as you can see in all these examples we say if you're searching for this then you need to try this uh if if you keep procrastinating then you need to try this app or for this one if you're searching for how to get a lottery ticket then you need to try this this app so essentially you're just answering the question that your customer has they're trying to figure out how to improve their life in some way how to obtain a service or an app that's going to help them and you are saying if you if you're looking for this then we have the solution for you Al righty I hope you enjoyed this presentation thanks so much