How To Create Ad Angles Which Convert Customers

Ad angles are an extremely important part of the ad creation process. To convert general consumers into actual customers your brand needs to be able to identify the most effective angles. This can be done through following this four step process which can work for any product or service based business.

Step One: Find out how people actually use your product or service

As a brand owner or brand marketer it can be easy to be consumed by the functional and emotional benefits that you believe make your product unique. In reality, the reason why people buy a particular brand’s product or service can come down to a variety of factors largely outside of your control.

Have you heard of Robert Augustus Chesebrough? Probably not. But you will definitely know about petroleum jelly – the product that Robert invented and marketed as Vaseline. When Robert first started marketing Vaseline in the 1800s, the product was exclusively promoted as a product for burns and cuts. Fast forward to the 1900s, the product was being used by the Black community in both the UK and US as a moisturiser. And, in 2022 ‘slugging’ using Vaseline went viral on TikTok – causing a spike in search demand and sales.

A good marketer could explore angles based Vaseline’s functional benefits, or the legacy of the brand. A great marketer could leverage the fact that millions of Gen Z and Millennial skincare fanatics have organically decided how and where the brand fits within their world today.

Not every brand can go viral prompting hundreds and thousands of comments, articles and debate. But through social listening, customer surveys, focus groups, and quantitative data analysis you can find out how people really use your product or service. For product based businesses – especially, the responses could be astounding.

Step Two: Review your brands competitive advantage

Once you know how people actually use your product or service, you can take a step back to evaluate your brand’s competitive advantage. What does your brand do, offer or provide that gives it the edge in your competitor set. Your brand could be the cheapest, the most widely available, the most effective, or help a customer make a statement. Whatever your brand’s advantages could be, be sure to write them all down in one place. 

Once you have collated all of your brands competitive advantages in one place, start to play devil’s advocate – with yourself. For example, if you believe your competitive advantage is price, which of your competitors would say that their competitive advantage is also price? Is this something that they lead with in the messaging, or does it only become apparent on the landing page? In other words, is it explicit or implicit. 

Repeat the process for each key benefit and make a note of all of the competitor brands that you can think of.

Step Three: Analyse the ads of your competitors

One of the best parts about social media advertising and influencer marketing is that almost every ad is available for you to see. There are several free ways to find out what ad angles your competitors are using:

Meta Ad Library

Meta Ad Library allows advertisers to see any ads that their competitors are running on Facebook and Instagram.

Hashtag Analysis

For the majority of influencer campaigns on TikTok and Instagram the influencer will be required to use a branded hashtag to promote the product or service. If you click the hashtag you will be directed to a ‘tag’ page where you can see all of the content that has ever been created using that hashtag. Analyse the words used, the framing and the storytelling for inspiration, and make a mental note of the ads which you think are the strongest.

TikTok Creative Centre

The TikTok Creative Centre will allow you to see top ads by brands. Unlike Meta Ad Library, with TikToks Ad Creative Centre you can gain an insight into vital performance metrics like CTR and Interactive time analysis to see which frames drive the most clicks. You can also filter by country and vertical. However, you can only see ads by paid media specialists who have given consent for this data to be shared. 

Step Four: Start creating new ad angles

Now that you know what people say about your brand, what you want to say about your brand, and what competitors say about their brand, you can finally start creating ad angles! 

Firstly, create a matrix of all of the points that you want to use for testing. Remember, with each ad, we’re trying to appeal to one type of consumer. It could be the price conscious consumer who wants the best deal, or the time-poor workaholic who prioritises efficiency. Either way, it’s important to never lose sight of who it is that you’re speaking to.

Secondly, write a creative brief for either the influencer or your video editor/designer. Try to be as specific as possible in your brief and where possible include examples from other influencers for brands to ensure that there can be no room for doubt. This is where the competitor research comes in handy! 

Thirdly, create at least 2-3 iterations of each angle. This is particularly important when working with influencers and no two influencers will create the same video even where they are given identical briefs. It’s also largely impossible to predict exactly which ad will perform best until you have the performance data.

From this point onwards it’s simply a case of bringing each advert to life, and measuring performance.