eCommerce is flooded with ads on hundreds and thousands of products. In order to compete with all the other eCommerece brands, the ad design for products has to be the best out there. A quick design or template is not going to help promote and sell the product. There needs to be a design process in order taking into account how online users act and how they perceive certain ads. The way you design ads for eCommerce matters.
How to Design Ads for eCommerce
Clear Message
Ad copy has to be short and to the point. Ad copy meaning the message/text in the ad. If the ad is for a product, the text should be just about that product, nothing else. If the ad is for a promotion, the text has to be about the promotion. Adding too much text or irrelevant text will result in people not knowing what is being sold or skipping the ad altogether. Know what is being sold and write enough to inform, intrigue, and sell.
The most important thing to have in your ad is a call-to-action. A call-to-action encourages a person to visit your page and continue with that action, in this case, buy a product.
Uncluttered Design
The ad graphic cannot have so much text it takes over the product you are showing. It also can’t have more than one product, the product choice needs to be clear unless there is some sort of bundle offer. It needs to be clear and simple but with enough design work to show that time and effort was put into it.
Theme
The theme of the ad should coordinate with your brand. If there is a holiday, then, in that case, the ad should center around the holiday. The theme has to be clear and consistent. Confusing the online users on what it is you sell will confuse them and will result in no sale or new customers.
Examples:
This ad is for a Facebook. Facebook has its own requirements for adds but they mostly follow the same rules that are mentioned above. A Facebook ad will perform better with minimum text and the graphic must be a certain size. That means the ad space is for essential text and images only. The product that is advertised is clearly shown. The text is minimal and the theme is consistent. The red used grabs from the red in the logo and it’s strong enough to grab your attention when online but not enough to hurt.
This skyscraper ad is clean and simple. With the main message in a bigger text at the top, that gets the point across. Not to many colors and it doesn’t take away from the service that is being advertised. The yellow grabs your attention but it’s not harsh. The green that is used follows shopify’s branding, that theme is consistent throughout the ad. The call-to-action here is the “get started for free” at the bottom.
When you look at the ad, you know what it’s trying to sell. A good ad will do that, a bad ad is going to have you guess what it’s selling.
Another ad from shopify follows the theme from the skyscraper ad. The call-to-action is highlighted better in this ad buy the green button. The message is shorter in this ad because of the size. Here what convinces you is how quick it is to set up your eCommerce site. Just like the other two ads, this one is clean and simple and gets the point across and it sticks to the theme.
The two examples are for different platforms but the idea is the same. A clean, simple message, an uncluttered design, and a theme make eCommerce ads work.