Advertising Design 101: How to Design Ads That Drive Results

Ad breaks have always frustrated consumers. From the time when it only meant commercial breaks during their favorite TV shows to the time when ads are everywhere, including interstitial ads that pop up in the middle of your favorite mobile game! Yet, one thing hasn’t changed – when you have the right message, and most importantly, a design that actually grabs attention, you make a real impact on the viewer. In short, you get people to notice your brand and talk about it. So yeah, advertising design holds a lot of weight in a brand’s growth.

When you’re talking about advertising design and tips to improve it, you probably keep hearing the same old same old. You know the drill:

• Getting the visual hierarchy right so the message is clear.
• Ensuring clarity so people don’t get distracted.
• Maintaining contrast for readability and attention.
• Using good fonts and great colors.
• And, of course, including brand elements.

But that’s not all there is to advertising design. There’s more – especially since you have to adapt to the times. In an era where anyone can create a visually stunning graphic with the help of an AI tool, you need to create designs that feel different. Designs that feel authentic, that feel like YOU.

Now, that’s the crucial step, isn’t it? So we’re cracking that today. Without further ado, let’s get into some tips for advertising design in an age where creating visuals is easy, but grabbing attention and standing out with them is not. 

The New Rules of Advertising Design: Cutting Through the Noise 

1. The 3-second rule – hook them fast 

The 3-second rule has been floating around as one of the hot topics in the world of marketing. You probably guessed it from the name – it defines that you have about 3 seconds to grab someone’s attention. So your advertising design should be such that it makes a solid impression on your consumers within those 3 seconds. 

So, what should you do? Front-load your message – instead of telling a long story and finally revealing the value proposition, put the most important information first. In a static image, this can be in the form of prominent, clearly-phrased headlines. In videos, it could be the opening frame that tells why your audience should watch the video. 

For example, in the Facebook video ad below from Peloton, the benefit for the user is instantly communicated. 

KIMP Tips:

• Pick clear, legible fonts for the headline.
• Use strong focal points in your image or video ad. 

2. Keep stock elements to a minimum 

Stock elements are convenient in advertising design workflows; however, using too many stock elements can cause your ad to fade into the background. Most importantly, too many stock elements in your ads can lead to your consumers questioning your brand’s originality. 

The key is to stay away from generic, overused stock images and those that look staged and irrelevant to your brand. Instead, use product photos, screen recordings, or lifestyle images that tie back to your message. 

Remember the rule – when you do use stock elements in your ads, use your brand colors, illustrated elements, frames, filters, and other tweaks to make them seamlessly fit into your ad. 

For example, in the ad below, Zoho CRM uses a product mockup in place of a generic workplace-related stock element. 

KIMP Tips: 

• Use stock elements only if you think they will support your ad creative. 
• Focus on utility rather than aesthetic value because, when the ad real estate is small, an irrelevant stock element will be a waste of space. 

For more useful tips, read our blog on tips to use stock imagery in marketing. 

3. Harness the potential of AI

You cannot stay skeptical about integrating AI into your advertising workflows anymore. Popular platforms like Google now support a range of AI tools for various aspects of advertising like gathering insights, brainstorming ideas, and even generating visuals for your ads. Google’s recent announcement about Asset Studio is a good example. 

So, instead of avoiding AI in advertising design, it’s time to focus on finding the most strategic ways to incorporate this new tech into your workflow so as to boost your efficiency. 

From rapid experimentation of ideas for your ad visuals to instantly generating lifestyle photos from standard product images, use AI to enhance creativity in your ads. 

KIMP Tips: 

• Use AI for tedious steps in design like upscaling an image and removing or replacing objects or backgrounds. 
• Stay away from relying entirely on AI-generated videos or images without your brand’s creative touches. This leads to backlash similar to the response Coca-Cola received for its AI-generated Christmas ad. 

4. Speak the language of the platform with platform-native ads 

Creating one ad and repurposing it for diverse platforms is probably the easiest way to do it. However, the designs and formats of posts on Instagram are not the same as those on Facebook or even on YouTube. Every platform has its own aesthetic. Good advertising design is about creating platform-native formats.

When you design with the platform’s language in mind, you reduce friction and build trust. Users are more likely to engage with an ad that looks and feels similar to the other posts on their feed rather than ones that feel visibly out of place. 

For example, while a square video works fine on Facebook or even on LinkedIn, it interrupts the experience on TikTok. 

The LinkedIn ad below from L’Oréal features a people-focused video that communicates a raw and relatable story. No fancy filters or startling animations. This makes this a refined video design for a professional setting like LinkedIn. 

KIMP Tips: 

• Spend some time studying the trending organic content on the platform you wish to tackle to understand what aesthetics work.
• Adapt your typography and visuals to match the style of the platform and therefore resonate well with the audience. 

4. Respect safe zones 

Every platform has its own template for displaying ads. There are elements sitting on your ad creative like the “advertisement” or “promoted” or “sponsored” label on some or the close button or the 3-dot menu button on others. Ignoring where these are positioned leads to a cluttered display of your ad.

So, when tackling advertising design, always take safe zones into consideration. For instance, here is an image from Facebook highlighting the safe zones on the platform. 

Source 

In the ad below, the word “mind” disappears behind the menu button. So, even though the ad looks clutter-free and aesthetically appealing, the design seems off. This is what happens when you ignore safe zones. 

KIMP Tips: 

• Gather templates of safe zones for each platform and ensure that text and other crucial design details in your ad are away from overlay elements. 
• Add clear priorities to the elements in your ad design so that they remain legible at all times. 

5. Experiment with unconventional layouts 

Advertising design, in most cases, is about predictable design structures like placing the hero image like a product shot at the center with the heading placed above it, and the logo neatly tucked in the corner. 

That format works, but it also makes your ad look like every other ad in the feed. Remember that users are bombarded with visuals every second, so you do not want your ad to get lost. 

So, what can you do? Experiment with unconventional layouts to shake things up. Intentionally break the rules of symmetry with subtlety. The key is to surprise your audience and create something that’s visually intriguing and engaging. 

For instance, take a look at Sephora’s Facebook ad in the image below. Instead of blowing up the product or placing it at the center like most beauty ads do, this one places the product image at the top left corner with the text taking up the central space. Most importantly, there is a lot of negative space that draws attention to the focal point. This results in something that is interesting and memorable. 

KIMP Tips: 

• If you do not want to bend the rules too much, swap horizontal and vertical alignment for diagonal. This creates visual intrigue as well. 
• In addition to the arrangement of elements, play with scale and perspectives to encourage users to engage with your ad visuals. 

6. Design to deliver the message with the sound turned off

Some sources cite that nearly 85% of users play videos muted. You need to consider this when creating video ads. If the visual details in your video are not clear enough to deliver the message without the audio, you are missing an opportunity. Good advertising design optimizes video ads for communicating the information even when the sound is off. 

But remember, adding captions will not automatically prepare your video for muted plays. You also need to pay attention to the imagery, animations, and transitions so that the visuals carry the story and hook the audience’s attention. 

KIMP Tips: 

• Include animated typographical overlays to enhance the aesthetic appeal.
• Use metaphorical representations that amplify the depth of your message even without audio. 

7. Go raw, go real – authentic styles over perfection 

Glossy shots, perfect lighting, flawless touch-ups all feel like the gold standard in advertising design. However, do all these make an ad look authentic? In times when perfection is everywhere and AI can generate images of models as per “ideal beauty standards” and perfect settings, raw and real styles stand out. 

Ads that feel human, personal, and real stand out because they don’t look like every other AI-polished visual in the feed. Scrapbook-style layouts, hand-drawn illustrations, and casual hand-drawn script fonts can make your design hard to mimic, hard for an AI tool to replicate. 

Even simple hand-drawn elements like the one in the ad below can make your ad pop. It can make ads feel more personal and human.

KIMP Tips: 

• While professionally captured video demos are essential for your marketing strategies, raw smartphone videos every now and then can introduce a fresh twist. Especially when working with Story Ads meant to feel authentic and crude. 
• Integrate simple, hand-drawn doodles, annotations, or lettering into your digital ads. 

8. Optimize creatives for DCO 

DCO or Dynamic Creative Optimization is a rapidly growing trend in the world of advertising. Platforms like Amazon Advertising already support DCO for ads. The idea is to create and display ads personalized to the environment and to the user. 

While optimizing your content for DCO is a topic in its own, the essence is that it is time to prioritize modularity in advertising design.

The simplest explanation is that DCO hinges on designing a master ad template with a series of interchangeable elements. These elements can include different headlines, body copy, product images, calls to action (CTAs), or even background videos. 

The advertising platform’s algorithm then pulls from these assets to create the most relevant ad for each individual user based on data points. For example, a user who just browsed a specific pair of sneakers on your website will automatically see an ad with those exact sneakers, a headline about a current sale, and a CTA that says “Shop Now” on it. 

Professional designers with plenty of experience in creating ad designs for modern times will be able to assist you in identifying the most sensible segments or templates in your ad. In other words, they can help define what elements can vary and what needs to be static in order to allow advertising platforms to flexibly personalize the template for maximum impact. 

KIMP Tips: 

• Create branded design templates where the essential elements can be easily interchanged as modules, allowing responsive behavior of ads.
• Test with a small set of variables first and then scale up. Start by testing one or two dynamic elements, like just the CTA or the headline, before moving to more complex variables like video backgrounds or multiple product images.

Move From Good Ads to Great Ones: With KIMP

Advertising design is evolving. Building trust by creating ads that cut through the noise takes more than just aesthetically appealing designs. From grabbing attention within 3 seconds to experimenting with unconventional layouts, blending in the right elements and creating authentic styles that feel unique to your brand, there are many ways to design ads that connect with your customers. Working with an unlimited design service makes this easier. 

A design subscription like KIMP gives you the benefit of a dedicated design team and the flexibility to create unlimited designs, multiple ad versions to experiment with your ideas, and find what works best. 

Ready to create ads that people notice? Ads that help your brand rise above the competition? Sign up for a KIMP subscription.

Sign up now to start your 7-day free trial!