We’ve been there, and you’ve been there too, we know that feeling.

When brainstorming for a new blog topic, struggling to write a compelling e-mail or battling the ad fatigue, we all get this feeling of brain-emptiness. And coming up with new wonderful ideas for Facebook campaigns, it’s just abnormally hard sometimes.

Luckily, there’s a cave full of treasures hidden in the depths of the Internet that holds the diamonds and pearls of the very best Facebook ad campaigns. It’s called The Facebook Ads Gallery, and you can find it here.

One day, when browsing AdEspresso Facebook Ads Gallery, I came across so many inspiring ad examples that I couldn’t help but wonder: What if I took all of them and analyzed what makes them so captivating and persuasive?

Stick with me; we’re going to discover the treasures of 15 delightful Facebook ad campaigns. Open Sesame!

#1. Fiverr – The perfect use of color

I’ve written about the use of color in Facebook ads before, mentioning it as one of the growth hacks for successful campaigns. So I couldn’t help but stop and admire the simple yet effective color code of the following ad.

Fiverr has picked a bright yellow for its ad knowing that it conveys joy, optimism, and happiness, According to color psychology, cheerful colors make people connect the offer of a new logo with pleasure, leading to higher engagement and click-through rates (aka success).

Here’s another useful tactic used by Fiverr: The ad leads straight to a targeted landing page instead of Fiverr’s home page. Remember that getting people to click on your ads is only 20% of the goal, the rest depends on making them convert to customers.

A well-designed and highly targeted landing page will let your audience first find what they’re looking for, and then sign up for your product/service.

#2. Veeam Software – A compelling value offer

Instead of advertising their products, Veaam Software focuses on distributing valuable insight and sharing information.

To create Facebook ad campaigns with a compelling value offer, you first need to create a whitepaper, webinar, live talk, etc. Next, create a landing page for your ad – DO NOT lead people to your home page as it will be highly confusing and might tear down your ads’ relevance score.

Similarly to Fiverr’s ad, Veeam Software also recognizes the power of color. Green signifies balance and harmony, therefore being the perfect tone for enterprise and B2B ads.

Next time you lack ideas for your Facebook Ad campaign, think about the content you’ve already produced. Could you advertise one of your e-books, webinars or whitepapers?

3. Try The World – Show the excitement

What emotions does the ad below arise in you?

If you’re like most people, now you’re feeling a little excited and curious. And it mainly has to do with the fact that you’ve just pictured yourself opening that very same box.

By using images of people holding the products in their hands, Try The World feeds your imagination and makes you think of the positive emotions that the products would make you experience. I mean… Who wouldn’t like a colorful box full of delicious exotic food?

Ads that create emotions have a significantly higher click-through rate, as well as conversions.

When figuring out your new Facebook campaign, try a similar approach and create ad visuals that make the viewers imagine themselves using your product.

# 4. SurveyMonkey – How about a sweet prize?

SurveyMonkey wants you to take surveys. But it’s not about what THEY want, right? It’s totally up to YOU to decide whether you’ll click on their ads and follow the instructions.

But the clever monkey knows a thing or two about motivation. Instead of asking you to do something with no returns, SurveMonkey offers a chance to win a $300 Playstation gift card, a GoPro camera or a $100 Amazon gift card.

The key element in SurveyMonkey ads’ success is that it offers fairly universal prizes that most people would happily receive.

Using contest and giveaways in Facebook ad campaigns is a clever way of increasing brand awareness and getting people to like and share your ads. Here’s a great article by Kissmetrics explaining the benefits of organizing giveaways and contests.

# 5. The New York Times – Take a chance on us

How to get people signing up for your product without giving it away for free? Give it away almost for free.

The New York Times offers an unlimited 4-week access to its articles for a mere $0.99. Why not give away the readership completely for free, you ask?

By giving something away with no strings attached, that’s what you’ll get – a bunch of freeloaders not interested in buying your product or subscribing to your service. By asking people to pay a tiny sum, you’ll get a committed audience with a huge potential for upselling.

# 6. Red Bull – Captivating videos work like hell

Red Bull isn’t simply an energy drink producer. Have you ever checked their website? Red Bull is the King of Content Marketing, creating videos of extreme sports all over the world.

And they also know how to use videos to their full potential in Facebook ad campaigns. By creating highly targeted campaigns that showcase fascinating videos, Red Bull has managed to create a strong bond between extreme sport and energy drink.

As you create ad campaigns that include images, make sure to use an interesting opening image and make the first seconds of the ad so compelling that people will want to see the full story.

# 7. Snickers – Timely ads steal the show

Have you ever thought about using holidays or events for promoting your products? You definitely should.

For a good example, take a look at this Snickers ad.

It is highly timely and can only be shown throughout the Halloween season. But due to its appropriateness and the witty illustration combined with Snicker’s signature ad text (don’t … when hungry), the ad creates positive emotions, making people feel the same way about having a Snickers bar.

By creating seasonal ad campaigns, you’ll be able to link the event to your product and make people think about your brand as caring and helpful.

# 8. Sitefinity – Share your insights

Whatever industry your company’s in, you probably know a lot about your customers, competitors, and best practices. The problem is that often all this information goes unused and will never be shared with the world.

Sitefinity has done the opposite. In their Facebook ad campaign the brand shares the list of top 100 digital agencies. For a CEO or marketing manager looking for a new digital agency to work with, this is a gift from heaven.

While Sitefinity is a content marketing platform, it knows that their clients are marketers in search for various information. Instead of creating content and offers around their niche industry, Sitefinity marketers look further and share knowledge that is valuable to potential customers.

Did you notice the colors used in the ad? Red is the color that instantly catches the viewers’ attention. We’ve tested the use of color red in some previous tests, see how it worked out.

# 9. Nike – Sometimes, all it takes is simplicity

Nike’s ad copy is among the shortest I’ve seen in Facebook ads. It is so straightforward and easy-to-read that you’ll instantly get the message.

While Facebook allows up to 500 characters in the ad text, there’s no need to use all of it. Instead, a shorter ad copy may work wonders as it’s easier to read and doesn’t require people to devote much of their time to reading your message.

Here’s another thing I liked about this particular Nike ad. Did you notice how well the image aligns with text messages? By showcasing some options of customized shoes, Nike feeds your imagination and makes you crave a new pair of sneakers.

In addition to testing different ad messages, test various text lengths. You might be surprised how less is more, even in advertising.

# 10. Amazon – Freebies steal the show

It is easy to see why this Amazon ad was an instant success. I mean… who wouldn’t like a free audiobook?

By giving away a free audiobook, Amazon makes you subscribe to Audible – their audiobook service with an extensive library. And what’s even better – using the book covers in their ads kills two flies with one slap. People are also informed about new interesting books.

We’ve been talking about the color psychology throughout the article, so let’s not stop here. Purple tones combine the energy and power of red, with the stability and reliability of blue, making it the perfect balance of calmness and imagination.

Use ad images with purple colors when advertising something mystical or compelling; for example, a new book, product, etc.

# 11. Marketo – Make Facebook Lead Ads work for you

By advertising on Facebook you can meet various goals – getting people buy your product, increasing brand awareness, etc. But have you ever considered collecting people’s emails and increasing your newsletter readership as your objective?

Here, Facebook lead generation ads enter the game. Facebook lead ads are an incredibly effective way of collecting people’s emails and getting more newsletter subscribers.

Here are two good examples of Marketo’s lead generation campaign. With the help of these colorful lead ads, Marketo offers a free ebook in exchange for people’s emails. Notice that the call-to-action button is “Download” instead of the popular “Sign Up” or “Learn More”.

Here’s how the Lead Ads work: First, you need to create valuable content – an insightful e-book, whitepaper, infographic, etc. Up next, create a lead generation ad campaign promoting your offer.

As someone clicks on the “Download” button, Facebook automatically fills out their information (name, email, phone number, etc.). Next, you should forward them the piece of content promoted in the ad, and add them to a thematic newsletter subscription list. As a bonus, with AdEspresso, you don’t even have to “add” them either – Lead Ads Sync will do all the work for you.

# 12. Hulu – A Carousel For ALL Your Best Stuff

Facebook created Carousel ads for a reason: they let marketers promote more than one image/product at once, empowering the ad with multiple value offers.

Here’s an example of Hulu’s carousel ad that presents several of their most popular shows. This allows showcasing multiple TV-shows at once, increasing the awareness for all of them at once.

Carousel ads work the best if you promote multiple similar products or show many sides of one product.

Facebook has even published a case study about Jewelscent, a retailer of beauty products, which revealed that by using multi-product ads, the brand reduced its cost-per-click rate by 3 times and paid less for driving visitors to its landing pages.

If you haven’t tried carousel ads before, now is the right time. See the AdEspresso guide of 7 Smart Ways To Use Facebook Multi-Product Ads to get started.

# 13. Office for Business – Split test with style

Every marketer has used A/B testing to some extent. I can tell you that with AdEspresso, split testing reaches a whole new level, making it possible to create tens of different ad variations in a matter of minutes.

Here’s a clear and memorable split test campaign by Office for Business. The company has created multiple ad visuals with recognizable style and character, making them easy to distinguish among other newsfeed content.

Here’s what we can learn from Office for Businesses: Facebook ads do not have to limit your creativity while maintaining your brand image and following design guidelines.

The best practice is to keep all your ad visuals similar to each other; so that after some time, people start to automatically link the creatives to your brand.

# 14. HubSpot – Get your audience’s attention

95% of the time (at least that’s how it seems), Facebook ads use an explanatory text about the product or its features. Do people care about it? – No.

HubSpot knows better than that, catching people’s attention with a question: “How well do you rank for SEO?” If you’re a digital marketer, you’re eager to find out the answer.

By using the question in the ad image (instead of text placement), it is more likely to draw the eyes.

HubSpot also uses a second call-to-action, positioning it in the center of the ad visual. While using double CTA buttons don’t exactly increase your click-through rate twofold, it will certainly boost your ad’s performance.

# 15. Groupon – Create a sense of urgency

“Create a sense of urgency” is one of the most popular pieces of advice marketers share with each other. That’s because it actually works – people are more likely to buy if the offer only stands for a limited time.

Groupon has taken the urgency to the next level by limiting the time period to only 4 hours.

Here’s another benefit of using numbers in your ad –  a recent research shows that using numbers in headlines provide the optimal balance of information and ambivalence, making us more likely to click, in the hopes of coming across something particularly interesting.

See how many times Groupon uses numbers in this particular ad? Even if your product offer doesn’t include any numbers or you’re not interested in a limited-time offer, you can always insert a number by mentioning the price or number of users of the service.

Key takeaways:

We’ve analyzed 15 ads and each of them taught us something new.

Let’s have a quick overview of the ideas you can use for your next Facebook ad campaigns:

• Pick the right ad color that rouses desired emotions
• Share value – webinars, e-books, white-papers, etc.
• Make people feel the excitement and associate it with your product
• Use contests and giveaways to increase brand awareness
• Give something away for a low price, but make sure to ask for a sign of commitment
• Use captivating videos to catch people’s attention
• Take advantage of holidays and events to create fun and witty ads
• Test various text-lengths. Sometimes all it takes is a few words
• Offer something for free (in exchange for a subscription)
• Test lead ads to capture prospects’ emails
• Use carousel ads to showcase multiple products in one ad
• Keep the style of your ads aligned with your brand’s style guide
• Make your ads about the audience, not your company
• Test placing a call-to-action button on your ad image (use 2 CTAs in your ads)
• Create a sense of urgency by making limited-time offers
• Use numbers in your ads as people are psychologically drawn to them

What do you think? Are you feeling inspired enough? Now go, create something better, and let us know!