With video content seeing the best response across all social platforms, Facebook’s Creative Shop team has put together a new process which enables advertisers to create more effective, video-like ads from still images.

The option enables brands to maximize Facebook ad performance, without the workload of regular video creation - as you can see, based on still images, Facebook’s Creative Shop team is able to add what they call ‘lightweight motion’, which will definitely stand out more in ever-cluttered social feeds.

But how you actually utilize the new option is another thing – in the announcement post, there’s no explanation of the process, which suggests that you likely need to get in touch with Facebook’s Creative Shop team to work out an individual approach for your content.

Facebook’s Creative Shop, a group of ad experts which The Social Network has been expanding over the last two years, now includes more than 250 creative strategists across 40 Facebook offices around the world.

As explained by Fast Company:

“The Creative Shop collaborates with marketers and agencies to create brand campaigns that best utilize Facebook and Instagram’s social environments, using its comprehensive consumer insight data to inform creative solutions.”

Based on the available info, it looks as though the new ‘Create to Convert’ still image to video process is not currently a self-serve option, though that may change in future.

Even so, Facebook does list the various ways the new process can be used:

• Basic motion: Animate your still image by adding only one or two elements of motion in a few seconds and include a call-to-action (CTA) card at the end to drive your desired business outcome.
• Brand in motion: Bring the elements of your brand or logo to life in a few seconds to promote brand recognition and then add a CTA card at the end to drive action.
• Benefit in motion: Bring the key benefit or message of your ad to life through animation in a few seconds. This could be a product benefit, a special offer or discount, a testimonial or product variety. Highlighting the benefit will illuminate the value to your audience and adding a CTA at the end will enable them to easily take the next step toward conversion.
• Demo in motion: Focus motion on demonstrating how your app, website, service, product or feature works. Show people how to navigate your offerings and include a CTA at the end to enable them to seamlessly take action right from your ad.

As noted, the option is clearly beneficial – in fact, Facebook says that 69% of brands who’ve utilized these new techniques saw improved outcomes, with some seeing significantly better conversion rates and lower ad costs.

In addition to this, Facebook has also published a new guide to creative considerations for Facebook ads, which outlines how to make best use of the platform’s various ad formats to drive audience response.

Among the key points, Facebook notes that:

• Static images and video work better together – Facebook says that including both static images and video assets within the same campaign leads to better performance for direct response objectives.
• Have a clear message and focal point - Static image ads perform better when they have a clear message, and are focused on a specific product or service (rather than a more general overview of your offerings).
• Optimize video ads for mobile viewing – This has been underlined in various reports, but as shown in the image above, Facebook underlines the importance of including clear brand imagery and messaging within the first few seconds.

The full guide includes a range of other relevant, research-backed Facebook ad tips which can help to optimize your campaigns. But the key focus here is on the increased value of using motion in your content, even to a small degree. As noted, the new ‘Create to Convert’ still image to video process is not available as a self-serve ad tool just yet, but it’ll no doubt prove popular, and such options will likely become more widely available as more video-aligned systems are developed.

You can download Facebook’s ‘Creative Considerations for Driving Action’ report here.