Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out. Happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on getting your social media ads sorted for teh launch.
Getting Started with Ad Creatives...
You mentioned you're new to this and coming from a sales background, which is totally fine. Digital marketing creative can feel like a whole different world! The good news is you don't need fancy design software or a degree in graphic design to get started, especially for social media hype.
For making the actual images and videos for your ads, honestly, the easiest and most popular tool to just jump straight in with is Canva. It's basically drag-and-drop, super user-friendly, and the key thing is they have pre-made templates sized for all the different platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. This saves you loads of faffing about trying to figure out the right dimensions for each one. You can easily make static image ads, short video clips, and even simple animated bits in there. It's a great place to start experimenting with your ideas.
Focusing on Hype and Traction Before Launch...
Your goal is to build up "hype" and gain traction before the website launches, which is a smart move. For social media, especially platforms like TikTok and Instagram, video content is usually your strongest play. People scroll through feeds so fast these days; a static image can easily get missed, but a short, engaging video is much more likely to grab their attention and stop the scroll.
Think about showing snippets of your incredible website – maybe a quick walkthrough of a cool feature, or just flashing up bits of the design to get people curious. You could also create a short series of videos explaining the concept of your website and why people should be excited for it. User-generated content (UGC) style videos, where it looks less like a polished ad and more like a person talking naturally about something they're interested in, can also work really well for building authentic buzz, especially on TikTok.
I've run campaigns for software pre-launches and waitlists before (like that case study where we got loads of app sign-ups), and getting the creative *exactly* right is absolutely key to capturing interest and getting people to sign up to a waitlist or just follow along for updates. What resonates with people will vary, so you'll definitely need to test out different ideas, different video styles, and different messaging to see what gets the best reaction from your target audience.
What Kind of Creative and Where to Focus?
Based on your goal of building hype on social media, here's a quick look at where you might focus initially:
| Primary Goal | Key Platforms | Creative Types | Recommended Tool(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build Pre-Launch Hype & Traction | TikTok, Instagram, Facebook | Short, Engaging Videos; Static Images (less priority for hype) | Canva (great for beginners and quick creation) |
This is just a starting point, but focusing on video created easily in Canva for the main social channels sounds like a solid plan for your objective.
Looking Ahead (Beyond the Hype)...
Once your website is live and you transition from building hype to actually getting users or customers, the ad strategy will shift. You'll need a clear plan for how people will sign up, buy, or become a lead on your website – this is often done via a dedicated landing page optimised with persuasive copy (we often use a copywriter for these). Paid ads will then direct traffic to this page.
You'll also need to think about how you plan to monetise your website or app. For instance, if you're looking for app signups, costs can range from £1-£5 per signup on platforms like Meta, so your revenue per user needs to be higher than that to be sustainable with paid advertising. If it's B2B, the costs per lead or signup are typically much higher.
Getting paid advertising right, especially scaling it effectively after launch, involves a lot of testing and optimisation – split testing different creatives, targeting options, landing pages, and continuously analysing the data to improve performance. It's a dynamic process.
Considering Expert Help...
While you can certainly get started on your own with tools like Canva for basic creatives and run some initial ads, scaling paid advertising effectively, optimising for conversions, and ensuring a positive ROI (or achieving specific CPL/CPA targets) can become quite complex. It requires deep expertise in platform algorithms, tracking, data analysis, and strategic planning.
Given you're new to this area and focused on launching a website, bringing in an expert agency can help accelerate your results, avoid costly mistakes, and allow you to focus on the core business and sales side of things. We specialise in helping businesses like yours navigate the paid advertising landscape, ensuring your budget is used effectively to achieve your specific goals, whether it's building initial traction or driving profitable conversions after launch.
We're happy to chat through your specific launch goals and how paid advertising could fit into your overall strategy. You could book in a free consultation with our team to get a more tailored plan.
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
