Captivate your Ad audience through Story Telling

For a minute, just imagine that you have found a great method or a certain function which is amazing and delivers great results. You then write a great e-book which has actionable advice, easy to understand and has crisp graphics. You then generously become ready to offer it for free.

After you are ready, you share it on Social Media, to your email list and also create some ads. You then sit back, relax and wait for amazing response as you did something which may change the world.

But, nothing happens. You get only few views, probably few opt-ins but overall, you are quite depressed because you tried everything. You researched a lot on something which is very helpful, wrote a great e-book and on top of that, you offered it for free. I mean, what does anyone has to lose to get your book?

Well, something is missing!

Have you watched the movie, Inception?

In that movie, Leonardo DiCaprio's character "Dom", is an expert in going into people's subconscious by entering in their dreams and discovering their secrets.

Further, he plants an idea into someone's mind but makes them think that they came up with the idea themselves.

Well, isn't that every marketer's dream to push an idea on someone else and make them take full ownership of that and take action?

In that movie, Leo had to do all kinds of car chase stunts, gunfights and lots of other stuff. Luckily, we do not need his mysterious dream penetration or death defying stunts do achieve that.

In a normal world, we do have a tool which can be used to enter the mind of your customer, show them a better world through your product and then inspire them to take action on it. Isn't that great?

That powerful tool is storytelling.

Storytelling is a great way to connect your products, services and ideas to the imagination of your audience.

Let's explore various elements of storytelling and see how you can use these tools to create better ads and master the art of going into your audience's subconscious.

Why do we need stories?

Let's be clear in one thing; without a compelling story, your most valuable and outstanding ideas will also get ignored.

Any kind of fact or ideas which do not possess story activate the "language processing" areas of brain, but sadly this area has negligible impact on emotions, infact our decision making.

We humans are more inclined towards being emotional creatures rather than rational ones. We always need a feeling which connects with the ideas and we need emotions to make decisions.

A study conducted at Washington University in St. Louis revealed an interesting pattern while examining the brain activity of those listening to a story. Take a look below at how different areas of the brain light up when describing various elements of a story.

What’s more interesting is how similar the brain activity is from hearing a story to actually carrying out those actions in real life. As far as our brain is concerned, hearing a story and imagining ourselves in the character’s shoes is just as authentic as reality.

This is powerful.

With a story, you can break through the noise of your competition and leave a lasting impression on your audience, instead of trying to force facts about your product or service on your audience and expect them to understand why they are important. You can create an experience with a story that allows them to discover these facts for themselves.

Let’s dive into how we can use storytelling techniques in our ads to inspire emotions and action in our audience.

Common story formula always works

Do you remember any story from your childhood?

Remember one common thing in each story?

All of the timeless stories follow a predictable pattern. If you analyze, most of the plots can be summed up through a single line of graph. Though, definitely there are many ways the writers add embellishments, variety and complexity but the anatomy of the story works under a familiar pattern.

Let's understand the formula and create same story arc in our ads.

In Digital Marketing landscape, you compete for few seconds of attention from your audience. Using this classic storytelling formula makes it very easy to understand and use the ideas in your compelling story.

Most of the classic stories work under a simple 3 act formula

• Act 1  – The “old” or the current world is described and a problem or confrontation that arises for the hero.
• Act 2 – This is the journey. The hero must learn a lesson or skill to overcome the challenge.
• Act 3 –  A key decision is made, or a “new way” of looking at things is discovered. The hero faces their fear, and they live happily ever after.

This structure focuses on the conflict and its resolution. The conflict is what keeps us interested, and its resolution is what gives us a sense of relief and satisfaction at the end.

When using this structure for your ads, you’ll want your viewer to identify with the hero, and the “new way of looking at things” that shows up in Act 3 is your product or service.

Since you only have a few lines of copy in an ad and perhaps a landing page to tell your story, I suggest a slight variation. Move Act 3 in front of Act 2. Show your viewers the world without the problem early to build the desire to continue reading your ad, or take further action. Here’s how that would look:

• Act 1  – The “old” “old world” with all the pain and drudgery of a problem.
• Act 3 – Happily ever after, the world without the problem.
• Act 2 – Present your way to arrive at the solution and the journey your customer will take with you.

By moving Act 3 forward, you give your viewers the chance to experience the positive emotions of their problem being solved or their desires fulfilled.

You may be wondering, “How can I fit all of that information into a single ad?” Worry not! Let’s take a look at an example to see how it is done.

Digital Marketer’s ad for a guide on building a rockstar marketing team captures this 3-act formula with ease and pride.

A simple "Before and After" graphic shows the transformation which happens as a result of building a marketing team.

Text above the image makes you relate to the hero's world by asking you that you want to build a rockstar marketing team? The “new way” is the “Modern Marketing Growth Plan” and “happily ever after” is generating sales and growing revenue.

The “link description” field under the image is used for “Act 2.” It hints at what is necessary to build a great marketing team and what you’ll find in the Modern Marketing Growth Plan.

Wonderful narratives with Carousal Ads

Facebook’s and Instagram’s carousel ad feature is an excellent visual tool for telling stories. You can string images and captions together to create an interactive narrative.

Carousal ads is a powerful tool which works wonders with Mobile advertising. The sole purpose of an ad is to engage people. A tiniest action of scrolling from one image to another is considered as successful engagement which makes it more likely that viewer will take additional action.

Carousal ads make it very easy for viewers to engage with it directly.

You can create a series of images telling a story. Use the 3 act formula which I mentioned earlier to guide what images you can use. The first sets up the problem or the desire; then each following image can build suspense or show how that desire gets fulfilled.

Check out this ad from Love Found which tells the classic story in which "girl meets boy" in a simple series of images and tops it up with simple captions.

For more great examples on telling stories with carousel ads, check out: How to Tell Stories With Facebook and Instagram Carousel Ads

Add a Hero and a Desire

In order to make your story relatable, your subject or hero should be easy for your viewers to relate to. 

It is not necessary that Hero has to be a single person; it can be an idea, a cause, a group or people or a company

The sole purpose of a hero is to give perspective in the story to your viewers. They will see the world through your Hero's eyes and feel the emotions which he goes through. 

You can guide your viewers through the story from your Hero and prompt the ideas and emotions that you want them to associate with your brand.

Take a look at how this video from Bench sets up a narrative of a young entrepreneur. He opens describing the long hours, sleepless nights and the risks that he faces. While he’s describing this, he looks down at his phone to send out 1 last email.

You can easily see that at the end of the video, the Hero finds all of his difficulties worthwhile. He understands and conveys that with them comes his ability to choose, to choose what to work, when to work and how to live his life. He clearly showcases that "He is in control"

This story captures both pain points and desires of Bench's customers and also gives them a short narrative.

Hide information for More Fun!

One common tool which writers use to capture the imaginations of audience is by carefully managing the perfect balance of what the reader knows and what reader does not know. By omitting key details, you can control what kind of questions your viewer will have and where they will direct their attention.

The same principle of perfect balance plays out well in horror movies. You start with small clues for ghost or a monster. As a viewer you may come across some shadows in background, scratches on wall or sounds which turn your imagination and you try to fill in the gaps.

You invest your imagination in discovering what the creature looks like and what does it want. In the best movies, the monster is well hidden while tempting you with teasers and keeping you in suspense the whole time.

Withholding or hiding information is crucial to the storyteller’s make-believe. It forces the audience to figure out who the character is and what he is doing and so draws the audience into the story. When the audience no longer has to figure out the story, it ceases being an audience, and the story stops.”

John Truby,  The Anatomy of Story

Let’s take a look at how this tactic is used in Facebook Ads.

Take a look at this ad from VICE News. The first thing you read is, “There’s a reason people like Kobe Bryant are called “dumb money” investors.”

This line gives you a lot of information. Kobe Bryant is getting involved with startups, and apparently, he’s terrible at it. The questions arise, “What did Kobe invest in?” or “What disaster happened to earn Kobe that title?” and you’re hooked.

Play on Belief

We all know that Curiosity is hard to resist.

This leaves you wondering about the “raw egg test” and how Jared will fare with it. You might even have a small part of you that hopes the egg breaks. With only 2 short lines, a story is created, and you are hooked on finding out the result.

This simple tactic is a slight variation to the "Hiding of information" tactic which most of the Media companies are using through “You’ll never believe what happened next!” headline.

It’s a simple formula to follow.

[Set up the conflict] then [hint at an unexpected result] or [describe your emotional reaction to the result].

This is another approach which refers to something specific in an article or page you are pointing to, describes your response to it but it does not reveal the content. This easily gets the audience curious about what could have cause your reaction and also sets up expectation for how the content will make them feel.

When thinking about how you can withhold information and create some mystery, ask yourself these questions:

1. How can I spark questions in the minds of my customers and make them want to learn more?
2. What should they find when they start to dig deeper?
3. How does what they find make them feel about the brand?
4. How do they identify with the brand as they learn more?

Conclusion

Storytelling can be one of the most powerful tools a marketer has at their disposal to reach their audience. Stories connect with our emotions, and our emotions drive our decisions.

With the techniques listed in this post, you should be able to create a compelling story in your ads, even if you only have a few lines of text to do it.

To recap, here are a few key takeaways from the post:

• Use classic storytelling formulas to create a narrative that your customers can easily understand and follow.
• Include a hero in your story that is easy for your audience to identify with.
• Remember that tension and conflict are what drive a story.
• Keep your audience intrigued by controlling what information you share and hide from them in your story.
• Keep your audience guessing by hinting at your reaction to what happens next in your story, but not revealing the details.