(HD) Studio-Quality Facebook Ads -- A Hands-On Training Session

Fraser: Okay, let's get this going. My name is Fraser. I run Fraggle. We're a performance ad creative agency based in the UK.

Fraser: So before we get going, you probably want to know who I am. Am I qualified to even talk about high production or long form ads? Well, let's talk about it, shall we?

Fraser: So I've been working in filmmaking and marketing for over 10 years now. My agency Fraggle is responsible for over 300 million dollars in revenue for our D2C clients. And what's really great about Fraggle is that we make all styles of ad creative from high production studio to lofi UGC ads and statics. We do it all in-house here at Fraggle. Okay? If you like this deck, by the way, and you want me to send it to you, you can do, sign up to niceads.uk. Or you can follow me on Twitter @sourfraser.

Fraser: So, who have we worked with?

Fraser: Well, we've worked with some of the leading D2C brands. Probably heard of Kuru, Solawave, Maëlys, Aloha, Maxi Nutrition, Govee, Tru Earth, just to name a few. And we've had a really great time helping them build converting ad creative.

Fraser: So, what are we going to talk about for the next half an hour or so? Well, we're going to talk about why high production and long form ads are vital in your ad account because let's be honest, they are to help you get creative diversity. We're also going to be taking a look at what a winning long form and high production ad actually looks like. And also, how do you make a converting high production ad? I'm going to take you through the exact process that we use here at Fraggle to make high production ads and hopefully you can take something away from it and give it a go yourself. And then at the end, I've got three long form concepts that I want to share with you.

Fraser: Why high production and long form ads are vital in your account. Okay? Let's be honest now, UGC ads are synonymous with D2C at this point. Pretty sure that if you scroll your through your feed at any one point, you will see a UGC ad. People have come to expect them and is that a good thing?

Fraser: Most brand accounts look the same. Like I mentioned, you can scroll through your feed and I can guarantee that you will see UGC ads. I'm sorry for Ryze Superfoods if you see this. I'm not calling you out directly, but pretty much every single ad account looks like this. It's a sea of UGC ads and low production statics. It's the low hanging fruit of ad creative.

Fraser: So how do you stand out? Creative diversity. That's what you need, creative diversity.

Fraser: Creative diversity is a hot topic and for good reason because people see the same style of ads 100 times a day. And hot take, you're not really fooling anyone by making your ads look organic.

Fraser: It's not, everyone knows it's an ad. Even if you disguise it or you make a crazy hook that looks organic, in the end, people are going to realize it's an ad. So why not just come to that realization a little bit sooner?

Fraser: So, don't get me wrong, I love UGC. We make a whole lot of UGC here at Fraggle, but UGC can limit your creativity because some things are just better when more time is taken to produce them with a proper crew, with real creative people, not an AI. For example, podcast ads, right? Like the example you can see here that we made for a brand called Dude Pruner.

Fraser: If you are wanting to make a podcast ad, it needs to look like a podcast. It doesn't look like a UGC creator holding a podcast mic that they got from Amazon with some headphones that aren't plugged in and, you know, speaking to the camera. No podcast looks like that. Think about the the last five podcasts that you watched. None of them look like that. They're in a nice studio. They've got lovely 4K cameras, they've got fantastic audio.

Fraser: So if you want to make podcast ads, that's one of the creatives that are just better when more time is taken to produce it with the proper equipment, the proper crew, the proper production style. Okay?

Fraser: And the fact is a lot of people just draw a line, you know, over high production saying, "Nah, I don't want to do that. It won't work." You need to test it.

Fraser: Like we always say, you need to go and test it because you don't know if it works until you do. The example here, like I said from Dude Pruner, we're mixing in studio stuff that we did in-house, we're mixing lifestyle stuff together to create this ad creative that you see.

Fraser: And when we go on to long form ads, it's a similar kind of story because long form videos, they need a reason for being long. Have you ever watched something, whether it's a YouTube video, an ad, a podcast, whatever, that you just feel like, "Oh God, I wish they'd shut up." Like, why, this could have been an email. Okay? This, this could have been an email. So long videos need a reason to be long. For example, right, in the medical niche, it's one niche that suits long form perfectly because the longer format gives you more time to ensure that your customer is educated and qualified. So when they do hit your landing page, they're pretty much ready to buy, leading to a much higher CVR because of that, because you've qualified them in the longer video. We do this technique all the time with our medical clients where we're educating people in the ad creative so much that when they hit the landing page, they're already sold.

Fraser: But also, as I'm sure a lot of you are thinking now, long form is just perfect in general for building a story around your brand. Founder ads are a great example of this because it fits in that natural story arc. YouTube says 694,000 hours of video are watched every single minute. Okay? People like long form video. They just have to have a reason to watch, even if it is an ad.

Fraser: I'm sure many of you out there might have seen something like this in your demographics. This is a pull from one of our clients that we have on Motion. This video is over three minutes long, but people are still watching. Yes, there's a drop off. There's always going to be a drop off. You're going to hook people in, only a certain amount of people will stay, but people are staying and they are watching. In fact, some of them for over a minute and a half, which is crazy when you think about it. But that's because the video had a purpose and it had a reason to be long. And so we could hold them for longer.

Fraser: Now, everyone should be testing long form and high production ads to see how your customer responds because at the end of the day, your customer knows better than you do. So, before ruling them out, go and test them and see if they work because not every single ad needs to be short form UGC. That's just a thing and you're going to have to get used to it because times are changing, creative diversity is becoming more and more important.

Fraser: So what does a winning long form and high production ad actually look like? Let's go through some examples that we made at Fraggle. So, here's one for you.

Fraser: So this is a fantastic creative that we made. We shot this in our studio and it looks brilliant. You cannot say that this doesn't look good. What, what a beautiful looking creative. We paired it with a review and all the things that people love from static ads, but then we have the moving high production image. High production doesn't always need to be a movie. Sometimes it can just be a short clip that looks really good.

Fraser: You couldn't get a shot like that on an iPhone. Okay? Well, potentially you could, but you still need all the lights, the set dressing, everything like that to go along with it.

Fraser: Here's another one from Aloha. So this one, we shot this in our studio. Again, this is a very like product focused video. Look at my dedication here. I was throwing up those macadamia nuts. All right, I've got true dedication to this art. But again, you literally wouldn't be able to do that shot like UGC. You you simply wouldn't. Like that was like crazy slow-mo that we shot that at. And then all these shots that we're pulling together, we're doing it with, we're focusing so much on the shot that we can make it perfect. And when you put all these together, you get a lovely looking advert. Like look at this transition here, are you ready? Oh, it's beautiful. It is, if I say so myself, even though we made this, you know.

Fraser: Here's another one that wouldn't be possible via UGC. Okay? I love this video. I love the transition that we do in a second. Look, we're like, we're coming over and then we're dropping back and then we're transitioning and everything's perfect and everything's brilliant.

Fraser: Again, the time, the effort that went into that shot, the crew that was there were all there with one mission. And then you get a video like that.

Fraser: Here's an example of a long form, right? So the thing with long forms is like I said, they need a reason to be long, but this video is what, 1 minute 26 and we're educating the customer on the root cause of the problem. Okay? And it's simply a product, uh, a problem solution video. We're doing it in such a way that it fits with long form because there's a reason, right? He he's answering these questions that people are prompting him from these TikTok comments. And he's an authority figure, so you're listening to it at the same time.

Fraser: We often find, because I know a few of you are going to be saying, "Oh, well, high production doesn't work for me, it doesn't work at the top of the funnel, blah, blah, blah." Well, we often find actually that high production ads do the same job as statics in the customer journey because they're being clicked on by customers who are already product aware.

Fraser: It is the case. UGC is a fantastic top of the funnel method. It just is. It's relatable. It's often much more eye-catching than a high production ad.

Fraser: And so those high production ads are being clicked on by people who already know who you are. They might have come from a top of the funnel ad maybe and they're doing the same job that statics do, okay? Because the ad reminds them of the brand and leads them to a purchase. Whereas long form, now that can be a great top of the funnel because we're educating people before they come further down the funnel.

Fraser: Okay? So, how do you make a high production ad? Now, this is going to be the good stuff. This is, this is the exciting part of the talk. So, we're going to build an advert together. I'm going to show you all the pre-production that goes into doing it. But first, I want to kind of break down how we do it. So we split all of our production into three core stages, just like a traditional production, right? We have pre-production, production, post-production. I come from a filmmaking background. A lot of my team does and so this is why we do this because it just makes sense. We do this with any video, which is really important to know here. Even if it's UGC, we're still doing pre-production, production, post-production. We're still framing everything like that, not just the high production and long form.

Fraser: So, with that in mind, we're going to jump to see the behind the scenes of how we made a, um, high production piece for one of our brands, uh, one of our clients, Vibe.

Fraser: So, so it all starts with pre-production with the concepting stage. This is essentially creative strategy, right? This is what Motion is great for. We're finding the data, we are finding what can help us influence ideas. So the first thing that we do is we find out what the client wants to focus on this month. Okay? Is there a certain SKU? Is there a certain offer? Whatever. We're asking the client for this information. From there, we go and we do our research. We do our creative strategy. There's tons of resources on the Motion YouTube channel about this, uh, from their events that you can find out how to do creative strategy. I'm not going to sit here and tell you about that. Okay? But we often have a few key USPs that we want to hit, which is the case with Vibe. They gave us, uh, you know, the personas that they want to hit that they want to focus on this month and so we go ahead and we create content for that. We put all of our ideas into a concept deck and we present that to the client.

Fraser: This helps us organize all of our ideas with example images and prompts and scripts. So both we and the client are on the same page and that's really important when a lot of effort is going into your creative.

Fraser: It also makes our life easier when it comes to building out the idea.

Fraser: So this is what one of our concept decks looks like. So, marketing agency, uh, we've got our persona at the top and the type of video is a brand problem solution. And we're going to have branded captions and it's going to be around 40 to 50 seconds in length. So we see we've got the hook. We've got this, uh, you know, first two seconds freeze frame on her mid-tech issue, looking frustrated. Angie in a remote meeting on a PC, frustrated, can't present well. And then we're going to be cutting back and forth between these with her then using the Vibe board to solve her problems. And then finally, shot of an excellent presentation on the Vibe board, transition to end screen. From that, you get a perfect picture of what the ad is going to be. All right? We've really dropped this down into all the significant parts that you need to look at. Okay? And we've even put a description on here. So this angle will show Angie an account manager in a marketing team who's looking at winning more client deals. She's having, uh, tons of client inquiry meetings, calls, and it's going to be made a whole lot better with the Vibe board. Okay? So we're presenting this to the client, we're saying, this is what we aim to create.

Fraser: And then we even go into detail when it comes to the script. We're mentioning the variations. Look at all these different hooks. Meet Angie, an account manager juggling client inquiries and concept calls. Here's another one. Ever wondered how much time you waste on daily client communications? All these are all the different hooks that we're going to be doing. And then we go into the actual script, the beef of it. So Angie in a meeting, people going off topic. Before, Angie felt nervous about keeping her audience focused and engaged. We're breaking this stuff down so much because this is going to help us further down the line.

Fraser: Because once our client is happy, then the rest of the pre-production starts, which is where it starts to get complicated. We put everything together. So we've had these concepts accepted, we're happy, now we're going into production. So here we create, we do our casting, we do our location booking, we do our call sheets and brief, we do our shot list, we do our schedule, we do our prop list, we do everything together. Okay? And our edit guides. And our goal here is to make sure we have everything that we need. So when we're on a shoot day, it runs without issues because time is money. The locations are money, the actors are money, everything is costing us money. And so we need to make sure that we do this properly the first time. Okay? So let's have a look at what a few of those little pieces look like. I'd love to show you a call sheet, um, you know, a shot list and a schedule just so you can get an idea of what actually goes into this.

Fraser: So, this is what a shot list looks like. So you can see it's all green. The reason it's green is because we label things green as we shoot. I'll talk a little bit about that later, but you can see the great detail that we're going into here. If we just zoom in a little bit here, you know, number one, that was that shot that we that we pitched before, right? Angie on her desk writing a presentation on her laptop. She's working furiously until the camera reaches her and she realizes that she's late for her meeting. We've got an example image there. So when we're on set, we know what we're doing. We even go into detail in the props here. It's going to be shot on a desk. It's going to have the office in the background. The props we need, uh, messy props, messy desk, laptop. We've got the on-screen caption so we know how much space to leave at the top and bottom. These are all things that we're thinking about now because we can't really be thinking about them later. So, you know, our producers going through the props here, they're writing down all the props that they need to bring on the day. And then we have these really crude stick figure drawings, but they're giving us the idea of what we want to do and what we want to create at the end. Okay? So again, these are all, you know, these are all written down here and we'll clap them at the start of every shot with a clapperboard so people understand what it is and the editors are on the same page as us as well.

Fraser: And then you can see here where as we go, we're ticking them off, we're making them green so that we know what we've shot because once again, time is money. And talking about time is money, look at the detail of this schedule. So we're saying here, look, we've got, uh, the crew call is at 9:30, cast call at 10:00, and we're listing every single shot that we're going to be doing. We've timed, timed it, how long we're going to be doing it. We've even timed the shot. This is going to be a five second shot, a five second shot. But you can see here how the idea here is that we know if we're overrunning, we know if the day isn't timed properly. And that all comes when you go into granular detail like this with your ads. Just because this is an ad does not mean that you can cut corners. It does not mean that you can produce this any lesser than you would do if you were shooting a commercial for TV or a feature film, whatever. Okay? So let's head back to the presentation and let's, let's learn a bit more about high production.

Fraser: So, now we've done the pre-production, everything's sorted, we've scheduled, we've shot list everything like that. Now production, right? This is the fun part, the filming. Okay?

Fraser: So, one thing to know here is we shoot multiple angles in one day. This saves on location costs and actor costs because we can make the most out of both the location and the actors. This means that we have to dress sets to fit different videos. You can see the image here, this is on set, uh, for Vibe for a previous deliverable month. And you can see here that, you know, we're, we're dressing this, I think this was like meant to be like a school or something like that or like a teacher's office or something. We're making the most out of our location. I think this was like in a studio somewhere and we found this room and this kind of fit perfectly, right? Because if all the prep has been done in pre-production, then production should run really smoothly. We already knew this location, we knew that we were going to have to dress this and so on and so forth.

Fraser: Right? We always have the following people on set. This is really important to know here. We've got a director, we've got a first AD, so assistant director. We've got a camera operator. We've got a first AC, so first assistant camera, their job is just to help the camera op. We've got makeup and hair. Again, very important, something that people don't even do on ad sets and the reason baffles me. I don't know why. I think it's from cost saving, but this is so important if you're working with actors because at the end of the day, they're vain like we all are, and they want to feel good, they want to look good, and having someone doing makeup and hair is the best way to do that. Even if they're not doing much, even if they're just jumping in, putting a bit of powder on their face or whatever, it just makes the actor feel more confident, you get a better performance out of them. Learned that in, in film school, I remember. Uh, and then finally, we've got a producer as well, the same producer that did the producing for this video. So each person has their own responsibilities on set to make sure that we get what we came for. If you're so reliant on one person, they are going to forget. For example, right, as we shoot, the first AD will mark off the shot list like you saw before in green and then make any notes about changes. Maybe something else happened in the shot that we weren't expecting or maybe, oh, we're, you know, the director really loves take three. Let's note that down because then it helps the editor further down the line to be able to identify because often the editors aren't on set and so you need to make sure that you're building the correct things so that the rest of the team can carry on on the same page as you as well.

Fraser: And talking about editing, post-production. This is so important. It's so important. Don't just, you know, get some random editor, get someone that knows how to edit the type of stuff that you are making or teach them how to do it even better because once all the content is shot, our edit team, they get to work. We use the Adobe suite and we use Vimeo for video reviews. And editing plays such a massive part of how your video converts that it's really essential that they have some kind of basis of creative strategy. Because I think often enough, like I mentioned, we just pick a random editor off Fiverr or whatever and we get them to edit the ad. Well, they don't know, they don't know the purpose of this. They don't know all the tips and tricks that come together when you're editing, right? This stage of production is just as important as any other. Again, do not cut corners. Okay? And if we did all of our prep right in pre-production, then this also helps the editor because they have the shot list, they have the storyboards, everything to go by that you also had on set.

Fraser: So, this is just a quick little overview that I thought you'd find interesting in terms of how our process works. So the first thing we do is a first draft, takes around two days to cut, then it goes to internal QA where we're reviewing it, making sure that it is tip top. And then draft edit, 24 hours max, we're going back and forth there with internal review until the internal team is ready to release that to the client. Then it gets sent to the client. And then once the first draft is locked and they're happy with it, then we move on to variations. We don't do variations at the same time as the main edit because it gets really confusing. You end up changing like four different videos.

Fraser: So, that's it. You've produced a video. If you've taken every single step that I have, then you've got the finished video. And I'm going to show you that exact video that we produced here and you'll recognize some of the bits that we spoke about.

Fraser: The key to any production is the concept. If the concept is good and it relates to the customer, the rest is easy. The rest is just paperwork and creativity. That's all it is. So let's have a look at this. There's that shot that we spoke about before. Look how great this is. Look, we're pulling together all the different parts. Not sure whether you can hear this, but, you know, we are, look, different location, again, we're changing things up, we're dressing sets as well. Every single one of these shots was planned and scheduled for. We knew exactly what we wanted to do and multiple actors on set as well. Different camera movement. This one's static, this one's moving, this one's on a gimbal, this is just zooming in. All this different stuff comes together to make a fantastic video ad.

Fraser: So, let's move on to the final part, shall we? Three killer long form concepts for you to go ahead and try this week.

Fraser: So the first one is a founder ad. This wasn't made by Fraggle, but this is such a fantastic ad that I really wanted to show it to you because this combines both UGC and high production storytelling techniques into one video. Like I mentioned at the start, founder videos are so brilliant for one main reason is because they have a natural narrative. And if you can tell that story through your founder's eyes, happy days. If not, get someone else from the team in to tell the founder's story for them and just tweak things a little bit. But you can see from this ad, you know, we're, there's some high production stuff. This is clearly like a, you know, a decent camera, well lit and everything like that. But then we have UGC parts like this which are calling back to what people are very familiar with seeing on the feed.

Fraser: Street interviews, another example not made by Fraggle here, but man, street interviews are great. Not only for making content, but also just for hearing firsthand what people think about your product. Get someone on your team, hire an actor or whatever to go out and give your product to people on the street and interview them about it. This is one example here for period cramps. And talk to the target market. They're they're they're giving the problems that they suffer with on a daily basis and they're saying, "Hey, what about this? This will help." And we're getting that live feedback. There's banter between the, you know, between the host and the people on the street.

Fraser: Such a great way. And you can make one long video of this that you can post and then also you can do little snippets as well that you can use. So so many different options.

Fraser: Finally, a video that we did make at Fraggle. This is for, uh, for Dude Pruner again. This is a long form spokesperson ad, okay? So these are similar to your founder ads, but instead of you, the founder telling you about the service, it's, it's a random person. They're direct, they're they're directly telling you about the product or service, you know, there's no like, you know, we're not trying to hide anything. This is an ad and we're being very clear about that. The Harmon Brothers were amazing at these ads and they still are. The reason these work is because you can be very lighthearted and you can be fun, but a lot of work goes into these, a lot of work, especially on the actors and the performance side of things. Okay? Very, very strange to film this. Uh, this, you'll see here is my hand. There it is, holding the bush. You do not want to know how many times I hit something during that shot.

Fraser: But anyway, it turned out really great. Anything for the shot people. Okay? And that's all. Hopefully you've enjoyed this. Hopefully you've gained something from it as well. Um, if you have any questions, uh, please feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or on LinkedIn, whatever. It'll be great to hear from you. All my links are down below if you want to check that out. Check out Fraggle if you actually want some ads making as well. It's just fraggle.com, really simple. And I'll see you in the next one. See you later.