Three tips for Reels ads creative optimization

Every year, we present Meta Beach at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, offering a show-stopping immersive experience in collaboration with an inspiring creative - and this year was no different.

Last week, festival attendees were welcomed to Meta Beach by the Reels SuperStudio, a concept built in collaboration with Colm Dillane, founder & CEO of KidSuper Studios. We spoke to Meta’s Damien Baines, Experiential Lead, Global Experiences, about the inspiration behind the activation and the top tips on display for advertisers to drive performance with Reels ads. Hear from Damien in the featured video below, and check out the top three creative tips for Reels ads on display in Cannes.

Creative tips for building engaging Reels ads

People spend more than half their time on Facebook and Instagram watching videos¹ , and Reels continues to become more social with people re-sharing Reels more than 2 billion times every day, doubling over the last 6 months² . Brands have an opportunity to leverage Reels to spark a new connection with customers, starting with the creative basics:

1. Build or adapt existing creative for 9:16 video to make your video immersive.
2. Build for sound on to make your video captivating. Creating captivating sound isn’t just about ‘sound on’. More and more it’s about the musical track, sound effects, or voice over accompanying your Reel that can transform the meaning of your creative. In fact, we know that Reels ads with both music and voice-over show a +15-point statistically significant higher average positive response score than those without sound³ .
3. Build within Reels safe zones, so that creativity isn’t obscured by the Reels UI. Now you might ask, what’s a safe zone? Make sure your creative won’t be covered by the bottom caption or the top screen UI.