6 Effective Ways to increase Ad Engagement (+ Best Practices)

With the growing digital media, gauging users’ attention to a particular ad becomes challenging. We see 100s of ads on multiple platforms daily, making it difficult for advertisers to stand out. So understanding how to increase ad engagement is important, as it directly impacts campaign success.

"Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make,
but about the stories you tell."

— Seth Godin

In this comprehensive blog, we will learn about ways to increase and measure ad engagements across various channels. Before this, we need to understand what ad engagement is and its significance for an advertiser.

What is ad engagement?

Ad engagement can be defined as the degree of interaction between an advertiser and a consumer. In simpler terms, any form of interaction made with the ad can be termed as engagement.

It includes how frequently users visit your website or social media sites, how long they spend there, the type of posts they share, and whether or not they purchase your goods or services. It can be in the form of a like, comment, share, link click, pageview, and more.

Key Benefits of Monitoring Ad Engagement

1. Boost ROI

Brands that run engaging ads get maximum visibility among their competitors. People often have brand recall when they see ads on their social feeds. An engaging ad correlates with better ROI in terms of reach, clicks, and conversions. 

2. Analyze Ad Performance

Advanced ad analytics are available on all ad platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and X. They're an excellent tool for gaining an extensive grasp of your audience. Various metrics can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the engagement ad.

3. Scope of Improvements

Brands can improve their future performance by optimizing their ad inventory based on the ad insights. They are equipped to identify the areas that require improvement and make the necessary adjustments.

4. Brand Credibility

Engaging ads increase brand trust and foster enduring relationships with consumers. It is an interaction approach that supports their needs and builds loyalty.

Types of Ad Engagement

Engagement is a wide spectrum that represents a consumer’s ad experience. Active engagement involves the user’s psychological and behavioral understanding of the brand. Ad Engagement mainly fall into three categories: 

1. Active
2. Passive
3. Interactive

1. Active Engagement

When a user makes a conscious effort to interact with the ad. The user shows his willingness to perform an activity; it can be a click, comment, share, or place an order. Active engagement around the ad post influences other customers' interactions as well. 

For instance, a user clicks an ad of a retail brand on Facebook, checks the product, and places an order; this counts as an active engagement.

2. Passive Engagement

When a user doesn’t put deliberate effort to engage, instead, he/she interacts passively just by scrolling, watching videos, or reading comments. Most of the users fall into this type of engagement as they are just casually experiencing multiple ads in their free time. 

For instance, when a user comes across a tech-sponsored blog, he opens it, scrolls it down, and returns, which can be an example of passive engagement.

3. Interactive Engagement

When a user performs an activity within the ad itself, it can be a quiz, a fun game, or an interactive display ad. This type of engagement leaves a long-lasting impression on their mind, as it requires a response or action from them. 

For instance, a user interacts with a skincare brand’s ad through a quiz related to their skin concerns. 

In times of overwhelming online advertising, customers have a lower tolerance toward over-the-top promotional and gimmicky ads. Advertisers are incorporating interactive ads for marketing to grab attention and immerse users into the brand story.

At Kappax, we build effective interactive ads that encourage user participation and, thus, better engagement with the brand. Transform your passive users into active users through highly engaging creative ads.

How to Increase Ad Engagement : 6 Ways

1. Prioritize User Experience

The user experience must be given top priority while promoting any product/service. Instead of just forcing product information on people, the goal is to make the advertisement feel organic, valuable, and engaging.

Consider personalizing their ad viewing experience, as 52% of customers say they are more satisfied with the personalized digital experience.

Tips for making a personalized ad experience

• Recognize the common pain points of the user and optimize the ad accordingly.
• Create personalized ads based on demographics, context, and behavior.
• Combine predictive analytics streamlined with AI ads to provide users with what they want. 

Example: Personalized ads are used commonly on Facebook and Instagram. Showing carousel ads or video ads based on the previous browsing history increases the chance of engagement. 

2. Target Right Audience

A campaign can have multiple ads where each ad caters to a different set of audiences. Audience segmentation based on demographics, interests, purchasing, and browsing history is essential. Additionally, choose the platform where your target audience is most likely to be active. With the same goal, different ads can run on different ad platforms. 

Best practices to follow for audience segmentation

• Create buyer personas for different user segments.
• Gain audience insights from analytics tools to guide your ad-targeting process.
• Choose the right channel (LinkedIn for professionals, X for news & blogs, Facebook for retail and e-commerce) to market your product.

Example: A sports brand segments its audience based on demography, marketing strategy, behavior, and psychography. This set of audiences is likely to engage more than other sets of users. 

Source: businessmodelanalyst

3. Make Your Ads Visually Appealing & Interactive

Making a creative ad is one part, but adding some interactivity to it is something every brand aspires to achieve these days. The image, banner, or video elements must be extremely attractive and eye-catching, but applying interactivity drives lots of engagement to the ad. The use of polls, quizzes, and fun games entices users to participate and spread the word to others.

Smart tips and tricks for creating engaging ads

• Choose rich media ads that align with the brand identity
• According to Wyzowl, 84% of consumers claim that a brand's video persuaded them to purchase a good or service. Experiment with video ads, and try to tell a story.
• Use polls, quizzes, shoppable ads, and gamification in the ads to engage customers subtly. 

Example: A snack brand initiates an interactive ad campaign using augmented reality on Snapchat and TikTok. It encourages users to take part in the weekly challenges and win rewards.

4. Crisp and Engaging Content

The ad content needs to be written in a way that sparks conversation. Make it short, crisp, yet meaningful so that a few words can deliver the message behind the ad. Experiment with storytelling to list down benefits instead of selling the product directly. Use emotional appeal (FOMO, curiosity, excitement) for a higher engagement rate. 

How to write compelling content

• The call to action button ( Call Us, Download, Click Here, Buy Now) must be made visible in the content.
• Use relevant hashtags on the posts
• Try to offer some value in the post rather than just promoting the stuff.

Example: An email marketing company promoting its advanced marketing tools by writing short and crisp headings, descriptions, image content, and CTA.

5. Optimize for Mobile

Mobile devices are now the most common way to access social media With an average of 59.10% of all visits across all platforms. Ads need to be optimized for all devices so that it doesn’t affect the engagement rate. Create visuals in the recommended sizes and layouts of the chosen platform. 

Ways to optimize ads for mobile devices:

• Create designs that adhere to the safe zones, formats, and ad sizes of all platforms. 
• Ensure all the ad’s elements, be it the logo, or CTA come across nicely without any cropping. 
• Verify the landing page's mobile responsiveness and ensure that it is well-optimized for navigation. 

Example: A business platform creates a marketing webinar ad optimized for mobile devices. The ad is in the form of carousel images that appeal to users to click and read more about the topics. 

6. Cross-Channel Integration

With the upsurge in digital advertising, the user’s journey of buying a product/service is not always linear. They check various sites, compare products, read reviews, and then make a final decision. Cross-channel integration comes under reminder advertising, which allows customers to engage across various channels. Marketers can gain insightful details about customer journeys and their behavior through data collected from these platforms. 

Steps for cross-channel integration

1. Collect data from all the integrated platforms and make data-backed, informed decisions.
2. Analyze the customer’s engagement insights and allocate the budget accordingly. 
3. A/B test ads on all platforms and prioritize one channel that provides better ROI. 

Example: A creative advertising company runs engaging ads on various channels. They aim to drive engagement in terms of clicks using a multi-channel ad integration strategy. 

Source: Madgicx’s ad on YouTube

Source: Madgicx’s ad on Instagram

Source: Madgicx’s ad on Facebook

7 Easy Ways to Measure Ad Engagement

Understanding key metrics of engagement ads can pave the way for a successful campaign. The user ad experience can be enhanced by tracking and optimizing these parameters. Different platforms have their set of metrics; we will learn about the common metrics with examples:

1. Clicks & Interactions

Clicks are simply when you tap the mouse button to perform any action. The number of clicks on any part of the ad can be counted as interactions. It can be CTA buttons, image clicks, or video play.

2. Impressions & Reach

Reach is the total number of unique users who view your advertisement, whereas impressions are the number of times your ad was displayed even if it was not clicked once on the timeline. These stats provide information about how many people saw the advertisement. It aids in determining the size of the audience but does not guarantee engagement. 

3. Click Through Rate

CTR indicates how many people clicked on the ad versus how many people saw your ad. This metric suggests how users perceive the ad upon seeing it. A higher CTR shows people find the ad relevant and are willing to engage with it.

CTR =     Total Number of Clicks      X   100

          Total Number of Impressions

4. Avg. Time Spent

This is a time-based metric that indicates if users are finding the content of the website relevant and engaging or not. The more time they spend, the more engagement they generate.

Avg. Time Spent  =       Total Time Spent  

                                 Total No. of Page Views

5. Video Views

It indicates the number of times the video is watched by the users. This is an important metric for tracking engagement on YouTube. A view is counted when a video ad is watched fully or for a minimum of 30 seconds.

6. Engagement Rate

It measures how actively your audience is interacting with the ad. The engagement rate evaluates how well your ad drives engagement overall by taking into account all types of interaction.

Engagement Rate  =   Total Engagements  X 100

                                      Total Impressions

7. Conversions

Conversions measure how often people interact with your advertisement and then complete the end goal of that campaign. This is a crucial indicator to measure the number of new sign-ups, product or service purchases, newsletter signups, or ebook downloads.

Wrapping it up

Ad engagement is an important metric to analyze ad performance and connect with your targeted users. Understanding your target audience, producing high-quality content, utilizing social proof, and consistently optimizing your ads are all crucial for increasing ad engagement.

Creating automated interactive ads that encourage high levels of engagement will remain one of the main factors influencing business performance as digital advertising evolves. Concentrate on creating advertisements that directly address the wants, needs, and preferences of your target audience, and you'll see an increase in both engagement and sales!

What are you waiting for? Create ads that yield 4x more engagements than native ads with KappaX. Check out the ad experience we have created for the retail, real estate, and advertising sectors.