Social media ads: moving from publishing assets to proposing a clear action

You have prepared several social media ads, explained what you do and included a call to action. However, the enquiries you receive are vague, or people engage with the post without taking the next step. The question is usually not which format to use, but what the ad should say and where it should take the person viewing it.

This case is hypothetical, but it reflects a common decision in a small or medium-sized business: organising social media ads before producing more creative assets. By the end, you will be able to decide what goal to assign to a campaign, what elements each ad should contain and how to check whether the proposed journey makes sense.

Hypothetical starting situation

Imagine a service company that wants to receive enquiries from people interested in a specific service. Until then, it has used ads that present the company broadly: a corporate image, a list of services and a message such as “Contact us”.

The asset may explain who the company is, but it leaves several questions unanswered: which service is being offered in that ad, who it is intended for, which problem it addresses and what someone should do after seeing it.

The company decides not to create more versions at random. First, it wants to turn a general intention —“we need more contacts”— into a goal that can guide the content.

Observable problem: the ad is trying to say too much

The problem is not necessarily the length of the copy or the image design. It is the lack of a specific proposition. When the same ad speaks to audiences with different needs, presents several services and asks for a generic action, it becomes difficult to know which part should capture attention.

In this hypothetical case, someone who needs the service may not identify it quickly. Someone else may show interest but arrive at a page that repeats generic information and does not indicate what details they should provide. The ad and its destination are not working as one journey.

To address this, it is useful to separate three decisions:

• Goal: what action you expect the person to complete.
• Audience: what situation, need or profile makes the message relevant.
• Offer: what exactly you are proposing and why it deserves attention at that point.

An ad does not need to summarise the entire company. Its role can be more specific: to start a conversation about a service, lead to a specific explanation or invite someone to request an assessment when there is a recognisable need.

Goal analysis: an action rather than an isolated metric

The hypothetical company decides that the campaign’s purpose will be to receive enquiries related to a single service. This decision changes the wording.

Instead of starting with “what can we tell people about ourselves?”, it starts with a more useful question: what should a person be able to decide or do after seeing this ad?

If the answer is “request information about a specific service”, the content needs to reduce uncertainty before asking for that action. It should explain, in proportion:

• who the proposal can help;
• what need it addresses;
• what they will receive or be able to clarify by getting in touch;
• what the next step is.

For example, the hypothetical message might address small business owners who need to present a complex service more effectively. Rather than claiming that the company offers solutions for every type of need, the ad could focus on creating an asset that explains a specific offer and leads to a page or form that is consistent with it.

The goal does not guarantee a commercial response. It does provide a criterion for removing distracting elements: unrelated services, overly broad messages or calls to action that do not match the ad content.

Proposed scope: a family of assets, not an isolated creative

With the goal defined, the company plans a limited initial campaign. It does not attempt to cover every service or every audience. Its scope includes a small family of ads that share the same proposition but test different ways of expressing it.

Each asset retains four components:

1. A recognisable starting point. A situation the audience can identify with, such as the difficulty of explaining an offer or directing an enquiry.
2. A main idea. The benefit or change to be communicated, without adding promises that cannot be supported.
3. Evidence of understanding. A detail about the problem, an explanation of the service or a practical outcome showing that the message is not generic.
4. One action. The step being proposed: learn about the service, request an assessment or explain the project.

The destination is also reviewed. If the ad promises to help clarify a need, the landing page should continue that conversation. It should make the proposition understandable and indicate which information is useful to provide. Sending traffic to a page where people must search for the service, or to a form with no context, breaks continuity.

The choice of formats, targeting, investment and configuration for each platform requires review according to the campaign, the available accounts and applicable conditions. It is not advisable to assume that the same setup will suit every business or that a particular format alone will resolve an imprecise message.

Solution and review: assessing the full journey

The hypothetical company applies the new approach across three ads. All address the same need, but each starts the conversation from a different angle: the problem to be solved, the explanation of the proposition and the action expected.

The review is not limited to whether an asset receives attention. It examines whether responses and enquiries match the original intention. To do this, the company can compare simple questions:

• Do the people who arrive understand the advertised service?
• Does the ad attract enquiries related to the proposition?
• Does the landing page meet the expectation created?
• Does the form or contact channel ask only for the information needed to continue?
• Is any part of the message causing confusion or repeated questions?

If enquiries remain ambiguous, the adjustment does not necessarily have to involve creating more designs. It may be necessary to make the offer more specific, change the example used in the ad or improve the destination content. If there is very little interest, it is worth first reviewing whether the problem presented is recognisable to the chosen audience before drawing conclusions about the campaign.

Transferable lessons

This hypothetical case leaves an idea that applies to many social media ads: creative works better when it responds to a prior decision. First define the action and the person you want to help; then choose the message, asset and destination.

An ad does not need to contain your entire commercial proposition. It needs to be clear about a need, an offer and a next step. This constraint also makes content easier to review: you can check whether every word, image and link helps move towards the intended action.

If you are still unsure how to turn a complex service into advertising assets that are consistent with their destination, you can tell us about your advertising content project to assess which information the message needs to organise before producing the ads.