Creative fatigue is when you show an ad too many times to the same audience, and that causes the ads performance to decline. Now, if your campaign relies on those ads that previously you're doing really well and their frequency has increased, which causes their performance to go down, your campaign is then at risk in terms of your cost leads going up, your engagements decreasing.

Now, the way to combat that is by one of three things that we do at SOS. We will film at new installations with our clients. We will also introduce new messaging concepts and we will introduce new creative concepts. So the main thing is how do we bring innovation and new ad formats into the account, which are different from what other customers are seeing in their math feeds?

By shooting multiple times, we capture purely different visual formats, so you'll see different locations, different people on camera. That all adds into creative diversity, which is what the meta algorithm rewards. Since I started, we've onboarded two full time graphic designers, and we now churn out around 50 image ads a week, which all delve into different formats.

So we have customer testimonials, we have carousels, we have different USP focused formats. We introduced handheld installation walkthroughs because we found that our high prod install overviews were performing great across our clients accounts, and we thought, how do we take a step back and see how we can put this format that we know is doing really well, in a different variation as to what customers will see on their feed, which is why we introduced the handheld walkthroughs.

This is where the installer is ultimately recording a selfie video of them walking around their installation, telling us about the cable routes, the different equipment, any challenges they came into. Essentially everything we film on our high prod install walkthroughs, but with a handheld selfie video, and we find that with minimal editing, we only add subtitles.

We put a bit of background music and a bit of B-roll in, but no hybrid effects. These actually perform really well because they look like genuine UGC and the matter feed, so people are way less likely to scroll past them because they don't think that they're an Add. UGC is user generated content. It is essentially me or you.

Talking to camera without any effects feels really natural. Can be glitchy, can be a bit low focus, a bit low prod, but essentially it is as natural as possible to clients to mind that handheld walkthroughs have done really well. Are eco renewables, who are a national installer, and Infinite Energy, who are more of a local installer.

So I think this just proves that regardless of your spend or who you're targeting, actually, these formats can work for you very well. This is a great example of a format that SOS has brought into the industry from a creative standpoint that is ahead of the rest and where we continue to strive to stay ahead.

If you like what you hear and you want to work with an agency that always strives to push the creative boundaries, then send me a message or booking a call via our website. This is a new creative format that is flying for all of our clients. We intentionally produce rubbish ads and here's why. So why do campaigns that feature video ads perform better than others?

Video ads allow us to educate customers in a way that image ads can't do. When a customer sees an image ad or they see is a company's logo, a solar panel, or a piece of kit, they don't have any context around your USPS or what you bring to them, as opposed to why they shouldn't go with someone else. With a video ad, they're able to see who you are as a person as well as a company.

Here, your values, how you like to take customers down, the sales process, look at the quality of your installs and the equipment that you offer, and also be able to begin building trust with you if you're going to be doing their install down the line, we find that leads that come through from video ads are often a way higher quality than those that come through from image ads.

Those that come through from image ads often are budget controls. They are looking for the cheapest solar quote from the cheapest provider. Whereas because we've taken the time in that video ad and they've actually stayed to watch it and be educated on your USPS, why? Even though maybe you're not the cheapest, actually your USPS warrant that higher price in terms of customer service, your aftercare, they are much more likely to convert to a higher quality system down the line than be trying to badger you about how to knock off 200 pounds off the quote.

So what should installers talk about on camera? We encourage you to talk as naturally about your installation as possible. So think about it as if you're running through a installation with a potential customer by your side. So what equipment have you installed and why? So why have you chosen those brands?

What benefits do they have? What was the cable route all the way from the panels all the way down to the battery storage and the inverter. If they have an EV charger or a heat pump as well, why does solar complement them really well? What challenges the installation presented, and most importantly, how you overcame them?

Because customers who are going in solar and who have had any home improvement services know that they don't go. Always go to plan. So if you can show how you've overcame those challenges, then they're way more likely to be interested in that. And another mean one that we encourage you to talk about is the benefits of the system.

So how much it's going to save them what the typical payback periods are. Even things down to educating them on the export rates and how they can earn a profit from their solar system. There's a lot of things that I think we expect customers to know that actually are jargon to them, and just by simplifying it and speaking to them quite casually, they begin to build that trust with you at the very start of the process.

So how do we decide what messaging to use in our ads? First, we look at what we learn during onboarding. So we'll often talk to you about what your company ups your strengths. What are the equipment you focus on, whether there's any really nice stories about how long you've been in the industry, your Google reviews, your Trustpilot reviews.

All of these are what differentiates you from your competitor down the road. So this is the main thing that we focus on initially. So we've launched thousands of ads across the solar industry. And we know what messaging angles work and what don't work. So we look at the historic performance and we see what's worked with previous clients.

We also then look at how we can adapt that to your US piece. So it's not a copy and paste job. Actually it's a this work really well. But this is this company strength. So we're going to play this into this messaging concept. And finally we're always testing and optimizing. So we're always looking at what angles we've launched, how they're performing, how we can tweak them and how we can then develop them down the line.

So if we see a messaging angle that is a really short, snappy angle, you're talking about why you should go for solar in 60s, for example. Can we bring that down the line into 60s on why they should choose you as an installer? And then maybe we do that about a different piece of equipment. So whether that's battery storage or the types of panels or solar as a whole.

So how do we make ads feel natural and not scripted? We deliberately avoid scripting out our shoot briefs. So when you go and shoot, if you were talking very scripted to camera, you would come across as one very salesy. So a customer in their meat feed is way more likely to scroll past, and too often it actually detracts from the experience you have in the industry.

What we do instead is we actually use prompt based briefing. So when you receive a shoot brief from us, you won't have a word to word script. We have questions that we'll ask you on camera, and these then provoke natural answers from you back. This means that we then guide what topics that we want you to talk about, whether that's about savings, whether that's about equipment, brands or your company UPS.

But actually you then fill in those gaps quite naturally. And how you would say it to a customer. A cue we often give you when we're on shoe is again, you want to talk to us like you're just talking to a potential customer who's visiting an install site with you. This then means that when they meet you or your team down the line, actually they feel like they've already met you because they have gained your personality through that.

I actually scripted some answers for these questions, but I find that when you sit in front of a camera, it flows much more naturally. If you just speak from experience. And what you have to think about is that I know my stuff when I'm talking to camera and you know your stuff, and it will flow a lot more naturally if you just trust in the process.

I think something that installers worry about is when they get in front of the camera. They have to say everything perfectly at once the first time around. Actually, I think this is an example of where we don't need you to say it perfectly. It comes across a lot more naturally if you stumble on your words or if you need to repeat different things, because that is how you have a conversation in person.

We have a very capable team of editors, and I assure you that your ads will look great even if you mess up on the first time around. People are often surprised by how good the ads come out. I think they expect that they need to be an expert on camera for an ad to look great, but really you don't as long as you are you.

That is the main thing. So how do we ensure that our ads attract serious buyers? We find that high quality leads don't want to talk to someone who is discount focused, who doesn't really know their stuff, and comes across as really salesy on camera. Actually, a high quality lead was much rather listen and talk to someone who is just an expert in their subject matter.

When you go on camera on one of our shoots. We encourage you to speak about the technicalities of the system, about any problems you faced, about how you've overcome them. More importantly, and then any parts of the system that a customer might not know about just from having a quick Google, we find that if you speak in a more technical sense, that actually this delivers a lot more high intent leads, and those leads are often way easier to convert because they've come through the ads process with you, and they care about the things that you offer as a business and specialize in.

How do we come up with the ideas for ads? We look at three things. The first one being your onboarding. So we will take any details that we chat about in your onboarding call or any of your USPS. So this can be equipment you really like to install, whether you're a certified installer for any of those brands, how your experiences, what your reviews say about you and anything that they mention in multiple reviews.

Next, we look at what has performed well in other campaigns that we're running. So when you sign up with SOS, you're not only signing up as a singular client. We obviously have a lot of clients in the space, which actually is a massive benefit because you get to take the learnings from 40 other clients and those learnings go into your solo campaign.

We're not just starting from scratch, so we don't farm out concepts. I'm not saying that it's a copy and paste across every single one of our 40 clients, but if we see that an ad concept is working really well all the way up here in Scotland for one of our local installers, there's no reason why we can't optimize that for a installer right down in the south near Devon.

And it's actually this approach that means that everyone collectively gets the best ad concepts from around the country. So when we write the shoot briefs, we have a bit of a 7030 rule. So 70% of the ad concepts that we put in a shoot brief, we are so 70% of the AD concepts we put in a shoot brief we know are tried and tested.

We know that they'll perform really well and they have results backed up with them. Now, the other 30% are often or more creative concepts. We find that these either being completely honest can flop or fly, but I think that's the main thing. If we don't introduce creative ideation and testing into the shoot briefs, we never have the opportunity to scale the campaigns because we're always just staying as we are.

A key thing that we look for when we're coming up with those ad concepts that make up that 30% are actually how do we look at other industries who are doing really well? So my background's in e-commerce. So actually, how do we look at companies who are doing really well in the e-commerce industry, and how do we bring formats that are performing really well in that industry into then the solar industry?

Because people in the solar industry have never seen those formats. And whilst you might be used to seeing them from the likes of Amazon, Apple, etc. when we introduced that to a local installer, they think, wow, that's really cool. Loads of those e-commerce companies are spending millions of pounds a year on ad spend.

So think about how much trialing and testing new concepts that they're having to come up with, and new ideas pretty much every day. The benefit of this is actually they already know what works in their industry. So why don't we take that into our industry, where it would have taken us maybe a year to get to the same testing frequency just due to spends, and we can bring those ad concepts in without having to spend millions of pounds of your ad spend budget and be able to find those winning ad concepts.

I think something that we really focus on with looking at new ad concepts is how do we make the ad look as natural in the meta feed as possible? A customer is scrolling through their Facebook feed, their Instagram feed every day. They have such a short attention span, and if they see anything that physically resembles an ad, they're going to scroll right past.

Something that we are quite keen on at the minute is how do we use platforms such as Pinterest, Reddit, even to think of those ideas that look very UGC and very natural to the feed. So whether that's an image ad that actually looks like someone could have just posted it on their story and taken two seconds, or whether that's a low prod handheld install walk through all of these different formats essentially contribute to that wider creative diversity, and then allow your account to perform better.

So how do we ensure that everyone's ads are different? This begins with your onboarding process. So we look at your individual USPS, your positioning and also your strengths. We highlight the equipment that you focus on because that will be very different to an installer down the road who focuses on installing a different battery storage brand.

Why you like installing them is a massive part. Whether you operate in residential or commercial and even if you aren't a competitor, for instance, operate in residential, how do you operate differently and even down to where you operate in. If you operate in a very local area, we can highlight that in those ads, and no doubt you're going to get a load of leads that are living in that area.

Also, this allows us to highlight neighbors or different customers that have gone solar in that area. So if you're talking about John down the road who's actually gone solar two weeks ago, and then Cathy, who's then being referred by John, for instance, that is a much more valuable USP than you saying, oh, we can just knock you a grand off your solar system price.

We often find that with our installers, when we mention a street name or a specific estate, we see leads come from that very specific area. Then a key part of that is how do we use those USBs to build those creative concepts that differentiate you from your competitors, even down to the way that you come across on camera?

How you say something will be very different to how your competitor might say something on camera. And that's what resonates with the customers, as they're the ones going to be having the conversation with you down the line, and that's how you build the trust with them. So what creative experience do we have in the team?

So I'm Charlotte, I lead the creative function of Soas, I am the senior performance creative specialist. And ultimately my role is making sure that our creative process is as slick as possible and that we're always bringing innovation into the agency. I manage a team of 20 graphic designers and video editors, as well as our quality assurance specialist.

We're ultimately responsible for producing and scaling creative for our clients that delivers measurable results. My role is to manage the overall end to end creative strategy. So that spans all the way from that initial concept briefing as to what goes into your shoot brief, what we're going to capture on camera and why, most specifically.

So we often pull on that performance data to inform why we're putting certain concepts into that shoot brief all the way down from managing those ads when we get the footage back, back through the editors, making sure that the briefs are consistent all the way down to you, seeing the ad for the first time, and then that going live in the meta account.

I think a big thing to focus on in creative strategy is not only how we bring new ideas to the table, but why we bring those ideas to the table. It's all good. Kind of throwing a load of ideas at the wall and trying a load of things. And sometimes we do need to do that. But often create a strategy is about how we inform all of those decisions with data, and why we're doing that.

So often before a shoot, we'll have a pre shoot call. Now we've implemented these for a variety of reasons, but what's really good is when you come on those calls, we'll run you through the concept that we are aiming to capture on the shoot. And next to every one of those concepts, we will put a why we're capturing that.

And that is all encompassing, pretty much the creative strategy. Before I joined Soda on Steroids, I worked across a variety of DTC brands, so I've worked in e-commerce as well as other DTC industries. My most recent experience was at THG. So when look fantastic, my protein in both of those roles I was positioned in brand marketing.

So how do we bring these massive global multi-channel brand campaigns to life across a number of channels? So that will be organic, social, but it can spread to affiliates all the way to paid search, paid social. More importantly, but how do we ensure the creative across those formats is consistent but also speaks to the ups of those channels?

So whether they're lead driving or more awareness building at the top of the funnel, as part of bringing those campaigns to life, I often had to manage big teams or freelancers or in-house creatives to make sure that the creative output was of a high quality, but also that we delivered to time to make sure that the campaigns went live on time.

Another big part of my role in those two companies was how do we bridge the gap between brand marketing and performance marketing? Now, often brand sits quite separate and we often look at brand as very creative, not very data driven. But how do we bridge the gap from once those ads are set live in the performance channels, feeding those learnings back into the brand team and making sure that basically that information flows really smoothly.

Because if we know what works and what doesn't work over here, then there's no point then these two teams being completely siloed because we're going to continue to output creative. That might not necessarily drive those conversions down the line. Now, I've been doing this for over four years, even way back to my placement year at Audi.

At Audi, I worked with a number of agency partners, including BBH, who are a top ten agency in the UK, and also media partners like FD media, where I was able to learn how different powerhouses work together, and the fundamentals of making sure the creative lands up to the performance. Essentially. I also work with partners such as Google, Netflix, Sky sports.

So when you work with partners of that magnitude, you have to make sure that their creative standards are met, their brand guidelines are met, and it is a very intricate process. So I think that has meant that I have a very high standard that I hold our creative to, and that means that you'll always receive the best quality of creative.

Alongside me on the creative team sits Imogen, our marketing executive. Now she brings a wealth of experience in the solar industry. She used to work at Siegen, which is one of the largest renewable distributors in the UK, where she used to manage their campaigns. She would be managing their socials and she was responsible for any B2B content that they outputted.

She was also responsible for supporting initiatives that upscaled installers across the UK, so she has a wide range of experience in working with a number of partners as well. After this, she went on to work at Castrol, which is a athleisure brand, And this is where she managed influencer campaigns that spanned the UK and globally.

Within this, she managed relationships with thousands of creators and ultimately was responsible for making sure all of that content landed up to a high standard to be outputted across our platforms. This experience ensures that she both has a lot of knowledge in the renewable industry, but also has a lot of content creation, experience and skills when we combine our experience.

So mine more in the brand and performance marketing and e-com driven, but also imogen's that is very hot on what works in the renewable industry as well as her content creation. We actually have a bit of a powerhouse in terms of creative. Another thing that Imogen has on her belt is she did a comms degree, which means that she doesn't only know the practicalities of social, but with a focus of her degree on social media, she actually knows all the theoretical information as well.

We also have some on the team who's our media buyer and conversion rate optimization specialist. But he brings a wealth of experience in the solar industry, too. He's actually ran ads before in the solar space. So he knows what works and what doesn't work. And funnily enough, he actually did a lot of door knocking in his previous role.

So he knows what messaging works when you turn up to a customer's house and what doesn't because he learned the hard way. So combined with Joe and Jude's experience for running ads for over two years for 40 plus installers, I think when you look at us as a team, we actually have so much experience that I would argue you probably can't find a better team to be promoting your company when it comes to solar specifically.

So if you want real results and you want to work with the solar marketing experts, then either send us a message or booking a call via our website. So can we run a campaign without video ads? Fundamentally, no. We can't run a campaign without video ads. If you rely heavily just on image ads, your performance is going to be pretty stagnant and you can't get across the ups of your company and why a customer should go to you in the same way a video ad can.

We can't be confident that we're going to generate you the same quality of leads who are in the same position to convert further down the line. Startups often have such a bad reputation for people coming into them. I've heard horror stories from friends who've joined them, colleagues who've left corporate to join startups, colleagues who'd left from corporate to go to startups.

But when I saw the role come up at S.O.S., I knew I had to apply. I come from quite a heavily corporate background in both brand and performance marketing, and within those roles, I loved them. I learned a lot, I met a lot of great friends and a lot of great colleagues, but I often was frustrated with the amount of responsibility we got, and also to the time it took to do things and the levels of signoff required.

To put it simply. I just wanted a change and a fresh start. And I knew I wanted to join a startup, but, I mean, I didn't plan on joining a soda startup, but here we are in my role now. It allows me a massive breadth of responsibility the whole way across the creative team. And it means that no two days are the same, which I absolutely love.

My favorite thing about working for SOS is how our clients often feel like friends rather than clients, and I think that's a massive thing. We know that our shared goal is ultimately to drive the highest results for our clients, and I think our team and our clients share a common respect for each other, because we know we're always striving for the same thing.

Not only is SOS made of the team in Manchester, we actually have an amazing remote team which combined comes up to 20 plus of our graphic designers or video editors, even our quality assurance specialists, and they are the loveliest team ever. Um, I haven't actually ever met any of the remote team in person, but I feel like we have developed good friendships purely because we have a great work ethic within the team and everyone striving to the same goal.

I think my favorite thing about working for S.O.S more widely is the fact that we are part of a team, but it often feels like a family. Sometimes when you go into a team in a corporate world, you're one of a hundred or even a thousand, and you feel like your role doesn't really matter. And if you didn't turn up to work one day, the world would still go on.

I feel like at SOS, we all play such a huge part in bringing our clients results on and just driving the business more generally, and it genuinely doesn't feel like you're turning up to work each day more, that you are turning up to a environment where you're seeing your friends each day and working on something that's fun.

So that's me. And if you're a renewables installer who are looking to drive on your results and also grow as a business, all you have to do is send one of us a message or booking a call via our website. We look forward to speaking with you soon and working together.