Adding additional Meta advert parameters to existing platform
Role
Digital Designer in the Plezzel brand marketing team, Corelogic
Duration
Phase 1 - 3 months, Phase 2 - 1 month, Phase 2 - 4 months
Tools
Adobe XD, Miro
Teams Involved
Design & Brand Marketing Team: I represented the Brand Marketing team, collaborated to ensure brand integrity and delivered effective UI designs.
Digital Marketing Team: As the platform's users, provided crucial feedback through interviews and testing, ensuring designs met their needs.
Development Team: The Development team implemented the designs and offered valuable insights on technical limitations and potential impact, fostering a collaborative development process.
Executive Summary
This case study illustrates how user experience (UX) design principles were applied at Plezzel, a digital advertising platform for the real estate sector, to enhance ad creation efficiency and introduce new features. Through a combination of user research, iterative design, and close collaboration with developers, the projects aimed to empower real estate marketers by reducing manual effort, streamlining workflows, and ultimately improving the effectiveness of their digital ad campaigns.
Project Overview
Plezzel simplifies digital ad creation by integrating with Meta's ad tools and real estate websites. The projects focused on addressing key user pain points and expanding the platform's capabilities to better meet the needs of marketing experts within the real estate industry. This case study covers three distinct yet interconnected phases: optimizing the core ad creation process, introducing carousel ads, and enhancing ad placement options.
Phase 1
Streamlining the Ad Creation Process - Uncovering User Pain Points
How can we streamline the ad creation process to minimize generation time and reduce manual effort?
Real estate marketers using Plezzel were experiencing inefficiencies and frustrations due to excessive manual tasks, error-prone processes, and a lack of data-driven insights.
User Research
User Interviews: Conducted in-depth interviews with three digital marketers to understand their daily workflows, pain points, and needs.
Immersive Experience: Personally used the Plezzel platform for four weeks, dedicating one hour daily to ad creation, to gain firsthand experience.
Process Mapping: Mapped the entire ad creation process, documenting each step, identifying bottlenecks, and capturing user emotions.
Key Insights
- Manual Reliance: Users spent significant time on manual checks and verifications.
- Error-Prone Processes: Manual steps led to frequent errors and inconsistencies.
- Complex Workflows: Redundant steps and complex decision trees hindered efficiency.
- Lack of Quality Control: The Absence of automated quality checks impacted ad consistency.
- Data Deficit: Limited access to ad performance data prevented informed decision-making.
Phase 2
Introducing Carousel Ads - Addressing Evolving User Needs
How might we simplify the creation process for carousel ads so that real estate marketers can easily highlight several aspects of a property engagingly?
Real estate marketers needed a more engaging way to showcase multiple property features within a single ad.
So what are carousel ads?
Carousel ads allow advertisers to showcase multiple images or videos within a single ad, each with its own link. Users can scroll through the carousel horizontally to view the different pieces of content. This format is ideal for highlighting different features of a property, showcasing a range of properties, or telling a story about a single listing.
Features to be implemented for carousel ads
As part of the UX design process, I worked closely with the product owner, development team, and marketers to identify and prioritize key features that would enhance the user experience and meet business goals. Through workshops, stakeholder interviews, and iterative feedback sessions, we defined the following requirements for the carousel ad feature:
Multiple Image/Video Uploads
- Requirement
Enable users to upload multiple images or videos to create a single, visually rich ad. - Rationale
Marketers emphasized the need to showcase properties comprehensively, while users wanted more engaging and informative content,
Performance Tracking per Card
- Requirement
Integrate analytics to track the performance of individual carousel cards. - Rationale
The marketing team needed insights into which properties or features attracted the most interest to optimize campaigns effectively.
Individual Linking
- Requirement
Allow each carousel card to have its own link, directing users to specific landing pages (e.g., detailed property listings or contact forms). - Rationale
This would improve user engagement by providing direct access to relevant information, reducing friction in the user journey.
Dynamic Ordering
- Requirement
Enable customizable ordering of carousel cards to highlight specific properties or features. - Rationale
Marketers wanted flexibility to prioritize high-value listings or promotions dynamically.
Customizable Headlines and Descriptions
- Requirement
Allow tailored headlines and descriptions for each card to provide detailed information or link to multiple properties. - Rationale
This would help real estate offices showcase multiple listings effectively while maintaining clarity and relevance for users.
Initial Ideation - Carousel Ads
Key Learnings
Discovered a critical dependency on foundational ad placement functionality, leading to a pivot in focus. Emphasized the importance of strategic planning and addressing core functionalities before introducing advanced features.
Phase 3
Enhancing Ad Placement Options
How can we make it easier for marketers to choose ad placements and reach the right audience across different platforms?
Real estate marketers needed more control over ad placements to target their audiences effectively across various platforms.
So what are ad placements in Facebook and Instagram ads?
Ad placements refer to the various locations within the Meta ecosystem (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network) where ads can appear. This includes feeds, stories, in-article, and more. Offering a variety of placements allows marketers to reach their audience in different contexts and formats.
Features to be implemented for ad placements
As part of the UX design process, I worked closely with the product owner, development team, and marketers to identify and prioritize key features for ad placement functionality. Through collaborative workshops, stakeholder interviews, and iterative feedback sessions, we defined the following requirements to enhance the platform's targeting and optimization capabilities:
Placement Selection
- Requirement
Allow users to choose where their ads will appear, enabling strategic targeting based on where potential clients are most engaged. - Rationale
Marketers emphasized the need for precise ad placement to maximize reach and engagement with their target audience.
Budget Optimization Across Placements
- Requirement
Provide suggestions on how to allocate budgets across different placements for optimal reach and engagement. - Rationale
The marketing team needed tools to ensure their ad spend was efficient and effective, especially when managing multiple campaigns.
Placement-Specific Analytics
- Requirement
Integrate detailed analytics for each placement to help marketers understand where their ads perform best. - Rationale
Data-driven insights were critical for optimizing campaigns and improving ROI.
Cross-Platform Preview
- Requirement
Enable users to preview how their ads will look across different placements and platforms, ensuring visual and message consistency. - Rationale
Marketers wanted to avoid inconsistencies in ad presentation, which could dilute brand messaging and user experience.
Format-Specific Customisation
- Requirement
Provide customization options specific to each placement type, such as aspect ratios for stories or interactive elements for in-feed ads. - Rationale
Different ad formats require tailored designs to ensure they are visually appealing and effective in their respective contexts.
Ad Placement - Images - Dev Handover Preview
Ad Placement - Videos - Dev Handover Preview
Design Process
We focused on creating a seamless experience for ad placement by designing features that streamline placement selection, format-specific customization, cross-platform previews, budget optimization, and placement-specific analytics. Through iterative testing, we refined the design to improve visual clarity in template selection, introduced a guided editing process, and enhanced preview accuracy to provide a more intuitive experience.
Developer Handover
To ensure a smooth transition to development, we provided comprehensive documentation, maintained regular communication, and established post-handover feedback loops for continuous improvement.
Impact
- Smarter Ad Targeting: Marketers gained better tools to refine their audience reach.
- Enhanced Usability: An intuitive interface made ad placement more efficient.
- Seamless Development Handoff: Clear documentation and collaboration ensured smooth implementation.
Reflections and Lessons Learned
- End-to-End Approach and Ongoing Feedback
The project revealed the importance of an end-to-end approach, including implementation and post-implementation review, to fully understand the project's lifecycle.
Integrating research with related systems and setting up mechanisms for ongoing feedback will ensure solutions remain relevant and effective as user needs and technology evolve. - Foundation of Ad Placement in Feature Development
The Carousel Project highlighted the essential role of foundational features like ad placements.
The project's trajectory emphasized the need for a strategic, integrated approach to platform enhancements, ensuring that core functionalities are addressed to support the successful implementation of advanced features. - User-Centric Design and Cross-Functional Collaboration
The ad placement enhancement project showcased the success of a user-centric design and development approach, resulting in a highly customized and intuitive interface. The experience also pointed to areas for growth, such as comprehensive user training and early developer involvement, reinforcing the importance of adaptability and rigorous quality assurance in future projects.