Social advertising is a powerful tool for brands when used properly. Are you ready to see your ads drive the results you want? Implement these tips to launch your Facebook ad campaigns!
1. Identify clear goals
It’s important before you create an ad to consider your business goals. Choose an objective that drives business value. Facebook offers a huge range of advertising objectives which can help brands reach their business goals.
Here is a quick break down of Facebook ad objectives and the types of ads you can run for each:
Awareness
• Brand Awareness - Reach people more likely to recall your ads and increase awareness for your brand • Reach - Show your ad to the maximum number of people in your audience
Consideration
• Traffic - Increase the number of visits to your website • Engagement - Get more people to see and engage with your post or Page • App Installs - Send people to an app store where they can download your app • Video Views - Promote videos that show behind-the-scenes footage, product launches or customer stories to raise awareness about your brand • Lead Generation - Collect lead information, such as email addresses, from people interested in your business • Messages - Get more people to have conversations with your business to generate leads, drive transactions, answer questions or offer support
Conversion
• Conversions - Get more people to use your website, Facebook app, or mobile app. To track and measure conversions, use the Facebook pixel or app events • Catalogue Sales - Show products from your catalog based on your target audience • Store Traffic - Promote multiple business locations to people who are nearby
2. Refine your target audiences
The very first thing is getting to know who your customers are. Make sure to refine your Facebook audience to reach the right audience without wasting your ad spent amount.
You have probably taken advantage of Facebook’s comprehensive core targeting (interests, demographics, locations, connections and behaviors), but have you done a deep dive into the custom and lookalike audience options? If not, you are missing out on opportunity for refined targeting!
Custom Audiences
Custom Audiences allow you to target people who have already shown interest in your brand. These audiences include using data from a CRM, retargeting people who have interacted with your website (requires a Facebook pixel) or people who have installed your app (requires a Facebook SDK).
With this capability you can send an ad to someone who added your product to their cart but didn’t purchase, enticing them to come back and convert.
Lookalike Audiences
Lookalike Audiences help you reach people who are similar to your current audiences. You can create Lookalike Audiences based on people who like your page, purchased something from your website, engaged with a post, etc.
These people are more likely to respond to your ad because their interests are similar to people who are currently connected to your brand.
3. Test everything
How do you know what audience, creative, copy or ad type delivers the best results? Did you create one ad campaign, with one ad set, one image and one copy variation and just let it run indefinitely? It may appear to have good results, but without testing every aspect of your ad campaign, you will never know if that is the absolute best you can do.
A/B Testing
Take advantage of Facebook’s A/B testing to find the best strategy to your campaign. A/B testing or split testing lets you compare two versions of different variables such as your ad creative, audience or placement, against each other to determine which one performs better.
Well – planned A/B testing can make a huge difference in the effectiveness of your marketing effort.
4. Use images that convert
Strong Facebook ad campaigns are born from strong Facebook ad image. A picture tells a story better than a large amount of descriptive text. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Images improve readability and the overall experience. Posts and Ads without images are boring and lead to less reading.
Knowing this should work to capture the attention of audiences, and breathe life into our brand.
A. Avoid too much text
Your image is meant to create visual context. With a typical Facebook ad, you have about 25-40 characters for your headline and 125 characters for text. That’s not much.
Which is why your photo has to evoke a reaction, relay information, and round-out your message on the quick-draw?
B. Show your product or brand
People scroll through feeds quickly. Show what you're selling, your brand or your logo to communicate your message efficiently
C. Use high resolution images - Don’t be afraid to take your own photos
A professional photographer is maybe an unlikely option given most budget restraints. And it can be tough to locate a stock image that perfectly aligns with an ad concept.
Today’s smartphones and digital cameras are quite capable of producing high-quality photos.
Some suggestions for taking better photos:
• Keep it simple - You don't need a tone of props or complicated staging to create a compelling image.
•Think mobile first - Look at images on a mobile device and make sure that the main subject is clear and any text is legible.
• Follow the rule of thirds - Don't center your subject. Instead, your subject should be closer to either side or along the top or bottom of your image. Exception: Faces can be anywhere in the frame and bigger is often better.
• Try varied perspectives and watch your edges - Mix big and small things and try different perspectives to create contrast.
• Use interesting layouts - Consider organizing multiple objects neatly to create an appealing design and photograph the display from above.
• Add a focal point and varied textures - Make sure that you have a clear subject in the image and play with texture to create an interesting contrast.
• Light and shadow create a nice contrast - Bright light and deep shadows create a stark contrast that can make your photos more interesting.
• Use attractive color combinations - Keep a color wheel handy and use it to create interesting color combinations when selecting subjects for a photo.
D. Don’t create cognitive friction
Cognitive friction occurs when a user experiences a mismatch between your ad and your website landing page.
This mismatch leaves the user confused, unsure that they are in the right place, and more likely to abandon their search for your information.
The image on your landing page should be consistent with your ad, reaffirming your audience they’re in the right spot.
E. Size matters
Knowing the type of ad you are going to run will impact how you adjust your image.
Facebook has some specific recommendations that you need to consider such as: a single image traffic ad will require a16:9 ratio and a carousel ad will require a 1:1 ratio.
F. Preview your ads
You can preview your unpublished ad in the creation and editing flow, you can see how it will look across different placements.
5. Video ad best practices
Data suggests that within the first 9-12 seconds of a video, your audience retention begins to drop significantly which makes the the first few seconds critical to seeing a higher video completion rate.
Here are some things to consider to peak users’ interest early:
A. Keep it short
The most successful video average length ranges from 15-30 seconds.
B. Get to the point early / 3–second Video Views
You have a few seconds to capture your audience and entice them to keep watching. Make an impression at the first 3 seconds.
C. Brand later
Avoid using brand logos and taglines early in the video.
D. Optimize for no sound
Users are scrolling and nearly 80% watch video without sound. Let them understand the idea of your video even when they can’t hear it.
E. Leave them wanting more.
Always leave your audience intrigued and ready for more of your message.
2020 is the year of Facebook Video Ads
Always remember to experiment with your video ads, optimize them to be watched without sound, keep them short, create an impression with the first milliseconds and boost your business on Facebook using video for free.
6. Closing the deal with conversion ad
Facebook conversion ads allow you to reach people more likely to take desired actions on your website, which means more signups, add to carts or increased sales. Follow these steps and watch your website conversions grow.
Before you do anything with Facebook, I recommend you make sure your website is optimized for conversions and is user-friendly. The last thing you want is to send quality people to your website only for them to get confused or annoyed with your site and bounce right out.
Be sure your website explicitly states what the business does, uses trust symbols, and has writing and imagery that establishes expertise, confidence and trust.
Install your pixel
In order to launch any conversion ad on Facebook you must create and install a pixel on your website.
Why pixel?
1. Retarget website visitors. Facebook retargeting pixel data and dynamic ads allows you to show targeted ads (retarget) to people who have already visited your site or taken actions on your site(add to cart, add payment info etc).
2. Target lookalike audiences of people similar to those who have visited and taken action on your site, including people similar to those who have purchased from your site in the past. This can help expand your potential customer base.
3. Track conversions. The Facebook pixel allows you to see how people interact with your website after viewing your Facebook ad. You will be able to measure the number of leads, purchases or any other conversion you set up.
Launching conversion ads
Now that you have a website optimized for conversions, and set up a pixel that allows you to target the right people and track conversions you are ready to create and launch your conversion ad!
Determine what you want people to do when they come to your site – collect leads, increase people who add items to their cart, or complete a purchase for example. Then, using your pixel, create custom and lookalike audiences along with interests you have identified to target the right people.
Continue through the Ads Manager ad creation steps and launch your ad and monitor the results.
7. Have a long term strategy
In Facebook advertising instead of social media you have the control over the performance of your ad campaign, so you can adjust accordingly.
You shouldn’t think of instant returns (like Google Advertising), but rather have a long term Strategy.