Chances are the majority of your target audience spends several hours scrolling through Facebook each week. In fact, at least 1.82 billion people log into Facebook every single day. This makes Facebook ads a strong option for connecting with the people who are most likely to be interested in everything your brand has to offer.
However, it’s important to have a thorough understanding of the various elements that affect Facebook’s algorithms in order to see success from your Facebook Ad campaigns. Here are some of the most important dos and don’ts to keep in mind to create click-worthy ads that grab the right people’s attention!
Utilize Visual Content
Creative, aesthetically-pleasing graphic design is a must when planning ads that will instantly grab your target audience’s attention and portray your brand in the best possible light. Choosing sleek, modern patterns, fonts, and colour schemes for your brand’s logo and the rest of your ad indicates to your audience that your brand also keeps up with the latest innovations within your industry. If you’re using photography in your ads, ensure it’s high quality and eye-catching. Ads that prioritize images over excessive text also tend to be more memorable and algorithm-friendly.
Stay Up to Date on Facebook’s Policy Changes
Facebook is an ever-evolving platform that seems to change something every time you log in, and its ad policies are certainly no different. Ensuring what you’re promoting and how you’re doing it is allowed on Facebook is a must, or else you may face situations where your ads are automatically paused, or in worse cases, your account banned. For example, certain types of targeting are no longer allowed to be used for housing ads to prevent discrimination. Checking for these updates regularly and optimizing if needed can help you keep your ads from being paused or rejected.
Adapt to Boost Conversions Despite Privacy Concerns
The release of iOS 14 has caused concern among ad creators regarding the effects they may have on conversion rates. Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency Framework addresses growing privacy concerns by making it easier for iPhone and iPad users to opt out of the data tracking that is used to target specific ads to specific people. This means that businesses who run Facebook Ads will need to adapt to limitations on conversion event targeting, as well as elimination of real-time metrics, data breakdowns about the people who see your ads, and attribution window reductions, resulting in a decrease in the overall accuracy of your results.
Incorporate Reviews
Your potential customers want to purchase products and services from reputable companies they trust, which can be challenging if they aren’t familiar with your brand. By asking customers what they think about the product or service they received and incorporating these comments into your Facebook ads, you can help your target audience build trust in your brand. Be sure to choose reviews that offer specific, valuable information about what your customers liked to share your brand’s strengths with your target audience.Â
Always Be Testing New Ideas
Your last Facebook Ad campaign may have brought in a strong ROI, but that doesn’t mean your previous strategy is the only one that works for you. Similarly, running an unsuccessful ad campaign does not mean you won’t be able to find a strategy that is a better match for your business in the future. Constantly tweaking your ad strategy to test new ideas and keeping an eye on your engagement metrics can help you evaluate which approaches are more or less successful than others. Some examples of ways you can optimize your campaign include:
- Ad schedule
- Creatives
- Call to action
- Bid strategy
- Placements & formats
Use Your Pixel
Your Facebook Pixel is a code snippet that is installed on your website which ‘fires’ when visitors complete preset desired actions on your website. These can include clicking a certain button, visiting a specific series of pages, or adding something to their basket. This information is invaluable as it can later assist you with retargeting these products and services to your customers in the form of ads on their Facebook and Instagram feeds.
Include a Call to Action
Getting your target audience to click on your ads is only half the battle. In most circumstances, the goal of your Facebook ad campaign is something more than simply letting viewers know your brand exists, and making what you want them to do with the information in your ad crystal clear is a must. Facebook allows only 25 and 90 characters for the headline and description respectively, so don’t waste this space. Be sure your ad includes a working link to bring viewers to your business’s website or Facebook page, and include a discount code, the date an offer expires to create a sense of urgency, or other specific details that nudge them in the direction of what you want them to do next.
Don’t Create Text-Heavy Ads
Don’t forget that the majority of engagement even the best ads are going to get is a quick glance as people scroll through their feeds. Text isn’t memorable, your audience won’t have time to read more than a few carefully-chosen words, and it doesn’t stand out from the rest of your audience’s feeds in the same way that well-designed visuals do.
Getting viewers to click on your ads in the first place can be just as challenging as convincing them to follow through on a purchase. Ask yourself whether your ads would grab your attention, get the message across to you, and interest you in learning more in just a second or two, and revamp ads that are little more than walls of text to make them stand out.
Don’t Make Bidding Errors
Budgeting and bidding incorrectly can stop you from getting the most out of your Facebook marketing budget. Determining the best amount to pay for each click or impression your ad receives can take a bit of trial and error, but it’s important to pay close attention to your engagement early on to make sure you are getting a reasonable amount of clicks and don’t end up spending far more than you planned to.
Don’t Neglect to Optimize Your Target Audience
Don’t aimlessly spew your ads and expect positive results. Getting views from the right people is more important than getting more views, and optimizing your target audience settings allows you to specify exactly who you want Facebook to show your ads to. Forgetting to optimize your target audience will mean that ads for most types of products will be shown to an irrelevant audience, leading to decreased engagement and therefore raising your cost-per-click.
Before you start to run any ads, research the location, age range, interests, and languages of the people who purchase your products and services. Adjusting your targeting settings on your Facebook Ads account to match these will help Facebook find more of your intended customers. Plus, these days, everyone expects personalized content at every stage of the buyer’s journey. If you only want people in a specific location to see ads for your local business, promote a birthday offer, or sell products intended for one gender, these options can be adjusted to optimize who sees your ads, boost personalization, and thus, increase conversion rates. Â
Don’t Be Click-Baity
Don’t mislead your audience by creating click-baity headlines and creatives. If you click on an enticing headline, would you appreciate being taken to a landing page that didn’t align with the ad’s promises? Probably not. Your audience can report your page, leading to a banned ads account. By launching clickbaits, you will be diminishing trust with your audience and your subsequent product or service. You certainly don’t want to build an inaccurate impression of your business to your potential customers through your ads. Bad news travels fast, and you’ll be setting the wrong precedent for your business.
Don’t Forget About Data
Sometimes the best way to figure out what to try next shouldn’t be completely random. To begin with, it’s difficult to know what will resonate and get the results you’re after, and what will flop. In those cases, it’s often best to take the bull by the horns and take a chance to begin building your own benchmarks. After you have run a Facebook Ads campaign, take a look at the data in order to make an informed decision of how to run a better campaign next time. When it comes to marketing, it’s never a good idea to assume. Get some real analytics to back up your assumptions, or, be proven wrong so you know what NOT to do next time.
In Conclusion
Facebook advertising utilizes complex algorithms that are constantly evolving, and you shouldn’t feel discouraged if your first ad doesn’t perform as well as you would like it to. You won’t always know whether a particular strategy is going to work until you try it, and you have plenty of settings to adjust to optimize your ad to increase its performance.
At Periphery Digital, our Facebook ad experts can help you bring your business’s marketing strategy to the next level. Although there are dozens of strategies that can help point you in the right direction, not every campaign’s impact on your business will align perfectly with what you expected to see or even what appears in your engagement metrics. Our experts are here to manage your Facebook ads for you, so you can focus on your business operations. We have an experienced team who can manager your account end-to-end with proven results from happy clients. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you take your Facebook marketing to new heights!
