Whether you are new to the business world or you’ve been in it for years, there’s a fact you can’t ignore: most of your customers and potential customers are on social media. More specifically, on Facebook. Because of this online audience, investing in Facebook ads can do wonders for your business. However, not all ads placed on Facebook are created equal. Below are some elements common to the most effective ads.
Components of Effective Facebook Ads
1. Visually-Engaging
Thousands of pictures are uploaded onto Facebook every minute. For your ad to be noticed, it must be able to compete with the multitude of images already present on the platform. The Facebook algorithm favors visual content, just as the instant-gratification seeking viewer does. This makes it extremely important to ensure that your ads feature eye-catching images, or other visuals like a useful infographic.
2. Relevant
Relevance is a crucial element of any effective ad. Depending on the settings chosen while developing your ad, you could be spending money every time a person clicks on it. If your ad is visually engaging and garners a high percentage of clicks, but is not relevant to the audience you’ve targeted, you could be incurring losses. Make sure that those who click on your ads will find what they are looking for and are the people you’re intended your message to be directed to.
3. Use Video
There is no question that video content captures attention on social media channels. In fact, videos uploaded directly to Facebook get 30% more views than those hosted elsewhere, making them more than worth the consideration. Just be sure to stay conscious of your budget as video production costs and higher costs per impression or click, tend to make the full spend for these video ads higher than other options on Facebook. (Consider looking into other video-sharing options on Facebook such as Facebook Live.)
4. Offers Value
The value proposition of your ad communicates to those who’ve viewed it why they should click on it. It tells the story of why your products or services are unique, and encourages website visits and conversions (or the particular optimization you have chosen for a particular ad). A word of caution: don’t set an unrealistic value proposition. Know your strengths and communicate them clearly.
5. Clear Call-to-Action
Without a call-to-action, your target audience is left without direction. A great call-to-action will encourage viewers to click on your ad. It will also develop a sense of urgency to interact with your brand and explore your products or services.
6. Constantly Refresh
A Facebook ad should be refreshed every couple of weeks to keep it looking new and to ensure your audience has not been exhausted. The change can be as small as updating the image or headline, but making these revisions is critical to ensure your ads do not become stale and ineffective.
7. Use a Conversion Pixel
Use of a conversion pixel will help you to keep track of your Facebook ad results. By using the conversion tracking pixel tool, you can create a piece of code to place on your website. This code places an invisible pixel image on your website, which updates Facebook when someone visits or takes an action based on the pixel parameters you’ve determined. This is useful for monitoring the success of your advertising efforts, allowing you to make revisions to improve your strategy on an ongoing basis.
8. Use Multi-Product Ads
By making use of this strategy, you’ll increase the chances of your ad being clicked on. Facebook multi-product ads allow you to display up to three products in a single ad. This gives your audience more variety, increasing your chances of your offering appealing to varied tastes or needs. This option allows unique information to be shared about each product or service within the same ad and can direct traffic to specific information based on the action they take.
9. Incorporate Facebook Contests
While not all effective Facebook ads will make use of this element, those that do tend to get great results. Contests are an easy way to entice social media users to give you their contact information. If you run your contests properly – by giving away relevant prizes that would be of interest to your buyer persona, you can capture a huge amount of targeted leads.
10. Split Test Ads
Utilize a series of ads with a common goal. Each person in your target audience has a different need or pain point. The idea behind split testing (or A/B testing) your ad sets on a particular audience segment, is that if your first ad did not appeal to the viewer, then your second one should. By tracking and analyzing you ads, you can tailor the ad sets to achieve your goals. All elements in the ad can be tested including colors, images, copy, calls to action, layout and audience targeting. Decide which metric you would like to measure (e.g. clicks, conversion rate, etc.) and monitor which ad version(s) perform best, changing one element at a time.
For the best results, combine these elements as it makes sense, and you’ll find yourself leaps and bounds ahead of your competition. Need a little support? Thrive Internet Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency. Our team can help you develop and manage an effective social media advertising strategy. Contact us today for more information.
