Want to advertise on Facebook, but need a little help? You’re not alone. Facebook ads are challenging, and they’ve only gotten worse. For example, in 2021 Facebook ads saw a drastic increase in advertising costs. The average cost per click (CPC) for Facebook ads increased 17% from 2020 to 2021. Below are some concepts and rules that can put you in a great position to make your ads more attractive to potential customers. And they’ll help you stop wasting money.
Before you get started on content creation and budgeting, know your audience. People on Facebook are not actively searching for businesses, so we don’t use specific keywords like in Google. But we do have extremely detailed audience targeting. Which means we have control over the kinds of people who will see our ad.
There are three audience selection tools in Facebook for targeting. Core audiences are great for getting new clients. Custom audiences work primarily for retargeting. Lookalike audiences are reaching folks who are similar to your ideal customer.
It’s important to remember one more thing. Make sure your audiences are active on Facebook. We’ve seen clients advertise on Facebook only to find out that no matter how good their ads, it just wasn’t working. In those cases, they would have been better off advertising on alternative channels, like Google or LinkedIn.
Facebook has two main options for ads available.
Facebook Sponsored posts show up directly in the Facebook feed. Users see the ads as they scroll through Facebook like normal. They are displayed as prominently as posts from your friends.
The Right-Hand Column Ad displays to the right Facebook feed. Sure, pretty obvious? But what's not clear is why you would use this over a sponsored post. Well unfortunately column ads are smaller, but they can’t be scrolled past like sponsored posts in the News Feed.
In general, we prefer Facebook Sponsored. It's big but subtle as it looks just like any other post. Your customers are going to see it because they are going through their feed. We believe Right-Hand Column Ads are great for retargeting campaigns, but that side of the screen does typically get tuned out by general audiences.
Within the sponsored category there are many different types of ads. Carousel ads, Canvas ads, Page Post Engagement, Video and many more. These all have unique features that can engage your audience. Which one you’ll pick will depend entirely on your messaging and goals for your campaign.
Your Facebook ads will fail without a clear goal. You think that would be obvious, but we see it all the time. Organizations pay for ads and just expect to “get more business.” Understand exactly what it is you're trying to do with Facebook: boost brand awareness, get leads, sell directly or something else? It is also essential that your ads have a clear call-to-action that is also attractive to the audience. If you’ve won them over, make it easy for them to engage. Your customers shouldn’t have to spend any time trying to figure out where to click and where that click is taking them.
This rule states that no more than twenty percent of an ad's image can be occupied by text. This used to be a rule that was enforced by Facebook to try to quell the noise and over saturation of an ad in the newsfeed, but it is no longer enforced today. Your ad won't get rejected any more if you don’t heed this rule.
However, the 20% text rule remains an important guideline that you should still be following. Though texts on top of ads can get people to notice, it actually isn’t the driving factor that grips a person's attention. Studies have shown that text over images can actually hinder the ads effectiveness. Users saw the text or call to action and registered it as an ad and kept scrolling.
You can create the best Facebook ad copy, but you won’t truly know if it is perfect until you run tests. Don’t just completely empty your budget into one ad. Start with a small amount of money to give it a test run. You could go even further and try running two ads—compare which performs better. The most slight or subtle changes in copy or design can dramatically change the results. Luckily, you don’t have to start from scratch every time. Facebook allows you to tweak and adjust your ads.
Testing is important. Understand that a small amount of trial and error is always going to be required to maximize the results of your campaigns.
There are many facets to advertising with Facebook and it takes time, practice and attention to detail to consistently create the best ads. Hopefully some of the tips here have helped you today. Because if you can make great ads, it will lead to more sales.
Still, it doesn’t matter where you’re advertising. You must be conservative at first and understand all the options available to you on the specific platform. We understand many businesses don’t have the time (or money) to waste trying to get it right. Let us know if you need help.
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