SMALL CHANGES CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
With more businesses and advertisers coming to Facebook with money to spend there is more and more pressure created in the ecosystem. However, there are ways for your business to stand out with simple tricks that will make your ads perform better.
1. USE EYE-CATCHING IMAGES
Unlike AdWord’s Paid Search campaigns, Facebook advertising relies heavily on the creation of the ad.
What does this mean? Well, a large portion of what you are seeing on a Facebook ad is dominated by an image of some sort, about 80%. This is the reason why you should be using images that capture the attention of your audience, not only should they be eye-catching, but they should also be relevant to whatever the ad is advertising. Whether it is a product or a service that is being served to your audience, always make sure that the image is relevant, high-quality, and sticky.
2. WRITE COMPELLING AD COPY THAT IS HARD TO IGNORE
If you are not A/B testing different ad copy with your ads you’ve waited too long. We won’t get too in-depth about that here. You can check out our article on 5 Facebook Advertising Tips to learn more about that.
There are many advertisers that overlook the importance of testing different variables on an ad, or only test imagery – and use the same ad copy over and over again. Facebook knows when it has served your ads numerous times and your ads will reach the ad fatigue stage, this will have a negative effect on your ad campaigns and cause your CTR to decline, which is exactly what you’re trying to avoid.
A good way to avoid ad fatigue is to create various different variations for each of your Facebook ad campaigns offering the same product, keep a close eye on the ad frequency (times your ad is served to an individual) if it begins to come close to 2.5 pause it, and start the next ad variation.
Come up with creative ways to communicate to your audience what it is that you are advertising, test, choose the winners, and repeat.
3. CREATE OFFERS THAT CAN’T BE OVERLOOKED
There is more to Facebook ads than creating the right audience, having great ad copy, and imagery that stands out. Of course, there are many variables that can be tested and many different ways to capture the attention of your audience, but why not offer something valuable? Something that your customers are waiting for you to offer, and when you do they can’t pass up on it.
Your ad may be served to the right audience, but they are not finding value in what is being advertised they might not see a reason to click on the ad. Come up with something that will make your audience click on the ad, something that brings value to their life more than a picture of a beautiful landscape, they can see that on Instagram without giving up their contact information.
You don’t necessarily have to give away free products in order for your ad to get clicks and get traction, but a free trial or a limited time discount on products may be something they can’t give up. Keep in mind that the ad will only be there for a couple of seconds while they are scrolling up or down their newsfeed, make the offer good and to the point.
4. SOCIAL PROOF – SHOW REAL DATA IF YOU HAVE IT
Marketers are not the only people that appreciate data, all people appreciate data that can be backed. If your product or service creates benefit (they all do, if not, you shouldn’t be in business) what better way than to show it to your audience? This can be anything from growth data to reviews, to charts, graphs, testimonials, etc.
When you’re trying to gain clicks and traffic, it’s better to use reviews. Numbers and data can work wonders when combined, adding social proof to the combination will change your CTR in a positive way.
5. TEST & MANIPULATE AD PLACEMENT
Facebook allows you to decided where your ad are being shown, and there are a handful of places for your ads to be served. To do this go to your Facebook Business Manager, click on one of your campaigns and select the ad set you wish to edit – this is where you can edit placement settings.
We recommend enabling “Automatic Placements” at the beginning of your campaign, after you ads have been running for about two weeks you should have enough information to make an educated decision regarding which placements you wish your ad to be served.