Let’s face it: Facebook Ads can be an expensive method of trial and error. You may get lucky and hit one out of the park, landing you a high engagement level and an increase in revenue, but if you don’t know what you are doing, you run the risk of seeing your hard-earned (and maybe scarce!) cash vanish into cyber space before you know what’s hit you.
Here is my quick and dirty guide to running a successful Facebook ad.
Graphics Matter.
When you are scrolling through your feed, what typically grabs your attention: a block of text or a bright graphic? Most of you will have said a bright graphic, and it’s true. Find an amazing photo that is relevant to the ad you are running and use that to initially draw your audience in. Also, avoid filing your graphic with text- it will be tempting, trust me, I get it, but ads with a high percentage of text simply do not perform as well.
Ditch the Monologue.
Once your audience has stopped on your ad (bless their hearts!) you need to keep them interested, and you need to keep them interested FAST. People often go on social media as a way to decompress and zone out, so attacking their eyes with a soliloquy that rivals Juliet’s in Romeo and Juliet is probably going to cause them to lose interest. While my personal favourite, William Shakespeare, had a mesmerizing and lyrical way with words, there is still a time and a place, and that place is likely not your ad. Keep it short!
Hook, Line, Sinker
The key to a good song is the hook. Once you hook them, you’re golden. A Facebook Ad is similar: find your hook. What is going to jump out at your consumer? What is going to draw them in and compel them to engage? Bait them. Offer them enough information that they want to find out more, but not so much as to give away the whole shebang without any further effort.
Call To Action
I cannot say enough about the importance of a strong Call to Action. With all due respect, people can be lazy, as mentioned above, a large amount of the population goes on social media in order to zone out, which means you do not have their full attention. Keep it simple and keep it clear: tell people what you want them to do. Do you want them to learn more about a particular service? Add a button that says, “Learn More!”. Do you want them to book an appointment? Add a button that says, “Book Now!”. Put your bossy pants on! J
Tailor Your Audience Like You Should Be Tailoring Your Pants
Okay, not everybody tailors their clothing (myself included), but realistically, we all should be. They would just fit better! You can buy a size 10 off the rack and have it fit snugly in some areas and loosely in others, OR you could buy a size 12, and then have a tailor adjust them to fit you PERFECTLY. This is exactly the same thing. You can have a generic and oddly fitting audience, or you can narrow your audience to the exact demographic that you want to target. Why WOULDN’T you take advantage of that ability?
This is a bonus tip.
It is always good to do your research, so do a quick, Google search and examine Facebook ads that have been successful, and why, and then take those components to help you fashion your own ad.
Do you still feel out of depth when it comes to ads? If yes, drop your email and we can chat about it! Let’s conquer those fears together!