Why do Facebook ads do so well?
Facebook’s daily user rate exceeds 70% of its users. Even though the new user rate has gone down the past couple of years, Facebook still manages to see a steady increase in advertising revenue over years due to Facebook ads. In a survey by Kleiner Perkins, it was found that 78% of consumers say they’ve discovered products on Facebook. So many brands have resorted to Facebook Ads for their marketing goals.
It is no secret that organic traffic for business accounts fare way less than paid ads. The ever-changing algorithm of the social platform has made it a challenge for the brands to reach the audience with their content. Through Facebook Ads, micro-targeting features allow you to reach your exact target audience. That means Facebook ads can get your message in front of the people who are most likely to want your products or services.
That’s great for your budget, conversion rates, and return on investment. You only pay to reach the most valuable potential customers. It’s important to understand the different Facebook ad types and targeting options before you dive in if you want to get the best results. In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know, from planning your first ad to developing advanced campaign strategies. Not only Facebook, but Instagram has also moved to Ads manager for boosting results.
Reasons – The targeting options in Facebook Ads are varied, unlike any other platform. A brand marketer can reach his audience using audience, gender, location and even the “interests” of Facebook users. The Ads Manager also has a behavior section where the audience can range from schools they study in, brands can pick an audience who have their anniversaries or birthdays coming up and even target based on geographical location.
What kind of ads can brands run?
Content-based categories
Facebook lets your brand choose an objective and also types of content that can be advertised as part of your campaign. Some of the options offered are
Image ads – Create a simple and attractive ad with an image to boost an existing post or an event. This is a great way for new advertisers to get started.
Videos – Like images, videos with less text (advised) can be added. Pro tip: They can be GIFs as well.
Carousel – A carousel ad can contain up to 10 images or videos in your ad. This format is used to highlight multiple products of your store, multiple advantages of a single product, etc.
Collection Ads – This type of Facebook paid ads are offered only for mobile devices. For instance, adding such multiple images allows you to showcase five products that customers can click to buy.
Categories based on placement
Facebook offers the option Sponsored posts which can help your brand increase traffic, likes, views, conversions, and other advertising goals. These posts can be targeted to a certain demographic with interests. Facebook generates most of its revenue from sponsored posts that appear on user feeds.
Facebook’s right-side ads
While the content that you can add in both types of posts are similar, these ads would need an extra budget. Unless your target audience leaves the page, the ad will be plastered on the right side of the Facebook page. The user will not be able to scroll past these ads, unlike the conventional sponsored posts.
5 strategies your marketer can follow to run a successful campaign
Targeting
Targeting the right audience plays a vital role in determining the success of a Facebook ad campaign. Facebook shows an option to view if you audience setting is defined or broad. Both ends of the spectrum will not provide good results for your campaign. It is wise to start with a narrow audience while starting the ads. For eg, if you are a fitness company, then start by targeting the audience who are interested in “Losing weight” and then later broaden the categories over days by adding categories like “weight lifting” or specific keywords like “boxing classes”, “MMA classes”, etc.
You can also use audience targeting to create different ads for groups related to different business goals. For example, you can speak to existing customers differently than you do to people who have never heard of your business before. You can also offer promotions based on your existing relationship.
Pro tip: Make sure you are careful while targeting the local audience and see if the content is relevant to them. Be careful with the assumptions you make about your audience when choosing your targeting options. We often see ads targeted to us in languages we don’t understand just because of location settings.
Customizing your copywriting
Learn to focus on your content. Nothing can beat results than a high-quality ad copy. Not only does the content have to position the product or service in an attractive way, but it also has to be customized for the target audience. For eg, a fashion brand cannot write generic ad content for all women, men, and kidswear. Create different content for platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Understanding the customer’s state of mind in these different platforms of critical here.
Pro Tip: Also, one important element missed by the marketers – the ads have to be customized based on the device that the audience is being targeted at. This step is usually neglected by marketers but one has to remember that ads have to be visually pleasing to gain more clicks.
Use the split test
Wondering which content will work for your ad? Do you have 2 images that you are confused about? Which goal objective will work better for your ad – Sales or Site traffic? While companies used to run multiple ads as a trial run to gauge results before running the actual campaign, Facebook now lets you do split tests in one ad with multiple content pieces or a different audience or objectives.
After a test period, the campaign numbers clearly show which one performs better and the brand can continue to run that ad campaign in the long run.
Adding CTA buttons
What makes your Facebook ad ideal? The customer should not be confused about your ad. Is the brand’s goal to increase brand awareness, get a lead, or sell a product through these ads? No matter what, your ad should have a clear call-to-action. Without it, Facebook users will see your ad, but they’ll have no idea where to click, or what to do.
Promoting Influencer posts through Facebook Ads
The platform offers paid partnership options between the influencers and the brand. If a brand associates with an influencer on Facebook or Instagram through the paid partnership option, then the brand can boost their posts through Ads Manager.
Previously, marketers could only boost a creator’s post by sharing it first. Now Facebook has added the ability to directly boost the post as it appears on the creator’s Page.
Marketers can use Facebook targeting and custom audiences to reach the right people and drive business results. The creator simply needs to give the marketer permission to boost the post when they compose their message and tag the Page using the branded content tool.
Like the above image, if the content creator has been added as a partner, you will find the content to be boosted in Ads manager under branded content.
Has your brand used Facebook Ads before? Do you have any pressing doubts about the platform? Do let us know below in the comments section and start a conversation with us. You can also visit our website, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages to reach out to us.