Nine Awesome Tips for Running a Successful Facebook Ad Campaign

Did you know that there are over 2 billion monthly Facebook users worldwide?

This means that Facebook has more active users than Whatsapp, Twitter and Instagram combined. Considering these numbers, it’s no surprise that Facebook has become one of the most powerful platforms in the world.

While the primary function of Facebook may be to connect with your social network, it also serves as a powerful marketing platform.

Creating an ad on Facebook is a powerful tool to help generate traffic, increase awareness and boost sales. In order to stand out from the competition, it’s essential to understand how to create an ad that is appealing and highly-converting.

Whether your business is a hopeful startup or an established company, Facebook ads are sure to benefit your business.

Here are nine effective tips that will help to ensure your Facebook ad campaign is a success.

1. Create an Engaging Ad

The right advertisement can make or break your campaign.

Let’s consider that the average time spent on Facebook per day is fifty minutes.

This means that you may only have a short time period to make an impression on your audience. So, your ad must be engaging enough to catch your audience’s attention and prevent them from scrolling onward.

Learning to create an engaging ad combines the right copy with the right graphics. It can also help to keep the cost of your ads low and appeal to a wider audience. Here are some points to keep in mind for creating an engaging ad:

1. Write a catchy headline: this is best achieved by asking your audience a question they can relate to

2. Keep your copy short and simple: higher chance of keeping your audience’s attention

3. Use emoticons: this helps to better engage with your audience

4. Avoid excessive use of hashtags: this appears too direct to the audience

You can also consider the use of video in your ads. Remember, Facebook videos play automatically on the news feed, so this may help catch your audience’s attention.

The most important factor in creating an appealing ad is to limit your copy. When people see excessive words and bulky paragraphs, they become intimidated and move on.

2. Use Striking Imagery

One of the most crucial aspects of your ad is the graphic associated with it.

While most people focus on the copy of the ad, the visual content is arguably just as significant.

Remember, the image does not have to directly relate to your business. So, skip your brand logo and utilize an image that will actually resonate with people.

For an example, let’s use a new dating company looking to generate more sign-ups for their website. Rather than utilizing their logo as the main graphic, they may want to consider a graphic of two people that are local to the area being advertised, and in a location that is familiar to the audience.

This helps the audience connect with the photo in a more personal way than a simple logo. When people are able to connect with a photo, and see a face behind the name, it allows them to establish more trust in your company.

Not exactly a budding photographer? Don’t fret.

Make use of stock images that allow individuals to utilize beautiful images both legally, and often for free.

3. Narrow Your Audience

One of the most powerful tools in creating a Facebook ad is the ability to create a custom audience. This feature allows you to target only a certain demographic of people that best relate to your product or service.

Instead of spending time and money creating a general ad, you’re going to want to first establish who you want the ad to be seen by.

Who do you define as your ideal customer? Create a profile of your target audience and use this profile to help define your ad. Facebook will allow you to create an audience that specifically targets:

1. Gender

2. Age

3. Geographical location

4. Likes and interests

5. Profession

6. Behavioral patterns

Let’s consider a business that has created a new men’s cologne. Rather than creating a Facebook ad that is delivered to all Facebook users, it’s more efficient to target the specific audience.

For the purpose of this example, let’s say the target audience is professional men.

We can start by selecting a male-only audience. From here, we can cater to the professional aspect by selecting men only being the ages of 25-50. Next, we can select a specific geographical region. Because we are targeting professionals, we may want to select a radius within the downtown working core.

Just like that, we have created a custom audience that will be saved to your Facebook page.

These specifications are simple, yet extremely effective means of creating an ad that is delivered to the right audience. This will ensure the time and money being spent on ads is as efficient as possible.

4. Properly Time Your Ads

Now that we have created our custom audience, we can then move on to selecting the right time for the ads to appear.

What many people don’t know is that you can turn your ads on and off depending on what times and days you feel your ad is best performing.

Let’s consider that the highest traffic on Facebook occurs between 1 and 4 pm. Also, on Thursday and Friday, the engagement is 18 percent higher. Then it follows that the worst time to post is weekends before 8 a.m. and after 8 p.m.

However, if your goal is to establish an online presence, posting an ad on the weekends may serve as a benefit. Because weekends are traditionally not working hours, having weekend ads will give your company an online presence even whilst you are away.

If your business is specifically targeting millennials, timing is especially important. 50 percent of users aged 18-24 go on Facebook within a few moments of first waking up. So, for any businesses targeting youth, ads turned on in the morning may be more effective.

5. Install a Facebook Pixel

If you don’t already have a Facebook pixel installed on your website, you’re going to want to install one.

A Facebook pixel is a code that you put on your website. This pixel helps you track conversions from Facebook ads, and built a target audience based on qualified leads. These leads are people that have engaged with, or performed an action, on your website.

After viewing your Facebook ad and visiting the website, the pixel allows you to see how that person is interacting with your website.

Keeping track of these leads helps to create a more specific ad for the future. Once you have a good sense of your leads, you can remarket your ads to this specific group.

Let’s use the example of a real estate brokerage. The pixel would allow them to see who is clicking on their advertisement that is marketing a bungalow for sale. For everyone that clicked on this ad, they become the members making up your retargeting group. From here, your future bungalow advertisements will be directed to this group.

This pixel helps establish a committed group of users who have a history of clicking on your ads. This gives you a better understanding of your audience and forms a solid group for future marketing efforts

6. Utilize the Feed for Placement

Depending on the objective of your ad, there are many placement options available.

When you think back to your Facebook newsfeed, you’ll realize that you see ads on the right-hand side as well as within the newsfeed itself.

Choosing the right feed will deliver your ad to the newsfeed of your target audience. Some argue this type of ad is more effective as it appears less direct and better incorporates with the rest of the feed. It heightens the potential for engagement and blends more naturally into the user’s regular “scroll routine”

Because these ads are shown with the feed, it’s essential they stand out. This is best achieved through a catchy headline and a graphic.

The posts on the right-hand sidebar are not as favored. This is because most users understand this area is devoted to ads and is outside of the desired feed.

If you’re starting your first campaign, opt for the feed placement. From here, you can test out other placement options and see which placement best serves your ad.

7. Include a Call-to-Action

A call to action is a simple way to drive traffic to your website or retain contact information.

This is the part of your ad that is encouraging people to interact with your ad rather than simply view the ad. This action could be as simple as the ad incorporating an option to visit your website, or even signing up for a newsletter.

The most effective call to action encourages people to change their patterns and improve their life and functionality. One example may be a real estate brokerage that encourages users to sign up for their free list of available properties rather than haphazardly searching online.

These call to actions are a simple means of increasing consumer traffic, gaining contact information and boosting sales.

8. Use a Frequency Cap

Ad frequency refers to the number of times an individual user sees your ad.

While your audience is more likely to remember your brand or product after seeing your ad more than once, you don’t want to over saturate with the same ad.

If your audience is seeing your ad too often, they’ll become too accustomed to it and stop paying attention. This will increase your costs, while also leading to reduced effectiveness.

The key is to monitor how often people are viewing your ads and put a cap on it. This is where the frequency cap comes in.

A frequency cap maximizes the number of times that one individual user sees your ad within a specific period of time. This also helps to maximize your investment and spread your ad to a wider audience of people.

9. Use A/B Testing

Which ad do you think will be more highly converted? A simple ad with minimal text and an eye-catching graphic or an ad containing a basic headline followed by a short, one-minute clip?

A/B testing allows users to experiment with different types of ads to determine which one is more effective. It helps to target the best ad for your specific audience. After all, there’s no sense in investing time and money into ads that just don’t convert.

This testing helps determine which headlines, copy, graphics, and call-to-actions are most effective for your target audience. It will, in turn, help you find out which ads are best converting your audience.

The A/B testing experiment usually runs for a few weeks. Once the experiment is completed, a conclusion will be made as to which ad outperformed the other.

Simple? Yes. Effective? Extremely.

Are You Ready to Start Your First Facebook Ad Campaign?

Facebook is one of the most powerful marketing tools available for modern day businesses. It has allowed digital marketing to become the most efficient means of marketing for businesses both small and large.

The bottom line is, if you’re not running Facebooks ads, you can best be sure that your competition is. In order to compete with these businesses, it’s essential to increase your presence on Facebook.

Facebooks ads are a simple, yet effective means of increasing consumer traffic, building up brand familiarity and boosting sales.

From creating target audiences, to ensuring your ads are running at the most effective time of day, there are many steps that you can take to ensure you are getting the most out of your ads.

So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to start your first Facebook Ad campaign.

If you’re new to the world of digital marketing be sure to check out our website for more Facebook ad tips and tricks!