Best Practices for Facebook Advertising

Facebook is one of the most tried and true social media platforms, so naturally it will always be an integral part of your brand’s social media strategy. Facebook ads sneak into our feeds without us even noticing, sandwiched in between “Healthy Dinners Under 30 minutes” and your distant acquaintance’s trip to Hawaii. It is a must to incorporate Facebook ads into your monthly advertising, but it is essential that you go about it in the right way. Read on to learn about some of the best practices for Facebook advertising, from an overview of the methods, to key KPIs, and finally the general tips for success.

As you ease your way into the world of Facebook advertising, start with one (or all!) of the four main types: image, video, carousel, and dynamic. There’s no better way to jump-start your company’s Facebook advertising journey than diving in head first and seeing where you land. The first and most simple advertising tactic you can think of is the image. You know what they say: a picture is worth a thousand words - so make your image count! Then there is the elusive video advertisement. Here you have extra time to pack in the information and message you want to convey. But pack too much information within the video and you’re sure to lose the consumers’ attention. Create something that is engaging and enticing - with every second topping the last so they’re sure to stay until the end. When producing the video, don’t forget to keep a thumbnail in mind; something to show them the basis of what the video will be about without giving it all away. Now we get into the trickier types - carousel and dynamic. The carousel ad will display several different “cards” with a different product and link-through to their respective product pages. Here you will want to feature “the best of the best” that you have to offer so they will be mesmerized by your product selection. The proof is in the aesthetics and the order placement. You have the ability to tell a story within the carousel and show the consumer to look no further because you have everything they need! Finally, we have the dynamic ad which will promote targeted content to consumers that are most likely interested. Let’s say someone has visited your product page but abandoned without purchasing - that exact product will appear on their Facebook feed. This is where you’ll want to make your attempt to stay top of mind and close the deal!

Now that you’ve chosen your advertising tactic, it is time to build out the ad itself. Paying attention to some of the following best practices will help maximize the impact of your ad.

1. Keep the Text to a Minimum:

Obviously you want to choose an engaging image for your Facebook ad so that it does not get lost within the Facebook News Feed. But, it is also important to keep the text included on your image to a minimum. Previously there was a rule in place that put a 20% limit on the amount of the image that could be text. This rule is no longer in place, but it is a good idea to consider limiting the text you place on the image. The busier your image is, the less likely consumers will be to stop their scrolling and digest your ad. We are typically scrolling our social media feeds in a highly passive state, so our brains want the simple answer. An engaging image with straight-forward, bolded text is far more likely to capture the consumers’ attention.

1. Shorten Your Copy:

In a similar vein, it is important to keep your copy short to cater to declining attention spans. As of July 2020, users spend an average of 2.5 seconds on social media content when they are on a Desktop, and this number falls to 1.7 seconds when they are using a Mobile device. With this in mind you obviously cannot expect your audience to read three paragraphs about your brand. When writing your copy make sure you focus on the basics and lead with what makes your offer enticing. The consumer needs to know WHY this would benefit their life and how to get it.

1. Including a Call to Action:

Facebook includes a selection of call to action buttons you can add to each of your advertisements, and they will make a huge impact on the success of your ad. Depending on the goals of your business you can select from things like Book Now, Shop Now, Call Us, Contact Us, Learn More, See Offers, and more. This Call to Action button will then link the customer directly to your website or contact form, making the entire interaction incredibly quick and easy. The copy space next to the button is also invaluable to your campaign. In the button you are telling the consumer WHAT to do, but the copy space to the left should tell consumers WHY they should do it.

Your ad’s run has completed - now what? What should you be looking for when navigating Facebook Ads Manager and what do all the numbers mean? We’ll start with impressions - the total number of times your ad was viewed by consumers. Two things to remember are: impressions are counted when your ad appears on screen, even if the user didn’t see it, and they also can include multiple views by the same consumer. Impressions are a good starting point to understand how many consumers are being hit with your ad. As you get comfortable with understanding impressions, let’s move on to reach - the number of times your ad has been viewed. Reach is an important KPI to pay attention to because it will help you identify the most unique viewers of your ad in order to target them. And speaking of unique viewers, it’s important to differentiate between link click and unique link clicks. Where link clicks simply measures the total number of clicks your ad receives, unique link clicks will only total the number of different consumers that have clicked on your ad. Because your goal is to reach the most number of different people, unique link clicks will help you determine the effectiveness of your ad to engage with as many people as possible. Finally, we land on click-through rate - which is the percentage of ad clicks out of impressions. This is where you’ll find the number of impressions that were able to entice the consumer to click to your ad, thus being one of the most important KPIs to monitor. Understanding click-through rate will be able to help you adjust advertising strategies accordingly.

Armed with all of this information, you are ready to launch a successful Facebook ad campaign. Facebook has enormous power to reach a vast audience of potential customers, and should not be ignored when building out your advertising strategy.