Despite all of the advantages that Facebook offers advertisers, seeing success on Facebook ultimately comes down to your strategy and how well you implement it. Your ad will perform best if:
It’s targeted to a specific audience
Audience quality is more important than size because, with Facebook advertising, the goal is engagement and/or conversions.
Casting a wide net to individuals who are not your target audience will tank your relevance scores and give you bad data to work from.
The good news is that Facebook’s targeting capabilities are more robust than any other platform, including demographics, interests, location, and even behavior.
That means you can get far more specific on who you want to see your ads. For example, you don’t have to settle for “women between ages 25 and 45” when you can target “women between ages 25 and 45 who like reading and whose favorite author is Suzanne Collins.”
By getting granular, you end up excluding users who are not your target market, showing ads to only those who will find it most relevant and who are most likely to convert.
It’s relevant to the audience
Relevance is critical for success when using Facebook advertising. Remember, you are spending money when someone views or clicks on your ad (depending on the settings you use).
If you’re showing ads that aren’t relevant to your target audience, you’re wasting your time and money and will likely not see success with any kind of advertising.
Back in February 2015, Facebook launched a feature in the Facebook advertising platform that rates your ads and gives you a relevance score, similar to Ad Rank in Google Ads.
The more relevant your ad image, ad copy, and destination page is to your audience, the higher your score is — and the more favorably Facebook will treat your ads.
It’s visual
Visual content is not only treated more favorably in the Facebook algorithm, but it’s also more likely to be shared and remembered than written content.
The lesson for Facebook marketers? No matter what type of ad you create, your image needs to be visually appealing.
The visuals and copy are closely aligned
Let’s say you’re running an ad for astrological jewelry. You’re targeting people who like astrology and whose birthday is coming up.
You could use generic “buy a bracelet with your astrology sign” copy paired with an image/video of all the jewelry.
A better strategy, however, would be to target those whose birthdays are coming up, and create a more specific ad targeting that astrological sign (e.g. “All you Geminis out there will love this” paired with a video of a specific Gemini product).
Aligning copy and visuals in a way that’s relevant to the targeted audience provides a feeling of personalization which increases the likelihood of engagement and/or conversion.
You’ll also see better ad performance due to higher relevance scores.
It includes an enticing value proposition
A value proposition tells the reader why they should click on your ad to learn more about your product.
How is your product or service different from any other? Why should the viewer click on your ad to see your website?
Your value proposition should be believable. For example, saying you have the greatest sandwiches in the world will not make people come to your business’s Page, but maybe offering 20% off will.
Or, perhaps adding social proof will help — something like, “Sandwiches loved by over one million people every year!
Come try yours today and get 20% off your order with this coupon.”
It has a clear call-to-action
A beautiful and relevant ad is great, but without a call-to-action (CTA), your viewer might not know what to do next.
Add a CTA like “Buy now and save X%,” or “Offer ends soon” and add a sense of urgency to your viewer. Your CTA should encourage people to click on your ad now.
How do Facebook Ads work?
Facebook Ads work by targeting a group of Facebook users that all share similar characteristics, and placing your ad on these users’ News Feeds or right column.
There are eight different ad formats you can choose from, each catering to the specific goals you might want your ad to accomplish.
To invest in Facebook Ads effectively, you first need to know whom your ads are directed toward.
When creating a new ad on Facebook, you can create a new audience that includes many customizable characteristics. Among them are:
- Location.
- Age.
- Sex.
- Languages spoken.
- Interests and behaviors.
- Their connections to your other business-related pages on Facebook.
You can also create what’s called a Lookalike Audience, which permits Facebook to create an audience for you that best resembles a particular “source.” This source can include some or all the information listed above.
