If you’re in business, you can’t ignore Facebook.
No matter who your target market is, or how you plan on advertising your products and services, all roads point to Facebook as a place to put your marketing dollars. And with good reason.
- Worldwide, there are over 2.32 billion monthly active users as of the end of 2018.
- Over 1.52 billion people on average log onto Facebook daily.
- Around 1.74 billion use their mobile devices to access Facebook regularly.
- Five new profiles are created every second.
Think you can afford to ignore Facebook anymore?
Of course, Facebook ads might pique your interest. You may have given the Facebook platform a try or two. But while you’re an expert at whatever your business does, chances are learning how to maximize your results on Facebook is a little more complicated than you thought.
And we’ll agree with you. The ad platform is a little clunky. You’re competing for ad space with hundreds of other companies. And while you may be excited about the potential because of the case studies that exist, there are just as many ways to fail at it as there are ways to succeed.
It can literally cost you hundreds, even thousands of dollars if you do it the wrong way. Yet as you perfect your strategy, you can gain serious results. And as you improve your advertising campaigns, you’ll quickly realize there are even more ways to improve.
Just when you think your ad is perfect, there are a number of ways to make it even better. Give these hacks a try.
Hack #1: Make your Facebook ads NOT look like an ad
Revolutionary, right?
Ever since Facebook opened its doors, it’s been about friends talking with friends. And from the moment they sold their first sponsored link, we’ve been fighting to make the advertisements go away. We want to see what our friends are doing, not be sold to.
With most ads created, a “Sign Up” button is prominent in the ad space. Don’t like “Sign Up”? “Download” or “Learn More” are other options. They must work: studies say they do. Do a search, and you’ll find article after article claiming they know which gets better results. They teach classes on this stuff, so there must be something to it.
Turns out, if you get back to the roots, you might have better luck. What if you don’t include a “call to action” button at all?
What if you turn your “Facebook ad” back into what users really want – a post a friend would send? Why does it work? Because your ad looks like the native content people click on and want to see.
It’s a trend this year; you’re going to see it popping up in your own profiles more and more.
Hack #2: Play with your Facebook ad copy
When you text, you probably tap an emoji here and there, depending on the recipient. Play with Instagram? Chances are you add an emoji or two there as well. We’ve come to love our emojis. They define us. They let us play. We currently have 2,823 emojis in the Unicode Standard to choose from.
Did you know you can put emojis into your Facebook ads too?
It gets back to Facebook’s original purpose. Facebook is a social media platform. It’s designed to let people talk and share. And they do that by expressing themselves in many different ways. By sprinkling in a few emojis throughout your content, you’ll make your ad space look more like the native content they want to see.
Don’t like emojis for your business model? There are other ways to play as well. How about adding brackets to your copy? Like this:
[BLOGGERS ONLY]
Did that get your attention? Yep, people notice it. And because Facebook strips away a lot of the coding you do with other ad space – bold, underline, italicize – using things like brackets gives you a creative way to stand out. Don’t like the looks of those brackets? Try these:
//CREATIVES ONLY//
Or how about something like this:
>>BUSINESS OWNERS<<
Like the emojis, it’s important to use these sparingly, and to know your audience well.
Hack #3: Design For Your Target Audience
This advice sounds almost too simple. Yet business owners often forget why they’re making an ad in the first place.
Most marketers design an ad based on what they are selling. They add their product in the image, or create a video showing benefits and features. They focus on them rather than the viewer.
What does your target audience want?
Do you have more than one target audience?
If you’re a restaurant, for example, your twenty-somethings want something different than you’re forty-somethings. Twenty-somethings may want a restaurant to kick back after work, enjoy a martini with friends, and migrate to the dining room when they are hungry. Forty-somethings may be looking for something they can get in and out of quickly to work with their busy schedules, or even a place that has a convenient take-out option.
Try advertising to them in the same way. You’ll lose one viewer immediately if you offer the same ad.
Luckily, Facebook has demographics like no other platform out there, and gives you an easy way to target specific audiences with the exact information they are looking for.
You just have to think like your target audience first.
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Hack #4: Lead With A Question
When people search online for a product or service, ultimately they are looking for a solution to something going on in their lives.
If you can get them hooked with the first sentence they read, they’re more likely to take the next step and read down the page. Questions do that very well. It engages people with just the first few words.
- Tired of having to stop at the grocery store every night?
- Unsure of what diet is safe for your health?
- Wish there were more hours in the day?
Each of these questions makes the reader want more. It gives them a reason to read down the page. Now add imagery that matches your content, and you’ll pull them in even more. Of course, you should always A/B test every ad you put out to ensure you’re maximizing your results.
Hack #5: Spy On Your Competition
While you should never copy an ad your competition is using, sometimes it can spark your own creativity. Facebook now makes it easy to see what ads they are using.
- Visit your competitors Facebook Page
- In the navigation on the sidebar, find “Info and Ads” and click
This shows you all of the creatives currently being used by this page on the platform.
Don’t just look at your competition. Sometimes you can gain insight by looking at other ads as well. Who else do you follow? Can you incorporate any of their ideas into your own designs?
Still Not Sure What To Do?
If you’ve been overwhelmed by Facebook Ads before, adding in more ideas may do nothing to calm your fears. Yet you still know that if you could make it work, you’re sure Facebook could be a big benefit to your business.
You’re right. And we can help.
Don’t miss using Facebook as a part of your digital marketing strategy. We can help. Let’s talk today.
