How to Make Better Facebook Ads
What makes a successful Facebook or Instagram Advertising campaign? The best campaigns are part science, part art form and part dark magic, which of course can make them extremely frustrating at times. Sometimes you just can't predict what ad creative and strategy will resonate with your target audience.
In addition to that, the number one frustration my clients report having is that the rules seem to always be changing! Techniques that have worked for months are suddenly not cutting it with the Facebook algorithm - or even worse - they're being left languishing in the dreaded Ad Review stage.
Although I sell my services as a Facebook Ad Manager, I also want to empower smaller businesses to manage their ads if hiring someone isn't in the budget. So here are some Facebook and Instagram Ad Tips to help you in 2020.
Get Social Proof
I honestly can't believe how many ads I'm seeing from big brands in my feed right now that do not have any social proof. This is honestly one of the biggest trends of 2019 and if your Ads Manager or agency isn't all over this, I'm sorry to say that you should be extremely worried.
But what is social proof?
It goes without saying that we're far more likely to trust brands and services that have good reviews. Simply put, social proof is the comments and likes on a Facebook or Instagram post. In order to get social proof for your ad campaigns, you can use a concept called "Stacking". Rather than create a new ad for each Ad Set, simply copy and paste the ad ID to point all of your Ad Sets to the same ad. The comments and likes will display across all ad sets, therefore stacking your comments and likes. Easy peasy!
You can even get extra fancy and run a short engagement campaign using your desired ads and then copy and pasting the IDs into your conversion campaign. How neat is that?
Test and Learn Baby
Any marketer who is being honest will tell you of a time when the best performing Ad in a campaign has completely taken them by surprise because it was their least favourite! Sometimes the secret sauce is completely unexpected.
And that's why we test, test, test. Before you even start your campaign, I would create multiple creatives including videos, static images, carousels and whatever else takes your fancy.
Next, we're going to set up multiple Ad Sets with multiple of these creatives in them and start with a small spend. Give the algorithm a couple of days to make learnings, then nix the underperforming Ad Sets and ads. Put more money into the best performing ones and watch your campaigns scale like crazy!
Get Click Baity with your Copy
What sells on Facebook? Well it's a crowded space so if you want to stand out you'd better grab people's attention and grab it fast. From my many years writing copy for Facebook Ads, I can confidently say that consumers love a bargain. So if you have an offer or sale, tell them straight away and make it punchy like the Witchery ad below. Notice the massive caps on "SHOP THE FRENZY" and "FREE shipping". They are NOT messing around here. They know what their consumers want and they're giving it to them.
Don't have an offer on right now? That's fine. Just make sure you tell your consumer exactly why they need your product and why they need it now.
And finally... Video
Clearly video is a great way to catch your audience's attention. People love flashy, shiny ads! But the difficulty is... video can be expensive and time consuming to produce. However, there are several tools available for those who can't afford to hire a freelancer. I love using Wave Video to create simple social media ads. You don't have to produce something Oscar worthy for social media. There are so many ways you can get creative with the assets you already have available to your business.
If you guys want more video tools and tips on how to create video ads, let me know in the comments and I'll write this next!
I hope this blog has inspired you to get creating some killer campaigns yourself! Of course, if you do need a pro, I'd love for you to consider me.