Written by María Santoja
Índice
Investing in Facebook Sponsored Ads has great advantages, especially for small businesses with tight budgets. With Facebook Ads you can create ad campaigns with different objectives that will allow you, from promoting your Fan page or your website, to getting downloads of your application or reproductions of a video you have published.
Creating ads with the Facebook platform is relatively simple. However, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to get it right. Here are some tips for success when it comes to planning and executing a Facebook Ads campaign.
1. The more segmented the audience, the better:
It is very common to be blinded by the “Potential Reach” figure provided by Facebook when defining the audience of our campaign. Many tend to think that the more people we reach, the better. This is not the case. The “Potential Reach” figure gives us the number of Facebook users that respond to the socio-demographic characteristics and interests that we have defined, but this does not mean that we are going to impact all of them with our ad.. What will determine the number of users we will reach with our ad is our budget.. In other words, we will reach a portion of the total number of users that are part of our segmentation, depending on our advertising investment. To know approximately how many people we will reach with our ad, we can look at the “Estimated daily reach” figure that is calculated once we have entered the budget field.
The closer our segmentation is to the image of our potential customer, the more chances of success our campaign will have, as our ad will be more relevant to the audience.
We can look at the “Audience Definition” color counter and the feedback we get from Facebook to see if our audience is too broad, well segmented or too specific. In general terms, the ideal will be to have the marker in the green zone, but with the smallest “Potential Range” figure that we can achieve.
Knowing your customer is critical to the success of your campaign. You will need to know what your potential audience is like in order to create a message that appeals to them and connects with their interests. Therefore, defining the targeting should be the first step to take, before writing the text or selecting the ad image.
2. A picture is worth a thousand words:
It is proven that publications with images work better than those that only contain text. In Facebook Ads the image takes up most of the ad, and will be the first thing users notice, so it’s worth investing in it!
It is essential to choose a careful and professional image, whether it is a photo, an illustration or an infographic. The use of clip art, low resolution, pixelated or blurred images is not recommended.
On the other hand, you also have to think that many users will see your ad on mobile devices, so the images should not be too overloaded or with too many details that are not properly perceived in small screen sizes. Also, you should take into consideration that the format of the Facebook ad publication is square and not rectangular, so it is advisable to look for images that adapt well to this resolution.
Also, don’t forget that you are obliged to comply with the “
Advertising Policies
” of Facebook regarding the use of images in your ads. The most common violations of Facebook’ s guidelines regarding the use of images are as follows:
- Too much text in the ad image: Facebook does not allow ad images to contain more than 20% text. You can check your image with its grid.
- Images with sexual content: Facebook is quite strict about nude images and sexual content. To give you an idea, even a photo of a cleavage or of a breastfeeding mother can be thrown back.
- Images with violent content: the platform also limits the use of violent or lurid images.
- Images illustrating non-existent functions: the use of images of buttons, e.g. playing a video or closing, is not allowed.
3. Avoid hackneyed phrases, be concrete and recognizable:
It is recommended that you be precise and clear in your message. You must keep in mind that every click is costing you money, so we are not interested in attracting curious people or disappointing those who reach our page. You must make it clear what benefit the user is going to get, and do not overuse advertising phrases that always end up sounding the same and do not say anything.
Whenever possible mention the price or discount, and the time frame in which the offer will be in effect.
This will increase the sense of urgency. Phrases such as “An unbeatable offer” should be replaced by others such as “Philips mixers at 50% off until September 30“. And don’t forget to end your text with a call to action: “visit our website“, “download the app“, “follow us“…”.
Above all, it is important to be consistent with your brand image when writing your ad message. You must use the same tone that you use in all communication channels. And don’t forget who you’re trying to attract with your ad: speak to your audience.
Finally, if you get the text and the image to complement each other, conveying the message you want to give, but at the same time increasing the nuances, you will have a compact and rich ad.
4. Do A/B tests:
The structure of Facebook Ads campaigns works by configuration levels, and allows comparative testing in a very simple way:
We recommend that you start by creating different sets of ads for each of your target audiences. In order to make valid comparisons, you should only make variations in targeting, and keep all other factors identical in both sets of ads (bidding and placement).
It is also very interesting to start the campaign by creating several versions of the same ad with variations in images, text, videos or links.
This way you will be able to select at each level of the campaign the options with the highest conversion rates.
5. Be patient with changes:
When modifying a campaign, it is advisable to allow a certain amount of time before making further changes. We need sufficient time to collect a substantial amount of data to enable us to make a meaningful assessment. Whenever possible, it is best to make changes one at a time in order to assess the impact of each factor.
6. Prepare the campaign well in advance:
Facebook ads are not published automatically, as they require the platform’s approval. This process verifies that the advertisement complies with the “Advertising Policies” that we have already discussed. If so, the advertising account manager will receive a campaign activation email within approximately 24 hours. If not, you will be notified that your campaign violates any of the rules and that you must make the appropriate corrections. Therefore, it is recommended that you schedule your campaign ahead of time so that you have time to make changes if unforeseen events arise.
Did you already follow these recommendations? Do you have any more tips to give us to launch an efficient campaign with Facebook Ads?
