If you’ve tried Facebook ads in the past and had limited success, you may be tempted to give up on the platform. However, chances are there is an audience for your business on that social network, just waiting to be targeted with the right content.
In this post, we’ll go over a few reasons you may want to include Facebook ads in your social media strategy. Then we’ll share four tips for using those ads to their fullest potential. Let’s get started!
Why You May Want to Use Facebook Ads
Despite the fact that there are now many social networks competing for people’s time, Facebook brings in about 2.85 billion monthly users. However it’s still possible to target your ads to your specific audience of interest:
You have plenty of options when it comes to what type of ad to use. Still images and videos are a great way to keep it simple. You could also try stories for a more immersive experience.
If you’re feeling adventurous, you may even want to try Augmented Reality (AR) ads. These ads can be particularly compelling if you sell items buyers may wish to see in their homes before purchasing them, such as furniture.
How to Use Facebook Ads to Their Fullest Potential (4 Key Tips)
If you’re going to use Facebook ads, you’ll need to know how to get the most out of them. Let’s look at four top strategies.
1. Choose Impactful Imagery
When it comes to getting the attention of someone scrolling through their feed, you really only have a split second. Using impactful images can be an effective way to grab their interest.
One technique is to use images from your best-performing content. For example, try mining your past blog posts and social media updates for visuals that people seem to react positively to, and use them in your ads. If you notice any similarities between these images, you might try to incorporate them in future creative marketing.
Infographics tend to be popular and highly shareable. They’re also excellent for conveying complicated concepts visually:
While they may look a bit complicated, there are plenty of tools available for building these eye-catching images. Canva is a great place to start:
You can also use Canva to build your social media posts. This makes it easier to keep all of your marketing materials in one place.
2. Make Use of Brand Safety Controls
The last thing you want is to design an ad campaign, only for viewers to get a negative impression of your brand because of the surrounding content. Whenever you place ads automatically, there is a risk that they’ll land next to something that doesn’t align with your brand’s values.
Fortunately, Facebook offers Brand Safety Controls, which you can use to mitigate this risk. These controls are relatively new, and are being rolled out gradually. You’ll find them in the Business Manager:
The Topic Exclusions options can be especially helpful. You can prevent placements by topic. So if you’d rather your brand content not appear next to anything political, simply check the appropriate box.
You can also upload a Block List. This list can contain specific Facebook URLs of accounts you don’t want your brand associated with:
Once you have set these controls up, it’s a best practice to revisit them regularly. Things change fast, and you’ll want to update your Block List to keep up with recent events.
3. Install the Facebook Pixel
Having the Facebook pixel installed on your website can help you understand the different actions your visitors take. This information is useful for ad targeting and analysis, as well as for increasing conversions.
There are 17 standard Facebook pixel events, although you can also create a custom one. Some are self-explanatory, such as the Purchase and Add to Cart events. However, depending on your business, you may want to use the View Content event, which fires when someone lands on a specific page.
You can easily add any of the standard events to your pixel. From the Business Manager, click on Events Manager and then the Open Event Setup Tool button:
Now you can enter your website’s URL in the box, and click on the Open Website button:
Facebook will provide you with a list of suggested events. Click on Confirm next to the ones you’d like to use, and then Finish Setup to save your changes.
4. Use Analytics to Test Different Ads
It can be challenging to determine hard and fast rules for Facebook ads, as every audience and business are different. This means you’ll need to gather data to uncover the right trends to base future campaigns on.
For this, Hootsuite Analytics is a robust yet easy to use tool:
Hootsuite Analytics provides complete information for each of your Facebook posts. However, one of the most valuable pieces of information you can get from this tool is the best days and times to post. Then you can take advantage of these times when your audience is online to schedule your ads.
You can also monitor the number of clicks that your paid Facebook content receives. If you’ve already optimized your ad to run at the best possible day and time and you’re still not receiving any clicks, you may want to make some changes to the copy. Experimenting can be time-consuming, but if you pay attention to your metrics you’ll have solid data to guide you.
Conclusion
Facebook ads can be an effective way to generate awareness and conversions for your brand. Start with some thoughtful imagery and careful ad placement. Then be sure to have analytics in place with tools like the Facebook pixel and Hootsuite.
Do you have any questions about using Facebook ads in your marketing strategy? Let us know in the comments section below!
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay