Facebook is an undeniably powerful platform for advertisers.
In fact, HubSpot Blog Research found Facebook is the most popular social media network for advertising in 2024, with 62% of companies currently leveraging it. Additionally, Facebook has proven to be the social media platform that generates the biggest ROI.
But getting started on Facebook advertising can be intimidating — particularly with a limited budget. You don't want to waste all your ad spend before identifying a strong, effective, long-term advertising strategy.
I sat down with Tarcisio Ribeiro, Meta's Director of Ads, to discuss his three tips for getting the most out of your Facebook ad strategy. Let's dive in.
Tips for Creating Powerful Facebook Ads, According to Meta's Director of Ads
1. Keep it simple.
When you first start with Facebook ads, you might feel overwhelmed by the many available options. For instance, you can create a boosted ad, a video ad, a poll ad, or a carousel ad (to name a few).
Ribeiro advises against getting too complex when you're first starting out.
As he puts it, “One challenge I've seen with new Facebook Ads users is that they see the numerous capabilities we have in our Ads Manager, and without fully understanding how everything works, they try to play with everything. As a result, they end up wasting money because they're either not being targeted enough, or they're using the wrong capabilities.”
In other words, Don't try to do too much, too quickly.
Start by identifying your objective — awareness, traffic, engagement, leads, app promotion, or sales. And, rather than creating a more complex video or carousel, start with a boosted post, which is an easy opportunity to discover your target audience. (More details coming shortly.).
From there, consider exploring the resources that can help you create an optimized ad. Ribeiro suggests that new Facebook Ads users take the time to take the Meta Blueprint training.
(P.S. Already a HubSpot customer? Integrate your HubSpot account with Meta Ads, and become eligible to win $15K to skyrocket your business ads strategy.)
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2. Know your audience — including the details.
Ribeiro told me you must understand the audience you're going to target — in other words, who is most likely to become a consumer.
And equally importantly, you must be willing to iterate over time to ensure your target audience becomes more refined.
“For instance,” Ribeiro says, "Perhaps you sell baby strollers. But beyond that, you have certain characteristics that pertain to your target audience — maybe it's a higher-income market, or parents who are very mobile and need a lightweight stroller to take on trips.”
In the beginning, Ribeiro says, you may have a cohort of ten different kinds of profiles who might buy your stroller.
“But, over time, you're going to see that 20% of those audiences are the ones who are most likely to purchase your product,” he says.
Facebook ads can help you target a more specific and niche audience. If we use the above example, perhaps you'd expected parents in the suburban areas surrounding Boston to purchase your strollers.
Still, your Ads analytics show that most of your consumers are metro-based. As you discover your true consumer, you can refine your ads strategy accordingly.
Once you've identified your target audience, you can leverage Facebook's Lookalike feature to ensure your ads capture the attention of people who match the same characteristics as your current buyers.
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3. Pay attention to the creative.
“One of the first things users notice and react to is going to be your creative,” Ribeiro told me, “so it's important you pay attention to how you're designing your ad.”
For context, an ad creative is the visual attributes of the advertisement, whether it be an image, video, or another format.
Consider, for instance, the fun, lighthearted, and bright designs in the Blue Bunny Ice Cream creative, shown below:
The ad itself needs to grab the attention of your users. If you're unsure what type of creative will resonate best with your audience, try A/B testing different styles to identify what works best.
Additionally, the type of ad you create is equally important to consider.
Ribeiro says, "Video always performs best because it‘s the most engaging. But you don’t need a big budget or sophisticated equipment for video. If you're a small business and you only have pictures, you can actually convert those pictures into a video in our Ads Manager through our partnership with Vimeo."
Whether you're ready to get started with Facebook ads or take your ad strategy to the next level, hopefully, these three tips have enabled you to focus on what matters most.
The power of Facebook Ads is in the large variety of tools and the features it offers to businesses — but it's imperative, for your purposes, that you start simple, take the time to identify your correct target audience, and design a creative that will compel your audience to take action.
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Meta's Top Tips for Great Facebook Ads
What better way to optimize your Facebook Ads by taking advice from Meta itself? Let's take a look at what the company has to say
1. Get on the carousel bandwagon.
You can showcase several ecommerce products or different sections of the same product in a single, swipe-able advertisement and carousel ads.
Although attention is drawn to images and/or videos, consider the importance of catchy headlines, descriptions, and call-to-action buttons that provide encouragement, context, and details. Each carousel advertisement can have up to ten cards.
With carousel advertisements, marketers can link to several landing pages from each ad panel and showcase up to ten pictures or videos with various call-to-actions. You shouldn‘t feel limited if you’re not aiming for online sales because they work well on desktop and mobile devices and are compatible with most Facebook ad objectives.
2. Evoke the emotions.
Your ad copy should showcase a story about the company and emphasize its characteristics.
Among the best strategies for engaging an audience is storytelling. The secret is to create an experience that affects individuals on an emotional level by leveraging their psychological and emotional characteristics.
One of the first and most important requirements is a compelling story arc that transports the viewer on an emotional journey. Second, to further connect the audience with the advertisement's message, storylines should center on people they can relate to and identify with.
Facebook has put out a statement saying, “People tell us that authentic stories are the ones that resonate most. So we work hard to understand what type of posts people consider genuine so that we can rank them higher in Feed.” Advertisers should lean more toward the emotional side of things.
Let‘s take a look at John Lewis’ famous Christmas advert that touches hearts everywhere:
3. Captivate with visuals.
Not only does Facebook's algorithm prefer visual content more highly than text-based information, but visual content is also more likely to be viewed, shared, and remembered.
So, what does this mean for Facebook marketers?
The answer is that your image must be visually appealing regardless of the advertisement you produce.
A potential buyer will see an advertisement‘s image or video first. Your choice or creation of an advertisement’s image may persuade viewers to click through, learn more about a company, or simply scroll on.
A good example is Coca-Cola‘s striking color-blocking ad, with a sizable focal point (the "New" emblem). It’s surely something that‘ll catch someone’s eye!
4. Keep your copy short and to the point.
The text is one of the first aspects of your ads to which people will pay attention. Ad copy appears in multiple places throughout an ad, even though most people only pay attention to the main text of the advertisement.
Moreover, since most people have shorter attention spans, it’s crucial to make sure your message comes across in a few words.
Look at this great example from Cash App that gets its point across with its to-the-point copy:
You see, ad formats can come in various forms, each with specific benefits, whether compelling visual ads, captivating videos, interactive carousels, or immersive slideshows.
Pro tip: When looking at examples of Facebook ads, focus on those that can help you craft ads that best reach your target audience while effectively conveying your message.
5. Put user-generated content at the forefront.
When choosing which brands to invest in, customers feel more confident knowing that people are using the product/service.
According to a survey done on millennials, user-generated content is 50% more trustworthy and 35% more effective than other media types.
Even Bill Connolly, Director of Content at Monotype/Olapic, said, “We find that UGC works particularly well with dynamic product ads. In addition to using product feed images, it helps diversify the creative and minimize fatigue.”
GoPro does this incredibly well by always keeping its customers at the forefront. This way, more potential buyers can see how others use the product and whether it's useful for them, too.
You see, ad formats can come in various forms, each with specific benefits, whether compelling visual ads, captivating videos, interactive carousels, or immersive slideshows. Don‘t forget that successful ads won’t always continue to perform extraordinarily well. You should always bring fresh ideas and periodically retest them to identify another maybe optimal combo.
Pro tip: When looking at examples of Facebook ads, focus on those that can help you craft ads that best reach your target audience while effectively conveying your message.
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Tips for Making Great Facebook Ads
If you want to create a single high-converting Facebook ad that truly generates results, many moving parts must align. Something I’ve seen over the years is that your ad can only succeed when you listen to your audience.
Even Facebook has said it’ll only show users content that is “meaningful, relevant, and informative.”
Besides that, how else can you stand out when putting out a Facebook ad?
The customer is king.
A Brand Rated study shows that 95% of consumers check internet reviews before purchasing any product or service. What does that mean for your ads? You’ll have to highlight customer feedback to convince the rest of your target market that your brand is worth exploring.
Partner Stack has done that wonderfully by leveraging their user reviews and awards, as you can see below:
Stay on trend.
Customers value the new, fresh material. Customers enjoy reading anything that genuinely captivates them. Your brand will remain on top if you provide engaging content that speaks to them.
Look at how Butternut Box does this beautifully with this meme of an ad that guarantees to make an impact.
Target your audience properly.
It's crucial to select the potential buyers to see your Facebook ads and help you connect with them. Additionally, leveraging demographic data gives you important insights into the people purchasing from your ads, allowing you to make future adjustments and optimizations more effective.
You can see that ActiveCampaign's ad does exactly that! It reaches out to the audience by simply stating what marketing tools are available so those interested can use them.
Create an engaging CTA.
By encouraging users to perform a specific action, like completing a purchase, subscribing to a newsletter, or visiting a website, a call-to-action button can help boost conversions from Facebook advertising.
You can establish a sense of urgency and make it obvious to the user what you want them to do next by adding a CTA button. This increases the likelihood that they will take the intended action.
You can see how the CTA for the ad below pops up right when someone clicks on the story. This makes it easy for anyone to sign up for IDP’s event. Facebook has even more options for calls to action as well.
Add movement to your ads.
Your ads don't need to be a static image or a graphic; they also have the option to be GIFS, reels, videos, and more. They are far more effective at conveying a message quickly and increasing brand exposure.
If you follow Facebook's guidelines, you should only make videos that are no longer than 15 seconds. So you have about three seconds to grab their attention.
Here's HP pulling the perfect video ad in only a few seconds. With the slogan “Lighter than air,” the message is clear and direct without the need for any sounds.
With the crowded Facebook ads space, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand out. That’s why you should concentrate on what works best for you and test multiple formats.
Otherwise, you might miss out on making a splash with your ads!
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Transform your Facebook and Instagram presence from overlooked to outstanding.
- Platform Deep-Dives
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