7 Facebook Ads Best Practices You Need to Implement

Facebook Ads Best Practices

The #1 reason why you may want to use Facebook for marketing is the “reach” factor. With 2.27 billion monthly active users, there is a high probability that your prospective customers are currently hanging out on the social network.

However, as Facebook grew with time, and as more and more users (and brands) started leveraging it, the competition for attention grew along with it. Which is why the average organic reach for a Facebook page has dramatically gone down, and continues to dwindle.Yes, there are ways to improve your organic reach, but if you want quicker and more definite results, the answer is Facebook advertising. Because the platform has clearly evolved from “build an audience organically” to “pay to play” over the years.

Facebook advertising is growing, and it is here to stay. One quick look at the stats, and you’ll understand the true power of Facebook ads, and how they can help your business make money.

With a whopping 93% of marketers depend on the platform for their advertising needs. It’s working out great for all those who are taking a strategic approach. And those who are willing to experiment their way to success.

Having said that, getting a high ROI with Facebook ads is not as easy as it sounds. You need to implement Facebook ads best practices and consistently work on your campaign.

This doesn’t mean it’s rocket science. But it still has a number of variables that you need to get right. Whether it is targeting your ads or choosing the correct format, you can’t ignore the important areas. Or else you’ll simply end up losing more than you gain.

The fact is, Facebook doesn’t have to be a tool that loses you money. Rather, it can help you get the most out of your advertising budget if you can keep tweaking your campaign to improve it. Just make sure you follow our Facebook ads best practices that we are going to share with you.

Let’s now look into 7 Facebook ads best practices that not only help drive targeted results, but also bring down the chances of failure.

Best Practice #1: Know Exactly Who You Are Targeting

First and foremost, you need to be clear on who exactly you are targeting. The idea is to reach only those users that will be interested in what you are offering. You want to connect to users who…

• Are looking out to discover and learn more about your type of content
• Are curious about what you sell and how your products can help
• Are more than receptive to your marketing messages

Targeting the right users is one of those Facebook ads best practices that is often taken for granted. Mainly because brands feel the more people they reach, the better results they’ll get.

But keep in mind that big numbers won’t take you far if your ROI is poor. Most of the time, having a clearly defined audience makes more sense, neither too broad, nor too narrow.

In order to make targeting work, it’s important that you, as a brand, understand…

• What kind of social platforms your target audience currently uses
• How many types of languages they typically use
• What kind of communication they depend on
• What content excites them the most and how they engage with it

With the right amount of research, you should be able to find answers to the above questions.

You can also leverage Facebook’s Audience Insights to know your target audience better. Analyzing this data will allow you to…

1. Target your ads in a more profound manner
2. Craft a super-relevant ad copy that gets results

Remember, knowing your audience well goes a long way when it comes to running successful Facebook ads. So spend time understanding who you are targeting and why.

Best Practice #2: Focus on Writing Better Copy

Facebook ads are popularly known for being visual. I’m sure you can imagine a Google ad without an image, but not a Facebook ad.

There’s no doubt about the importance of using the right images in Facebook ads. They can make or break your campaign. However, a good image is useless if it isn’t accompanied by an equally good copy.

Your investment in Facebook advertising will only be worthwhile when your ad actually makes an impact. Relevant and powerful copywriting not only helps you get more clicks to your site, but also gives direction to users. You could call it one of the most important Facebook ads best practices.

There are three things that your Facebook ad copy needs to do to work:

1. Persuade
2. Excite
3. Entertain

When you have the above three elements in your copy, it’s easy to make a strong connection with your audience. It also gives them the exact information they need to take action. Making it an integral part of a profitable Facebook ad.

Here are three simple ways to write better converting Facebook ad copy…

• Make Sure Your Copy Matches Your Visual

  Getting the right visual for your Facebook ad may seem like a struggle, especially when you’re into B2B marketing. As a result, a lot of businesses don’t take their visuals seriously and put up an image just for the heck of it.
  They don’t think much on whether the visual goes with ad copy or not. But using an image that is irrelevant to the ad copy is a mistake that can cripple your campaign. It doesn’t give Facebook users the experience they deserve.
  The last thing you want is to confuse people who you are targeting with your ad. And that’s exactly what happens when the image and copy don’t match. Which naturally leads to a lower response rate and a poor ROI.
  Take a look a this Facebook ad where the image is in sync with the copy.
  

  Stick to Using One, Clear Call-to-Action

  Successful Facebook ads don’t try to achieve too much. They’re laser focused on achieving one single goal. Which is why it’s important that you have a call-to-action or CTA that resonates your main goal.
  Whether you’re trying to generate more leads or achieve higher sales, you have to direct your users to a clear call-to-action. Even well-designed Facebook ads can fall flat without a proper CTA. So spend time coming up with the right one.
  Say No to Jargon and Yes to Simple Language

  Some of the best ad copies written use simple language without complicating things. Your copy’s purpose is to convince people to take action, not impress them with your language skills. Remove any verbosity and aim to write your Facebook ad in a way that your audience can understand.

  Anyone seeing your ad should have no problem knowing:— Your offer and what it is exactly about— The benefits that they can get from it— What action you want them to take
  Remember, the easier your Facebook paid ads are to understand and connect to, the more response you will receive. Here’s an example of an ad that gets many things right, including the use of language.

Best Practice #3: Take Advantage of Facebook Remarketing

One of the best things about using Facebook ads is the fact that you are not limited to a certain type of marketing. Facebook gives you the freedom to reach your existing leads by remarketing to them, which can make your advertising strategy even more impactful. In the list of Facebook ads best practices, remarketing has its own, profound place.

By leveraging Facebook remarketing, you are able to show your ads to people who have already had an interaction with your brand in the past. Such as…

• Your previous website visitors
• Your previous customers/clients
• Your current email subscribers

Facebook remarketing is one of the most effective ways to reconnect with your prospects or leads that you have had some kind of interaction with. The reason why these leads matter is because of their potential to convert is much higher.

These people are already familiar with your brand and they know what you and your products stand for. So when compared to other leads that don’t know much about you, here even a little nudge can prove to be a big push.

When Buffer wanted to increase the number of podcast downloads they were getting, they didn’t pick a random set of users and target them. No, they actually created a custom audience made up of Facebook users they were sure of.

Here’s what they did in a nutshell…

1. They created a custom audience made up of recent blog visitors
2. They only targeted blog visitors who were using iOs devices such as iPhone and iPad
3. They promoted only the successful episodes of their podcast

As a result of taking a strategic approach to Facebook ad targeting, Buffer was able to generate 3,870 laser targeted clicks to their podcast episodes, spending $0.24 per click, with a budget of less than $1,000.

So if you already have a significant amount of traffic coming to your site every month, or if you have a list of targeted email subscribers, then it makes more sense for you to remarket to them rather than creating your own audience.

Because this way you’ll not only decrease your chances of losing your advertising dollars, but will also get quicker results.

Best Practice #4: Leverage Video-Based Ads

Facebook is the biggest contender to YouTube, and in fact wants to dethrone it as a video platform. Why? Because a large number of Facebook users are consuming more and more video content on Facebook on a regular basis.

So if you do not add video to your Facebook advertising mix, then you may be leaving money on the table. It’s one of those Facebook ads best practices that often gets ignored since it requires more effort.

But, do keep in mind that when done right, FB video ads can and do surpass image ads. They can prove to be a powerful part of your core video marketing strategy.

Here are some useful tips to effectively leverage Facebook video based ads…

• Use Text with Your Videos: Video marketing isn’t always easy. Sometimes you create videos that take a little time to get to the meat. So if there’s a risk that the video’s message may not be understood right away, try adding some text to keep viewers enticed.
  Use some effective copy along with a strong headline to get them to pay attention to your video before they decide to scroll away.

• Have a Strong Start: The first 10 seconds of your video are very valuable. They can either make or break your video. Because people usually leave within the first few seconds of a video if it doesn’t interest them. So make sure to catch their attention with a strong start.
  Use persuasive imagery right in the beginning to make that impact. Give viewers exactly what they are looking for so that they continue watching your video. Make it worth watch
• Take an Authentic Approach: Ever wonder why a stock photo doesn’t work as well as a real, natural photo? It’s because the latter feels more authentic. Similarly, videos that look staged with fake/bad acting aren’t as appealing as video content that is real, genuine and relatable. Facebook is a place where people want to connect to people. So as a brand, your job is to make your video ads more human and approachable.

  Forget the ads you see on the television. Focus more relating to your target audience in an authentic manner. Aim to speak directly to your prospects/customers. Only then will your video ads stand out from the rest.

Best Practice #5: Consistently Monitor Your Ad Performance

In the earlier days when radio and TV were big, advertising involved a lot of guesswork. You couldn’t really gauge the response of the audience. And once you launched a campaign, you couldn’t really do much about it.

However, things have changed since social media came into being. It not only gave you more control over the performance of your ad campaign, but also helped you adjust it accordingly. All the other Facebook ads best practices will fail to help you if you are not monitoring your performance.

The idea here is to understand how your Facebook ad is performing and then slowly enhance each ad for even better performance. Facebook makes ad monitoring a walk in the park, which is why you should make use of it to see if your audience is actually connecting with your ads. Based on this feedback, you can alter the various elements of your ad.

For example…

• If your ads aren’t getting enough clicks, you may have to work on enhancing your copy or changing the call-to-action.
• If your ads aren’t generating the right kind of engagement, you may have to change the visual or if it’s a video ad, try a different video.
• If your ads are reaching a small number of your audience, you may want to tweak your targeting strategy.

Viewing your ads’ performance data is easy in the Facebook Ads Manager:

Whether it’s your first Facebook ad campaign, or 100th, you should always focus on improving your ads instead of starting a fresh campaign. You can try…

• Targeting a different kind of audience or create a custom audience
• Increase or decrease your budget based on the response
• Change the schedule to improve chances of success
• Try optimizing the campaign differently
• Experiment with other delivery choices
• Change the placement of each ad
• Update with a new, unique and creative

Keep in mind that no matter how experienced you are, you will not get the first ad right. It just doesn’t work that way. You’ll have to consistently work on improving your ad campaign with experimentation. This will help you filter down and find those ads that actually give you a high return on your investment.

It’s important that you avoid any guesswork and create a number of ad sets and ads before launching a campaign. And as you move forward you can get rid of any poor performing ads and replace them with better ones.
Give your campaign some time (a few days) to throw up valuable data that you can read. Using this data, you’d be able to measure the performance of your ad and read into what’s working, and what’s not. Experts recommend that you shouldn’t start to compare the performance of your ads until and unless you a minimum 2,000 people have viewed your ad.

Given that you’re patient, it won’t take you too long to identify the ads that are giving you the best results. Once you find these ads, you can easily tweak them to improve the results and get more out of your total ad spend.

Best Practice #6: Keep Your Budget in Focus

When it comes to Facebook ads, the fact that you have so much freedom with setting your own budget is great. In fact, you could start a campaign with as less as $5 and start seeing some results.

However, if you don’t keep a tab on your campaign and its targeting, then you’re bound to lose more than you gain. Because your cost of advertising on Facebook depends on multiple factors, right from the size of your audience to the niche you are targeting.

Daily vs Lifetime Budget

Facebook does let you set your budget, but it’s important to get it right. You have the choice of choosing between setting a daily budget (which is self-explanatory) or a lifetime budget (a flat fee), where your chosen amount gets evenly spread across the time period you’ve selected.

As for setting the budget, there are no hard and fast rules. It completely depends on the kind of risk you can take and how well you know your audience. But if you’re just starting out and are learning the ropes, it does make sense to choose to go with a lower budget.

Once you are confident about the response you are getting, you can slowly increase your budget. Remember, every single one of the Facebook ads best practices you apply will give you better results when your budget is in place.

Split Testing Your Ads

When it comes to running a profitable Facebook ad campaign, it’s important to run a test ad before investing any more money into your campaign. The good thing is, Facebook supports this with their in-built split testing feature. And testing your ads to find the poor ones does fall under essential Facebook ads best practices.
By split testing ads, you’ll know exactly what ads are working for you and have a strong potential. Each ad variation of your ad that you choose to split test takes you one step closer to higher profits.

Image courtesy of AdEspresso.

You can and should test the following elements in order to improve your Facebook ad campaign…

• Ad Creative
• Ad Copy
• Ad Headline
• Ad Types
• Target Audience
• Call-to-Action
• Offer or Incentive

No matter how good your gut feeling is, you should always focus on testing your way to Facebook ads success. Don’t analyze your ad campaign to death because it’ll take you nowhere.
The more ad variations you split test, the more sure you are of your campaign. Last but not the least, if you’re already experimenting with Google ads or other PPC ads with success, you may want to take that knowledge to improve your own Facebook advertising strategy.

Best Practice #7: Have a Long-Term Strategy

Facebook ads have often been compared to Google ads; mainly because they follow a similar bidding model. However, if you go deeper, you’ll find that a stark difference between the both.
People searching on Google are generally looking for something to buy, read, etc. But Facebook users that get exposed to your ads are not searching for anything, but are only browsing their newsfeed.
This means, in order to truly succeed with Facebook advertising, you shouldn’t think of instant returns. But rather have a long-term strategy.

For example, if you’re using Facebook ads to generate leads for your real estate business, you need to be sure of how you will nurturing and converting these leads into paying clients in the long run. That’s the only way you will experience a positive return on investment. You need to treat your Facebook advertising as the first step to getting interested people introduced into your sales funnel.

So whether your Facebook ad campaign is aimed at generating more engagement, traffic, leads or sales, you need to think long-term in order to avoid losses. In your quest to find and apply Facebook ads best practices, you shouldn’t forget the importance of having a long-term vision.

We at LYFE Marketing put these Facebook ads best practices to good use everyday. We know they work because we’ve seen them work. They will work for you too! Just set up a free consultation by completing this form, and we’ll have you set up and running Facebook ads within the week! It’s that simple.

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