The process of writing Facebook ads is an easy task thanks to a very streamlined form by Facebook, but writing a good Facebook ad takes a little more thought and execution.
Here are 5 tips for writing a better ad that I adhere to when executing Facebook advertising for our clients.
Some of the following “best practices” are similar to writing good search marketing ads with Google AdWords, though some are totally unique to Facebook.
Follow these best practices and you may dramatically increase the performance and ROI of your Facebook advertising campaigns:
1. Create a compelling ad title
Sorry, but odds are the viewer you’re targeting doesn’t care what you’ve decided to name your business. Even if you’re Sears, Best Buy, Target, Amazon, or any other big name company, the viewer only cares about what you can do for them. Most often, they won’t even get past the title unless you give them a reason to. Put yourself in your viewers’ shoes. What would make you read the rest of the ad?
2. Include a benefit and a call to action
This is one of the most basic, simple tips, which applies just as well to Facebook ads as to Google search ads. Give the viewer a benefit for clicking through then ask them to click through.
3. Use a relevant ad image
Facebook was nice enough to give us an image to work with, but couldn’t they have made it a bit bigger? Even with the limited real estate, the basic rules of advertising still apply; show the product in use, eyeballs facing the text or facing forward.
Another image option because of the limited space, is to use your logo for Facebook Ads. However, using your logo will only help you if your target viewer is familiar with it. If not, you’re better off with a product-in-use photo.
Cute images and sex appeal still attract attention, but they won’t necessarily correspond to the message you’re trying to send. That might be great for impressions, but it will probably be lousy for click-through rates.
4. Target very, very narrowly and leverage Facebook advertising strengths
If they’d let me, I’d write an ad with your name in the title and display it only to you. We can’t get that specific yet and we probably never will. But, if I know your age, what you’re interested in, where you work, and where you go to school, I bet I can target you and maybe a dozen other people at maximum.
If you’re not targeting viewers by interest, employer, or school, you’re probably targeting too broadly. Age, gender, relationship status, and location can help narrow your audience, but writing highly effective copy is easier if you can get even more specific.
5. Use the correct metrics
Click-through rate is almost useless for Facebook ads. If somebody loves my ad and clicks it the first time they see it, they probably won’t click on it the next 20 times they see it. Thankfully, Facebook also offers the unique click-through rate (clicks divided by reach), which is the main metric you’ll want to use to judge performance.
Keep an eye on frequency too. Displaying your ad too many times to the same group of target viewers will start to grate on their nerves. Refresh your ads if you feel you really need to continue the campaign.
Example Facebook Advertising
Below is an example of an ad I targeted to employees of Kohl’s for our client. I achieved a unique click-through rate of 1.43% for this campaign.
Below is another ad with a unique CTR of 1.24%. I targeted this ad to people whose interests include Prairie Vodka.
Have you used any of these techniques? Let me know what kinds of Facebook advertising and ad writing techniques have worked well for you.