10 Commandments for Facebook Advertising

A priest and a marketer walk into a bar… what do you get? 10 Tips & Tricks to improve your FB Ads. Yes, you read that correctly! The Facebook gods have spoken — we’ve come up with 10 ways you can use Facebook to achieve your business goals in 2016.

Honor Thy Goals

Before purchasing any advertising, you should take a step back and write down what you hope to achieve. We know the holy grail is to find new customers or increase your revenue, but have you considered other tangible results that a potential customer might experience before purchasing from your business? For example growing your contact list, drive more calls, or clicks to your website… highlight that goal in your ad! Make sure you choose the right campaign objective, call to action button, and of course target the right audience.

That one little button has shown to increase click through rate by 23%

Thou Shall Utilize Data

Take advantage of available data to increase the effectiveness of your advertising! From using custom & lookalike audiences for targeting the right audience to insights such as best time of day to post, demographics, and post rating found on Facebook’s Page Insights can be put towards optimizing your next ad. For more information on how to use Facebook insights, check out this article.

Thou Shall Respond to Engagement

If your followers have put time into commenting, liking and sharing your ads, then you should put in the time to answer them! Use this as momentum to continue to grow your relationship, make amends for faults, and acknowledge praise. Your followers will appreciate your concern and personalization. Consider using a social monitoring tool to follow up with those leads.

Thou Shall be Mobile Friendly

Make sure your ad’s image and copy are represented well on both desktop and mobile devices. Meaning, use the recommended character count and image size. Make sure to preview your ad on both platforms, so you can avoid having your message cut off! You can find tips & tricks for how to avoid mobile mishaps here.

Thou Shall be Specific

Don’t be square; own what you do! With so many competitors out there, it’s important to be specific about all the awesome stuff your business does. Put your business on display and be specific about what products or services your business provides.

Thou Shall Not Repeat Thyself

Avoid repeating yourself in the ad. You have three places in the ad to deliver your message — make each one count!

Don’t say “Click to Learn More” three times in a row. Use that space to explain why people should click at all.

Thou Shall Not Neglect Thy Leads

Getting leads is easy, but nurturing them is another story… Once you get a lead, it’s important to follow up immediately. Whether that’s through an email, phone call, or a different ad, it should be done ASAP. We recommend setting up an autoresponder, so your new leads are automatically introduced to your business. Check out this article on retaining customers with Constant Contact’s email marketing solution.

Thou Shall Not Use Offensive or Misleading content

Let’s face it, Facebook is a ‘Sensitive Sally’ when it comes to content. Even addressing the age or gender of your audience within the ad is against the rules! Basically, if Facebook sees something that violates their advertising policies, then the ad will get disapproved, so play nice in the newsfeed!

Thou Shall Not use Low Quality Images

Get creative! Use attractive lifestyle photos or bright product imagery to grab the attention of potential customers. Ad images are absolutely crucial to a successful campaign, and also make a huge impact on click through rate and conversion. We recommend using images that are 1,200 x 628 pixels, have a landscape/horizontal shape, and include NO TEXT within the image.

^Talk about a high quality image *stomach growls*

Remember to Include a Call to Action

Take control! Include a call to action within the first 90 characters and tell your customers what you want them to do can increase overall effectiveness of your ad. For example, tell them to get a service quote or come check out your new sale. Give your audience a reason to click or engage with your ad.

Conclusion

We wish we could tell you that if you just followed a few of the commandments above, you’d have a great ad campaign. The truth is, no one ad will bring you to the promised land of business success, but you can make sure you’re set up for success by setting goals, using data, getting creative, and following up with your customers.

This article brought to you by AdLauncher. We analyze customer purchase history & email engagement data to generate actionable insights to reduce attrition & find your next best potential customer. You can sign up for our newsletter here!