Facebook Advertising

(Facebook is still the most popular network with 1.79 billion monthly active users)

Without doubt, we are living in the era of social media. Facebook is still the most popular network with 1.79 billion monthly active users who spend there on average almost an hour per day. 55% of marketers have chosen Facebook as their most important marketing platform and 67% of them plan on increasing their Facebook marketing activities. Despite these facts many online store owners are still skeptical of using Facebook Ads. The reason is simple. It’s not easy to gain insight into Facebook Advertising, and taking that first step can be scary. However, don’t worry, we are here today to help you with this issue!

Arousing Interest

Facebook ads are primarily used to create a demand for something by exposing an audience to a product or service, but don’t necessarily need to fulfill those demands. That’s why you need your ad to be:

• Visually Appealing: attracting the right audience means building something that’s attractive to look at and catches their attention
• Relevant: if you are showing irrelevant ads you are wasting your money
• With USP: there must be a strong reason for a customer to want to click on your ad the moment they see it
• A Call To Action: at the same time we want to guide customers toward a desired conversion

(You need to attract the audience and create desire.)

FB Ad structure

The structure of Facebook ad consists of headline, text, picture or video and call-to-action button.

1. Headline

your offer summary. It should:

• be no longer than 5 words
• immediately capture attention

2. Text

Copy that is placed below or above your image/video. It should be:

• brief
• relevant

One interesting study on language actually identified a number of specially chosen words that were found to increase ads results by engaging customers directly:

• “You” -the brain is activated by hearing references to ourselves
• “Free”-people are always on the lookout for free products
• “Because” -having an answer to the question why helps give context and put people at ease
• “Instantly” / Now -the premise of instant gratification
• “New” -people love new things, experiences, places

Obviously, it’s important to consider the language of any ad, but remember to use these words sparingly and in such a way that feels natural and organic.

3. Media

Image or video, the part of your ad that is here to catch your customer’s eye.

• Image: the most popular form of Facebook advertising. The optimal size for News Feed photo ads is 1200x628 pixels (otherwise your image will be cropped).
• Video: social network’s users view more than four billion videos a day. Video has become essential — in fact, 60% of marketers use video in their marketing. Additionally, 85% of videos on Facebook are now viewed without sound and 75% of Facebook video views occur on mobile devices.

4. CTA button

What visitors do after reading the ad? Here is a list of the most favorite CTA buttons:

• Shop Now -favoured by 74% marketers
• Book Now
• Learn More -reigned as a top performer
• Sign Up
• Download

(75% out of four billion videos viewed on Facebook each day occur on mobile devices.)

Formats of FB Ads

There are 3 options for placing your ad on Facebook:

1. Right column ads

Advertisements that appear on the right side of the Facebook site.

• Pros: less expensive clicks and conversions
• Cons: have a lower engagement rate

2. News feed ads

Advertisements that appear in the user’s feed.

• Pros: looks more like native, have a higher engagement rate
• Cons: more expensive

3. Mobile news feed ads

Advertisements that appear in the user’s mobile feed. The pros and cons are the same as News Feed ads, however you must be sure that your site is mobile friendly. It could have a major impact on your sales if it doesn’t display or work properly. Keep in mind that 581 million Facebook users are ‘Mobile Only’.

Targeting — The Magical Power of Facebook Advertising

With almost 1.8 billion users, you can reach almost any group of people that you want. Thanks to the “Like” button, Facebook has more interest based data than anyone else. Targeting is probably the most powerful feature of Facebook ads.

You can target Facebook users according to a number of categories such as:

• Demographics — location, language, age gender, education, relationship, ethnic, politics, etc.
• Connections — targeting people people who like your page, use your app, or are going to an event you sponsored
• Re-marketing — your ad could be targeted to people who already visited your website or you can create a custom list of emails and phone numbers.
• Interests — by far the most interesting category, this data is far more valuable than basic demographics information like age or education. Targeting large groups is more expensive and very often less effective. It is better to focus on specific interest groups, research what your customers read, what product they like, and who they follow. It is a bit more time consuming but you have a greaert chance of reaching people who are willing to spend money on your products.

(Focus on specific interests, research which magazines and blogs your customers read, who they follow and which related products they buy.)

Budget

There are many different factors influencing the cost of a given Facebook ad, and these include what sorts of things are important to you, the individual cost of implementing them, and how much you’re willing to spend or what your budget ends up being.

There are 4 main bidding options that are also affecting the cost of your campaign:

• Cost per Click (CPC) — you pay for users who click on your ad. (In the USA, the average CPC in Q3 2016 was 27.29 cents)
• Cost per action (CPA) — you are paying for specific action (conversion) which costs more than clicks, but it is designed to get you more conversions and a higher ROI.
• Cost per impressions (CPM) — you pay the cost per 1,000 impressions. A much cheaper option than cost per click.
• Cost per Like — when you need to gain a Like on your page, you pay for each Like you get from the ad (In the USA, the average cost per like in Q3 2016 was 0.23 cents)

How to track your performance

Only 41% of marketers agreed they’re able to measure their social activities effectively. In retrospect, given the tools available, that’s a quite startling number for obvious reasons.

A lot of useful data can be gleaned from your Facebook Insights, but sometimes they don’t provide the information you need or they don’t provide it in a form that is very easy to understand. To properly track your campaign performance apps like MonkeyData are very easy to navigate and provide lot of interesting and useful information about your Facebook campaigns in the form of clear dashboards.

(Only 41% of marketers agreed they’re able to measure their social activities)

Other Useful Tips

• You can use Facebook Connect as a sign-up option on your site. When users connect via Facebook, you’ll be able to analyze their interests.
• Facebook Ads are presented continually to the same group of people so they “wear out” fast, which means having a good turnover rate should be part of your long-term strategy. A good rule is to change up your ads every one or two weeks. Don’t forget to record the individual performance of each so that you can determine which ads work and which don’t.

Do you have any other questions, comments or useful tips? Let’s talk about it!