The Do’s and Don’ts of Facebook Ads

Why wouldn’t you take advantage of Facebook’s intimate knowledge of its users to deliver targeted ads to the people most likely to want your products or services? It makes sense, but it can actually be a waste if you’re not optimizing your Facebook advertising strategy properly.

A (Very) Brief Introduction To Facebook Ads

We aren’t going to spend much time here, but for the sake of making this article relatively comprehensive, here is a very brief introduction to Facebook ads.

There are five types of Facebook ads: in the newsfeed (both desktop and mobile), in the right-hand sidebar on desktops, the audience network on mobile (everything from regular websites to apps and in games) and, lastly, on Instagram.

FYI, ads don’t just exist inside Facebook itself; they are on everything that the company owns.

The Do’s

• In order to ensure that your Facebook ads are as successful possible, you need to know your target audience demographics. Plain and simple. (Hint: Fill out the Interests and Categories section).
• When designing ads, images are highly important. They should be clearly related to your product/service, clear (not blurry) and, in general, high quality.
• Copy is also important. Your headline should be simple and clear, but also grab attention. Consider giving something away for free.
• Do include calls to action – they improve click-through rates. In the text box of your copy, include a call to action and social proof. When choosing the (optional) call to action button, select the ‘Learn More’ CTA. A study by Adroll found that this CTA performed best, followed by ‘Shop Now.’

• Do split-testing. This is key. However, you only want to change one thing at a time. Start with your images first, since these are the driving force behind a successful ad. Then, turn off the ones that aren’t performing well.
• Keep your ad message consistent with your target audience. In other words, everything from your headline to your images should appeal to your target audience.
• Do pay attention to the Facebook ad guidelines.
• Do track your ad campaigns with Google Adwords. While Facebook’s Ad Manager will give you a lot of information, Adwords can provide even more information regarding how and why people are converting.

Note: Google Adwords will track your related traffic, but not all of the traffic is strictly from your Facebook ads. Manually create a trackable link using Google’s URL builder tool, where you will be asked for your Facebook handle (i.e. your Facebook URL).

How to get a Facebook handle: search for your business in the search bar; click on your own page and then copy and paste your Facebook handle (or URL) from the address bar.

Keeping on top of your business statistics is imperative and Yocale’s reporting feature makes that easy.

• As far as Facebook ad examples go, here’s just one of many successful ones: Marina De Giovanni managed to get 17,000 people to sign up for her newsletter in six weeks by driving traffic to her sign up page by doing a free giveaway.

The Don’ts

• Don’t use stock photos.
• Don’t be vague with your ads. That applies to everything, from your headline to your images.

Tips and Tricks

• Don’t increase your budget unless you’re sure your ads are recouping your value. Beginners shouldn’t spend more than $100 per month.
• If you aren’t convinced in regards to spending on Facebook ads yet, you may want to look into advertising coupons – how to advertise on Facebook for free.
• Beginners should narrow their target audience as much as possible (ideally 10,000 people or less). Choose one country and narrow down the age gap to ten years.
• We’ve included a bit more information on how to get better results from your Facebook ads here.

And that’s how you optimize your Facebook advertising strategy.