Facebook has proven itself to be a highly effective advertising platform. Many businesses have successfully created their brands (and profits) on the back of fruitful Facebook advertising campaigns, owing a great deal of their success to Zuckerberg and colleagues.
According to many reports, clothing company GymShark, for example, owes much of its success to the intelligent and strategic use of Facebook and Instagram (see this article from Marketing Week for more details).
Facebook ads can be used alone or in combination with other channels, including Google Ads, organic search optimisation and even digital radio. Facebook ads can be used for branding as well as direct sales. The "law of 7" states that people need to see your brand 7 times before it becomes "front of mind".
Planning and strategy is highly important with Facebook advertising campaigns. We look at how it is possible to design effective Facebook Ads for both branding and sales purposes.
Idea Generation Tip 1 - Start with Brainstorming like a Customer
Put yourself in the customer's shoes.
Think about Facebook from a user's perspective, or think about it from your own experience.
What is going to catch your attention?
You can take this idea-generation process a step further by creating a folder on your phone and computer, and screenshotting each ad that grabs your attention.
What is going to make you click?
After your attention has been directed towards a particular ad - what would make you click the ad?
Think of the AIDA acronym - Attention, Intention, Desire, Action
Your ad can grab attention and create an intention, but remember it's often more the job of your website to drive desire and action. Keep this in mind when designing a specific landing page on your website for users to visit once they have clicked through from your ads.
Idea Generation Tip 2 - Know Who You're Selling to
Once you have looked at the ad creative and brainstormed from your perspective, you need to shift your thoughts to your target audience.
What would grab the interest of your target audience?
Why should they want to buy your product or service?
Think about the pain points of your target audience, and how you can solve them. For example, can your new business phone app free up more time, help people to relax, make people more productive?
Idea Generation Tip 3 - Check out 3-5 Competitors
Note down your top 3-5 competitors. Go to their Facebook pages, scroll down to the "Page Transparency" window/box and click "see more".
From here you can check out your competitor's ads.
Ads that have run the longest, are generally the best performing ads - so take a look at the ad design, the ad copy and the hook. A good marketing 'hook' is often a solution to a problem, something let leverages the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), or a promise to help people achieve their goals.
When examining competitor's ads, keep in mind that some ads may be targeted at people who already visited their website.
Idea Generation Tip 4 - Amazon Reviews
If your product is on Amazon, take a look at the reviews.
What are the common pain-points?
Can they be addressed in the ad copy?
Also, have a look at the questions that have been asked about the product and check out Reddit abd relevant online forums as well.
Mix Up the Angles
After analysing the competition, make a list of all the angles you can use to sell the product.
For example, if you are advertising an online fitness website your angles could be:
- Health & wellbeing
- Improved mood
- Improved fitness for sport
- More energy & vitality
- Better sleep
Choose an angle, and choose images and ad copy that relate to the central theme.
High-Quality Visuals
A high-quality image or number of images is a must for a professional ad. The best way to stop someone who is typically scrolling through their Facebook newsfeed is to present them with a high quality visual that stands out from the sea of baby-pictures and selfies that typically populate the newsfeed.
If you do not have any high-quality images of your own to use, make a folder on your computer and drag in as many high quality, relevant images as you can find on royalty-free imagery websites such as pexels, pixabay and unsplash.
High-Quality Creative
Once you have the actual imagery, consider using a piece of software or a website or app that has been created specifically to provide templates and designs for social media ads.
Adobe Spark and Canva are two of the most popular Facebook-ad-designer-tools. You can choose from many templates and customise them to look highly professional and eye-catching.
Test Creative Formats
A single image, a carousel, a GIF and a slideshow video and a standard video. Depending on your niche and product, you can also consider using a meme.
You can also test Click-to-call ads. You can add a "Call Now" button to your Facebook Ads - these will work better in some sectors in others. For example, if you work in real estate, it's unlikely that a client will buy a property without making any phone calls, so adding click-to-call ads might be a good format to test.
If you do have a dedicated landline for your business - for example, if you work from home, consider using a phone answering service such as Moneypenny.
Finally, remember to align your website's landing page with the Facebook ad. For example, if you have a limited time offer that you are advertising, send users to a specific page on your website about that offer and how to claim it. Do not send them to the website homepage!
