A question I get asked often as a digital marketer is “How do I create Facebook ads that will expand my following and lead to conversions?”. So today I thought I’d take some time to answer that question. Before we jump right into Facebook ads, there are a few things you should make sure you’ve got going. Let’s start by setting some realistic expectations.
Let’s get something straight- Facebook ads won’t make you rich, especially if you invest prematurely. So it’s important to provide valuable content and have an established, engaged audience before you decided to invest in ads. For ads serve to expand your audience, not grow them entirely.
Yes, if you play it right you can make some money depending on the marketing objectives of your ads. However, things take time and making tons of money and gaining millions of page likes won’t happen overnight. That being said, if you want higher chances of conversions and the most reach, you shouldn’t promote your work solely through Facebook ads. There are other social media platforms, websites and forums that you can also use as a means of promotion.
Optimizing Your Business Page
With a Facebook business page, you have access to something called “Insights”. This analytic tool allows you to see when your audience is the most active, which of your posts are performing the best, how many profile visits, followers and unfollowers you’ve received. Additionally, Facebook Insights will tell you which demographics the majority of your audience corresponds too, which is helpful when discerning whether you’re reaching your target audience or not. Additionally, it will help you decide which language you should be using in your posts and which demographics to target your ads with.
Another thing I cannot stress enough is SEO! Having good SEO practices/tactics in place on your business page is crucial to earning more organic traffic. If you’re unfamiliar with SEO, you can check out my previous article on the topic: An Introduction to SEO, Keywords & How to Get Your Work Seen.
You can start with is having a great bio that introduces who you are in a relatable way. Your bio, in a handful of sentences, represents who you and your brand are. Writing a professional bio can be intimidating at first, but the upside is you’ll only have to write one to use across your social platforms and websites. In general, bios should answer the following six questions:
1)Who are you and/or what’s your company’s story?
2) Where are you and/or your company located?
3) What services and/or products do you offer?
4) What is your brand voice and how does it differentiate from others in your niche?
5) What are the core values that you and/or your company embody?
6) How can potential or current clients reach you?
These questions can be answered in any order you see fit and you can also add your own personal flair to your bio, such as your professional achievements or how you enjoy spending your downtime (It’s a plus if your leisure activities match your brand’s values!). I’d also recommend updating and tweaking your bio every 3 months, to ensure all the information is up-to-date.
Aside from a compelling bio, you’ll want to have clearly defined business hours and your contact information, so potential and current clients will know when and how to reach you. Furthermore, your audience on one platform might not consist of the same individuals on all your platforms. So it’s always good to try and bridge that gap by cross-promoting your socials, website and content on all your platforms. In addition, you’ll want to have you and/or your brand easily recognized across said platforms. Having the same handle as your company’s name and/or your name across socials and using uniform brand colours and fonts is a great way to achieve this. While we’re talking design, you’ll want to have an attractive Facebook Banner.
Facebook banners should be 820 x 312 px and use high-resolution photos. It’s also a great idea to include your brand colours, slogan, socials and a call to action on it. If you aren’t a graphic designer and aren’t sure how to make one, you can use the free cloud-based design software, Canva (With certain features included in a paid plan option). It has tons of templates you can customize with your own images or you can opt for their stock photos and icons. The dimensions are also already set for you, so all you have to do is let that creativity flow!
This is more for the Facebook algorithm, but you’ll want to be posting consistently at the same time(s) each day. To know when to post, you can check your audience insights and see when they are most active each day. Then all you have to do is schedule your posts in Hootsuite or Planoly and have them automatically posted for you. Moreover, you’ll want your posts to contain 1-2 hashtags and utilize keywords. This will help expand who sees your posts and increase your SEO, respectively. One additional step you can take is to create a custom Facebook Page URL. You can do so if your Business Page has over 25 likes and it should match your brand name/user name.
The Key to Creating Kick-Ass Facebook Ads
There’s a couple of things you should keep in mind when creating Facebook Ads, such as choosing the ad type that best suits your needs. Facebook offers several types of ads, such as these primarily used ones:
- Canvas Ad
- Dynamic Product Ad
- Event Ad
- Lead Ad
- Mobile App Ad
- Offer Ad
- Page Like Ad
- Page Post Link & Newsfeed Ad
- Page Post Photo Ad
- Page Post Video Ad
Each of these ads serves different marketing objectives, so it’s best to research which is best for you and your goals before investing in an ad campaign. I’ll also be covering each of these ads and less-common types of Facebook Ads in-depth in next week’s Monday Marketing Article.
Another crucial element of creating successful Facebook ads is choosing a quality image, as it’s often the first thing potential clients/readers will see. So it’s best to ensure that you chose an image that’s high resolution, eye-catching and demonstrates the product well. If you’re a novelist, you can use a photo of someone reading and enjoying one of your books. Once you’ve selected an eyecatching image, it’s time to put your writing skills to the test to compose some compelling copy for your ad.
Each ad type has different restrictions when it comes to headline, body and link description lengths. However, they all have body text length restrictions of 125 characters or less. So it’s important that your ad descriptions are straight to the point and directly related to the ad and ad image. You’ll also want to pair that with an attention-grabbing headline and a branded or trending hashtag.
Lastly, if your ad campaign’s marketing goal is to increase conversions on your website, you’ll want to track how well your ads are doing. Installing a Facebook Pixel on your website or blog will allow you to track just that, so you’ll know if your ad campaign was well-worth what you invested.
Depending on the website platform you use, you can install your Facebook Pixel in the footer or header section of your website or just select articles and/or landing pages. Each page you install a Facebook Pixel on will have it’s own separate conversion data. That being said, you won’t be able to see any data if you don’t install the Pixel correctly. Thankfully, Facebook Pixel Helper can verify that for you. If you’d like a more in-depth guide on how to install a Facebook Pixel and it’s many benefits, I’d suggest giving Christina Newberry’s article, “The Facebook Pixel: What It Is and How To Use It“. It’s really concise and has a step by step guide with images on how to install it.
Works Cited
Dass, Rahul. “7 EASY Methods to Optimize Your Facebook Business Page for SEO.” LinkedIn. LinkedIn, 14 Apr. 2015. Web. 9 Aug. 2019. <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/7-easy-methods-optimize-your-facebook-business-page-seo-rahul-dass>.
Lefferts, Daniel. “Facebook Ads: A Guide for Indie Authors.” Publishers Weekly. PWxyz, LLC, Mar. 2015. Web. 9 Aug. 2019. <https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/pw-select/article/65838-facebook-ads-a-guide-for-indie-authors.html>.
Newberry, Christina. “The Facebook Pixel: What It Is and How To Use It.” Hootsuite. Hootsuite Inc., 14 Jan. 2019. Web. 9 Aug. 2019. <https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-pixel/>.
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