5 Tips to get you on Track with Facebook Advertising!

So, you want to run ads on Facebook but are not sure how to go about it? You’re in luck because we’re going to cover some good strategies and what not to do when setting up your Facebook ad campaigns, Let's dive in!

Setting Goals

So before even thinking about getting started, you should make sure you have a clearly defined goal. What's the purpose of your campaign? Drive brand awareness? Push a product in an attempt to generate sales? Generate interest in your content and gain more followers? If you can define what you want to achieve before setting out, you’ll understand your analytics when you finally run them, and know why and how you need to make tweaks for the next time you run one. You should also make sure to make a buyer persona before setting out as well, so that way you know which audience is most likely to engage with your content. 

Keep it simple!

So let's say you’re scrolling through your Facebook feed and pass a sponsored ad. Did you stop? Or did you keep scrolling? If it captured your attention, why? If you kept scrolling, what was the reason why? All of these questions are something you should be asking yourself when creating your ad campaign. The best practice is to always try to keep it simple and easy, the last thing you want is to lose audience engagement due to an overwhelming ad that has too much going on. The golden rule is; Keep it simple, stupid! (K.I.S.S) (Not the one with Gene). This also applies to your CTAs. If you define your goal ahead of time, you should be able to narrow it down to a single CTA that will drive your customer to engage the way you want. If you add too many it can be confusing to the customer and they’ll be much less likely to engage with your advertisement. 

Different Strokes for Different Folks

There are many ways to advertise on Facebook, and if you’re sticking with a single way, you’re doing it wrong. You should be leveraging many different ways to reach your target audience and narrowing it down to a few that work the best and are the most effective for reaching them. For example, if you’ve used still images the entire time, switch to a video format. People love different types of content. Run both as an A/B test and see which one works best for you! Also make sure to try different variations, such as long and short-form videos, audio, and no audio. Test every way under the sun so you can make sure you’re not missing any opportunities to get a hold of a customer.

If Can't Beat Them, Study Them

If you’re not exactly sure what your ad should look like, or need ideas on how to get started? Look at your competition! You should research what your competitors are doing, and what type of content they’re creating. It’s always good to see where the bar has been set and is a great resource when looking for advertising ideas! A great tool to use for this is the free Facebook Ad library tool. You can search your competitors' ads on Facebook and have them all brought to you in a nice neat package so you can research till your head explodes. It’ll show the type of content they’re using, surface engagement (likes/comments/shares), and lengths of the content, so make sure you visit this page!

Patience is key

A lot of things in life now are instantly gratifying. Things have gotten more efficient and more accessible due to technology, and you can get what you want/need much faster now. The opposite is the truth with advertising. It takes time for your content to reach its full potential, so make sure you stay patient and leave it alone so it has time to grow and give you the real numbers. Don’t make edits or change settings on your ads because this can throw something that could have been potentially working in the trash. Deep breaths and patience friends!