How to Get Ahead in Facebook Advertising

No marketer can afford to leave Facebook out of their advertising strategy. With over a billion active daily users, the social network remains a key gathering place for the world's online shoppers, and the tools available to marketers on the platform are an incredibly powerful way to reach them.

When you are crafting a Facebook marketing campaign, it is crucial to get the ad itself right. Here are some ways that you can ensure that every ad you post will deliver solid leads and value for money.

Test Out Different Ideas

You can never tell for certain which images will be the most appealing to Facebook users, so why not try out a few and track their success to find the perfect selection? In fact, you should probably test out a variety of adverts, including titles, images and descriptions.

The best way to carry out a test is by using a "split testing" method. Different ads are run side by side over a certain number of impressions. More successful ads will generate more click-throughs, and more sales as well. By dividing the number of sales by the total impressions, you can come up with the "cost-per-sale", which is a good indication of whether the ad is worth persevering with.

When carrying out split-testing, be sure to change a single variable at one time. For example, switch the image or reword the call-to-action. That way, you can tell what effect your change has had on the effectiveness of the advert.

Add the Right Call-to-Action

A call-to-action is a crucial part of almost any effective Facebook ad. This is the prompt that turns a casual browser into a valuable click-through, and it needs to be prominently displayed. It also needs to be crystal clear and promise to address the needs of users. After all, why should they visit your site? What have you got to offer them that others do not?

On Facebook, you can enhance your ad by including a call-to-action button. These buttons feature a short message, which is essentially an abbreviated call-to-action. Something like "shop now" or "learn more" does the job perfectly. In conjunction with a well-worded offer and description, this button is the ideal way to lead users to click-through, so be sure to take advantage of it.

Make Users Feel Exclusive

One of the problems with online advertising campaigns in general is that they fail to create a relationship with users who may see hundreds of ads every week. This makes it vital to appeal to the Facebook users with an exclusive offer that makes them feel valued. An exclusive discount or free product for Facebook leads is a good lure to arouse their interest, and is also a good focus for your ad description.

Be careful about coming across as coercive or inaccessible. For example, some Facebook marketers require users to "like" their content before they gain access to the advertiser's site. On one hand, this can lead to deeper engagement. Users might be intrigued by a "hard-to-get" attitude. However, they could well be alienated as well. Try to stick to accessible, simple ads instead.

Create the Right Ads for the Right Audience

This should be part of the advertising ABC, and it applies as much to Facebook as magazine or TV ads. In general, ads succeed when they are relevant to the viewer. Facebook users are no exception, and they hate to see their news streams filled with spam.

Targeting your ads is a good way to avoid this problem. When you run Facebook campaigns, ensure that your content is provided only to certain demographics. This allows you to create different ads for millennials, teens and middle-aged users, or locally focused ads for different cities. You can also focus on users who have made purchases in your product area in the past, people who are getting married or people with certain cultural interests.

You may have to do a little extra work to create targeted ads for your markets, but the extra effort is well worth it in terms of cost-per-sale.

Simplify to Succeed

Targeted and attractive adverts will always have a huge advantage on Facebook. However, if they are over-complicated or hard to read, they will almost certainly fail. It doesn't matter how well you have researched your target audience. This makes it essential to focus on simplifying your message as much as possible.

Sometimes it can be hard to resist the urge to fill your ad with text, but it's important to try. Images, appealing exclusive offers and calls-to-action are what you should aim for, not beautifully written but long-winded narratives. That way, your ad will attract more click-throughs and make much more money.