Facebook Marketing for your business, and how to do this yourself.
Facebook advertising is an important way to connect with your audience on the world’s largest social network. How large? 2.80 billion monthly active users large, to be precise.
Sure, that’s an impressive number. But Facebook ads are all about getting your message in front of exactly the right segment of those people. The people who are most likely to want your products or services.
If you want to get the best results, it’s important to understand how Facebook works before you decide to dive in.
In this Facebook ads guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know, from planning your first ad to developing advanced campaign strategies.
🥕Whether you’re creating your first or 100th Facebook Ad campaign, use these 10 best practices to make sure it’s a success:
But let’s start with something fun… did you know the most popular color to use on Facebook is yellow? 🟡 Yes, you read that right, try to incorporate as much yellow as you can, without overkilling your ad of course!!🟨
👉🏻 Set Clear Business Goals – Here are some questions to consider:
💎 What is your overarching business goals?
💎 What do you hope to accomplish with this specific campaign?
💎 Do you want to drive traffic to your online store?
💎 Do you want to promote your store locally?
💎 Are you notifying your customers about a sale or promotion?
💎 How does this campaign fit with your overall marketing strategy?
👉🏻 Check out the Competition – This Facebook feature means presenting your business and products to people who are not immediately seeking to make a purchase.
To create successful ads on this platform, first look at your competitors. Learn which type of ads work and which don’t. Look out for content that catches your eye and makes you click.
Get a feel for the tone of voice that businesses use. Take note of which ones inspire engagement by looking at their likes and comments.
Create a list of ads that generate high levels of engagement. Write down what makes these ads stand out. Use these ideas when you build your own campaign.
👉🏻 Plan Your Budget – Determine how much money you’ll invest in your campaign. Then, plan your campaign run time. If you are outsourcing your Facebook marketing, you’ll have a fixed amount that you can budget every month.
👉🏻 Target Your Ideal Audience – The key to creating a successful ad campaign is showing it to the right people.
Facebook charges you per impression and per click, so you must be strategic about finding your audience. Make sure the people seeing your ads are the ones most likely to purchase your products.
If you create your ad on Facebook Ads Manager, start by imagining your ideal customer. Are they male or female? How old are they? Where do they live? What do they do? What are their interests? If you can, try to define them as much as possible. This will narrow down the group you target.
👉🏻 Perfect Your Photos – Facebook is largely a visual medium. When it comes to attracting attention and creating buyer confidence, high-quality photos are a must. Learn how to take perfect product photos and use them to your advantage.
👉🏻 Use Good Lighting: Quality lighting ensures the item, and its details are clearly visible. Try to avoid harsh shadows. Wait for a cloudy day to achieve a softer look or use a reflector or diffuser.
👉🏻 Stand out from Your Background: The item you want your viewer to focus on should clearly contrast with its background. Consider using solid colour backdrops. Try not to get too creative. Let the product be the main subject of the photo.
👉🏻 Make It Match Your Brand: Use photographs that fit with your store’s brand. Add a logo watermark to your photos but keep it subtle. Don’t let it distract from your product.
👉🏻 Avoid Common Photography Mistakes: Take professional photos. Make sure they aren’t grainy, blurry, or cropped awkwardly. Check that your photos fit Facebook’s image requirements.
👉🏻 Make It Pop: Don’t be scared to use bright or bold colours. Your images need to grab the attention of shoppers and make them want to buy.
👉🏻 Avoid Using Too Much Text: Facebook doesn’t allow photos that include text covering more than 20% of the image. Edit down your text. Put any extra information in your ad description.
Preview your Facebook ad to make sure the images look great on all platforms before you publish.
👉🏻 Create Great Copy – The quality of your text can make or break your ad campaign.
Carefully crafted captions make your store look professional and can convince people to pay attention to your ad.
When writing your ad description, here are a few things to keep in mind:
💡 Write a clear call to action. Your customers need to know exactly what you want them to do next. Use a call to action that creates urgency. Encourage people to make that purchase now, not later. Reassure them that buying from you is the best option and that you can offer something your competitors can’t.
💡 Clearly explain what you offer. Text is there to provide your customer with more information. If your text isn’t complimenting your image, revise it. Look at your ad from the perspective of someone who has never heard of your business. Do they understand what you sell? Can they tell what makes you unique? Is your product’s value clear?
💡 Avoid typos. A misspelled word or even an ill-placed comma can distract from your message and make your business seem unprofessional. Before publishing, have someone else look over your text.
💡 Attract attention. Your text needs to entice casual shoppers. So, think about your customers’ state of mind and how they feel. Then, tap into this emotion with simple and clear language that drives them to act. Convince them that it will be worth their while to look at what you’re selling.
💡 Speak your customers’ language. Try to use language that is unique to your target shoppers. Emojis can make your ad feel friendlier, but make sure they work with your brand.
👉🏻 Integrate Instagram – Have beautiful product images? Don’t forget about Instagram. Instagram users are 58 times more likely to engage with branded content than Facebook users.
Instagram ads are also ideal for targeting younger audiences. In fact, more than half of Instagram users are under 34. So, if you’re targeting this age group, this could be the platform for you.
🎁 To start, make sure to connect your Facebook and Instagram accounts. You can do this by tapping the settings icon on Instagram. Then choose Accounts and tap Linked Accounts. Select Facebook and log in.
👉🏻 Make It Timely – Make the most of holidays by running campaigns during peak seasons. Use ad campaigns that match the time of year.
Add a sense of urgency to your copy by referring to the upcoming holiday.
Update your images, product pages and logo with seasonal elements. Make your ads stand out from the competition during the holiday season.
Review your top-selling products from the previous year. Advertise them during this peak shopping time.
Use lesser-known holidays to add a fun element to your campaign, like National Inventors’ Day or National Selfie Day. Creating a campaign around these offbeat holidays can attract new customers and boost engagement on social media.
🛍 So, it’s official, you NEED TO BE ON FACEBOOK! And whether you want to try this out yourself (free – with our advice), have this service outsourced (packages available from R550 per month), or even want to invest in doing a short course for your staff to take care of this in-house (from R2500 via Zoom), we are here to assist you!