Facebook, at least in the realm of social media, is the single most comprehensive advertising platform on the internet. Its versatility and ability to reach a huge global audience are unmatched by anything that ever came before or is available to marketers now.
This is why it is of such vital importance that your Facebook ads be as powerful and effective as possible. Businesses of all sizes and descriptions have seen unimaginable success or suffered embarrassing losses based on how well they’ve managed advertising on Facebook. Yes, it is that big a deal.
If you are starting to consider advertising on Facebook or have been doing so for a while and want to know how you can expand your reach even further, read on. Today, I’m going to present to you five things that, as head of a successful copywriting company, I have discovered to work well when producing Facebook ads and managing social media accounts for our clients.
#1 – Visuals
I have stated many times in the past that it is far more effective to base your copy off visuals than to select visuals around the copy. Facebook users have proven this concept to be true time and again in the way they respond to ads.
Images are the single most important element to Facebook (or any social media platform) ad. You want images in your ads that get the viewer to stop scrolling and pay attention. You can achieve good results with stock images, but you will get further with original, branded content every time.
Resize your images to as close to 600×400 as possible (600 should always be the width) and upload them compressed as small as possible. Tools like TinyJPG are a huge help in formatting images for Facebook ads.
#2 – Copy Integration
Copy integration involves superimposing text onto images for your Facebook ads. This is a great idea when done right but can get your ad rejected if it is considered too commercial-driven or contains too much text.
The key to success here lies in the concept of simplicity. What simple message do you want to convey in your ad? How can you condense that message down to three or four words, maximum?
This isn’t the time to try to sell a product. At the moment the user scrolls onto your ad, your job is to sell him or her on the idea of engaging with it. What the user does as a result of engaging with your content is where selling real products and services begins, and Facebook prefers (*demands) a more soft-sell approach.
Start by coming up with three to five adjectives that describe your brand well and try developing simple messages around them for your visuals and your captions. You can always hand those initial thoughts off to your copywriter and let him or her apply a little linguistic magic to them, too. Since we’re already talking about it…
#3 – High-Quality Copy
Competition on Facebook is fierce. You need your message to be as direct, succinct, and bold as possible without coming across like the stereotypical used car salesman. Copywriters who deal with social media for a living know how to talk to a broader audience but also wrangle in the right users for your business.
How do they do this? It is accomplished by being ever mindful of the swiftly changing trends in how the market receives and engages with content. If you think that you have your finger on the pulse of your ideal avatar already, fantastic. Keep doing what you’re doing. It obviously works for you.
If, however, you feel like you could be accomplishing more, you’re probably right. It’s at that point when most savvy businesspeople start interviewing copywriters.
#4 – Full Mobile Optimization
“But Facebook is already built on a responsive design platform, isn’t it?” Yes, it is. In that regard, a good bit of the work already has been done for you. Your job is to develop content that is easy to consume on any mobile platform. That involves clear visuals with text big enough to see but too small to obscure the ad. What’s the perfect balance? Ask your audience. Sometimes just playing with a font size can have a huge impact on engagement.
#5 – Clear, Concise Calls to Action
I have seen this one proven again and again: Ads with calls to action get many times more play than those that just drop a link in the caption. It really is as easy as changing this:
Great deals all weekend: bit.ly/1234567/!!!!
…to this:
Check out these amazing weekend deals: bit.ly/1234567/
In the above example, we see the use of a more enthusiastic tone coupled with a simple message and a clear call to action. Those three things are the perfect cocktail for a successful caption.
Final Takeaway
Successful Facebook ads maintain a fine balance between all of the elements listed above, but that doesn’t mean you can’t add your own style and voice to your ads. The more creative they are, the better they will perform. The same holds true for your copy. The better your use of words, the more confident people will be in your message.
Always keep mobile users in the forefront of your thoughts when developing Facebook ads. Far greater than half the content consumed on Facebook currently flows through mobile channels, and that number is increasing by the day.
Lastly, be clear and concise about what you want viewers to do with your content. You accomplish this through great visuals, enthusiastic captions with clear calls to action, and a final product that justifies the trust you build with your audience over time.