Facebook is the boon of online marketers. The platform makes it easy to target the right people, as it allows the advertiser to choose an audience or demographic instead of just randomly showing ads to disinterested people.
Facebook also has billions of active users on a monthly basis, which means that you can advertise not only to your locality but also internationally.
But how do you get the best out of your FB ads? Today, I’ll show you nine tips on how you can optimize your Facebook ads campaigns.
These are:
- Choose the right objective
- Create a target audience
- Use the FTO approach
- Create multiple ad versions
- Use the right size image
- A/B test your ads
- Use Facebook Pixel
- Use the right button for the ad
- Create ads from your posts
By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to choose from some of these tips to make your Facebook ads more effective. At the end of the day, what you want is an ad that delivers.
Let us get started!
1. Choose the Right Objective
There are several objectives in ad creation in the Facebook platform. You have to choose the right objective to make the most out of your ad. You cannot create an ad for exposure if what you want is to make sales or increase your conversion.
The three major options are:
- Awareness – use this to increase your page likes
- Consideration – this ad is best used to drive traffic to your website, which can make the site visitors buy from your store
- Conversions – this is a type of ad best used for hardcore selling; it is also best to drive physical traffic to your brick-and-mortar store
These three major divisions have subsets, and each subset caters to the type of business goal you want to achieve.
2. Create a Target Audience
Facebook has amassed massive data. As such, you have the option to show your ads to a specific group of people only.
To do this, you first need to create a target market avatar. You need to have a clear picture of what your target market looks like, and know what they want.
Here are the different ways you can toggle a Facebook audience:
- Age – choose the age bracket of the people you want to show your ads to
- Gender – choose between male and female audiences
- Location – break it down by country or city
On top of these, you can also program your ads to show only to people who have specific interests, like biking, cooking, online business, and so much more.
3. Use the FTO Approach
FTO stands for Fast Take Off. In this approach, you do not set a limit to your budget when you first launch your ad.
In this technique, what you need to do is to set a marketing budget that is higher than your actual budget. After your ad has reached at least 10,000 impressions, you need to assess how the ad was shown, and which demographic responded the most.
Once you have that data, you can re-run your ads, but this time narrowing down your target to the most responsive group. On the second run, lower your budget to what you originally intended.
4. Create Multiple Ad Versions
This approach is different from A/B testing. Here, you are creating a completely different ad just to see what resonates better with your audience.
Also, you need to create different ad styles to prevent ad fatigue. If a person has seen your ad today, it is not likely that he will pay attention to the same ad tomorrow if he sees it again. What you want is for this person to see a different one.
5. Use the Right Size Image
Facebook has different ideal image sizes for ads. If your ad image is too big, Facebook is going to crop it, and your targeted audience may not see your full message.
Here are some ad sizes that you need to know:
- Facebook Feed – 1,200 x 628 pixels or 1,080 by 1,080 if the image is square
- Carousel Ads – image size must be at least 600 x 600, but the recommended size is 1,080 by 1,080 pixels
- Right Column Ads – minimum is 600 x 600, but the recommended size is 1,200 x 628 pixels
Cropped ads do not yield great results. Use the right size dimensions to optimize your ads. Otherwise, people will just scroll down through their feeds over your ads because they don’t understand what it is about.
6. A/B Test Your Ads
A/B testing is a process where you create different versions of your ad. The concept is the same, but you are trying out different content in some aspects.
For example, you create two ads that are exactly the same, except for the image. Or you can have the same images, but the headlines are different.
You need to do this to see what works better. A/B testing is something you must do before scaling up an ad. If ad A has better results, then it makes sense to boost your budget on that ad.
7. Use Facebook Pixel
The Facebook Pixel is a code that you embed in your website. With this, you can create events or triggers. For example, you can trigger the pixel every time a person clicks on a certain button, or every time a person visits a certain page.
With a pixel, Facebook will know how your customers behave and will target that person with your ad if that is what you want to do. If you use the Facebook Pixel, you can create ads that “follow” the person.
8. Use the Right Button for the Ad
You can choose several buttons for your Facebook ads. These are buttons that people can click from their feeds.
The common types are:
- Send message
- Buy now
- Learn more
- Visit website
These buttons are your call to actions. Use the right one according to your advertising goals.
9. Create Ads from Your Posts
One of the most effective ways to optimize your Facebook ads campaigns is to boost your post. Doing so will increase your page likes.
So, what is the value here? The value is simple: if a person likes your page, he will see your posts in his feed if you post something new in the future. And if he sees this, you can drive conversion or traffic to your website, for free.
Also, posts that have a high number of likes are more credible than those that do not have a lot of engagements. Use this optimization technique to build your credibility and social proof.
Summary
Facebook works. Despite what some pundits say, Facebook is still the king of social media, and you can reach millions of people on the platform. It is better than Google because people do not open Google to see ads—they use Google for research.
Facebook, on the other hand, is a place where people just want to scroll down and browse. If you can manage to find a spot in that person’s feed, and if that person is one that has interest in your product, there is more likelihood for your ad to get clicked.
Of course, this can only happen if you use Facebook the right way. Take a look at each of the nine methods on how to optimize your Facebook ads campaigns, and check if you have fulfilled several of them.
If you did, never forget to analyze if your ad worked. Check your ads manager and assess the effectiveness of your cost per click, and do not stop revising your ads until they yield your desired results.
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