You’ve decided to run some Facebook Ads to support your brand marketing efforts and they’re just not performing like you expected.  Now what?

Believe it or not, many brand advertisers are hesitant to begin an advertising campaign on Facebook.  Even worse, others start a Facebook ad campaign only to discontinue it because of lower than expected click-through rates and conversions.  I think that these reluctant marketers are missing the point – they fail to realize that the intent of users searching on Facebook is drastically different than regular search engine users.  Users are logged into Facebook not to buy/research a product/service, but to connect with their friends and brands.

You already know that the 750M+ (and growing!) Facebook users are a treasure trove of useful targeting information, but Facebook users’ intent is vastly different than a user who clicks a PPC ad in Google or Bing.  That being the case, click-through rates and conversions tend to be lower than a PPC ad in Google.  However, similar to banner advertising, Facebook is excellent for creating brand awareness.  Even if users don’t click on your ads, they do notice them.  They also notice when their friends have liked a particular ad.  This acts as a recommendation coming from their friends and is far more valuable than simply clicking on an ad.  So it is reasonable to infer that when the same user is searching on Google after seeing a Facebook ad, he might recollect that particular brand and search for it.  That’s how Facebook influences your search advertising efforts.  There is a great deal of data to support the fact that Facebook impressions increase PPC impression/clicks and even brand searches, but that’s the subject of another post.

Here are 5 Tips for Creating Better Performing Facebook Ads:

  • Images: Images are the most important aspect of Facebook ads.  Images with pleasing faces, bright colors, and catchy graphics work well.  In my experience, horizontal images do better than vertical ones as they occupy the entire allotted space.
  • Interests: Enter the strong performing keywords from your paid search campaigns.  Not all of your keywords will be applicable in Facebook, but you will at least have a good starting point.  Once you get hold of these key ‘interests’, use the ‘suggest’ feature (as you type in words, Facebook suggests some relevant other interests) to explore related interests.
  • Incentive: If you have any promotions, special offers, or prizes to give away, convey them via your ads.  A simple promotion of ‘Like us on Facebook to get $1 off coupon’ can do wonders!
  • Keep Ads Fresh: Because users log into their Facebook account multiple times a day, they see the same ads over and over again.  As a result, the effectiveness of these ads wears out quickly and the click-through rate drops.  This is known as ad-fatigue.  Make sure to change/rotate your ads every 10-12 days.  This change could be as simple as switching the headline/text/image of an ad.  I suggest a hot/cold swap, i.e. use catchy, colorful images on the first flight, and then change it to something more subtle for the next flight, and so on.
  • Keep users on Facebook: In my experience, keeping users on the social network yields better results.  Rather than pointing these ads to your website/custom landing pages, direct your Facebook ads to your Facebook page/tab/event.  This creates a better user experience thus translating into lower bounce rates and higher click-through rates.  We now have the capability of letting users transact on the Facebook page/tab so user experience is maintained.

Implementing these tips will help you improve your Facebook advertising campaigns.  Similar to paid advertising , testing is the key to success.  Have a success story you want to share?  Have questions about your current campaign?  Email me, or comment below, and we can discuss!