As advertisers or business owners alike, we all have the same goal when advertising on Facebook – to generate conversions. So how do we get our audience to convert? Currently, the average Click Through Rate (CTR) for a Facebook ad ranges from 0.5% to 1.6% on average. Check out our top 5 best practices to create a Facebook ad that converts:
Tip 1: Don’t Be a Salesperson (At Least, Not Obviously)
People aren’t on Facebook to be sold to. What may work for an AdWords campaign won’t necessarily work in the more social world of Facebook. Rather than pushing a hard sell, approach your audience from a completely different angle and embrace the art of the soft sell. Your ads will appear in the newsfeed of the users you target – users that are utilizing the platform to virtually socialize – so it’s important that your ads look and feel social. Know your audience, and have a conversation with them. A bold sales pitch won’t help you convert here.
Tip 2: Be Concise… and Odd?
Nobody wants to see an ad that reads like a paragraph out of a textbook when scrolling through their feed. Make sure you use a more succinct style that’s in-keeping with the rest of the content you post. Research shows that ad text of 120-139 characters will be as much as 13% more engaging than if it’s 140-159 characters. And more so, 40 character posts have 86% higher CTRs than all other lengths of posts. Keep. It. Short.
To help shorten your copy, use the actual number value (i.e. “3”) versus writing out the text (i.e. “three”). Further, wherever you can, utilize the Rule of Odds. That is, start your headline with an odd number. By adding any number to the beginning of the title copy, CTR increases by 36%. Further, if this number is an odd number, CTR increases by an additional 20%.
For example:
- Original: The Six Best Sweaters to Stay Warm This Winter Season While Still Being On-Trend
- Updated: 5 Trendy Sweaters To Keep You Warm
- Updated: 51% Off All Winter Sweaters
Tip 3: Make Your Audience Read Past the Headline
You spend hours after hours customizing the perfect copy for your advertisement so that it sits just right with your target audience. Well, the painful truth here is, only 1 in 5 people will actually make it past your headline. However, to help get your audience to read your perfectly crafted body text:
1) Do you want your audience to convert? Ask a question in your headline to garner interest.
2) ??? Emojis have been shown to increase CTRs by as much as 13% — make sure to use them.
3) Go! Be sure to use an action verb to incentivize the viewer to keep reading.
Tip 4: Make Use of the Detailed Targeting Options
The beauty of Facebook is the sheer amount of data that it has on its users. This allows you to select a whole host of categories and interests that you want to target. For example, let’s say you own a bridal boutique and want to move into online sales. A good way to start reach your optimal audience is to go to ‘Life Events’ under the targeting options tab and your ad will preferentially be sent to users who are planning a wedding.
From here, go a step further and hone in on gender, age, and location that match that of your ideal audience. Next you can start to define the actions that you want recipients of your ads to take. By selecting an objective from Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion you can have your ads circle back and reappear to the people who have a history of taking the action that you’re seeking.
Tip 5: Remarket with the Facebook Pixel
Now we’re starting to get to the really powerful side of Facebook ads — remarketing. By being able to target users who weren’t converted the first time you’ll be able to view where every recipient of your ads is in relation to your overall sales funnel. Not only that, but retargeted customers are up to 10 times more likely to be converted than first time entrants to your sales funnel. Proof that remarketing is the secret weapon every campaign needs.
The secret is to not change the voice of your ads drastically just because they didn’t convert the first time. Stay consistent and think of a different angle, perhaps something that speaks more directly to the individual. Just don’t fall into the trap of suddenly offering huge discounts purely to increase the traffic to your site. What we’re aiming for here is organic and sustainable growth. Not a short-lived spike in traffic that makes you little or no money.
Final Thoughts
Creating a Facebook ad that converts starts with recognizing why people are on the platform in the first place. Stay social, conversational, and engaging with your audience. From there you can put the analytical power of Facebook to work by narrowing in on your ideal audience with the power of Facebook’s detailed targeting options. Focus on the analytics and use these to craft your next ad. Creating ad campaigns that convert is an ongoing process – so keep these best practices in mind while you create.
