Facebook Ads are an incredibly effective way to grow your business and drive sales. In fact, they're one of the most targeted, measurable, and affordable ways to reach your target audience on social media. Instead of focusing on a single type of user (e.g., millennials or parents), Facebook lets you find people based on things like their job title, school, interests, and other details listed on their profile. This offers up a wide range of opportunities for businesses who wish to market their products directly to potential customers.
However, the strength of Facebook Ads is also the weakness. The platform is saturated with different advertisers, so if you're not smart about how you use it, you may not see much return on your investment. Here are some things we learned while creating and running ads over the last year.
Why is Facebook Ads Size Important?
The size of your advertisements on Facebook is important for a couple of reasons. First of all, it is important because it will determine how many people can see your advertisement. The more people see it, the better chance you have of converting them into customers. If your advertisement is too small, it might not be seen by enough people to make it worthwhile. If it is too large, it might be blocked by Facebook's algorithm and not be seen by any people at all. The second reason that it is important is that it will affect where your advertisement is displayed on Facebook. If your advertisement is too small, it might get placed in a less desirable location on the site where it might not get as many clicks as it would if it were placed elsewhere.
Smaller vs. bigger Facebook ads
There are two types of Facebook ads: small and large.
Small ads are cheaper and have less reach compared to large Facebook ads.
Large Facebook ads have higher costs, but they have a much wider reach compared to small Facebook ads.
Small Facebook ads are best for testing and starting out. If you are just starting out, then small Facebook ads are recommended because they are cheaper, and you don't want to risk a lot of money.
Large Facebook ads are recommended for people who have a larger following and have a brand. If you have a following on your brand and you have a lot of trust with your audience, then you can go with large Facebook ads.
Using dynamic ads for continuous ad production
A dynamic ad is a type of Facebook Ad that lets you continually produce new ads without having to create new ads manually each time. This is valuable because it lets you test different headlines, images, copy, and call-to-actions easily. When you're creating a dynamic ad, you set the parameters upfront and then select which images and text you'd like to use each time.
A dynamic ad is created once and then re-used with different ads or creative details. Dynamic ads are commonly used with retargeting campaigns in which you serve ads to past visitors of your website. For example, if you sell running shoes and a certain visitor browses your website but doesn't make a purchase, you can create a dynamic ad that re-serves that person for that same ad every couple of weeks until they make a purchase.
Creating video ad content before placing your ad
When you're creating your ad, you're charged based on your ad's "impressions." An impression is counted each time an ad appears in someone's newsfeed or on the sidebar of another app where Facebook is active, like Instagram or Messenger. With impressions, the more, the better, so it's best to create your ad with the biggest ad size possible. Currently, the most effective ad size is the 940 x 616 "Full-Width" ad, followed by the 940 x 130 "Wide Skyscraper" ad. As we'll outline below, you can also create a video ad instead and get charged based on the number of "viewable" seconds.
Don't rely on the "recommended" ad sizes
As mentioned above, there are two recommended ad sizes: the Full-Width and the Wide Skyscraper. In general, the Full-Width ad size is recommended for most campaigns, as it provides more space for copy and visuals. The problem with all of these recommended ad sizes is that, to a certain degree, they're arbitrary. Facebook's algorithms calculate which ad size you should be using by looking at your average ad performance.
Regardless of how your ad performs, if you're using the same ad size each time, Facebook's algorithms will determine that you're doing just fine, and you'll never be prompted to change your ad size to something more effective. In other words, if your ad isn't performing as well as it could be, you might start adding more information and visuals to improve your ad's performance, only to have Facebook's algorithm tell you to use a smaller ad size.
Testing and optimizing based on audience response
The most crucial aspect of Facebook Ads is that you continuously test and improve the effectiveness of your ads. You might create one ad with a certain headline and image and manage to get a 2% click-through rate (CTR), while another ad with a different headline and image might have a 3% CTR.
When you have different ads running at the same time, you're able to use qualitative metrics like "number of people who clicked on your ad" and "the amount spent on advertising" to decide which ad is performing better and what you can do to make it even better. Generally speaking, the higher the CTR, the more people are interested in clicking on your ad.
Don't rely on qualitative metrics alone
As we discussed above, you want to monitor your ad's CTR and other qualitative metrics, such as the number of impressions and number of clicks. However, these numbers don't tell the whole story. Facebook Ads also gives you access to a wide range of quantitative metrics.
These include things like the estimated number of people who saw your ad, the number of people who clicked on your ad, the number of people who saw your ad and then visited your website, and the estimated number of people who either purchased something from you or became a lead. Generally speaking, the more quantitative metrics you see in the "positive" column, the more effective your Facebook Ads are and the more money you'll be able to make.
Conclusion
The way you advertise on social media is more important than ever before. Consumers are more likely than ever to ignore advertisements because they have more control over what they view online. To combat this, you'll need a well-thought-out plan for how you use each platform.
With that in mind, make sure you're using the best practices when creating your ads. Start with the largest ad size and create a dynamic ad with several different ads. Then, use the data Facebook provides to optimize your ads and make the most of your ad spend. Visit SYP.net to learn how to optimize your Facebook campaigns and improve their effectiveness without spending more resources than necessary.