Facebook is unarguably one of the most popular social media platforms today. Most businesses that are serious about advertising online have Facebook ads at the top of their digital marketing campaign.

It is important to understand the different Facebook ads and options before you start buying ads on the platform. In this blog, we look at some of the steps for designing and placing ads on Facebook that give you a high conversion rate.

Design an Ad Strategy

There are many things you can achieve through your facebook ads. For example, you can increase the number of followers and friends, get better leads or drive more traffic to your website. Facebook has identified 11 goals that businesses can achieve through their platform.

• Connect your Facebook ads to a product catalog on your site. This allows Facebook to show ads to their users for the products that they are most likely to buy.
• Drive traffic to a specific web page, app, or Facebook Messenger conversation of your choosing.
• Gain new leads and prospects for your sales funnel.
• Get more people to watch your advertised videos.
• Help your ads reach as many people in your existing followers as possible.
• Improve brand awareness by introducing your brand to a new audience.
• Reach a big audience and get people talking about your posts and get more page likes. This can help increase attendance at your events or encourage people to claim an ongoing discount or offer.
• Run a campaign to get more users to install your business app.
• Show customers near your location your bricks-and-mortar store when they are looking to buy something that you sell.
• Use DM ads for targeted customers through Facebook Messenger.

You will get different results from your Facebook ad campaign based on the goals that you are trying to achieve.

Select the Type of Ad You Want

When it comes to giving options to their customers, Facebook has been very smart. They have implemented dozens of ways for businesses to promote their products and services on the platform.

Here are some of the options that you have as an advertiser.

• Instant Ads – A full page instant ad that can cover the whole screen. You can link to more ads through this one. It usually stays on screen for a few seconds or until dismissed.
• Collection Ads – These are picture ads that appear on users’ timelines while they are scrolling down. Ads from up to 5 companies or products can be placed here and the user will need to click to buy the product.
• Video Ads – These are short videos that load and run in a user’s news feed or stories as they scroll. You can use videos, animated and even moving gifs for these ads.
• Image Ads – These are similar to video ads where a single image with some intro text appears in a user’s news feed while they are scrolling down. They are the most common and simple types of ads seen on Facebook.
• Lead Ads – Users can click these ads and submit contact information for trying out a product. They also appear in the newsfeed and popular in B2B industries.
• Messenger Ads – Facebook has its own messenger app that usually comes integrated with the Facebook app on mobile devices. These ads appear as popup messages on screen and contain links and images to various products or services.
• Playable Ads – These are interactive ads where a mini game like ad pops up for users while they are browsing their newsfeed. It is a very engaging ad style that is popular in teens and Millennials.

There are other types of ads as well including Augmented Reality and Stories ads that are becoming popular with users.

Write Your Facebook Ad

After you’ve chosen an ad format, enter the text and media components for your ad. This is a creative process and your marketing team will be able to come up with something good and relevant.

The formats you can use are based on the campaign objective that you initially selected.

Videos and images are an integral part of Facebook Ads. While text-only ads can be used in some situations, they are generally not very effective. The exception is when the text is written in a creative style with some sort of word art.

Keep in mind that images and videos always precede the headline or text in Facebook ads. This is because users may skip text while scrolling through their news feed. By the time their eyes catch the image or video and they stop scrolling to see it, they may have already passed the descriptive text about the business.

When text appears below images and video, people stop at the video and read the text that follows. This has a better impact on sales.

Here are some tips to write and get for writing and getting great results with Facebook Ads.

• Write an inspirational story in the ad that moves people. The story could be completely made up or an actual event in history. For example, many people share stories from Steve Jobs life about perseverance that are very engaging and immediately grab attention with the tech community.
• Everyone loves to get products and services at a discounted rate. You can create ads that encourage users to share your ads on their timeline and get discounted or free items from your store.
• Focus on creating value for readers by writing entertaining content rather than repeatedly trying to sell your products. People are inherently attracted to good content and overly promotional tone in your ad can put them off.
• Test different ideas. People can get bored with the same type of ads over and over so you should try to vary your offering as much as you can.

Conclusion

Facebook is a great place to advertise your business. If you can develop a following of a few hundred thousand users, you can very easily market your brand, products and services.

We shared some tips that can be helpful in designing ads that help you reach out to millions of potential customers on the platform.

Author Bio

Dave Brown is a Sr. Editor at Content Development Pros – a leading content solutions provider, offering article, blog, website content, and product description writing services to small and mid-sized businesses.