You probably know by now that most, if not all, of your potential and current customers are part of Facebook’s massive community. With 890 million people signing into Facebook every single day, your target audience is bound to be one of them!

The problem is, posting on Facebook alone is not enough anymore, especially for businesses that are just starting out. Facebook itself has noted that organic reach for business pages has been steadily on the decline due to their ever-changing News Feed algorithms. Because of this many businesses opt to using Facebook advertising to grow their community base and engagement. Unfortunately, with so many options for advertising on Facebook, many are unsure about what will drive results. Fortunately, we’re here to help!

Keep these four components in mind for a successful Facebook Ad:

1. It’s Visual. Visual content is more engaging in a Facebook News Feed and more likely to catch the eye of a potential customer. 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster than text. Your ad needs to be visually appealing and grab your target audience’s attention quickly.                                                                                                                          

2. It’s Relevant.  Being relevant is critical for the success of a Facebook advertisement. Every time someone views or clicks on your ad, you’re spending money. If your ads are not relevant to your targeted audience, then you’re wasting your time and money. If you are a business focused on the construction industry, you want to make sure you’re posting industry related content that is happening now. This could be new released products, industry news or even relevant things happening in the social world.

Last year, Facebook launched a new feature in their advertising platform that rates your ads and gives you a score of how it performed. A relevance score is calculated based on the positive and negative feedback you expect to receive from your target audience. Positive indicators include: the ads objectives, views, conversions, etc. The more Facebook see’s people trying to hide the ad or report it, the lower score they receive. This will give you a good starting point as to what ads work for your business.

3. It includes an enticing value proposition.  A value proposition tells the viewer why they should engage with your ad and ultimately, with your business. Your value proposition should be believable and attention-grabbing. Saying you’re the best dealership  in the world won’t make people click on your ad, but if you offer 25% off on one of your best services, perhaps they will be more enticed to click on the ad and interact with your business. 

4. A clear call-to-action. A pretty advertisement does nothing for you if there is no clear call-to-action. Your viewer will not know what to do next and it will force them to look elsewhere for that product or service. Add a call-to-action that creates a sense of urgency for them to click on it: “Offer ends soon.” This will encourage them to click on the ad now and not later. Make sure the ad clearly portrays what you want people to do and gets your message across.

Now that we’ve covered what makes a Facebook Ad successful, next week we will look at 7  different types of ads.