Practical small-business tips to make your Facebook ads better

With over 2.89 billion global active users, Facebook is arguably the world’s most powerful marketing tool for small businesses and startups. With its broad audience encompassing an array of demographics, Facebook ads can help you cut through the noise, reach your customer segments more effectively and accelerate business growth. 

Fortunately, Facebook ads are among the easiest to implement and most cost-effective among all social media platforms. Note that the platform’s ad copy comprises four distinct parts — the image, the headline, the description and the call-to-action button. 

Here are some strategies to make your Facebook ads more engaging and effective:

1. Identify your goals

Setting goals is the first step of every marketing strategy. Your marketing goals will become your reference for determining the success of your Facebook advertising strategy.

But before you list your marketing goals, you may need to do some research and think closely about your business goals. For guidance, refer to the top three goals that marketers on Facebook were found to be using, according to the 2018 Sprout Social index: building brand awareness, increasing sales and community engagement, and boosting lead generation.

2. Define your target audience

Identifying your target audience is crucial to your marketing strategy’s success. Finding the right audience and gathering insights on their needs will help you come up with ads that resonate with your audiences.

For help determining your target audience, consult Facebook Audience Insights, Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics or other management tools.

3. Utilize carousel format

Carousel ads have been shown to achieve higher conversions and better engagement than static ads. By combining cards, post, headline, multiple images and link copy sections, carousel ads entice users to swipe to see what the next card displays, while people tend to be more apt to simply scroll past image ads.

Pro tip: Carousels present an especially good opportunity for businesses with lots of products or brand images.

4. Experiment with ad placement

Trial-and-error with ad placement on Facebook can provide you with vital insights. Start by running an ad campaign for a few weeks and see how the audience responds. Once the campaign ends, you can glean insights into its performance based on placement.

If the results are disappointing, consider placing another ad campaign to see if it performs better.

5. Experiment with bidding strategies

Testing out different bidding strategies can help you achieve your advertising goals and attain better business outcomes. These strategies include goal-based bidding, spend-based bidding and manual bidding, all of which are good for Facebook marketing.

6. Make use of CTA buttons

Call-to-action buttons attract attention and encourage people to engage with your ads. Adding CTA buttons to your Facebook ads can help boost engagement quickly.

CTA buttons for Facebook ads are available in multiple formats and for different objectives, such as Contact us, Sign up, Subscribe for more, Buy now, Apply now, Watch Video. Experiment with using different CTA buttons, based on the action you want your audience to take when they see your ad in their News Feed.

7. Use lookalike audiences

Facebook’s lookalike audience segmentation tool can help you reach new buyers whose demographics and interests are similar to those of your existing customers.

8. Consider adding movement

Ads with movement stand out more in viewers’ News Feeds. Facebook’s Stories ads offer an immersive experience that lets you take advantage of photos and videos. Use the platform’s free templates or opt for paid tools to animate your post and to edit colors, images and fonts.

Pro tip: Facebook reports that according to an Ipsos survey, 62% of respondents indicated they were more interested in a brand or product after viewing it in a story format.

9. Use text sparingly on images

Although you can add virtually any amount of text to your ad images, Facebook reports that Facebook ads with less than 20% text deliver better performance. When using text on your ad image, go for a smaller font and fewer words to reduce the proportion of text to image. 

10. Analyze the audience experience

Facebook’s Pixel is a piece of code that lets you measure the efficacy of your ads by seeing the actions people take on your site. Install Pixel to glean a better understanding of customer behavior that you can use to improve your ads.