Facebook ads are a great and effective way to reach new customers.
You can tailor your ads based on customer online behaviors and demographics.
The ultimate checklist for your Facebook ad includes format, photo and video, catchy title, and the perfect CTA.
So what is the magical recipe for making an ad that gets people’s attention? We talked extensively about that in our previous blog post, How to Make Your Ad Stand Out. While there is no silver bullet, there are best practices you can follow to improve the performance of your campaign.
Here’s a simple checklist:
- Choose the right format for your ad
- Use an engaging photo or video
- Write a catchy, but short set of text
- Select the right call to action
There are 4 format options. There’s a carousel, single image, single video and slideshow. The carousel allows you to use multiple images or videos to creating a moving ad. It’s best for a business trying to promote a catalog of products. Now the single image option is probably the most popular choice. As its name indicates, this option showcases one photo prominently on your ad. Similarly, the single video option showcases one video. And finally, you have a slideshow option. This is great for individuals who don’t have the time or resources to produce a video. You can get the same dynamic benefit of a video by simply stringing together photos.
When it comes to strategy between photos and videos, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Video is now the most effective way to reach audiences in their newsfeed
- Photos are effective, but they must resonate with your audience
- Measure, learn, and evolve your marketing
- The strongest campaigns use a combination of relevant ad formats, such as photo and video
Here’s a popular example from the company Tastey. They are well known for their short videos that display cooking recipes.
Now let’s talk about copy–this is the text you use in a specific ad. Most ads will only allow 2-3 lines of text. You’ll have a headline, which is supposed to be the main way you grab your reader’s attention. That is limited to 40 characters.
Then you have your link description, which additional information you might want to add. Maybe something like pricing. And that is limited to 20 characters.
The last piece of your ad that we need to talk about is your call-to-action. The CTA is the intended activity you want your users to perform. We talked about 3 different marketing goals in the past–awareness, consideration, and conversion.
Some examples include:
- Awareness → donate, watch more, learn more
- Consideration → book now, request time, download
- Conversion → show now, sign up
- The most popular CTA is shop now, allocating for about 74% of all CTA options across all FB ads
Helpful note: you want to make sure to use a CTA that is relevant to your business. So if you’re a restaurant, then your ad should have button that says “Book Now” so people can schedule a reservation at your store.