It cannot be denied that Facebook is among the biggest and most effective marketing platforms today. With its massive user base, the ability to make use of various forms of marketing and advertising strategies, and the vast array of supporting services, Facebook indeed has a lot of helpful features that make it among the best choices of a marketing channel to tap. Facebook further allows the use of targeted advertising in which you can tap your desired audience more effectively.
However, just being on Facebook would not cut it. It takes careful strategizing for you to come up with winning campaigns that can help you achieve your marketing goals. Here are 13 useful Facebook advertising hacks that marketers can use to drive in more sales:
1. Seed a highly relevant audience for creating lookalike
Facebook has an advance targeting feature called lookalike audiences that allow you to create an audience that carries the same traits as your defined audience. Facebook takes into consideration all the attributes of a source audience, and then it makes these data points into consideration, and create a list (or the lookalike) that contain people who carry a lot of similar points with the source audience.
To ensure that your lookalike audience is the best kind that you can create, you should make sure that the source audience is the best representation of what for you is your ideal customers.
2. Narrow down to define precise interests
Instead of lumping in together all kinds of ideal customers into one source audience, you should practice making use of multiple source audience list, and coming up with a unique lookalike audience for each of them.
The idea here is that this allows each list to be more centered on the defining traits of each of your source audience lists, allowing you to craft more effective specialized advertisements for each.
3. Use triggering keywords
When you come up with an advertisement, you should be very particular in the copy as it can affect the overall impact to your audience. A lot of ad copies fail to invite the audience to the desired action because they lack the necessary push.
What should be done is that you should make use of keywords that can trigger their sense of urgency such as “limited offer,” “once in a lifetime,” “exclusive offer” and similar terms and phrases that would entice a lot of them to do what you want them to do, and instantaneous at that.
4. Use social proof
One of the best ways to boost the effectiveness of your Facebook ads is dashing it with social proof. This improves your ads’ credibility, and are generally more accepted by the audience when you make use of user-generated content and not just brand content.
5. Create a video funnel
Among the most engaging advertising formats is video. You can also make an audience list out of your videos’ viewers. And the ad strategy that can best be used for them is also a video format as they would most likely respond this way positively, and then go for your sales strategy at the end.
6. Create a form funnel
Among your audiences, those that took their time to fill up forms are generally the type of people who take their time to see your ads to the end. It is, therefore, a good idea to come up with an audience list out of those who filled up your forms, and then make sure that these people receive your communications.
7. Target men and women separately
Despite the general movement for gender equality in most situations, advertising separately for men and women is still a thing, and it still works best this way. This is especially true in markets whose culture instills a great divide on what is masculine and what is feminine.
Although you shouldn’t go to the extremes as to limiting what works for just men and then only for women, it is just ideal to come up with different advertisements that are better for men, and another for women.
8. Create different ads for different audience persona
Aside from gender, another important consideration when coming up with ads is that there are different personalities of people, which also affect their taste as an audience for your advertisements.
It is therefore crucial that you try to understand your audiences’ personalities and to come up with advertisements that appeal to them the best. So make sure that you craft personality-based audience lists.
9. Make shorter video ads
When you make videos ads, it should not be longer than 30 seconds. Any more than that pulls down the effectiveness of your ad to drive in conversions. This also helps your best maximize the video autoplay that is, by default, activated on one’s profile.
10. Create a free funnel
Another good idea is to come up with an audience list for those who are interested in free goodies. This ranges from free e-books, free videos, free tutorial, and the like. While it may be extra tricky to come up with strategies that may eventually push these people to spend, it is not impossible.
With the use of right advertising, as well as personalized offers, highlighting that they are getting something free on top of what they pay, you might be just able to lure them in, positively affecting your conversions.
11. Focus on lifetime budget campaigns
Some businesses spend all out on a single campaign that doesn’t always bring about the desired results. To dampen the risks, as well as to boost that chances of success, you should come up with multiple cost-effective ad campaigns instead. Doing this, you have more opportunities for driving sales, while also lessening the risks per ad. Of course, ad quality should not be compromised just because it has a lower budget.
12. Exclude the audience
It is understandable that some people would be present on the multiple audience lists, especially when you come up with many different kinds of lists. But instead of having them receive various advertisements, you may choose to make use of the exclude functionality. This also helps you save more on paid advertising because otherwise, you will have to pay multiple times for the same ad. Be cost-effective by using a simple technique that is usually taken for granted.
13. Focus on open-ended questions in lead form
When you make use of the lead ad format, you are given the ability to ask questions. And it is advisable that your questions be open-ended. This way, they are not just confined to pre-determined choices, but may freely answer on their free volitions, which aids your ability to determine their personalities and preferences.
Boost your Facebook Ad Campaign with these hacks
True enough, an effective Facebook advertisement is not a walk in the park. You will need to strategize how you will go about it. The tips above are some of the most effective ways on how you can make use of various tools and concepts that can allow you to know them, and then push the right campaign for them.
Follow the tips above, and you are 13 steps closer to better Facebook advertising campaigns.
[Images – Main Photo by Freestocks.org from StockSnap; Avatar collection by Avatar Vectors by Vecteezy]
Kevin Urrutia is the founder of Voy Media, a Facebook Marketing Company in NYC. He aids businesses in effectively improving sales and conversion through the effective utilization of Facebook advertising. Voy Media is an expert in determining the best approach, coming up with a unique solution for each client.