Elements of an Effective Facebook Ad

Colleagues and practitioners in the social media community observed significant decrease of conversions in many Facebook ad campaigns.  Many have reported this coinciding the release of Apple's IOS update that allows IOS users to opt out of being tracked.  However, there are many other factors that are involved, for example: 

1) Increased competition of similar products and services advertising for the same thing due to the increased number of online businesses that sprung up due to the pandemic;
2) Ads saturation;
3) Users learning to use their newsfeeds and devices more productively (and getting used to filtering unfamiliar content);
4) In-house administrative issues

This is my checklist of the basic elements that need to be present in your ads.

1.  Appealing photos or video;
2.  Short and sweet description of what's on offer and a promotion - yes there has to be a carrot for an ad to be more effective;
3. Easy checkout process - there has to be a clickable link that allows users to order quickly. For product-based online businesses, it is recommended to connect the online store to the Facebook shop.
Along with 'easy' is the need for speed. The website link where the ad redirects should load quickly (1-2 seconds would be an expectation, 2-3 seconds is long).
4. Effective demographic targeting (if conversion decline due to pixel is observed);
5. Use a fresh tile or image/video each time - if you can, use different images on each ad campaign.
6. Create urgency (limited offer, for example or order by date).
7. Review data - every 3 days or sooner. If you have a rather large daily budget, it is useful to review data everyday.

I hope these ideas help in creating more effective Facebook ads.

If you are wondering what else can be done with your Facebook campaigns, contact us at 027 460 2555 or join our coffee meetups. Social media training courses are also available via one-on-one sessions (face-to-face or via Zoom) or in groups. We’d love to brainstorm ideas and share what we know. You may also view more online resources on this link.