How often do you find yourself scrolling through social media? Probably more than you would like to admit. Websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can hold our attention for hours in this digital world. Now, let’s think about how often you click on sponsored ads while scrolling… probably not often or not as often as the advertiser would want you to. What makes people click? Well, the answer to that might be different for everyone, but there are a few tricks you can use to make sure your ads outshine the rest.
There are easy ways to grab the audience’s attention without breaking the budget. Simple changes in the ads can set your ad apart from the crowd of sponsored content on Facebook and lead the audience to respond to your call to action.
Here are 5 ways you can grab your audience’s attention without overspending.
- Find free templates.
- Get to know your audience.
- Use highly visual ads.
- Engage the audience or ask a question.
- Start a hashtag trend.
Here’s a bit more detail about each of these advertising tactics to help you boost the click rate of your ad:
Free Ad Templates
Not a designer? No problem! You can find free ad templates online. Canva.com is an example of a site that helps you build effective, visually appealing Facebook content for free. These templates have the required size, resolution, color and come with different design selections. All you need is original content and you can create an eye-catching Facebook ad that looks professional.
Here are some examples of Facebook ads that will have a memorable impact on your audience.
- Facebook cover ad: Update the cover section of your Facebook page with an original cover ad design, grab the attention of the audience right off the bat.
- Announcement Post: Use an announcement post to boost the awareness of an upcoming event or sale happening in your business.
- Newsroom Post: Post a short press release or urgent update and link this ad to your blog or website.
- Friendly Reminder: Use Facebook posts to humanize your company, post on a holiday, or show support for current events. Socialize with your audience by posting about what they care about.
Need a professional designer? Some ads require professional design work. Give your ideas to TomKin, let them do the rest, this way you can focus your valuable time on other aspects of your business.
Get to Know Your Audience
To invest in Facebook Ads effectively, you first need to know for whom your ads are directed toward. Facebook has built-in tools to help you reach the right people. First, do some research to identify the people you are trying to reach. When creating a new ad you can customize the following characteristics.
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Interests and behaviors
- Income
- Their connections
Use these identifiers to direct your ad to the most relevant people. It’s essential to find people in need of your service or product. If you are paying for the ad, using these free tools can help boost the performance of the ads at no additional cost.
Use Highly Visual Ads
Carousel ads are paid Facebook ads that can get more content into a smaller space. These ads are best used to display different products, using images, headlines, and descriptions with links leading the audience to the purchasing website. You can have up to 10 cards in each carousel ad. Unique images and videos help grab the attention and the call to action buttons will give context and drive the action forward.
Carousel ads help meet the following objectives:
- Brand Awareness
- Store/Website Traffic
- Sales Leads
- Catalog Sales
Engage the Audience
People enjoy looking at content that’s relevant to their lives. When it comes to building content that intrigues the viewer, it’s important to know your audience. Once you have discovered what makes your audience tick, use it to your advantage in your ads.
An example of this would be a post asking the viewer a question that relates to your product in a fun way and have them answer in the comments. This gets the audience talking about your product and boosts the post toward the commenter’s friends.
Below is an example of how the company Sharpie used a Facebook post to engage their audience by asking a fun question related to their product.
Use Hashtags
Hashtag trends not only group together related topics but can be used frequently within an ad campaign. Using hashtags can categorize your content into themes and topics relevant to the audience. Hashtag trends are topics that are immediately popular in your network. Using hashtag campaigns can:
- Create brand awareness
- Increase the visibility of your content
- Make it easier to track and quantify your content
- Get your audience involved
Hashtag trends can be used each day of the week. Keeping your brand in your audience’s mind is vital in gaining new business. An easy way to keep up with your social network is by scheduling weekly posts. Create the ads and content in advance and schedule the day you want the content to go out to your followers. A simple way to start is by using some popular weekday hashtags.
#MotivationMonday
#TransformationTuesday
#WednesdayWisdom
#ThrowBackThursday
#FridayFeeling
#Caturday
#SundayFunday
Creating your own personalized business hashtag or branded hashtag can help followers get to know your brand, which leads to customers. A branded hashtag is unique to your business, it can be as simple as the company name, tagline, or name of a product. An example of a branded hashtag is the Target, #TargetRun campaign. Target used this campaign to highlight the affordable everyday essentials customers can pick up at one stop. Target encouraged their customers to use this hashtag when posting about their brand and shopping at Target, it also helped spread brand awareness. Here are some more examples of popular branded hashtags.
- #ShareACoke (CocaCola)
- #PutACanOnIt (Red Bull)
- #TweetFromTheSeat (Charmin)
- #MyCalvins (Calvin Klein)
- #IceBucketChallenge (ALS)
There are so many ways to make your Facebook Ads unique. These examples can help get you started with your next social media campaign.
Are Facebook Ads Worth Spending Money On?
Each business has its own marketing budget, to determine the worth you need to determine your return on investment before you pay for it. If you are just starting to advertise online, Facebook is a good place to start because the cost per click is relatively cheap and more effective than other social media platform or Google Ads.
Knowing your conversion rate and relating that to the cost per click is a good way to determine your return on investment. Conversion rate is the number of conversions divided by the number of visitors. A good conversion rate is around 9%, which means out of 100 viewers nine people clicked on your ad and were brought to your website.
How Do I Know What Type of Audience to Choose for My Product?
Start with a base audience, maybe the 15-30-mile radius around your business, then broaden it by adding one category at a time. You can also create ads with different audience groups related to your business goals. Monitor the ads then pick one or two groups that have generated the best results and use those for your next ads.
Sources: Facebook, Writtent, Thrivehive