Facebook has become the platform that everyone is a part of; your potential customers are likely browsing through their newsfeed right now. Everyone from teens, college students, CEOs, and seniors are all a part of Facebook. It has transformed into the ultimate stage for businesses and consumers alike.
Creating an ad for Facebook is just like any other ad: there are guidelines and best practices. In a world of over 890 million viewers per day, your ads need to cut through the static and reach your targeted audience. Below is an outline of the basics of ad creation as well as some best practices for designing the ad.
Let’s start with the basics: title, body, and image.
1. Title
- No more than 25 characters, including spaces
- No abbreviations or excessive capitalizations
- Address the customer’s issues, needs, etc. but in a way that interests them
- Questions are a great title, gets consumers thinking
2. Body
- No more than 200 characters, including spaces
- No abbreviations or symbols such as @ or $
- Grammatically correct without excessive punctuation, such as “Buy this now!!!!!!!”
- Aim to answer the question that’s on the mind of the customer: “What’s in it for me?”
- Include a call-to-action if you didn’t already put it in the title of the ad. Tell them to ‘click,’ ‘like,’ ‘sign up,’ or ‘enter now.’
- If you are targeting a particular demographic, call them out. E.g., “If you like baseball…” or “If you live in Omaha…” this catches attention and encourages consumers to act more often than not!
3. Image
- Make it clear and not overcrowded with information
- Must be less than 5MB
- Don’t be afraid to try out something unusual to get more clicks.
- If your image includes text, the text cannot cover more than 20% of the image’s area
For specific ad guidelines, click here.
4. Other Components
Once you’ve got the basics, you’re ready to design the ad! There is not a set in stone formula that will guarantee successful ads each and every time. However, there are four components that, if included in a Facebook ad, will more than likely return great results.
- Visual — Visual content treated more favorably in FB algorithm. Visuals are also more appealing and eye-catching for consumers.
- Relevant — Your ads should target specific audiences, and if you’re showing ads that aren’t relevant to that audience, wasting time and money. The more relevant your ad image, ad copy, and destination page is to your audience, the better your results will be.
- Tempting Value Proposition — Tell the readers why they should click on your ad to find out more about your product, service, company, whatever the goal may be. Why should the viewer click on your ad to see your website instead of a competitors’?
- Clear Call-To-Action — An ad can be the visually captivating and stop a reader, but without a CTA, how is a consumer to know what to do next? CTA puts a sense of urgency on the ad and pushes viewer to act now.
Facebook ad creation is a tango that many companies choose to dance. If done well and they can be smooth, attractive, and elegant. They can pull the consumers in without them realizing it’s an ad and next thing you know, your business has a new customer.
What has your company learned along the way while creating ads in Facebook?
