Tag Archives: Facebook ads

Facebook Ads Text Rules

Finally, Facebook has done something about its restrictive ad rules!

The 20% rule – which limited the amount of text accompanying an ad to just 20% of the overall surface area of a 5 x 5 grid – was really starting to grind on marketers’ nerves. Logos counted toward the text limit, text on a t-shirt someone was wearing counted, etc. The rejection process was an automatic algorithm based on the grid. So there was no option to explain the text was a part of the image.

Understandably, Facebook Ads need to minimize text clutter. Their research shows that the reading audience prefers clean, readable lines and images over writing. However, it was making it difficult for marketers to get their message across.

Why the Facebook Ad Rule Change?

This is simply a case of a giant company trying to balance the desires of its customer base and its B2B relationships. Through research, Facebook consumers have shown that they prefer ads with less text. Business owners and marketers that use the social networking giant to promote their wares have flooded Facebook with complaints about the restrictions and confusing parameters.

Perhaps more importantly, Facebook noticed that ads were being rejected at a clip that was losing them too much money. So it was necessary for them to make a shift in their stringent policy.

Specifics of the New Rule

As a consequence of receiving so many complaints about rejected ads, Facebook has sought to streamline the ad-acceptance algorithm. Most importantly, they’ve eliminated the most unfriendly part of the code: ads are not rejected based on text density any longer. All advertisements are judged by these categories:

The “OK” Category – This Facebook ad has very little text; if any. It appears to be the one that gets the most positive response from consumers.
The “Low” Category – this section is reserved for the ads that were just barely acceptable under the old 20% algorithm.
The “Medium” Category – this category is reserved for ads that would NOT have made it in under the old rule. Now, it allows advertisers to populate the image with text boxes around the picture.
The “High” Category – These Facebook ads were rejected outright. Although they are no longer declined by the system, these text-laden ads will be charged a higher cost.
Text density = higher CPC. It allows businesses to have their ads seen, but they’ll have to pay a cost if there’s more than the optimal number of characters reducing the allowable image area.

Ad Exceptions

In case some of the Facebook ad changes come across as too financially restrictive, marketers should know that the higher costs won’t apply to the following ads:

comic-strips
calligraphy
video game screenshots
event posters, concert posters and movie posters
infographics
app graphics
album and book covers
legal content

Of course, if there’s still some confusion left after the new rule changes, businesses can always use Facebook’s native “Create Ad” function to streamline the process and make it easy to select the correct category. So, while the total restriction is now gone, the reach of a text-heavy add is reduced compared to its non-text heavy image ad counterpart.

Remember: Simple, clean, and concise is the way to go on text within image ads. They key is the image itself! Use people and images that grab attention.

In short, the new feature changes help marketers frustrated with the text limitations affecting their previous ads.

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customizing facebook ads, digital marketing, Facebook ads, Facebook Marketing, social media marketingSeptember 6, 2016

Facebook Ad Targeting [Infographic]

Facebook Ad Targeting uses the social media site’s extensive information about their users to allow you to set detailed and unique profiles for your client demographic. The number of fields is expansive and includes:

Age
Location
Gender
Race
Religion
Education Level
Financial Factors (Income, Home Type and Value)
Political Leaning
Interests, Activities, and Hobbies
Purchase of Your Products and Services

Each of these can be configured to be inclusive or exclusive, so you can tailor your ads to only display to those who haven’t used your product before or those who use similar services.

You can also add custom information from your own databases such as a list of specific Facebook profiles or emails. By refining the targets for your Facebook advertisements the Click-through-Rate is maximized and you get the most from your marketing investment.

A tip of the hat to my friends over at SearchEngineJournal.com for creating this infographic checklist.

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customizing your facebook ads, facebook ad targeting, Facebook ads, Facebook Marketing, social media marketingAugust 12, 2016

How to Get More Engagement Using Facebook Ads

With the instant access to the Internet and the millions of people on social media daily, Facebook is the leading social platform to advertise on. Well-planned Facebook ad campaigns are reasonably priced, and can be very effective at increasing website traffic, engaging visitors, and ultimately, generating greater sales.

Here are some tips on how to get the most out of a Facebook ad campaign.

Know the Target Audience

When you know who your target audience is, and write specifically for them, you’ll increase your audience.

Geographic location

Gender

Income

Homeowners or renters

Computer or mobile user

A Facebook ad must be valuable to the users online at the time the ad appears. By knowing the time your target audience is online, you’ll be able to time your ads to attract the most eyeballs and grow sales.

Optimize your Business Page

An unclear, outdated business Facebook page won’t grab clients’ attention. Make sure your company page is welcoming and provides regular postings to generate interest.

Use short, easy-to-read sentences which clearly describe products, or create memorable branding messages.

Add tempting photos of your products, or photos which communicate your brand message.

Post daily content that your customers will value. This content should be a mix of information about your business and products, along with content you curate from similar businesses.

Use hashtags so search engines can easily find your posts, and searchers looking for hashtags can find your Facebook page.

Quickly address users’ complaints or concerns about products or services to demonstrate legitimate caring and concern.

Optimizing your Facebook Ads

Once the company Facebook page has been optimized, you can develop ads to increase engagement and interest.

Using Facebook ads options you can specify where news feeds should appear, and optimize your ad for mobile devices. It’s essential to grab attention within seconds and to design a mobile-friendly ad for best viewing.

Use Bright Colors, Photographs, and Cartoons to Capture Attention

To quickly attract attention, Facebook ads must be highly visual. Without this visual, attention-grabbing material, an ad probably won’t capture much attention.

Images should be sharp and mobile-friendly, they should contain bright colors, and should convey the emotion of your ad message at a glance.

Include a Value Proposition

Tell readers why they should click on your ad. Wording needs to give clear, concise reasons to click for more information.

Your ad should be believable. A coupon or discount is a more compelling reason to click than “world’s greatest”.

Explain why your product or service is better than comparable products and services. False or misleading information can harm your company’s reputation.

Comments and complaints spread quickly. Reinforcing an ad message on your website and Facebook page will reinforce your credibility.

A Call to Action is a Must-Have

You must have a compelling call to action because it significantly increases engagement. Some ideas to include are:

Offering a discount to first-time customers

Offer a free product or service, linked to purchase of another item

Include an end date to convey urgency

Monitoring and analyzing the success of an ad campaign is essential to increase engagement activity. Facebook offers very precise metrics for this purpose, so tracking engagement on your company page is easy.

By making use of this information, campaign ads can be tweaked to increase engagement. With the right strategies and content, Facebook ads can enhance your page’s activity with quality engagement.

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Facebook ads, Facebook Marketing, Facebook tips, optimize your Facebook business page, social media marketingJuly 5, 2016

How to Get the Maximum Facebook Ad Results with Minimal Ad Management

Not everyone has vast resources to spend when it comes to social media marketing. One has to balance quality with cost. Quality content creation, strategic paid media support, and community management are all examples of the resources that make a difference in the performance of your social media effort. Yet, those resources are costly.

For the business struggling to decide how to proceed with limitations, there are better ways to run efficient social media campaigns while maximizing ROI. Facebook is an example of how to implement strategies to run better campaigns.

Choose Wisely, Choose Smart

It can be frustrating trying to keep up with the constant changes Facebook makes. Every day, there is a press release about a coming ad module or algorithm. It’s tempting to keep a constant vigil for updates while taking each new feature out for a spin to see how ad tools perform.

Here’s where choosing wisely comes into play. One does not need to try every ad module. It is better to choose only the modules that will be the most useful for the needs of the business. For example, Facebook’s carousel feature gives one the ability to use one unit to display a variety of messages. However, this conflicts with the business’s previous need to gain exposure for a single message while driving subscriptions.

This situation calls for the use of options such as post promotion or lead ads instead of the carousel. The carousel may be better aesthetically, but the former options are likely to be the most effective use of money. In this case, experimentation with different ad formats can come after the business needs are met.

Quality Over Quantity

It is easy to churn out content in hopes that it’ll reach the intended audience. But this isn’t the best strategy for communicating with the audience. Quality content that comes less frequently and forms stronger bonds with targeted readers trumps content that is quickly produced yet people continually bounce off it.

After they are created, posts need to promoted. It usually only takes 90 minutes for a post to reach the maximum natural organic reach. After organic reach, a boosted post lets the post reach more people.

Posts that promote interaction are ones that reach the most people. A post- specific, simple message inviting Facebook users to interact with posts gets the buzz going. As more users share, like, and comment on posts, micro-stories are created and increase the organic reach of the post.

Targeting

Aside from boosting a post to gain more reach, one can use Facebook’s Ads Manager to target specific audiences. Money can be spent on a specific group rather than the larger masses.

Targeting increases efficiency which can be measured by watching the CPM (cost per thousand people reached). A low CPM combined with the right audience size means that the ad spending will be effective and kept in check.

Test and Optimize

After implementing these guidelines, further testing can boost efficiency. Determining which posts are the better performing posts can prevent spending money on weaker posts. Smaller budgets can be used with smaller audiences with the better posts garnering greater budget shares.

Create a Scaled Ad Plan

Ad plans should be flexible enough to change with seasons, years, and fluctuations in resources and budgets. Scaled plans provide room for planning and budgeting according to business needs.

Facebook ad plans need to be unique to the business. Understanding objectives and making the right decisions based on them will provide the best success in time and resource management.

Facebook ads, Facebook Marketing, Facebook tips, social media marketingMay 17, 2016

[Infographic] Ad Specs for Facebook and Instagram

Webpage FX created “The Latest Ad Specs for Facebook, Instagram (Infographic)” examining objectives for both social networks, providing immediately actionable steps to increase social media engagement.

For example, there are 3 ways to encourage Clicks to Website:

In a Facebook Ad, show one 1200 x 628 image with 20% text.
In an Instagram Ad, show one 1080 x 1080 image with a link that has no more than 20 text characters.
In a Facebook Ad, use the Facebook Carousel option which allows multiple 600 x 600 images. Follow the same suggestions for text and link descriptions as above.

The infographic breaks down each potential area of engagement showing how many types of engagement are possible and how to put them into action. You will learn what size and how many images, how much and where text should be placed, and what kind of links and headlines to use.

digital marketing, Facebook ads, Facebook Marketing, Instagram, social media marketingMay 13, 2016