Got a business Facebook page that’s doing well? Why not branch out into the world of Facebook advertising too?
With two billion monthly active users, Facebook is a juggernaut in the world of social media which is why so many businesses, particularly within the e-commerce realm, are harnessing its power to advertise their brands. A whopping 92% of social marketers are using Facebook for advertising.
However, no matter how much time and money you invest, your campaign will suffer if you make these seven major mistakes. Find out what these major errors are and how to avoid them.
- Problems in Copy
If the text that informs the user about your amazing brand has a couple of typos and a lackluster tone, then it won’t gain much traction. And even if it does, the user may have already lost faith in your company. Resolve this issue by checking your text multiple times before pressing send. Or, if you’re bumbling, bring an external social media copywriter to write up some great captions for you. Even in today’s visual world, the words we use do matter.
- Lack of Storytelling
It’s easy to get excited about your new product or service and want to dive straight in with a Facebook ad focusing solely on that. However, the key to strong engagement is grabbing the customer’s attention with a captivating narrative – visual storytelling has proven to be an effective strategy for creating memorable marketing campaigns that resonate.
So sit down and think about your brand ethos and message and devise a collection of stories that you can tell with powerful images and video. Delve deeper into the world of storytelling and use your imagination.
- Not Employing Testing Tactics
There are so many approaches to creating a social media advert; you won’t know which avenue is best until you’ve walked a little down the road.
With each new campaign, try and develop at least two separate approaches – with variations on text, design, color, etc. You can compare and contrast by employing two ways of working simultaneously to create a winning formula for the next time round. You should also be constantly analyzing, measuring, and optimizing your Facebook ad campaigns in the function of user feedback.
If you blindly follow what you think ‘may’ is the best way without verification, you could hurt your user engagement.
- Pitching to the Wrong Crowd
Whether preaching to the converted or simply moving in the wrong circles, you're wasting big money if you don’t get your target audience just right. Use Custom Audiences on Facebook to direct your ads at existing customers, as these users are already affiliated with your brand and may be more likely to re-visit.
You can also discover new audiences depending on their location, interests, and online behaviors. Still, it’s essential to do some initial market research first to be sure you’re casting your net in the right area.
- No Call-to-Action
An advert can be aesthetically pleasing and informative, but if it doesn’t go that one step further and motivate that person to do more, is there much point? When reeling users in, you must be clear about what you want them to do.
For example, use phrases like ‘click here’, ‘start now’ and ‘buy today’ which all have very clear actions. These keywords are a good way to end your advert after you’ve already hooked people in with an amazing brand story.
Free samples are a great customer incentive — and who could resist a CTA with the word “free”?
- Not Using Videos
The video should play an integral part in any advertising campaign you do, especially on a social platform like Facebook. Did you know 100 million hours of video are watched daily on Facebook? So you’d be foolish to ignore its mammoth pull regarding customer engagement.
- As well as ensuring your videos are filled with fun, captivating, and intriguing content, it’s also important to remember to use subtitles on your videos as most people watch videos with the sound off. It’s also been proven that, on average, ads with captions have a 12% longer viewing time.
- More than 70 percent of promo videos are better perceived by people when they include audio. Here, voiceovers are a great option to mix into your video strategy. As Helen Langford, a versatile British voiceover artist, points out - "Finding the right voice to engage (and hold) your audience is the real deal," voiceovers are vital for product video campaigns.
Experiment with video captions using emojis and reactions to increase engagement levels after viewing a video.
- Excessive Re-targeting
Facebook re-targeting is a clever way of reaching out to customers who have landed on your site and left without buying anything or signing up. Suppose someone has landed on your site momentarily and hasn’t undergone extensive viewing. In that case, they aren’t expressing an interest in your brand and products, so bombarding them with ads may be unproductive.
It is clear that Facebook ads are a great tool for marketing, but you must ensure they are curated in the best way possible to improve engagement levels and drum up sales. Now you know what not to do when it comes to Facebook advertising. By following the above tips, you can incorporate focused, precise ads into your social media marketing strategy.