So after reading my last blog post, you may have decided that Facebook advertising is in fact a perfect fit for you and your business. The precise targeting options and low cost make Facebook a great option for paid online marketing.

After setting up your campaign, you must be aware of one of largest factors that will determine whether or not your campaign is successful….the ads themselves. Below you will find five useful tips for creating successful Facebook ads.

1. Understand Your Audience

As discussed in my last post, one of the main advantages of Facebook advertising is the precise targeting that you can apply to your ad campaign. The fine folks at Facebook have given us many options for targeting; Location, age, gender, interests, education, work, and the list keeps growing. We would be doing a disservice to Mark Zuckerberg himself if we didn’t use these quality features.

Once you have targeted your ad at a specific group of people, be sure to write the ad in a way that is reflective of you r target group instead of just a generic ad.

Example:

I own a hat store in downtown Chicago and primarily my customers are college aged males. I may create an ad such as:

2. Strong Call to Action

Having a strong call to action is one of the most important aspects of your Facebook ad. When creating an ad, you should never assume a viewer knows what to do after seeing your ad. Give them a reason to click and push forward in the purchase process.

Use phrases such as “shop now”, “get started today”, “start saving”, “click for discounts”, etc. In order to be successful, make sure that you audience knows what to do after seeing your ad.

3. Be Concise

I hit on this topic a little bit in my last post, but one unique feature of Facebook ads is that you are given 135 characters to work with, which almost doubles the character limit of Google AdWords. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Yes, this can be helpful, but don’t fall into the trap of writing long ads.

Be certain that your message is clear and simple. There is a fine line between attracting the attention of a viewer and burying them with boring, wordy content.

4. Testing and Repeating

Just like any other paid search marketing campaign, it is important that you aren’t limiting yourself to one ad. Facebook gives you the ability to run multiple ads at once and measure the results to see which ads are working and which ads can be paused.

Take advantage of this option! Test different pictures, titles, ad copy, etc. and see what works for your campaign. Once you find an ad that is successful, test minor changes to that ad and see if you make any improvements.

5. Be Wary of Fatigue

We’ve all had that one ad on television that was just played so many times it drove us insane! Almost to the point where we despised the company just because of the ad!

Make sure that this doesn’t happen to your company and your Facebook ads. No one likes to see the same ad week after week after week. Make an effort to generate new Facebook ads when possible.

With these simple tips, you are well on your way to creating successful Facebook ads. Best of luck to you!