This article is all about Facebook advertising, and I’m sharing 5 of my absolute best tips and tricks that have been responsible for generating millions and millions of dollars in my client’s campaigns…
It doesn’t matter if you’re just getting started with Facebook ads, or if you’re a veteran;
These are going to act as a good reminder for things that you may already be doing, or things you’re definitely going to want to start deploying in your Facebook advertising campaigns…
To increase your click-through rates, lower your cost per click, and essentially just create a more profitable and more effective campaign all around.
Before we dive into the tips and tricks, it’s important that you understand the reason these things are so effective:
They’re routed in strategy and basic marketing principles and fundamentals…(that means that what we are going to cover is not only going to apply to your Facebook advertising, but also any YouTube ads, or to email marketing, or to any other pay-per-click, or direct response, or even content marketing)…
Because the strategies and principles are all grounded in really solid research, and the way that humans make buying decisions.
So, now that we’ve covered just how valuable and just how important these things are, let’s get right to them.
I just got back from a trip to a little town called Julian in California, which is about an hour/hour and a half outside of downtown San Diego.
Now, in Julian they’re famous for a couple different pie shops, including some along the main street, like Mom’s Pie’s, and Julian Pie Company (maybe needs a little more of an original name there)
We ended up going to one that was called Apple Alley.
At Apple Alley, the lineup was out the door, and it took a really long time to get a piece of pie.
But that’s part of the marketing, and the pie was absolutely phenomenal.
In fact, some of the best apple pie I’ve ever had, but the reason that we ended up choosing this one was because:
– it had a ton of reviews
– there were a ton of people talking about how good it was
– the line-up out the door signified that this place was worth waiting for
And that is the power of social proof and one of the key things that you’ll want to leverage in your Facebook advertising.
Basically, the principle of social proof says:
What other people like, you’re probably going to like too.
This allows you to kind of cut out some of the mental effort of making a decision, by simply basing your actions on actions that others have taken before you.
In the case of a Facebook ad, you’ll want to create one ad ideally, and leverage the social proof anytime you’re creating new ad sets or new campaigns by going to the page post and using that ad rather than creating new ads from scratch.
What this means is it’s going to show all of the likes, shares, and comments across your campaigns, rather than having to start them from scratch each and every time (which will diminish and weaken the social proof aspect of the ad.)
When someone’s scrolling through their news feed and they see an ad with a ton of social proof, it makes them more likely to click through.
It also sends a really powerful message to Facebook saying, “hey, this ad is very valuable, people like it, they’re engaging with it…”
So your costs are going to go down, your engagement’s going to go up, and you’re going to get better results from that ad.
And that’s going to lead us nicely into point number 2:
When you’re creating your Facebook ads, you’re going to want to do everything in your power to increase the engagement on that ad.
In doing so, you’re sending a message, not only to others looking at the ad that “this is worth interacting with”, but also to Facebook.
Right now, Facebook is really, really prioritizing engagement in their ads.
They want to see people engaging with the content.
They want to see them sharing it and liking it and writing comments, and having a conversation, and essentially, keeping people on the Facebook platform as long as possible.
If you understand that Facebook really wants to keep people on the platform as long as they can, and you do your part in helping them stay on the platform, you’re gonna do a lot better.
And Facebook’s going to reward you for that by showing your ad to more people for less money.
So we’ve covered that you need social proof, we’ve covered that you really want to create an ad that boosts engagement, well next…
The way to do this is to write your ad in a casual and really conversational way.
Essentially, what you want your ad to say is, “I am not an ad”.
You want it to appear like it fits right in and it’s just like a conversation that you and I are having right now, making it look like it belongs there and it could be from anyone you know.
Really, that it looks natural and it looks like anything other than a blatant advertisement.
So how do you write conversational ad copy?
Well, the best way to write conversational ad copy is to have a conversation.
If you’re not used to talking to a tape recorder or camera, all you need to do is to have a friend ask you questions about your business, record the answers on your phone.
Next, transcribe what ever you’ve said, and you’ve got the basis for some pretty good copy.
Again, make sure that you’re not giving really stiff and canned and rehearsed answers, but keep it really casual.
Just have a chat, like you would with any other customer or client.
Tell a story if you can, make it relatable, and don’t be afraid to include some emotion into the ad copy.
After all, as we’ve covered many times before, people buy based on emotions, and not based on facts and statistics.
The next thing we need to do is we need to focus in on our targeting, and who we’re trying to put this perfect ad right in front of, which comes down to…
Leveraging look-alike audiences.
Now, look-alike audiences have been powerful for years, but they’ve really gained a ton of traction in the last little bit, making them even better, and even more accurate.
And all a look-alike audience is, is you taking a list of your customers or clients, or traffic from your website, or your email list, uploading that to Facebook, and then telling Facebook to go out there and find you more people just like that.
That’s it. Take your list, put it in Facebook, say, “Facebook, go find me more people”, and they do.
And they do a really good job of it. This is why 1% look-alike audiences are some of my campaigns highest-performing targets.
Now, obviously, if you’re just starting out in business, and you don’t yet have a customer list or clients, you’re gonna need to build up that look-alike audience by running some ads to some content.
Then what you can do is build a look-alike audience from website traffic, or from leads that you capture, or anything like that.
But remember, that look-alike audience is really powerful, so you want to try to build it as quickly as possible.
The thing’s we’ve covered may sound simple so far, but, when done correctly, these tips have been responsible for generating millions of dollars in revenue for my clients.
So I highly suggest diving into each and every one, and seeing how you can apply them in your campaigns.
The final piece of the puzzle is probably one I’m most passionate about:
Finding the perfect image for your ad.
In fact, even as a copywriter, I believe that you should spend just as much, if not more time on the image you choose for your ad as you do on the copy itself.
This is because Facebook is a very visual platform, and if you think about someone quickly scanning through their news feed, well you’ve got to do something to capture their attention, and get them to stop the scroll so they’ll actually read your copy.
Because the best copy in the world doesn’t mean anything if no one stops to read it.
So when you’re trying to find that perfect image, you want to make that it really packs a punch.
You want to make sure that it captures attention, but it also tells a story. Because irrelevant images may get clicks, but they won’t get conversions later down the road.
So try to imagine when you’re picking out the perfect image for your ad: what would you choose if you couldn’t write a single word of copy?
Find an image that really tells a story, that really packs that emotional punch, and draws people in, getting them to stop the scroll, and click through to the ad.
If you need a bit of help finding the perfect image for your Facebook ad, I’ve put together a free guide that will walk you through a ton of my best resources, a bunch of places you can find some really great images, as well as how to pick the perfect image for your ad.
Alright, let’s recap:
Number One
You want to make sure to leverage social proof whenever possible, by using the same ad across all your different ad campaigns and ad sets. This is going to help you stack the social proof, by not having to start over all the likes and shares and comments with every new ad you create.
Number Two
Do everything you can to increase engagement, because engagement is what tells Facebook that this ad is really valuable, people are liking seeing it, and they’re going to interact with the content. And because Facebook is prioritizing engagement so much right now, your costs are also going to go down, which is always a good thing.
Number Three
You want to remember to write your ad with a conversational tone. Make your ad say, “I am not an ad” by being friendly, by being persuasive, but also by being casual and having a conversation.
Number Four
Do everything in your power to quickly build up, and then leverage look-alike audiences. From your customer list, your email list, website traffic, any leads you manage to acquire, anything like that; look-alike audiences are more powerful now than they’ve ever been before. So, highly worth using, especially those one-percenters.
Number Five
You really want to focus and spend a ton of time in picking the perfect image for your Facebook ads, again, I’ve got that free cheat-sheet that you can go download here.
Thanks for reading and best of luck!
