4 tips for successful Facebook advertising

Blog

4 tips for successful Facebook advertising

When it comes to social media advertising, Facebook and Instagram are the go-to platforms. Using Facebook’s Ads Manager tool, you can easily create social media campaigns on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, whether you handle it yourself or with the help of a digital agency. Here are four tips from our social media specialists to help you create successful Facebook ads at a lower cost—achieving better results for the same price.

Adverteren op facebook

1. Define your audience for smarter ad targeting

One crucial but often overlooked aspect of setting up Facebook ads is defining your target audience. Ads are sometimes created for a very broad audience, leading to little or no results. Choosing a relevant audience for your ads is critical. While Facebook automatically displays your ads to those who are most likely to find them relevant, it’s highly recommended to define your audience for more effective targeting. You can customize your audience as broadly or specifically as you like, based on the following criteria:

  • Locations: Advertise in the areas, communities, and countries where you want to do business.
  • Demographics: Target people based on age, gender, education level, and occupation.
  • Interests: Include hobbies and interests of the people you want to reach with your ad.
  • Connections: Target people who like your Facebook page or are attending your event—or exclude them to focus on new audiences.

If you’re creating multiple audiences, it’s strongly recommended to exclude them from each other. Otherwise, you’ll create overlap, leading to unnecessary costs by targeting the same people multiple times.

Our Facebook specialists have a key tip: use remarketing audiences. For example, you can reach people who have previously visited your website. This group is highly likely to respond positively to your ad because they’re already familiar with your brand. A simple Facebook ad reminding them of your products or services can provide that extra push they need to make a purchase.

Not only is remarketing effective, but so are “lookalike audiences.” Our specialists are often surprised by the demographic differences when comparing lookalike audiences with interest-based audiences. Setting up a lookalike audience can help you reach an entirely new group of people with better-than-expected results.

2. Select the right image format for advertising on Facebook

Use the correct dimensions for your images to ensure they display properly on both desktop and mobile devices. The ideal size for an image ad is square, at 1200 x 1200 pixels. For stories, you can crop your images to a vertical format of 1080 x 1920 pixels in Facebook’s Ads Manager. This size is ideal for stories, as it fills the entire screen and grabs the viewer’s full attention for your message.

Formaat adverteren

3. Use as little text as possible

Try to limit the amount of text in your images. Facebook Ads Manager will automatically disapprove ads with too much text in the visuals. It’s recommended to follow the 80–20 rule: a maximum of 20% text and 80% visuals in your image. A key tip from Hybrid is to avoid including text in your visuals, or at least keep it to a minimum. Facebook Ads Manager already allows you to include copy with your ad, so why add extra text? Your image should clearly convey your message on its own. Only then will you achieve the best results.

4. Use at least two or three variations

We strongly recommend setting up two to three different Facebook ads. These can either have the same image with different copy or the same copy with different images. Facebook Ads Manager will distribute your budget across these variations, allowing you to determine which ad performs best. This approach also provides insights for future campaigns.

In addition to images, videos have been highly effective in recent years. Videos combine visuals with sound, creating greater engagement with your audience. If you have the resources, be sure to include videos in your Facebook ads and create multiple variations for optimal results.

Our Facebook specialists also recommend closely monitoring the frequency of your ad variations. Over the past seven days, the frequency should not exceed three. If the frequency is higher, your ad may be shown too often to the same audience, which could lead to frustration with your brand.

Curious for more tips? Explore all Hybrid blogs.

Need help with advertising? The marketing experts at Hybrid are ready to assist you