Conversion means all sorts of good things for your business, and when we send out our ads into that dark abyss of the Facebook world, we aren't doing it for fun. We create ads with the goal of conversion in mind. We want to guarantee Facebook Ad conversion.
We can be hoping for all sorts of things: more likes, engagement, sales, downloads of apps, etc. We try as hard as we can to make sure that our ads have good conversion rates, or that the desirable action we seek is taken.
In past posts we've talked about all sorts of methods when it comes to Facebook Ads, including how to keep ads from getting rejected and how to evaluate success.
In this post, we discuss one question we get all the time: what are the best practices that result in conversion and profitability when creating a Facebook Ad? We've got 7 fantastic practices to guarantee Facebook Ad conversion, so keep these in mind the next time you head to your ads manager to start a campaign.
When you create an ad, you have a clear goal in mind for what action you want your customers to take. If you're unsure, Facebook prompts you to make up your mind and choose.
Whatever it is that you want your customers to do, you need to tell them to.
Want them to like your page? Have your CTA prompt them to.
Want them to visit your site for purchase? A "Shop Now!" or "Visit Our Site!" button could help prompt those who are even just a bit curious. Take it up a level with "Shop Our 50% Off Sale!" or "Shop Our Limited Supply!" In the example below, Amazing prompts to you "Sign up" so you'll never be caught in a sticky situation.
Telling customers exactly what you want them to do—and then prompting them to do it—will increase the chance that they do. Crazy, I know.
You'll never get what you want if you don't ask for it, and this is often no exception. Do everything in your power to ask for and prompt those desired actions and you might just get them.
If you're ad is a clickable CTA, it will likely—and should—take your customers to a designated landing page, often on your main site.
When it comes to your landing page, it's important that you take them exactly where you want them to go, and to a place that they know they'll be going.
Making sure your ad matches your landing page is important not only because it keeps customers from feeling confused or like they've been hit with a bait and switch, but because Facebook will not approve your Ad to run if what you advertise does not match what appears on your landing page.
On your landing page, using the same call to action as you did in your ad. Did you entice someone with the chance to shop a 50% off sale? Take them to the sale items, as in the example below.
Blue Nile promise a limited time 50% off sale….
And then takes users to the page showing all items that are 50% off.
Blue Nile took customers to what was advertised and what peaked their interest.
If, instead, your landing page took users from a "Shop Our 50% Off Items" to your home page, users could get confused and think everything is heavily discounted. The misconception will likely not go over well once they've realized they were incorrect.
Shop now. Make the appointment today. Limited time offer. Two days to save!
Creating a sense of urgency can lead to higher conversions (see above ad). It's easy to procrastinate, especially when on a social networking site, but you can't procrastinate if you can only get a deal in the next few hours or before a company runs out of something.
Quick! Before someone else nabs them!
About ten years ago, Sears ran a commercial constantly I'll never forget. A couple is miserable, sweating profusely in their home with their air conditioning burned out, and they've continued to put off calling. I'll call later, the husband says. Call now, the wife says, handing him the phone. I'll call now!
This commercial always stuck with me, not only because I grew up in Florida and the only time our AC ever blew out was smack dab in the middle of summer, but because they were procrastinating so much for no reason.
Don't let your customers procrastinate. Don't let them think "eh, I'll look into it later." Don't give them the chance not to do it today. Better late than never does not apply in this case, because if the desired action is put off until later, later will almost definitely turn into never.
Users' newsfeeds are full of pictures and posts. Your Ad, whether off to the side or appearing in the newsfeed, needs to be something truly incredible to stand out.
If your copy is great but your image and formatting is lackluster, you've already lost your customer. The visual appearance and image of the Ad is what will catch the attention of your potential customers.
You want to use high quality, visually exciting images. If your Ad is going to appear in the newsfeed, we recommend a minimum width of 600 pixels. Bright colors is good, but an image that is both interesting and relevant is so important.
If you don't have an image of your product or that you've taken yourself that you think would work, you can access professional images from Shutterstock. These will be found under find images and then stock images in your ad create tool, and come at no charge.
You can use different images and see which performs the best while you're discovering what your target audience finds the most appealing.
You can have an ad that's got the best images, copy, offer, CTA, and landing page in the whole wide Facebook world and it won't make a bit of difference if it isn't seen by the right people.
Facebook Ads has an incredible targeting system. Use it.
Custom audiences sometimes work best, depending on what goal you have in mind for your ad. If you're looking for new leads, maybe not, but if you're looking for sales then your current customers or leads might be a good audience to target. Sometimes this can help you sell more, quicker.
If you're looking for new leads, creating a Lookalike audience off your custom audience can help you increase both leads and sales.
Facebook's audience targeting tools have only continued to get better, making it easier than ever to see good results if you know who to target.
In order to help you make sure you're targeting the right people, as well as getting huge ROIs through other tactics, we've created our Facebook Ads Formula program to increase conversions and profit.
When creating an ad, Facebook prompts you to choose what you want it to accomplish. As said before, this can be anything from likes, offers being claimed, or website conversions. Pick one goal to accomplish with each ad, and make sure to keep your different campaigns separate. Giving muddled messages will only confuse users.
If you're looking for sales or leads, you want to choose the "website conversions" objective, not the "clicks to website" objective.
Facebook will create a tracking pixel to let you know whether your ad has helped any of these desired actions take place. The tracking pixel lets you know whether or not your ad is working. You can find these results under the "conversion tracking" tab in your Ads Manager.
This can help lead to ad optimization; you can use your tracking pixel to help you bid for your ads to be shown to the audience that will most likely result in conversions.
Your ad can appear in two different places: on the right hand side bar, or in the users' actual newsfeed. When you're looking to increase results on your ad, choosing the newsfeed (at least with a portion of your campaign) seems to be the way to go.
Not only are ads in the newsfeeds put directly in the middle of the content users sign up on Facebook to access, it's not off to the side in a location easy to forget or ignore.
Most importantly, however, is the mobile user aspect.
Mobile users now make up huge portions of Facebook users (and internet users—and buyers— in general), and they don't even see ads off to the side. By not having your ad displayed to mobile users, even inadvertently, you're losing a huge chunk of your potential audience that may have resulted in conversion.
One of the most important things to do when looking to guarantee Facebook ad conversion is to use the tools available to you. Facebook makes it easy to make a great ad, prompting you to select an exact objective and even providing you with millions of free images to attach to it.
Keeping your specific goals in mind—and separate—is key. Knowing exactly what you want your customers to do, telling them to do it, and taking them to a place where they can is the best way to ensure that the actually do. Combine these strategies with our methods to ensure your ads are never rejected, and you'll be ready to hit the ground running with ads that convert, every time.