There are more than 2 billion people on Facebook. This is how many people you can reach when you market with the platform. Of this, a whopping 74% of users open Facebook every day at an average rate of 56 times per week! This is how relevant Facebook is in the face of trade. And it continuously adds opportunities through newer customer service features and useful analytical tools that help you put forward your A-game marketing strategy.

How can marketing on Facebook help your business grow?

Facebook takes pride in its audience targeting features. You get to analyze consumer behaviors in particular locations, get to know what products are most relevant for Millennials versus Generation X, or get to know people who have similar interests. In addition, the platform measures lifetime value (LTV) under the FB Ad Analytics Tool, wherein you can target “lookalike audiences” or people who are similar in profiles and behavior with your existing customer database.
Apart from helping you find your target customers, Facebook allows you to study your competitors, as well as, enable your customers to conveniently engage with you through a call to action buttons that can be embedded on your business page.

Once a viewer engages with your page or any of your posts and Ads, they become leads that Facebook sets aside for you — and your community just grows, grows, and grows!

How can you market with Facebook?
The Facebook business platform has a user-friendly interface. You are able to create your page, create your ad/s, and publish them.

Create a page first. You cannot run and create an ad without a business page. Your page will serve as your company or organization’s portfolio, as well as your portal in proactively communicating with your audience, garnering leads, increasing click-through rates, and generating more sales.

When you’ve set up your page and are ready to promote your business, two of the basic tools you’re going to be using for your ads are the Facebook Ad Manager and the Facebook Power Editor. The latter is most useful when you’re already running multiple ad campaigns.

How can you create amazing Facebook Ads for your online business?

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With the right combination of ad elements, you’ll be able to capture your viewers and turn them into beneficial customers.

Below are 7 tips that will help you produce effective Facebook advertisements:

1. Create an attention-grabbing headline
Your headline should be short, compelling, and concise. It would be great if it could capture your value proposition, prospect’s potential problem addressed by your product, and a call to action in one simple sentence. Your headline should ignite curiosity from your audience that’ll make them engage with your ad, and then click on it.

2. Appeal to both emotion and rationality
People’s willingness to pay is influenced by cost-benefits. Impulse buying is slowly retreating, and responsible buying is becoming more lit. So don’t just appeal to the emotion, also put forth the logical side associated with your product. How? Well for one, you can input ad content that illustrates how your product is more beneficial than its cost. You can also portray how it’s more cost-effective than other brands (just don’t mention any names).

3. Regularly update your target audience database
Getting to know 2.2 billion people can be a little bit daunting. Facebook allows you to group people with similar interests, age, location, behavior, gender, etc. This is how you initially identify your target audience and Facebook calls this your saved audience. How is this relevant to creating amazing ads you may ask. Well, let’s reel back to the basics, you just don’t throw in a marketing strategy without knowing to whom you are making it for. That’s like playing pin the donkey! Knowing and keeping track of your audience will allow you to identify what elements will best appeal to them. Apart from your saved audience, you can also create a custom audience based on a user’s engagement (visited your page, sent a message to your page, engaged with your posts, etc.), app activity (i.e. bought a product in the last x-number of days), and your website traffic.

4. Create a contrast between your image and your text
Avoid being too assertive with your ad. Keep in mind that it’s better to convince your audience to get to know your product first. Just imagine if you’re in a walk-in store, surely you wouldn’t want a promoter who shoves a brand’s promos in your face and talks so fast as if he/she is on a timer. In a lot of ads, the balance between image and text is usually underrated. Sometimes, there’s just so much going on! If your image is subtle, sound off your texts; likewise, if your image elements are creating a lot of noise, then keep your text at a low. By the way, text here applies to both texts on your image and text comprising your ad headline and description. To create great images with just the right balance of text and design try using an eCommerce focused design tool like Glorify.

5. Craft portrait layouts
Why portrait? Simply because it is going to be more convenient for your audience when they’re using a mobile device. What if your title does not capture their attention and then they don’t even see the entirety of your ad image? Do you think your audience will give you a chance? Hence, opt for a portrait over the landscape.

6. Incorporate only a few words in your ad image
Humans, in general, are visual creatures. We process images and scenes faster than the words we read. After finishing your ad image, upload it onto the Facebook Image Text Check found in the text overlay tools of the Ad Manager. This is to assess your ad’s text and image proportion. A lower proportion result is more ideal to be able to reach more audiences.

7. Create fresh and unique Ad content
Make your ad stand out by triggering a new hype or trend in ad content and design. This is where the importance of knowing your competitors comes in. Not only should you stay updated with their latest products and promos, you should also be familiar with their advertisement design/content strategies. This way, you’ll be able to maybe address what’s wrong with their ads or better yet, set standards that’ll make it hard for them to contend against.

So there you have it!
As a last word of advice, timing is crucial when publishing your ads. You can do this by studying how often and when your target audience usually uses Facebook, or you can just follow the rule of thumb – post between 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays.