How to Make an Effective Facebook Ad

Or any ad for social media.

When was the last time you clicked on an ad you saw on a social media site? If you said a long time ago, or never, don’t be discouraged because people are clicking and people are buying. If you said recently then what did the ad look like? What drew you in? Did you buy, or give them your email, or call? Maybe you didn’t but you remember them.

Here’s the math of advertising, it’s not hard. You spend X amount hoping those pennies and dollars will result in a net gain, eventually. You measure it over time. If it does end in a gain, spend more and see if you gain even more business, and so on until you hit some saturation point where more $ no longer equals more sales. If advertising isn’t working it’s not the concept of advertising in general which is failing most likely, but your messaging, your target, or your product. It works. Ask AT&T, GM, Disney, McDonalds, Walmart, American Express, etc.

How is advertising on social media different?

Here’s the thing, it’s not really. The same sort of messaging which works anywhere else can and does also work in social media, it’s just that the ability to measure is different, the opportunity to interact is different, and frankly, businesses don’t consider the value of branding when doing social media ads, they are generally only looking at clicks and conversions. For example, a business that can afford it has no problem spending tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands even, saturating your television with commercials for their product or service. Is anyone clicking the television? When you see a commercial, and then three or four days later some part of your subconscious decides to go to the restaurant you saw in the commercial instead of the one right next to it that might have the same food for the same price, do you walk in and tell them “I’m here and not over there because I saw your commercial”? Of course not and businesses know that and that’s why they spend that money on television despite getting zero clicks, likes, shares, or comments on a blog about it. They know it works, eventually.

There is a whole lot of talk amongst social media marketers all focused on clicks, email lists, interaction, conversions, “buzz” – that’s the whole conversation really. That’s great for your comments section and your actual pages on social sites, it’s cool to be able to interact and it can lead to a lot of opportunities and sales. Is that what you care about when doing an ad though?

Sometimes, maybe a lot of the time, the very tactics which encourage more people to click now in an ad, that stuff you can measure now, the holy (or unholy) grail of social media advertising, are the same tactics leaving a bad taste in the mouths of an even larger number of customers. The business never knows it because most customers don’t take the time to tell you your ad didn’t work or that it was annoying and pushy and it made them think of how much nicer your competitor seems in comparison. All that business sees is that some people are responding, so it must be working right?

Consider this:

• More people spend more time on YouTube than watching any single television station.
• If you combine every magazine subscription in the world, more people are still on Facebook.
• If you combine every single newspaper in the world it equals only a fraction of the looks AdWords gets in a month.

All any customer can do with any medium except for internet is to see it and hear it. Why are those types of commercials so much more expensive, so much more valuable, and so much more prestigious for a business? Why isn’t anyone counting clicks on television or radio?

We say all of this to help businesses get ahead. Yep, everyone is counting clicks. Yep, your competitors are more concerned with what they can measure that exact second when it comes to their online exposure. And they are all doing it the wrong way.

So without further ado, here is how to really make an effective Facebook ad:

1. Come up with a great idea that will capture attention, is relevant to your product or service, that is memorable, and which puts a main benefit of your product or service front and center.
2. Build content around that idea and make sure that content is absolutely committed to the idea behind the ad.
3. Come up with creative, interesting, fearless imagery that is also relevant.
4. Now make it fit into the space Facebook allows for ads (or whatever the social media happens to be).
5. Ask yourself, “Would I be happy with this if we put it in a magazine, newspaper, or any publication even though I know that we are going to spend the money and not a single person is going to click on that magazine or give that magazine their email?”
6. If the answer is yes, now is the time to start worrying about all the other stuff marketers are telling you about social media. If the answer is no it’s time to start over.

The most effective advertising is not filled with immediacy and needy clingy insecurities. Sure that kind gets clicks because someone somewhere is influenced and the only influence being exerted is immediacy. However, businesses will find that if they begin to treat their social media ads with the same care, attention to detail, and put the same time and effort into getting it right, maybe over time actual clicks will be about the same (probably more but maybe not) what will improve though, just like businesses that get the value of good television spots or a quality magazine ad, is sales. Are you selling clicks and likes or are you selling your product?

These valuable tips most businesses will likely completely ignore because their 18-year old social media intern said they know social media better (because they were born the same time it was invented?) has been brought to you by 411 Locals, your local friendly advertising agency. We have an A-Rating with the BBB and are a Certified Google Partner thanks to our 100% White Hat SEO. We’ve now helped over 25,000 businesses make more money and we want to help you too, so why not give us a call? At the very least keep listening for more tips how to improve your business.