Facebook still leads the pack of platforms used by digital marketers, according to the latest Social Media Marketing Industry Report. The top six in the chart below, which include Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube has been contending for these positions since 2012 and are still going at it. Still, Facebook remained the powerhouse platform business owners and digital marketers should leverage on for greater social media marketing traction.
The same usage trends holds true for paid social media ads, with Facebook getting an overwhelming 90%, with others following palely in comparison. Breaking this down further, the report highlighted that Facebook social ads where used by 82% of B2B marketers and a higher 94% usage in the B2C marketplace.
A similar Social Media Intelligence Report, this time from Adobe, highlighted the double digit quarter-to-quarter increase achievement on Facebook’s click-through-rates (at 20%) and social ad impressions (at 41%). Ad revenues are up by over 82% compared to a year ago, hitting figures as high as $2.27 billion. What this simply means is if you want to get favorable results from your paid social media marketing campaigns, Facebook ads would be the most cost-effective way to do it.
But not many businesses are taking advantage of this fact. There are over 25 million small businesses that are registered and have an active social media presence at Facebook, but only a mere 4% of these businesses are actually running social ads. This spells lost opportunities for these businesses to take advantage of the greater engagement process their campaigns can generate if they availed of social ads.
So okey, enough of these talks on statistics and figures and let’s finally get down to real business. If you want more mileage, engagement and targeted results achieved from your social media marketing efforts, then it’s high time to carefully consider using social ads. The following describes 6 surefire tips on how you can create social ads that work – so you can finally maximize the true power of social media marketing for your business.
1. Graphics, Graphics, Graphics
The future of social media marketing is visual and that’s what 3,000 marketers surveyed in the Social Media Marketing Industry Report would all agree on. Simply ask yourself and you too will soon agree that you would appreciate posts if they have some visual or graphical element embedded. The same holds true for social ads. This tendency towards graphical elements and the explosive usage of social ads are most probably why 68% of marketers would like to learn or invest in creating visual assets, according to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report.
Another reason why the future of social media is visual is because people are naturally visual creatures. They process graphics and images faster than any blocks of text and if you can’t capture their attention within the first few seconds of seeing your social ad, then all you efforts would be for naught. The key here is to include creative graphics that not only captures your targeted audiences’ attention, but are clear and relevant enough to convey your brand or products value proposition.
You graphics should not only stand out and generate substantial attention towards your ad, it should also be designed in a way that would fit the style, voice and image that you would like to convey through your brand. The great thing here is creating epic social ads like these need not cost you an arm and a leg and most of your social media marketing budget. You can work with efficient and effective individuals like the team from Digital Marketing Philippines to help you in this regard.
2. Clear. Call. Action.
The graphical design of your ad is an essential thing, particularly in getting your targeted audiences’ attention. But after getting their attention, what’s next? This is where a clear Call-to-Action (CTA) comes in, a very important element in social ads many marketers fail to work more closely and carefully on, resulting in not so favorable campaign results.
A clear Call-to-Action (CTA) let’s your targeted audiences understand the value that clicking on your ads may give to them. They should clearly understand what’s in it for them as well as the precise action step they need to take if they want to receive such value. From discount incentives, limited time offers, to other attractive gimmicks offered as part of your value proposition, and a clear Call-to-Action, you can expect higher conversion rates and subsequent ROI from all your social ads investments.
3. Text Limited? Text Overlaid
Many marketers complain that they can’t squeeze in as much text as they want with their social ads. This is because of the 20% text rule limit Facebook imposes on ad creation, prompting marketers to take full advantage of the limited amount of space allocated for them during ad creation. Facebook’s Advertising Guidelines indicate that ads may not include text that occupy more than 20% of the total image area as defined by the Grid Tool.
The Grid Tool is a 5×5 grid that you can use to check if your ads comply with the 20% text rule. In the following example from Facebook, the ad below failed the rule as the “Born To Fly” text in ad as well as the logo exceeded the 20% limit.
In the next example, the text is part of the actual product so it registered 0% text after using the Grid Tool. Text on products are allowed in the 20% text rule except if you deliberately manipulate the image to make it appear that the text appears as part of the product.
So this will give you an idea on how you should make your product shoots for your ads. Another exception to the rule are ads of products in actual situations, which naturally have backgrounds. You can use this to your advantage by embedding your message as part of the background during your actual shoot. Be creative and check with the grid tool if your images with text can pass the rule. We’ve all heard that pictures are worth a thousand words, but if you already have your message embedded as part of the picture – then you nail it direct to the point.
4. Be Creative with Your Logos and Icons
The 20% text rule can limit the message conveying capabilities of your ads, but aside from some work-arounds described earlier, you can also be creative with your logos and icons to help you convey your message as clearly as possible. The best practice here is to showcase your products in action with your brand logos as part of the product image.
People usually look as images first when viewing ads, and having your logos, brands, icons and taglines as part of the product image can immediately send the message you want to convey at first glance. Just make sure that you design your images and ads as natural and clean as possible and avoid zooming in on your logo too much that it takes attention away from the main image.
5. Filters, Lightness and Multiple Images
People who have used Instagram may already be familiar with photo filters. These tools provide a great way to give life to an otherwise dull image. Dull images will never capture audiences’ attention but awesome-looking images, courtesy of photo filters, will surely wow and capture their attention. So go figure.
A study by Curalate highlighted that images with medium-level lightness can generate repins on Pinterest as much as 20 times higher than images at extreme light/dark levels. Medium lightness, according to the more than one million images included in the study, are better in attraction attention that images that are too dark or too light. So consider this when designing your next social ad.
Social ads with multiple images appear to perform better than single image ads. Multiple images can tell stories or present products or even people at different views or angles, which viewers will better appreciate. This is good if you have an e-Commerce or retailing business as you can show more of the good stuff all within your valuable social ad real estate space.
6. Make Your Ads Engaging
Without going through the statistical details and more numbers and figures, you may immediately agree that many consumers access social media networks through their smartphones and other internet-enabled devices. These consumers include those who are always of the go and those who are more comfortable with swiping, tapping and poking their devices when using social networks.
You can work on this to your advantage and created ads to solicit and generate engagement from mobile users. A simple “Tap To View” would most often do the trick and can be a simple and yet effective call-to-action that will generate higher engagements and conversions from targeted audiences. However, it doesn’t end there. Make your ads more interesting like a branded call-to-action button at the end of a mobile video, clearly indicating what would happen if they take action – which they surely will.
If you’re in business and promoting your brand, products or services through social media, the best way to gain sure mileage and more targeted results is to make use of social ads. Social advertising can help your targeted audiences filter out all the clutter and noise in the very vibrant world of social networks – so they won’t miss out on the value and relevance of what you can offer.
So, create you epic social ads now.
Jomer B. Gregorio is a well-rounded expert when it comes digital marketing. Jomer is also known as a semantic SEO evangelist and practitioner. Check out our Digital Marketing Services today and let us help you in achieving positive and profitable results for your business.