3 Powerful Practices to Increase Facebook Ad CTR

“The best Facebook ads look and feel as relevant and timely in your News Feed as the posts you see from your friends.”
— Mari Smith, Facebook marketing expert

Facebook Flyers made its debut way back in 2007. In the past decade, that service has morphed and been refined time and time again, ultimately becoming Facebook Ads; one of the most prosperous advertising platforms available.

According to Business 2 Community, “. . . Facebook accounts for nine percent of the digital ad spending and 18 percent of the global mobile digital ad spending.”

That massive surge in popularity has also led to the increased prices with each passing year.

As these social adverts continue to become more expensive, ad optimization is of the utmost importance for small business owners with slim margins.

Moreover, boosting your company’s CTR also means that you will receive the added benefits of:

• A higher Facebook Relevance Score which helps to lower costs;
• A potential rise in likes, shares, and comments;
• Increased longevity due to higher engagement rates.

If your Facebook ad acumen could use an upgrade, here are three powerful practices for increasing your advert’s CTR.

Choose Your Placement Wisely

Creating Facebook Ads is a balancing act between placement, creative materials, ad types, objectives and other elements; and the placement of your ad is one of the most critical components.

There are three main placements that advertisers can elect to use; desktop News Feed, Right Column and Mobile. Let’s explore the advantages of each:

News Feed

Typically, desktop News Feed receives above average conversion probability. This is partially because these adverts receive larger images, more space for copy and an extra link in the description.

The downside is that these ads are quite competitive and are, therefore, relatively expensive.

This ad placement is best suited for engagement, lead generation and sales.

Right Column

Right column ads clearly have a disadvantage in how they are served because most users will completely ignore these. That does make them more inexpensive than News Feed advertisements.

These adverts also receive smaller images and minimal text space to utilize; another drawback.

Where they can be helpful is in the realm of retargeting.

If your targeted audience is already aware of your brand, these ads stand a better chance of catching their attention and gaining a click-through.

If you opt for this placement, be sure to create unique images and copy, otherwise the results will be less-than appealing.

Mobile

Since Facebook touts more than 1.14 billion daily active mobile users and people are spending roughly 50 minutes per day on its properties, mobile is the ideal location for discovery and brand awareness.

These adverts, which are normally much cheaper than desktop, can help your brand to build an audience on Facebook and generate interest for sales that will later take place on a desktop device.

Additionally, the clicks you gain from mobile can later serve as future targets for your other ad types.

Refine Your Targeting Skills

Considering that Facebook is rapidly approaching two billion users, advertisers need to become targeting masters in order to not waste funds.

Fortunately, the platform’s robust targeting options allow marketers to refine their audiences to only the most relevant and applicable consumers.

To effectively target those who are most likely to convert, go to the “Audience” section of your Ad Set.

For physical retailers, it is necessary to choose the location you want to serve ads to (e.g. Las Vegas) and determine the radius you are comfortable with; 15 miles is appropriate for smaller shops.

Then, enter in your audience’s age range, gender and language.

The “Detailed Targeting” section is where you really get to put your skills to work. You can either enter demographic, interest, or behavior information manually, or let Facebook lend a hand with its automated term ideas based on your entries. Be sure that your keywords are hyper-focused to reach the exact users you want seeing your ads.

Additionally, you can further refine your audience by entering in negative keywords that will omit certain individuals; these words can be entered in the ‘Exclude People’ or ‘Narrow Audience’ sections.

Be sure to conduct in-depth keyword research on your audience prior to tackling this task in order to target the most relevant users.

Keep Your Copy Simple

Your ad copy needs to be equally compelling and concise. Considering that most users aren’t fans of ads to begin with and you have character constraints to adhere to, you only get one shot at hooking consumers.

While this can certainly be a challenging feat, Wishpond crafted an article outlining Facebook description formulas that convert.

While all of these blueprints can be effective in their own right, two that seem particularly prosperous are:

• “Want [Blank]? Check out [Blank]: [LINK]”
• “Learn how to [Do Something]: [LINK]”

The first phrase addresses a want or need of the audience in clear and succinct fashion; it leaves no room for users to become disinterested.

The second headline offers the audience a distinct value proposition in relation to a pain point or desire they are experiencing.

Both of these descriptions are quick and to the point; users want to read as little ad copy as possible before deciding if it is right for them or not, making these particularly powerful.

Facebook ads are only becoming more popular. As the platform continues to reach new levels of user adoption and engagement, more brands will utilize the company’s advertising options, continuing to make them increasingly expensive.

If your audience is on Facebook, clever and targeted ads are just the way to draw them in as customers. A little practice goes a long way with this; even $10 is enough to run a legitimate ad test. Go forth and generate leads.

What are some other key points to driving more clicks with Facebook ads?

Conscious online marketer, web executive, and multi-faceted writer Tina Courtney has been creating and fostering online innovations since 1996. Tina has assisted many clients in maximizing online production and marketing efforts, and is a staff writer for SiteProNews, one of the Web’s foremost webmaster and tech news blogs. She’s produced and marketed innovative content for major players like Disney and JDate, as well as boutique startups galore, with fortes including social media, SEO, influencer marketing, community management, lead generation, and project management. Tina is also a certified Reiki practitioner, herbalist, and accomplished life coach.  Learn more on LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+.

The post 3 Powerful Practices to Increase Facebook Ad CTR appeared first on SiteProNews.