The world is online, and advertisers know it. They’re running more social media campaigns than ever before in order to reach a more relevant, targeted audience.
Gone are the days of traditional marketing… time to embrace the world of social media and digital marketing!
Facebook is, of course, a huge platform that gets a ton of advertising attention. In fact, the giant social media channel accounts for 9% of all digital advertising spending!
That’s why I’ve created Facebook for dummies tips and tricks to help you in the ever evolving digital landscape.
With more and more marketers allocating dollars to Facebook advertising, you can’t just run a mediocre social media campaign. You have to run a great social media campaign to avoid getting lost in all the advertising noise online.
Sometimes, the best way to do that is to learn from others mishaps… so you can avoid them yourself!
Facebook for Dummies: 8 Advertising Mistakes
Advertisers have made these eight Facebook advertising mistakes… so you don’t have to. Here are the bad habits to avoid.
1. Reaching too Broad
When it comes to nurturing leads on Facebook, broader isn’t better. The more specific audience you can place your ad in front of, the better chances to get engagement!
The point is, someone living in the Caribbean isn’t going to care if you’re selling the warmest feather down jackets. Make sure you’re not wasting valuable advertising dollars by setting your ad in front of an audience that’s too large.
But geographic location isn’t everything! You’ll need to get even more specific when it comes to your audience, which leads us to the next Facebook for dummies avoidable mistake.
2. Not Catering to Your Target Audience
Consider which advertisement would do better:
- A great ad placed in front of the wrong audience
- A poor ad placed in front of the right audience
My bet’s on the bad ad. Even though it isn’t done well, it’s still at least relevant to the people seeing it. And relevancy is key.
The point is, no one cares about an ad for diapers if they don’t have kids. So make sure you know your target audience. Set parameters so only people likely to actually care about your product see what you’re offering.addition to setting limited regions for your audience so your reach isn’t too broad, make it specific to the reader as well. Facebook allows you to target people with particular interests, job titles, and more.
In short, in addition to setting limited regions for your audience, make it specific to the reader as well. Facebook allows you to target people with particular interests, job titles, and more.
Take advantage of this! It allows you to not only run an effective ad but niche down on who’ll see it. When it comes to Facebook for dummies, the tips are about how to increase your chances of engagement. This is one of the easiest — showing it to the most relevant audience possible.
3. There’s No Call-to-Action
This is what encourages the ad’s reader to act. It’s the most vital piece of turning an engagement into a true lead.
Something like “Shop now!” or “Enroll in the course today!” can go a long way in inspiring action. Without it, the reader may be left with some great information but uncertainty about how to use it.
4. Too Much Text
Unfortunately, your audience has a limited attention span. No one is going to read your advertisement if it’s too long.
Keep it short, sweet, and to the point. Make it clear what you’re offering, how, and why in a couple sentences. Then inspire action!
5. No Images or Graphics
Text simply doesn’t draw the eye in the same way graphics do. If you want to lure your reader into reading your marketing message, you’re going to have to get creative with imagery.
That being said, the image should still be relevant to the message. Better yet, it should invoke a positive emotion so the reader feels good about what you’re offering before they even know what it is.
6. Text in the Images
Facebook actively punishes this mistake. They’ve made it so images with too much text will be caught and you’ll be unable to publish them.
They’ve also done this for a reason — they’re not as effective.
Avoid images with more than a couple words of text. Save the readable message for your copy that accompanies the image.
7. Spelling Mistakes
This is Facebook for dummies 101: check your spelling!
Nothing says “not credible” like poor grammar. It’s an easy mistake to make but also easy to avoid. Have a second set of eyes take a look at your ad before you publish it.
There are also tools you can add as plugins to your computer that do a grammar check for you… so you can quickly identify and fix basic typos.
8. Poor Headlines
We’ve all read a good headline that sucks you in… the kind that entices you to click. You simply can’t help yourself because it’s so irresistible.
And we’ve also read a headline that has no appeal and is absolutely blah blah boring. Scroll.
You definitely don’t want to be the latter. Make sure your headline grabs the reader’s attention and makes it clear there’s a valuable offer being made. Here are a few examples:
- Free Enrollment for a Limited Time!
- Exclusive Offer: 10% Off
- Tips for Success
These all make it clear that something of value is on the other end of the ad. Otherwise, they won’t think clicking is worth their time.
Time to Face Facebook
As of last year, a whopping 80% of American adults are on Facebook. That’s a huge audience you need to take advantage of!
Avoid this list of eight common mistakes to get started on creating a powerful Facebook ad that’ll yield the best results. Not all ads are created equal.
You need to stand out in all the digital advertising noise! When it comes to Facebook for dummies, there are a few things you can do to simplify your advertising efforts.
But you don’t have to go it alone. I’m a digital marketing expert and would love to help you out with your Facebook advertising campaigns. Contact me so we can chat about social media marketing success.