The Forgotten Keys to Crafting Successful Social Ads

Members of the paid social team here at The Search Agency are experts at setting up social media ads, launching new campaigns every single day. Those outside our agency who’ve found putting together social ads a routine, though, may have lost some of the knowledge to deliver on the most simple — yet effective — strategies for building killer ads on social media. Take a look at some of the most-often forgotten easy wins when working with paid social.

Visual Content

Visuals have become a vital component in engaging audiences. Not only should social media “influencers” choose their visuals precisely, but marketers should, too. Using appealing, high-resolution images for your paid social ads can be beneficial; unfortunately, some people still underestimate the power of visuals in their social ads.

Appealing visuals are more likely to be shared and remembered than written content. Visual content is also treated more favourably by the Facebook algorithm, which can have a great impact on performance. Always remember:

No matter what type of ad you create, your image needs to be eye-catching.
The best example is analyzing your own behavior while engaging with social media. Think about how you scroll through your various feeds every day, likely missing plenty of ads because they all look so similar. Other people are no different, which is exactly why you need to ensure your visuals pop.

Imagine you’re in a room full of doves, all looking very alike: sort of grey with some brown highlights here and there. You wouldn’t be able to notice much difference between them apart from any remarkable feathering, right? In this case, the only way to be noticed is to stand out. Be different. Be the parrot.

Being a parrot — stunning and loud and awash with greens and reds — among a ton of doves is sure to attract attention, which is exactly what we’re aiming for.

Offer Value to Your Audience

Provide a value proposition that’ll clearly communicate why people should click on your ad and learn more about your brand/product. This might seem obvious and very simple, but sometimes people neglect to understand the importance of this when creating ads.

Now ask yourself: How does your product/service differ from any other? Why should a user click on your ad to see your product/website? Your value proposition should be believable, as it’s essential to prove to your potential customer that your ads deserve their attention.

For example, claiming you have the best bagels in town likely won’t get people to interact with your business’s page or your featured ad instantly. A great way of adding a value proposition is to maybe offer “15 percent off your first purchase” or “buy one, get one free.” Another approach could be adding social proof: “Our Bagels are loved by over half a million people every year – Grab yours today and get 15 percent off your first order with this coupon. Sign up now!”

Providing incentives in your ad by offering a free trial or discount may help increase ad performance, as well as providing the opportunity for users to engage with your brand online through hashtags, shares, comments and more.

Find Your Ideal Target Audience – Exclusions Matter

Everyone talks about targeting the right audience for your product or service, but most people might not consider audience exclusions as relevant when it comes to specific targeting settings.

Facebook offers multiple options to target your audience, so you should utilize this and clearly map out who you want to be engaging through your paid social ads and who you don’t want to be reaching. One important thing to remember is that you’re spending money whenever someone views or clicks on your ad (depending on the specific settings within your campaign).

If you’re showing ads that aren’t relevant to your target audience, you’re basically wasting your time and money. This can also reflect in not seeing success within a specific advertising campaign. That’s why relevance is the key for success when using Facebook advertising.

Cross-Channel Tracking Using Offline Conversions

Cross-channel tracking and attribution allows marketers to see which channels are creating a return on investment, as the last-click model has finally been reconsidered and put aside.

When talking about cross-channel strategies, usually only digital platforms are considered to track cross-channel conversions. But one thing that marketers should be paying more attention to is offline conversions.

Offline conversions help businesses leverage their offline events data, such as in-store purchases, orders made over the phone and qualified leads. This helps with understanding which offline events happened as a result of your paid social ads.

This may sound more complicated than it actually is. Let’s use Facebook offline conversions as an example: Offline event data can easily be attributed from CRM (customer relationship management) databases or POS (point of sale) systems to people who engaged with your Facebook ads (clicked and viewed).

By tracking offline events that aren’t captured by the Facebook Pixel or SDK, you can understand the effectiveness of your ad campaigns and return on your ad spend better.

Here’s a handy guide how to set this up within your account.

Another great benefit is creating custom audiences from offline events: By connecting your offline data to Facebook, you can dynamically retarget people who’ve interacted with your business through offline channels.

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