#4 Ways to Create an Effective Facebook Advert It is important to initiate the process by settling on what the advert intends to achieve
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Facebook has over 217 million users in India that include CEOs, students, companies. The figure speaks for itself the reach of the social media among Indians. If you are in business, you have a huge community right there, and connecting with them from a marketing standpoint promises a great outcome.
However, the ad needs to be created carefully keeping in mind some fundamental indicators.
Following tips by the experts will help you create adverts that feel at home in the Facebook feed and deliver a positive result.
Decide What the Advert Intends to Achieve
It is important to initiate the process by settling on what the advert intends to achieve. Is it aimed at pushing a certain product? Steer foot traffic to your shop? Promote website views? Or develop trust? Making out the rationale of your advert helps build posts that deliver the desired end result.
A distinguished name in the world of digital marketing, Pramod Maloo, Founder and Head of Kreative Machinez, advised to use 'Audience Filter Feature' while creating a Facebook ad.
"Facebook is one unique platform that enables you to filter your audience with the help of highest level of detailing. If one has to do an ad for a local sunscreen product, one has to zoom in on the target audience by considering minute details like city, locality, a specific department of target college/colleges or even the specific gender of the department. This helps him/her optimize the returns from the ad spend," he elaborated.
Be mindful about identifying your target audience much before you start designing your ad. This is because the image and the way you write your copy will depend on your audience, their age, locality, interests and activities.
An Advert Must Offer Valuable Information
Next comes the topic of the ad. Be careful to design an advert that offers your audience some valuable information. Identifying the subject or theme of your ad will sort everything else.
Less is more, when it comes to writing advert copies. Anand Rajendran, CEO and Co-Founder of Zoplay, a software development company, is a tech geek and digital marketing expert. He is of the opinion that text-heavy content distracts audience, kills their interest and runs the risk of being circulated among fewer people. "Images spick and span and devoid of texts have greater impact," he stressed.
Using Right Features and Placements are Important
There are three overarching formats for Facebook Ads -- right column, desktop news feed and mobile news feed. Nilanjana Chaudhuri, Founder of Peers Symantech (a software company specializing in Medical Informatics) vouches for the correct placement of the ad. "Right ad in the right place goes a long way in creating delightful outcomes," she enthused. So after your ad copy is ready, decide on its placement. It could be desktop newsfeed, desktop right column or mobile newsfeed.
Even if the ad is great and rightly placed, without a call-to-action (CTA), the viewers will have no clue about the next set of actions. "Add a CTA feature like 'Buy now,' or 'Offer ends soon' in order to add a sense of urgency. Your CTA persuades viewers to click on your ad immediately," she added.
Always Play on Hit and Trial
An advertiser should never play the guessing game as to what would be accepted better by consumers. So to begin with, as a routine exercise it's always better to try 2-4 ad copies simultaneously with low daily budget for a few days.
"Measure the key parameters closely and then allocate your actual budgets on 1-2 ad copies that are performing better than others," recommended Maloo.
Rajendran suggested that advertisers must play around with different images and formats before committing to a particular ad. "Do not forget to preview your ad 'in the wild' before you decide to go for it. This can be done at Creative Hub. Creating mock ups, getting feedback on the creative and finding inspiration from other advertisers are great ways to initiate the campaign," he explained.
