If you’ve ever tried to stand out on social media, you know it’s no easy task. It can feel like you’re the proverbial polar bear in a snow storm.
Targeted ads on social media are one way to get past that. But even with paid advertising, the click-through rate (CTR) for a social media ad is a paltry 1.36%
So when you’re putting your hard earned money down to promote your lead magnet or an event using social media ads, here are some tips that you should start with to make sure your ads get seen and clicked.
1. Understand Your Social Media Ads Audience
Utilizing targeted ads can help you reach your specific audience and drive engagement. It often takes more than knowing their demographics. If you don’t know much about your ideal customer, start here.
What I recommend is before running any ads on social media is to look at what’s worked for your organic posts. If your videos are getting clicks and views, use that format. Do your followers respond to funny posts? Try that.
If nobody is clicking on your organic posts, then it’s no use paying Meta to show it to more people. An ad works or it doesn’t. Throwing more money at it won’t change that.
The more you get to know your social media audience, the better your ad will be because you’ll know what they want. Then utilize your social media analytics tools to gather insights on your posts. Once you have that figured out, then you can start creating ads.
2. Know What You’re Really Selling
This is a tip I learned a LONG time ago (back in my advertising class in college). Stripping it down to what your product does for the buyer in its most basic form will help you connect with why your customer will click.
For example, if you sell jewelry, you’re really selling beauty or being the envy of your friends. Or you’re selling the confidence she’ll need to stand out when making a presentation at work. Need help with this? Try this free download to learn what you’re really selling.
3. Keep Your Ads Simple
There might be a lot things you want to promote in your ad, but stick to only one big idea per ad. Throwing too much in a single ad will not benefit you, it will just confuse the reader. And a confused mind will not buy.
Also keep this in mind. Your ad itself has one job, and one job ONLY: to get them to click. The rest of the sales pitch can be done on your landing page.
4. Hook ‘Em Early
Your hook is the most important element of your ad. If it’s a video, nothing is as golden as that first 5 seconds. If it doesn’t grab people’s attention, they won’t stop scrolling. It’s as simple as that.
What does a great hook look like? It might be highly relevant to a certain problem your customer is dealing with. Or it might state a controversial opinion. Or it could be a surprising statement. It can be unique or fun, but make doubly sure it’s clear. Clever can confuse people, and as we determined earlier, a confused mind doesn’t buy.
5. Give Them Value
The meat of your ad if the ad copy, or the text part of your ad. The value you give them can be anything that solves a problem or meets their needs. A great ad needs to be dramatic, newsworthy, exciting, or somehow different than everything else in the newsfeed to break through all the advertising clutter. But it should also connect with them and make them want to click. It’s a tall order for a paragraph of text, so spending some time on this will pay off!
6. Build Tension in Your Ads
Incorporating storytelling elements to evoke emotion and connect with the audience on a deeper level is a smart strategy. When using a story framework, introduce the story problem quickly, and don’t resolve the tension until the end of the ad–your Call to Action.
7. Split Test Your Ads
Split testing or A/B testing is trying out different ad elements to see which performs the best. You can do this easily in Meta Ads. So you might want to test two different visuals, or two different headlines. The most important thing to know about split testing is to only change one element at a time so you can tell which element made the difference.
8. Create a Call-To-Action (CTA)
The Call to Action (CTA) is what you want them to do. Click, download, buy…whatever it is, tell them to do it. Your CTA can also be the payoff that releases the tension you built earlier in the ad. “My headaches were overwhelming until I tried this exercise. Click to Download it.”
9. Extra Tips for Better Results
- Add hashtags and keywords that you ideal customer might be searching for.
- Consider adding trending audio.
- If you’re using video, don’t forget captions so people can view it without sound.
- Design it first for mobile sites. 75% of people view social media on their phones*.
Struggling with your ads? Contact us and we can talk!
