Facebook Ads Best Practices – Your Updated Ad Guide

If you had any type of contact with Facebook ad strategies over the past 12 months, just about now, you’re probably wondering: 

Are Facebook Ads even worth it anymore?

Advertising costs are surging, and it doesn’t seem like anything will change any time soon. 

New Social Media channels (like Tik Tok) are taking the Internet by storm, leaving Facebook to seem like the grumpy uncle who refuses to keep up with the times.

All while other updates in algorithms (+ the infamous iOS update) made Advertising on Facebook more and more difficult as the time passed. 

It would be foolish not to include Facebook in your marketing strategy despite all these. 

Even though it seems like its growth has come to a halt, this channel still incorporates 2.89 billion monthly active users.

However, many marketers complain about poor ROI, the lack of data, and an oversaturated market. 

Read your updated Facebook Ad guide to help you overcome the hurdles and roll out ads that convert.

How do Facebook Ads work?

Facebook Ads are designed to help you reach your ideal customers with the right messages. You create your Facebook advertising strategy with your buyer persona in mind, then you target audiences that best resemble your persona.

You can use the tools provided by Facebook to target people based on categories like:

• Where they live
• Demographics — criteria such as age, gender, marital status, etc.
• Interests — criteria like shopping, gadgets, music, etc.
• Behaviors — criteria like shopper profiles, offline interests, etc.

When these people who meet your specific target are on Facebook, they may see your ad in the News Feed.

After creating an Ad and choosing the targeting options, you set your budget, and that’s it. You’re done, and you need to leave Facebook to work its magic.

Since your ad sets reach people based on their interests, what you advertise should be relevant to people and convince them to click on your Ad.

This is the short version. 

However, sometimes Ads don’t work. Maybe your Creative isn’t strong enough, or your targeting doesn’t quite match your Ideal Customer Profile. 

Or, even if the Ad works, the costs are too high, and you realize you can’t afford to pay so much for acquisition. 

So, now it’s the time to move away from the basics and look at more advanced Facebook advertising strategies to help you create a successful Facebook ad. 

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Target Specific Audience 

Here’s what we need to understand from the very beginning. 

Facebook Ads Best Practices aren’t a “one-size-fits-all” solution. As a marketer, you have to learn this lesson right from the beginning. There are no universal marketing tips out there.

This is why you can’t start advertising unless you take the time to get to know your audience.

Facebook ad targeting works wonders, and it can save you a lot of time and money, but you need to do some due diligence before rolling out your campaigns

• Start from an “Ideal Customer” POV. 

Which are his struggles? What’s jeopardizing his desire to evolve and be better? What’s hurting right now?

Which is the trigger moment, the one he decides to hire your products/services to fix his problems / fulfill his needs?

Go even further here. 

How do you earn his trust? What’s the trade-off? What is he afraid of?

After you understand the context behind your customers’ buying decisions, you can move on to more practical manners.

• What does your ICP do online?

So, who are these potential customers of yours? What’s their online behavior? 

Which are their interests? How do they spend their time, and which pages are they visiting regularly? What type of posts are they interacting with daily?

You can select your Facebook ad placement and roll out your Facebook campaign on Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, or Facebook. So it’s helpful to know where your prospects are hanging out in the online world.

• Ideal potential customer vs. high-value real customer.

As a third step, you can (and should) go even further – compare your existing power customers with your ideal potential customers. 

This will come in handy when we get to lookalike audiences. 

Now that you have all this knowledge and a clear idea of who the people you want to bring into your business are, you can start targeting your Ad campaigns.

It’s important to note that privacy settings (cough *iOS 14 update* cough) might make your job more difficult, but it doesn’t mean all hope is lost. 

You still have data up to your sleeve – but you need to harness and use it. As a matter of fact, your zero and first-party data should be your primary asset for your Facebook Ad Campaigns.

You can use this data – which YOU own – to create specific and laser-targeted campaigns.

A. Campaigns based on demographic targeting

For this type of targeted ad, you’re using your data to nail down the demographic of your best customers. Then, you send ad campaigns to users similar to your desired demographics. 

Facebook already stores this data, so you won’t worry too much about privacy settings / gathering the data. 

Just keep in mind that not all info on Facebook is updated. 

Some people like to post about family achievements, others about education. Some want to post about traveling, and some will be vocal about books and academia. 

Don’t place all your bets on demographics and take it with a grain of salt. 

That being said, let’s move to our next step in the advertising strategy trinity:

B. Campaigns based on interest & behavior 

This is where it gets tricky because interest & behavior audiences rely on third-party data. 

The data is slowly becoming scarcer and scarcer since we’re rapidly approaching a cookieless world. 

However, there’s still data you can use – the one Facebook collects from its own apps (Facebook + Instagram + Messenger).

Since audiences will be getting less and less specific, you might want to do two things here:

• Combine different interests to create a whole new category.

For example, if you’re selling home goods, you can use interests such as interior design, DIY, Scandinavian design, futuristic furniture, etc. 

Don’t limit yourself, but explore the powerful possibilities at your service. 

• Take advantage of this targeting option while you still can. 

FOMO might be a powerful feeling to induce scarcity in your ads, but in this case, you really need to take advantage of interest (& behavior) targeting.

Cookies are dying out, and we will soon have to do without them.

C. Campaigns based on custom audience targeting.

With custom audiences, you’re not necessarily trying to acquire new customers. It’s more like – trying to re-engage your existing customers. 

This opens up a world of possibilities for your Ads:

• Re-engaging existing customers who didn’t buy in a while
• Pushing best-sellers to customers who didn’t buy yet 
• Sending Ads to people when they’re ready to buy again 

In other words – you shouldn’t only focus on acquiring new customers with your ads – but also on reactivating and retaining your existing customers. 

As far as acquisition goes, you can incorporate lookalike audiences into your marketing strategy and do your best to create a Facebook custom audience that best resembles your ideal customers.

>> Reveal’s Audience builder is a hassle-free way to use your data wisely and create Custom Audiences that rock. See how you can use your Customer Data to create better-performing campaigns.

Offer Relevant content

Howard Luck nailed it in 1950 when he talked about people only reading things that interest them. 

Almost 100 years later, we are subjected to nearly 5000 Ads/day. 

This means wherever there’s content, there’s also an Ad: TV, Radio, Social Media, Offline channels, etc. 

So, we can’t mention best practices for Facebook ads without advising you to set apart the time and the budget for:

• Research
• Crafting relevant messaging

There are 3 types of content you should use – but make sure each is tailored to your specific audience.

1.Entertainment

Make people feel good. Make them laugh. Or smile. 

Remember – they open Facebook because they’re bored, sad, or looking for escapism. They’re not in the mood to read serious stuff; they shouldn’t get angry. 

So, create entertaining content and keep them engaged and always coming back. 

Some entertaining Facebook ad examples might be the ones used by Netflix to announce new shows or Coca-Cola and Pepsi’s “beef” in the Advertising world. 

This Facebook ad example from Netflix illustrates the principle best:

2. Education

But don’t keep it light forever – you don’t want to look like a brand that doesn’t have substance. 

People also need to evolve to become better. And for this, they need to learn new things and grow from their mistakes. 

Educate your audience through your Ads, then use a retargeting ad to sell them your products. Since you provided value before, your ads won’t seem intrusive – and whoever offers the most value wins. 

Use your ads to educate your audience – and keep them coming back.

3. Emotion

And finally, the 3rd E you should include no matter the type of ad you’re using:

The one where people feel something. 

Humans aren’t rational beings but impulsive ones. We make decisions on the spot, based on our emotions, fears, and whims. And then, we justify those decisions using rational reasoning. 

However, the core trigger was based on something we felt. Hold on to this idea the next time you write your Ads. 

Speaking of emotions…

Use Visual Content

Facebook ad types come in many forms, each with advantages and disadvantages. You can have image ads, poll ads, video ads, etc.

However, the most effective Ads in 2022 are video ads by far. 

Any decent Facebook Ads Guide will advise you to be as visual as possible. 

Remember – people don’t log in on Facebook hoping they can read a 300-word Ad. 

Besides, visual content is easier to digest. You’re passively consuming this content, not having to be 100% engaged as you do when consuming written content. 

It might seem expensive, but you don’t need to hire an Agency to produce compelling video Ads. 

In the beginning, you can count on your smartphone and maybe a microphone. Your content is more important than the production, so keep it simple, elegant, and to the point.

Frequently Asked Questions about Customer Experience