Week 13 Part 2: Online Advertising


The purpose of this post is to review the different types of Facebook ads and determine which would be most effective for my business. I will also describe how to best design and implement ads for Facebook using the principles of good design.

I will begin by describing the main types of Facebook ads which I have divided into three categories; Traffic and leads for your website, Sales and Leads for your product or service, and Likes and engagement for your page.

Traffic and Leads for Your Website

These are the types of ads that help drive traffic to your website. This can be either to send users to a page and have them buy something, sign up for your newsletter or some other type of lead generation. Since I am a brand new business, this type of ad makes the most since for me and my current goal of creating an audience.

Link Click Ads
This ad type helps to promote your website and send people to your landing pages or blog posts. You can use Link Click Ads with several placements; this allows you to deliver the same ad across multiple News Feeds and reach a large audience.

These ads  have the side benefit of generating Likes for your page, which is another goal for my business, so I will focus on this type of ad in the beginning.

Video
Facebook Video Ads are actually another form of the Link Click Ads except instead of an image, your ad uses a video. I will eventually progress to this type of ad when I get over my camera shy nature!

Boosted Post
Every time you post something on your Facebook Page, you can increase the post’s reach with a Boosted Post. This is more important now due to the big algorithm change of January 2018 where it will be more difficult to have organic posts reach your audience.

As you click on “Boost Post,” you can set up the target audience and bidding methods, which I still don't quite comprehend, and promote your Page post to more people across Facebook’s advertising network.

The Boosted Post will look exactly like a normal Facebook post, with a “Sponsored” note on top of the ad.

I will use this type of Ad once I have built up my audience.


Sales and Leads for Your Product or Service

These ads allow you to present multiple offers or services in a single ad. You can also create an ad that allows users to submit their email without leaving Facebook.

Multi-Product Ads (Carousel Ads)
The carousel ad format lets you show up to 10 images and/or videos, headlines and links, or calls to action. This is a way to promote different posts and offers and see what works best with your audience. This was the type of ad that two of the businesses I analyzed for my first post on this topic used for their multiple cookbooks and it was very effective. I will keep this in mind for when I have multiple products to offer.

Dynamic Ads (formerly Dynamic Product Ads)
These ads target users based on past actions on your website. You install a Facebook Pixel on your site, then upload your product catalog to Facebook and then Facebook handles the automation and re targeting. I can see how this would be very effective for ecommerce stores with a large inventory, but probably not for me at this time.

Lead Ads 
This Facebook ad type allows people to download your content or sign up for your offer without leaving Facebook platform. This is an ad type I am interested in since it seems to be a perfect method for quickly getting a potential customers email addresses.

 Canvas Ads
Canvas is an interactive ad that lets users engage with your content on Facebook and is currently only available on mobile. These ads allow your user to swipe through a carousel images and zoom in or out.

Collection
Facebook Collection Ads let you showcase multiple products that are being sold on your website. Also only available on mobile.

I think these ads would be great for a younger audience and for businesses selling products such as clothing, art or jewelry, but probably not my audience at this time.


Likes & Engagement for Your Page

As the name implies, these ads help you get likes for your page and increase the chances of post reach and engagement.


Page Like Ads 
These are the go-to ads for increasing your page Likes. They can be displayed on all placements and include a visible call to action for users to immediately Like your page. Although I read in one of our assigned-reading blog posts that you should never create an ad just for the purpose of getting page Likes, I still see value in it. It would be a way for me to build my audience and gain trust. It makes sense that someone would Like my page first, then provide their email later once they have been following me for a while and know and trust me.

Page Post Photo Ads
This Facebook Ad Type has the most space to show images. I imagine this would be very effective if you chose the right image for your audience since images can be so powerful.

Page Post Video Ads
Video Advertising supposedly drives higher audience engagement than just text and images and is reported to build a stronger connection with followers. I will work toward becoming comfortable with creating videos for Facebook and my website, but first I need to create an audience!


Now that I have reviewed the options and narrowed them down to Link Click ads and Page Like ads for my business I will describe how I can design and implement these ads using the principles of good design.

According to our class lecture on  social media design, in order to  create and use social media effectively you need to, "engage quickly, be interactive, make it easy to use, easy to communicate, and not overwhelming". With that in mind, I gathered some tips from our text book and assigned reading on Facebook ad design and listed them below.


Facebook Ad design best practises:

General:
The best Facebook ad examples target an audience, include eye-catching images and incorporate engaging calls to action.

Create ads that contrast with the newsfeed.

Keep your ads colorful, so that they’ll immediately catch attention.

Image:
The best Facebook ads typically have a single large image with little or no text on the image, with a headline and call to action (CTA) written with actionable keywords in mind.

The right image can immediately attract the eye and earn you a click.

Choose images that stand out,  but remember, while the image needs to stand out, it should not be offensive or too strong.

Use the right image size (1200 x 628 pixels), so that your image looks good on every screen

Copy:
Your ad copy is the second most important part of your Facebook ads, right after the ad image.

Ad copy should first catch an ad viewer’s interest and then convince them to take action, e.g. make a purchase.

Keep your ad copy short and clear. Here, the goal isn’t selling. It’s about convincing users to click on the ad to discover more. Try to be catchy and clearly explain to users why they should click. Offering discounts and freebies usually help. However, be careful not to attract too many "cheap clicks" that won’t convert.

Place your main value proposition in the ad image, so that people will read it right as they see your ad.

Facebook ads have multiple fields where you can place text. Below are the Specs:

The main ad text – up to 90 characters
Headline –  up to 25 characters
Link description – up to 90 characters

Finally, it is important to monitor feedback from your ads to discover which images, copy and CTA's your audience responds most to. You can gather this  information to make decisions on future ads that will narrow your audience even further and make your ads even more effective.




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