Online Marketing

Facebook, as we know it, has changed the face of Digital marketing companies in Wollongong, and indeed today’s world. Little wonder many businesses, entrepreneurs, and marketers are keen on joining the bandwagon.

Facebook has successfully tipped the majority of the market to its side with its impressive benefits and ease. Some of the benefits include robust analytics, easy selection of ad objectives, and targeting.

Despite the benefits that Mark has provided for businesses – large and small, the sad but true fact is you can have your campaigns blown up in your face.

Of course, there are several reasons why this can happen.

We have cooked up a list of cases where you can have your account banned or your ads rejected and what to do about them.

So, let`s jump right into it.

GRAMMAR AND PROFANITY:

Sorry to drop by for another English lecture, but you should take serious consideration of your grammar in your ads.

Sometimes these errors slip by us and Facebook comes charging with hammers.

Check, check, and check more times if you have to before submitting your ads for approval.

VIOLENCE:

Facebook has a strict “No No, No” policy for contents that promotes violence.

If your images or video clips contain a demonstration of any act of violence, then you can expect Facebook to come for you.

SHOUTY CLAIMS:

You might want to tone down on the claims you make in your ads. Tone down on the punctuations too. AVOID SHOUTING AT YOUR AUDIENCE!

Another thing that you should get thrown out of your ad copy is the use of words, like “You.”

This may go against everything you were taught in copywriting classes or about human psychology.

Yes, yes.

It works, but Facebook sure doesn’t like it when you refer to the religion, financial status, sex, and stuff like that about their audience./user

This rule, of course, isn’t a one size fit all type of thing. There are exemption cases. However, reducing the use of you, and your is a safe bet.

WORD COUNT:

Ever heard of the 80-20 rule? Well, Facebook doesn’t permit advertisers to have too many texts on their ad images. Cluttering your image with way too many texts is only going to get your ads rejected. This is why we have the 80-20.

In certain cases, we need texts to drive home our point or whatever it is that we sell in the ads. It is preferable to avoid text in the ad images, but if you must, then follow the minimalist rule of 80-20.

As with these rules, there are some exceptions: Images such as event banners, book covers, product images, games, etc, can be exempted.

If your images contain textual watermarks, logos, or numbers, then you should be aware that Facebook counts them as text.

Keep your text to a limit of 125 and your headlines to about 20-25.

AUTOPLAY:

Seriously, advertisers need to put this in check. You can’t just have your ads popping up or playing without the permission of the prospect.

Facebook will not hesitate to hit the ban button on your account because your ads play or pop up without the user`s permission. It will end up having a truckload of complaints from users. The more the reports your ad gets, the more agitated Facebook gets.

The result? A ban!

Facebook has the single goal of creating the best Customer Experience. So, remove the autoplay feature in your video. Sometimes, people just want to scroll past an advert and this should be respected by advertisers.

FLASHY ADS:

Yet another reason that advertisers do not know or ignore in their videos are scenes with a whole lot of flash.

You might want to consider taking those scenes out before submitting your ads for approval.

NOT HITTING THE MARK:

There are certain products that Facebook wouldn’t approve of because the content doesn’t suit the appropriate target users.

Alcohol, for instance, is adult content. When your ads target people who less than 18 years (or 21 years for most countries), you have breached facebook`s rules.

The same can be said for nude content. When you show ads like this to people who aren’t age-appropriate, then your ads get rejected. No two ways about that.

NON-RELATED LANDING PAGES: 

You can hire professional web design services in Wollongong for all your web design needs.

This accounts for over 25% of rejected adverts. Facebook does not check the ads alone. They go as far as scrutinizing where you take their users to. 

Some ads tell the customers one thing in their ads and then say another on their landing pages.

Facebook considers this deceit and as such, they reject your ads.

You need to make sure that your ads do not mislead customers. Watch out for over sensational headlines and keep the focus on the product/service as much as possible.

HOW TO 5x YOUR LEADS WITH FACEBOOK.

Since Facebook may very well be the messiah to some of our marketing needs, marketers need to do their homework right.

Some folks have brilliant ideas and/or products to sell on Facebook. They throw themselves off the bed and head on to Facebook to start running their ads.

This set of people often end up spending a lot of money without any measurable result.

Only a lucky few ever make anything substantial.

So, the question that lies before us now is how do you make the most of all that Facebook has to offer as an advertiser?

Among many other successful strategies of advertising on Facebook, one stands out to be as important as the rest: Objectives.

If you are unable to outline the objectives of the ad you want to run, then you`d be churning money into pockets with holes.

Facebook has created some ad objective options, but the burden rests solely on you- the advertiser to select what meets your need.

Ensure you have a specific goal and result for the ads you want to run.

Let it be clear and as concise as possible. Write them out if you have to. It will serve as a guide for your campaign.

Do you want to make more sales? Do you want traffic to your website or app? Do you want to improve consumer perception? Do you want to reposition your business?

Ask these types of questions to help guide you even before you create a copy, video, or image for your ad.

You see, answering these questions strengthens your entire marketing campaign, saves you time, and tons of money too.

Before we continue with Facebook ads, we must take a tiny detour to discuss landing pages a bit more.

GETTING BETTER CONVERSIONS WITH YOUR LANDING PAGE:

We referred to landing pages earlier on, but what does it mean?

The landing page is where you call your prospects to act. It is where you want them to sign up for a newsletter, or your product/service.

Whatever the action is, your landing page is just about as important as the ad itself and you had better make it a darn good one.

Hire the best SEO company in Wollongong for your landing pages.

Since most sales are closed on the landing page, we have a few tips that can spice up your page and increase conversion:

  • Speak in the second person: To better your chances of closing the sale, you might want to stop talking about the product or yourself for a while.

Avoid words like I, Me, Our, and We.

Instead go for words, like You, Yours, and Yourself. 

As with many rules, this too has a few exceptions and an example is in place.

Perhaps you want to share a relatable story with the prospect. In such a case, you should not be scared of using first-person pronouns

  • Go straight to the point: Express whatever it is you have to say in the shortest sentences. Your ad has successfully gotten the attention of your reader, so don’t bore them with long, brain-tasking sentences. The people you deal with are looking for something new and fresh. So, keep it that way with your ads and landing pages.

Now, this isn’t suggesting that you hold back on details in the name of keeping it short.

Your sales message on your ads or landing pages should be long enough to give all the details, but short enough to keep them reading.

Okay, now let’s get back to Facebook ads, shall we?

Here are some Facebook advertising tips that work right now and perhaps, may snick their way into the future.

  1. The Carousel: Facebook`s carousel feature was specifically designed for businesses with multiple products to show their products in the same ad to their prospect.

You can use the carousel to display up to 10 different products with their call-to-action. Amazing!

You can have each of those products linked to a different landing page. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. 

Carousels work well for both desktop and mobile.

  1. VIDEOS:

So, why aren’t you doing this already? If you are, thumbs up. If you are not, well, you might need to rethink your advertising strategy because studies on Facebook video ads show that people who watch a video are 1.8 times more likely to purchase that ad.

Facebook video contents have increased astronomically, with over 300 million people watching videos on the platform every day.

So, what`s stopping you from seizing this opportunity of numbers?

You can make a video ad of over one hour thirty minutes – that’s pretty close to a full movie at the cinemas. You probably won`t use that much in your ads anyway, but that is more room for all the storytelling you need to make a sale.

Since you aren’t making a movie, it is best if you keep your videos short and as sweet as possible.

  1. Graphics Interchange Format: Making a video is a turn off for some advertisers. A lot goes into the process; the lights, background, and of course there is the editing part.

Why go through all of that for a 5-minute video when you can get the desired effect in a 10 seconds video?

 This is right up the alley of Graphics Interchange Formats (GIFs).

GIFs are short loop videos that you can make with tools like Snagit or other GIF-making tools quickly.

Listen, humans have low attention spans- the longer it gets, the more you put them to sleep.

GIFs can turn that around.

The best part is they are mobile-friendly and since we have more smartphones on the streets than we can count, it is best to hook a prospect with a smooth GIF.

  1.  Try Remarketing; Think about that cart abandon remainders you keep getting in your mails. That is an example of remarketing. 

Remarketing is pretty effective because it allows you to put your offer in front of people who interacted with your website, or social media page.

  1. Know the size requirement: 

It is frustrating when you send out an advert only to discover that the image was cut because it didn’t meet the size specifications.

Here are some specifications that will guide you when next you want to send out an advert:

IMAGES: Your images should be 1200 times 628 pixels. The headline should be 25 characters and image ratio; 1.91:1.

VIDEOS: Thumbnail size should be 1200 times 625 Ratio 16:9 and a resolution of 720p. The formats for your videos are mp4 or mov.

Using these ad specifications will ensure that your ads are displayed correctly without cutting issues.

  1. Testing: hey, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing Facebook ads. People change, the market landscape changes and this is why you must test different versions of your advert.

Facebook ads are all about the numbers: if you take the risk of guesswork, then you might as well prepare for what is coming.

There is this thing of following about people doing what other advertisers do. What works for them may not work for you. This is why you get your targeting right and test the market.