Facebook is one of the most widely used sites for marketing and advertising campaign since it offers more than a billion active users and a lot of data about them to aid you. A good conversion holds lot of importance to marketers and businesses.
If you are wondering what is a conversion rate then here’s the answer- It is the percentage rate at which a browser or Facebook user gets converted into a customer. On an average the conversion rate for Facebook ad campaigns is 9.2% for all industries. Here are a few ways to improve and boost your conversion of Facebook advertisements for better sales and growth:
Use catchy infographics
The use of eye-catching visuals, images and infographics in your ad can make it more appealing to viewers and improve conversion rate. Facebook itself recommends to use minimal texts as the human brain captures visuals better. Clogging too much of text in an advertisement will lead to your potential customers losing interest.
Make use of the Image Text Check tool by Facebook to get a rating for your visuals. Also keep in mind to work on the quality of your visuals. They reflect your brand and product quality. Do try to insert short videos and GIF’s to get attention of your viewers and engage them.
Inserting ads in a moving story format is also a great and appealing way to increase conversion. A picture speaks a thousand words and innovation is the key here. Make use of open and fluid imagery to have maximum engagement from viewers and spark their curiosity.
Target them based on Interests
What makes Facebook the best platform for marketing is its versatility in users ranging over age, gender, country, city, interests, likes and dislikes etc. With so much data available on the users it is quite easy to specify your targets and then advertise to them. These pre-filtered targets (based on various factors) are more likely to click the ads and become potentially. This one of the great ways to boost your conversion rate.
Facebook has abundant tools to help you do so. Initially, you will have to manage with the features available but as you grow, these features are like the golden key to a great ad campaign. Start with layering Age, Gender and Location filters. Then fine tune it using tools of inclusion and exclusion of interest. You can pick two or three interests according to relevance for a clearer viewer base.
Tip: Neil Patel offers a great technique to further refine and fine tune your viewer base. If you are unable to definite audience pool by merging interest then a great way to do so is by picking two different interests and finding an intersection of users interested in both.
Objective and pre-planning
You should know well in advance what you want your viewers to do after they see your ad. Set a clear goal and objective for every advertising and marketing campaign that you do. Place suitable call of actions and conversion events for the viewers, to show that your brand offers what it promises and reflect efficiency on your part.
Know that an ad is the beginning, so plan accordingly and place the relevant pointers to convert a viewer into a customer. If you have different objectives to be met in a single ad campaign then do not expect only one ad to work for the same.
Creating different ads for different objectives will help you achieve your objectives faster and will also introduce a freshness to your ad content for the viewers. Keep the consistency of offering ease and accessibility to potential customers.
Optimize your time
Most marketers run advertising campaigns 24/7 and reach out to users regardless of day and time. On the contrary, it is observed that certain scheduled advertisements outperform the strategy of continuously bombarding audience with your ad.
Using the Facebook Ad Manger, study and understand the specific times when your ad reaches bring maximum clicks and conversions. Then use this data to prepare a custom schedule to enable views to your ad by users. This will save your effort of continuously marketing and bring fullest conversion in the time that you market.
Another advantage of this is that users will not be bored of viewing your ad frequently too. Note: After starting a campaign, wait at least 24 to 48 hours to get data on time and schedule optimization for your ad campaign.
Keep it short and sweet
When viewing an ad, its all about conveying to the viewers in few split seconds when you have their interest and attention. It is best to avoid lot of texts, unnecessary information or elements and keep minimum possible elements that convey a call to action in a rich and effective way. Some suggestions to improve this aspect are-
- Avoid using technical language and instead use terms that will be easily understood by viewers.
- Keep the ad brief and to the point. You just have to convey a product or service, not describe whole of it.
- Try to incorporate a personal feel to each viewer, this will make them more attentive and trusting of the brand that you want to advertise.
- Use images. More importantly use open or minimalistic images as they look rich and effortless. Good images will create perception about your brand as being esteemed.
Including these few tips will make your ad more convertible and get you more possible growth.
Make your audience broader
In the beginning it was talked about targeting audience based on their interests and likes. In short, about narrowing your audience base and making it accurate. To begin your marketing campaign, it is one of the important to-do tasks. As you grow into your marketing it is advisable to broaden your audience based on interests.
The ‘targeting expansion’ feature offered by Facebook will you in this regard by expanding the audience bas e on the previously selected ‘interest targeting section’.
This step is useful in regard of having more conversions through Facebook Ads at a lower cost. Facebook also enables a feature where you can create custom audiences for marketing. Also, it has a feature to help you identify ‘Lookalike Audiences’ based on the ones you have already shortlisted. With so many tools to tweak and manage your audience, you can use these to aid you in achieving maximum conversion from Facebook Advertising campaigns.
Choose the right format for your Ad
Choosing the right format for campaigning is crucial in two aspects. Firstly, the ad format that you choose greatly affects your layout and overall attention and interest of your viewers. This also does affect your conversion rate. Then comes another factor. Selecting right ad formats or combinations of these ad formats will help you reduce the cost that you spend on Facebook Ads. Wouldn’t it be great to have an ad that is better than others and costs less as well?
Facebook offers a lot of different types of ads. Among these, the carousel and/or collection ads are best suited for advertising multiple products and services of a single brand or for displaying many features of a single article. The Facebook ‘Offer Ads’ provide you features to advertise discounts, special deals and offers to your audience.
What sets this template apart from others is that when a viewer clicks on this ad, he/she will receive timely reminders (notifications) about the offer. The Facebook Canvas ad format is best suited for high-definition infographics and visuals that will look good on full-screen.
Analyze your ad placement
Where you place your ad on a viewer’s screen affects tremendously on your click and conversion rate. It also affects your advertising costs largely. Open the Facebook Ads manager and in the break-down menu select breakdown conversion rate by ad placement.
Now study which placements are yielding you maximum conversions and which aren’t. Simply remove the ones that are not offering an input in the conversion rate. This will help you save unnecessary expenses too.
Another tip is to select the right placements in the beginning of the campaign. It is observed that the Desktop form placement performs best overall as it offers a wider space for descriptions and visuals. It is best to look out for
placements that suit your product or service aptly. Also do not forget to optimize your add for multiple devices like mobile phones and desktops.
Give an offer
Research says that people are 57 percent more likely to buy from new or unfamiliar brands if they are offered a discount coupon. The reason is quite simple here, a discount means spending less and it takes off the load of risk if the product isn’t satisfactory. This could be a great strategy upcoming brands and well-known brands to increase conversion rates and attract more traffic.
As previously mentioned, the Facebook ‘Offer Ads’ format is perfect for this strategy. What might seem like a huge discount to the audience, won’t necessarily mean a hefty profit loss from your end. It is simply a matter of word-play and getting your numbers right. Keep in mind to offer quality here as this make your customers more prone to buying again and again. Do not end up making false statements. Trust is everything when it comes to the branding of a business.
Create a lead magnet
Wondering what a lead magnet is? It is nothing but an ethical and legal bribe. Most of the visitors to your site after clicking on an ad will skim past and exit. So, the best way to keep their attention is to offer something that will make them curious. It can be anything ranging from giving a discount for signing up to providing free tools, eBooks, short courses, free templates and checklists and a lot more.
This will keep your audience glued to your site and will also give them a taste of the quality that you offer. This is a great tactic for actually converting a viewer or user into a customer to your product or service. While this is somewhat of a bonus that you can offer, it does require some effort to find out what exactly your audience will be interested in. Here again, make use of the Facebook filters to know what could be the most engaging freebie.
Use re-marketing
Facebook pixel is a great tool for remarketing. Remarketing simply means reaching to people who have already shown an interest in your site, product or service. Make use of Facebook pixel tool to find out the traffic that has visited your site and display your ads to them.
Since they have shown an interest already in your site, the chances for converting them are higher. Another great way is to reach out to the people who have abandoned a shopping cart on your site. You will be surprised how easy and quick it is to convert these people into active customers.
Turn your data into insights
The Facebook ads manager (Facebook Analytics) provides many metrics to track your progress. IT is best suggested to frequently pore over this information and understand it. You will come to know about your shortcomings and downfalls and can work to improve on them in early hours.
Observe this data systematically to find patterns and gain insights. Insights help you to tweak and modify your strategy accordingly for better marketing results. This will give you important markers for your campaigns in future too.
Using these few tips and techniques along with staying consistent can surely help you to boost and increase your conversion rate and gain sales for your business. Facebook is a platform with lot of opportunities to market, advertise and grow. It is all about trying, testing and applying innovation.
There will be strategies that will work and that won’t but you keep on learning and improving your ad campaigns in the long run. Creating an ad on Facebook is not difficult but staying consistent to improving and growing is. If you are able to that then surely you will see a tremendous growth in the conversions over a period of time.