In terms of online advertising, Facebook ads have gained an ever-increasing share in the total spending of companies and marketers. More and more businesses are tapping into the immense power of Facebook’s growing community. With more than 900 million people logging in Facebook every day, whether your audience is stay-at-home moms or budding entrepreneurs, it is guaranteed that a certain percentage of them are using Facebook daily.

However, throwing money aimlessly at Facebook and hoping for the best does no favour for your business, and your wallet. The key to implementing a successful Facebook ad campaign is, in my opinion, based on five basic concepts which I will go through in detail in this article.

1. The Visual Presentation

The image is one of the most important aspects of your ad.  It can make or break your conversions and profitability – we always split test images first before anything else.

Facebook has some strict rules concerning the ads they approve. They have to be focused on an image, which occupies at least 75% of the ad space. This means that the first element you need to consider when building an ad is the image. It has to be suggestive, original and with a focus of attention.

You can convey more information by embedding text in the image, but do not overdo it. For example, you can place a call to action, such as “Get my copy!”, or “Download now” on your photo.

I personally hate images with graphics on them and only rarely use them for ClicksAndLeads.com client campaigns.  The less like an ad and the more like a blog post your ad looks, the better it converts.  I use the Headline and Call To Action button under the image only.

2. We Live in the Video Age

A video ad is even more enticing than a simple photo ad although the jury is still out on conversion success – it’s something you will want to test.

Create a short and compelling video highlighting the major benefits of your product or service and embed the call to action at the end. Add a little text on top of the video to make people curious to watch it.

Good to know: the first frame of the video, which appears as a preview to users before they click on the Play button, must be relevant to the ad and offer supplementary motivation for people to watch it.

3. Location, Location, Location

Facebook has a very clear structure of its page for all users, on any device and Internet browser: the News Feed is in the middle, the left hand side is for quick access links to their profile, apps, games and favourite pages, and the right side for ads, the Ticker (which displays their friends’ activity in real time) and the chat zone.

Most ads are placed in the right hand column. However if you want your ad to blend nicely with your audience’s social news, you should aim for the News Feed placement, but this means that your ad needs to comply with Facebook’s best practices for organic posts.

We always startClicksAndLeads.com clients ads off in the Newsfeed, on Desktop and Mobile, before moving over to the right hand side.

4. Great Value Proposition and Call to Action

Do you offer something of value to people? What is special and unique about your product or service? Identify this aspect and state it clearly in the ad. Whether you offer a free e-book with email subscription or last minute discounts, this is the core message of your ad.

Also, the call to action of your ad should be concise and powerful enough to give someone a good reason to spend some minutes from their busy schedule following the link to the landing page to find out what you want to offer them.

5. The Offer Ad

This is a recent option developed by Facebook. You can promote a discount offered through your Facebook page. It is a great tactic both to increase engagement and page Likes and to drive leads that convert on your website. This type of ad is also great because it is displayed by default in the users’ News Feed.

6. Bonus Tips

Beware of making unrealistic and specific monetary claims in your ad (that are not achievable by all) and steer clear of passive income / wealth creation / biz opp / MLM topics.  Make sure your landing page reflects your ad copy and includes a clear email privacy policy, and doesn’t have any pop-ups on it.  Make sure your Thank You page is congruent as is your first Welcome email as a real person from Facebook will be reviewing your ads at some point.