6 Expert Facebook tips

by Peter C. Marketing Consultant

When you do it right, Facebook Ads can be an absolute game-changer for your store (or any other business that sells stuff online, for that matter).

But there’s a dilemma that we see all too often.

It takes a lot of learning, testing, and tweaking before the average entrepreneur finds their sweet spot. And sadly, many people want to give up before they get to this point.

Fret not. There are some things you can do to shorten the learning curve – and lessen your growing pains.

We’ve got 6 best practices to help you find your sweet spot as fast as possible while you learn how to master Facebook Ads for your brand.

1. Make your visuals mobile-friendly.

Everyone’s on their phone.

All. The. Time.

If your ads aren’t mobile-friendly, you’re probably missing out.

When you’re making the images and videos for your ads, think about designs that are easy to read while still grabbing their attention.

Stay away from crazy cursive fonts. Stick with crisp and bold sans-serif fonts. Make the text big enough to see on a small screen. Choose brighter colors (without blinding people, of course).

Use photos that clearly show what you’re offering. Something that catches the user’s eye and gets them to stop scrolling for a second to behold the glory of your ad.

2. Use video ads when you can.

Facebook advertisers across the board will tell you that videos tend to be a lot more engaging than static image-based ads.

There are more than four billion video views on Facebook every day.

Four billion! And to speak to the point above, most of those video views come from people on mobile devices.

Here are some best practices for mobile video ads:

Keep your videos 15-30 seconds long to increase the chances of people watching the whole thing.
Grab attention fast (and keep it) by putting the most interesting, engaging, and noteworthy points first.
Make your videos vertical or square. Most people hold their phones vertically when they’re scrolling.
Design videos for the sound to be off. Most users don’t have the sound on, so make sure your important stuff isn’t audio only.

3. Take advantage of ad placements.

Show your ad in more places than just the regular Facebook newsfeed.

You can show ads in the right column of the Facebook desktop, Facebook Marketplace, Facebook and Messenger Stories, and the Messenger Inbox.

And remember that Facebook owns Instagram too, so you can show the same ads in Instagram newsfeeds, Stories, and the Explore page.

If you have video ads, you can show them in the above places as well as in-stream when users are watching video content on the platforms.

If you’re a bit confused about which ads are best, you can always select “Automatic placements” and let Facebook do the thinking for you.

4. Remarket to “warm” users.

Remarketing is a must-have.

Research shows that most customers won’t make a purchase the very first time they see an ad. But if they keep seeing it, they’re more likely to buy.

Of course, you shouldn’t spam them. Some experts suggest showing your ads no more than twice a week any given prospect.

You can remarket by creating a Custom Audience.

Then you can choose different groups, like people who have been to your website or app. You can also upload a file with your customer or prospect data.

5. Install a Facebook pixel on your website.

Another must-have.

A Facebook pixel is a small piece of code that tracks user behavior on your website, then communicates that info to Facebook.

This helps Facebook make better decisions about who to show your ads to. With time, this will make your ads cheaper, because Facebook will know which people are most likely to become customers.

Installing a Facebook pixel is easy on a Shopify store.

Once you set up your Facebook account to integrate with Shopify, copy your pixel ID code. Then in your Shopify dashboard, go to Themes > Preferences > Facebook Pixel ID.

6. “Season” your Facebook pixel.

Your pixel can be a magical thing once you season it, which is a fun way to say train it.

See, the pixel is smart. It learns from every single interaction it has with users.

You want to expose the pixel to as many users as possible – but you don’t want to jack up your ad costs until you know the right audience.

One way you can optimize your spend while still seasoning your pixel is being strategic about the Marketing Objective you set when you build campaigns.

For your first campaigns, don’t optimize for purchases. Optimize for link clicks instead.

Then when you have 20-30 link clicks, the pixel will understand who’s more likely to buy (instead of spending more money on a guessing game).

Once you find momentum with blending the right ad creative and audience targeting, you’ll be well on your way to that coveted sweet spot.

Cheers,