Advertising has always gotten a bad rap as pushy and impersonal. But with the rise of big data and the global reach of social media, advertising has gotten smarter and highly personalized.

With one of the most expansive collections of user data, Facebook makes it easy for small businesses to reach their targeted prospects and customers with tailored and relevant ads. And with more than 2.45 billion Facebook users worldwide (that’s nearly one-third of the global population), now is the perfect time to face your fears and put Facebook ads to work for your business.

Here are a few tips for making the most out of Facebook ads once you get started.

Get to Know Your Facebook Audience

The key to turning ad clicks into customers is knowing your market. Get to know your buyer personas, where they’re at in the buying journey, what kind of things they engage with, their demographics, and so on.

When you make an effort to understand your customers, you can create content designed specifically for them instead of general, pushy ads geared toward everyone. The more personalized experience, the more value you’re offering your customers.

Use Video

Every day, users watch 100 million hours of video on Facebook. But despite all of that video being consumed, 54 percent of people still want to see more video content from the brands and businesses they support, according to a study by HubSpot. In 2018 alone, 93% of businesses landed new customers on social media thanks to implementing video.

If producing video feels like a terrifying undertaking, fear no more. Mobile business video maker apps like Boosted help you quickly and easily create high-quality promo-style video ads for Facebook that convert. Whether you’re launching a new product, running a seasonal promotion, or celebrating a business milestone with a sale, a professional video ad can help you hit reach the right customers every time.

Don’t forget: The majority of people watch video on Facebook without sound, so make sure your ad copy gets the point across or that you’ve got captions. And if you’re not sure when the prime times to post to Facebook are, we’ve got you covered in this blog article.

Use Social Proof

When crafting creative for your Facebook ads, leverage social proof in the form of customer testimonials, product reviews, or videos and images created by your customers.

After all, there is no greater advocate for your brand than an existing customer! And with one study showing that ads with user-generated content have a 300 percent higher click-through rate, it might be worth A/B testing at the very least.

Always Split Test Facebook Ads

Speaking of A/B testing, or split testing, it’s one of the most important things you can do when managing Facebook ads. The reality is that no two people in your target audience will respond the same to a single ad. A/B testing different elements in your ad sets will let you see what is resonating with the majority of your audience and what’s not working. Some of the elements you’ll want to A/B test include:

• Headline
• Visuals/graphics
• Copy (e.g., long form, short form, with a link in the body copy, without a link, bullets)
• Ad type (i.e., single image, carousel, video, canvas)

Once you know which ad is performing best with your audience, then you can put more spend towards that ad to generate more conversions. You can also vary your audience targeting for A/B testing, including:

• Ad position (i.e., mobile, desktop news feed, desktop right column)
• Bid amount
• Demographics
• Behaviors

Too many small businesses set up Facebook ads and don’t A/B test or forget they’re even running. Don’t run multiple failed campaigns one after another—instead, use what’s working and replicate that for future campaigns.

The Future of Facebook Ads

If Facebook ads seem overwhelming and downright terrifying right now, there are fear-tampering changes on the horizon. As Facebook’s algorithms gets smarter and create more automated processes for advertisers (we’re looking at Facebook’s Power5 ad tools), Facebook advertising should get easier because businesses will spend less time testing and managing ads and more time on the things that humans do best: crafting creative, buyer-driven video ads.

Action Items:

1. Set up a Facebook ad campaign for your business. Follow the best practices listed above when creating your ad. You can also check out this blog for guidance.
2. A/B test your ad. Be sure to adjust spend and audience targeting as necessary.