Avatar

Level 10

Best Practices for Social Campaigns: Create Effective Social Network Ads

(Facebook) General Requirements for Facebook Ads

         

Notes:

Facebook's editorial process may take up to 24 hours.

The following are just some of Facebook's requirements. See Facebook's advertising policies at https://www.facebook.com/help/adpolicy for the full requirements.

  • Exclamation points are prohibited in ad titles.

  • Ads can't offer incentives to viewers for clicking on the ad.

  • If an ad includes a price, discount, or free offer, the ad must clearly state what actions are required to qualify for the offer, and the landing page must clearly and accurately offer the exact deal the ad has displayed.

  • Ads can't require viewers to submit personally identifiable information (such as name, date of birth, telephone number, social security number, physical address, or email address) on the landing page or in the ad, except to enable an e-commerce transaction when the ad and landing page clearly indicate that a product is being sold.

  • Ads must not contain audio that plays automatically, without a user's interaction. Any automated animation must cease after 15 seconds and must not replay.

  • Landing pages can't generate pop-up windows.

  • Images used in ad units that will appear in user news feeds can contain no more than 20% text. Text in product shots (real photos of products in real-life situations) doesn't count toward the 20% limit.

Recommendations for Effective Ads

  • Design compelling ads specifically for a social network audience. The content should be different from that used to attract search users.

  • The image is the most important element for social ads, followed by the title, and then the body text. Use images and text, and keep the text short.

  • Ask questions. Question marks in the title or body text increase the click-through rate.

  • Include a time prompt, such as "Now," or "for a limited time" to increase the click-through rate.

  • Emphasize discounts, free offers, and promotional offers, but avoid using percent signs (%) or the word "percent."

  • Use the third person (he/she/they, his/her/their) instead of the first person (I, me) or second person (you, our) when possible for the best response.

  • Sell benefits, not features, and include a clear call to action.

  • Be conscious of using messaging that your audience will find hip and current, without being too trendy. Avoid actually using words like "hip," "cool," and "trendy."

  • Use colorful images.

  • Make sure images are not frightening, or the audience may be deterred from clicking the ad.

  • Avoid using faces in ads unless they are of celebrities or other people well-known to the audience and who are endorsing your product.

  • Keep ads fresh by replacing ad copy and images frequently, and make sure that the ads are noticeably varied.

  • Run 3-10 ads per campaign.

  • Bid according to the value delivered. Make sure you understand the impact of cross-channel marketing.

  • Continuously test ad copy, images, and landing pages (whether they are external websites or Facebook pages/events/applications).