15 Secrets to Designing Effective Facebook Ads

26 October 2020 10 min Read

Facebook advertising has become extremely competitive. Each side is actively vying to catch the user’s attention through their ads. But these prospects can also turn out to be a waste of money significantly if you invest a lot of your work in making a Facebook ad. The good news is, there are secret ingredients to ensuring that your Facebook ads turn out to be a success. We will speak on these details below:

1. Test Everything

Don’t settle for one design. Test every design that comes to mind. Your timeline of advertising on Facebook and your expertise are irrelevant in this case. Put everything on the table and evaluate its target.

Whenever you hope to initiate a new campaign, make sure you create at least four different ad designs of Facebook. You can test each one, whether in the form of images, texts, or illustrations. Remember, every idea is unique and has its flare. Whatever you have discovered in your thought process needs to be tested no matter how crazy or insane it seems.

You can incorporate your design ideas with other design ideas to give it a fresh outlook. Exposing your mind to different challenges is the best way to kickstart your ad campaign

2. Construct Personas of the Buyer

There is a diverse range of customers who require different requirements. By improving your buyers’ person, you will connect better with your customers and better your Facebook Ad Designs.

Every customer is distinct in his way. You need to write down a person for each one. May it be a man or woman, white or black. You need to understand what they hope to resolve by buying your product. Once you have constructed your buyer personas, you can make a Facebook ad design for each one and address their pain points.

3. Incorporate Social Proofs

People hesitate from purchasing your product out of fear. They’re scared of making the wrong decision and losing money. The best way to remedy this problem is to provide them with free samples or products. This strategy has been proven to successful.

Once the people get the hang of it and spread its productivity through word of mouth, your salves will increase. It isn’t necessary to give away only free products. It would help if you lessened the customer’s concern by incorporating social proofs into your design. This will gradually reduce the worries of customers from buying your product.

4. Call-to-Actions Is a Must

The point of call to Action is to increase your conversion rate and reduce your per conversion costs. A Call-To-action does not necessarily make your ad appealing. Its purpose is to go straight to the point and generate revenue. If your user adheres to your call to action and clicks on your ad, he will be directed to your page and will not waste time knowing what to do next.

He’ll move on to perform the necessary action. Having a Call to Action like “Subscribe to our magazine and receive $5 off”… is enough to benefit you in the long term.

5. The Images Must Stand Out

The social media network is a conflict zone and a ferocious one at that. Millions of Facebook users attempt to have an edge over their competitors to beat out their competition. Sometimes this edge comes in the form of imagery. If you hope to capture users’ attention for your ads, you need an image that arrests their interest to the point where they will read your ad. Anything eye-appealing will get its clicks.

Select the image carefully from the crowd and incorporate some visual contrasts in it. Use Instagram like filters for your imagery. Please do not overdo it where it can become offensive or overwhelming. That would cost you not only your users but also your account owing to Facebook’s strict rules.

6. Focus on Your Users’ Emotional Aspects

Winning over the emotional side of the user is vital. If a product feature is presented to a potential buyer, it might appeal to his rational side, but it may not convince his emotional one. The emotional side does not care for the outer features of the product.

It wants to see how the product is beneficial to them. One does not hope to become a millionaire for the sake of money. He wants to gain the prosperity and luxury that comes with it. You buy your products to make your life better or solve a problem. For your Facebook ads, you need to amalgamate the product into something that caters to the user’s rational and emotional side.

7. Consistency

Consistency within your Facebook ads will ease your user’s prospect of completing the required actions, very similar to Call to Action. Anyone who clicks on your ad means that they are intrigued by what your image or your message offers.

Once they lick and enter your page, you need to ensure that they view the same texts and images as your ads. The difference being you will give them ample knowledge about the product they hope to acquire.

It takes a few seconds for a user to decide if he likes a website or not. If you can’t maintain the consistency of your ads, you will lose them quickly. This is something one should not ignore.

8. Place the Right Ad in the Right Place

If you hope to optimize your design, you must place your Facebook ad in the correct place.

Mobile Newsfeed: With its mobile app installs, it is great for engagement. Mobile users click a lot on their screens. The conversion rate on mobile can be duplicitous, so be careful. However, it will be easier for users to locate your product and buy it online.

Desktop Right Column: This platform is less effective but more affordable. Texts are not as readable, and images are smaller. It only supports link and copy descriptions.

Desktop Newsfeed: Perfect for generating revenue and leads. Promotes longer link and copy descriptions.

9. Maintain Credibility

Credibility and trust are an essential part of any advertising. The absence of the two will convince your viewer that you are spammy, thereby refusing to buy your product. You cannot establish a relationship without trust, regardless of the circumstances.

You can win their trust by gearing towards the rational and emotional side of the user. Highlight the benefits of your products with a professional outlook. Never overdo it with promises or mere lies. If the user finds no erroneous content in your ad, he will gain enough confidence to give your product a try.

10. Use the Power of Color

Color is an instrumental force that can define your product’s potential, both in the present and future. If you do not understand the psychological abilities that different colors evoke, then you are missing out.

Users make snap judgments on the first color they view. Many studies concur with this logic as they have made discoveries in the following.

Concerning age demographics, green, blue, and purple colors appeal to an older audience. A younger audience prefers orange, yellow, and red. Aging reflects psychological changes in how we view colors. As we continue to age, our preferences grow darker and cooler. The orange color is strongly disliked by many people, as is brown according to research.

What is necessary is that the colors are appropriate and a match for the ad. This is not to say that color will determine the sales of your product. If you are presenting a crappy product, no color will magically appeal to the audience. The color needs to complement the product. Examine your product and imagine how you want your audiences to perceive your product and what color can trigger their senses. This will give you an idea as to which colors to use for your ad.

Take the example of Facebook itself. Its coloring exudes reliability and trust. Yahoo’s color scheme showcases wisdom. Apple represents calm and design neutrality. You can gain inspiration from their scheme for your ads.

11. Imagery Should Be Location-Specific

Facebook consists of a diverse community with users all across the world. It operates as a borderless entity. This makes it easy to advertise multiple ad campaigns on its platform to cater to different geographic regions. You must change the content of your Facebook ads to capitalize on this geographic base. Your ad content needs to complement the geographic destination you are focusing on.

12. Testimonials from Customers

Everyone is expressive on Facebook and social media in general. When users gush over a picture of a cute puppy on Facebook, you feel the need to keep up with the trend, locate the same image, and deliver your own opinions as well. It makes you feel a part of something. The same is the case when it comes to feelings of outrage. If there is offensive content on Facebook, you will join with the critics and post your disagreements in your own words.

Hence, when you see testimonials from customers on Facebook pertaining to a product, you feel the urge to join the same group and buy that product.

Make your Facebook ads compelling enough to attract such customers. The amounts of clicks will give it viral elements that will drive the sales you need. A direct sale is a basic tool for generating revenue, but it is the recommendation factor that accelerates the sales process.

13. Utilize Intersections of Interests

If you want users to stop scrolling and check your ad, you have to use the intersection of interest techniques. The technique begins with choosing two ideas that are not necessarily related to one another. You need to input them to your campaign manager during your advertising process.
Select all these interest options and gear them towards the people attracted to both the different intersecting interests. Create a design around the intersection as your ad.

14. Face Images

Our brain cells are reactionary when we see a face. Pareidolia is a common psychological condition that causes people to view faces every day. To put it bluntly, people are receptive to faces, whether they like it or not. It is an effect that is embedded in our human brain. What that said, it makes all the more sense to incorporate them into your Facebook ads.

Take the example of the mascots in cereal boxes. Cute animals or cartoonish characters almost always represent them. They are represented because they are effective. Children and their parents who glance at the face images view it is a fun, harmless, and enjoyable product.

Gradually it becomes a routine preference for such buyers. It would help if you adopted a similar strategy about your ad such that it is humanized for your users when they see your ad.

15. Show Urgency

Losing out on an opportunity can be frustrating. It evokes feelings of regret and remorse. It would help if you gave your Facebook ad a little urgency so that the users quickly utilize it before it slips through their fingers. It would be best if you made them fear a sense of loss from what you are offering in your ad. This strategy will work as per the advantage.

The prospects of creating an effective Facebook ad can be challenging. It’s costly and brings about many risks, which is why it is preferable for you to avail of the services of an affordable graphic design company. They have the tools and the secret ingredients in their arsenal to guarantee you an effective Facebook ad and pave the way for you to achieve success.

The Author

Tabish Khalid works as the Digital Marketing Manager for Designster. He develops and implements digital strategies for Designster, along with aligning business goals with digital marketing activities. He actively contributes articles related to digital and content marketing.