“By week two the store will be set up with coupon codes, the FaceBook page will have run at least four ads, and I’ll have taken screenshots and made notes of how they performed. I’ll also have set up a Twitter page.”
This was the schedule I set for myself at the beginning of the month for the portfolio project for Praxis, the year-long college alternative I’m participating in. I’m happy to announce that I am completely on top of it and have completed everything I said I would for the week. I’m looking forward to next week, when I will either push some of my products to
I ran four ads this week. Two were aimed for engagement, and two were aimed to get conversions. Though I did not make any sales through any of these ads, I’m pretty happy with the results I got.
However, this week was not all sunshine and accomplished goals. I ran into a couple
Don’t Use Leading Language
Based off of what I’ve seen in my research, this is a fairly new rule with Facebook. What it means is you can’t encourage people to interact with your ad. You can’t say “Click below to get yours!” or “Tag a friend who needs this!” or “Share this post!” That’s considered “baiting” people to interact inauthenticly with your ad.
Personally, I think it’s quite silly. A call to action is a common part of an advertisement, and the implication that text can truly influence a person to do something that can be called “inauthentic” is again, quite silly. Luckily, the buttons your consumers can click are still able to read things like “Click here” or “Shop now.”
Luckily, they don’t completely shut down your ad if you do this, but they do flag it and show it to fewer people. Therefore, it’s not the end of the world, but still something you’ll want to avoid.
Double-Check for Typos
Technically, I did not have any typos. However, when a couple of my ads got flagged for “baiting” people into interacting with my ad, I learned that I was not able to edit my text. Since the ad was set to finish running that night anyway, I didn’t shut it down early. I think Facebook should allow ads to be edited while they’re running, even if that means they have to be reviewed and approved again. Since you can’t, definitely make sure you don’t have any typos and that you like the way your ad looks.
Choose Attractive Pictures and Put Offers and Deals in Your Text
This one is more obvious. If you don’t have a tantalizing ad, you won’t get people to click. Since I consider myself part of my target audience, this wasn’t too hard for me. I know what I like to see in ads and what makes me go “oooh, pretty” when scrolling. I chose product pictures that both grabbed my own attention and that I felt encapsulated my brand. I gave out discount codes that would make me
White space and bright colors are best for clothing ads, and I personally prefer it when I see clothing on a model, as opposed to just the article of clothing. I think it reinforces in the consumer’s subconscious mind that “Hey, I could look like that” and encourages them to click. I have yet to try running ads without the models, but that’s going to be next.
The month is already halfway gone, and I still have tons to learn. Stay tuned for next weeks update.