Personalizing Your Facebook Ads

Nowadays, seasonal sales, special offers or holiday discounts are bread and butter. As consumers, we perfectly know when to expect such shopping opportunities. Brands and manufacturers outdo each other in designing projects that will draw the attention of as many potential buyers as possible.

Thus, it’s a great idea to publish information about special offers on social media platforms, where the chances of reaching your target group are definitely the biggest. In this case, it’s essential to take into consideration elements such as user personas or characteristics of a given industry – fashionable gowns for a New Year’s Eve party and CRM systems will require a completely different approach.

Today, we’ll tell you something more about Facebook Ads.

User personas in Facebook Ads

User personas – who are they?

Ola has recently written about user personas on our blog. Just to remind you, a persona is your exemplary, ideal customer. By using the data at your disposal, you can create a few fictional people who will represent a typical person belonging to your target group.

Creating user personas enables designing better projects and targeting advertisements more effectively. Taking John Adams or Kate Smith (because user personas have names and surnames) into consideration will help you to tailor content of your advertisements, language, method of communication, graphics or the place where the ad will be displayed on Facebook or Instagram.

How to create user personas on Facebook?

Surprisingly, the target group to which the ad is addressed is often disregarded while creating the advertisement. But you should consider whether you target your message at an expert in a given field, a caring mother, an athlete or a teenager. Each of these groups use different methods of communication and you should also use different words to tell them about the assets of your company.

In Delante, we create personas on the basis of data from Facebook Statistics and Facebook Insights. We start from checking the gender, age of people following our client’s fanpage and the language they use in everyday communication. At this stage, it’s also important to find out which pages are liked by these people.

Of course, we also keep in mind whether the campaign is supposed to be local or whether it should reach a wider range of recipients. If it’s local, then any liked local restaurants, cinemas or organizations can be helpful in targeting.

Next, we think who our recipients can be. It’s a good idea to create a few user personas. So let’s have an example, thanks to the available data you find out that your client’s fanpage is the most popular among women aged 25-34 and the campaign targets the whole country.

Now you can create a user persona – Mrs. Kate Smith. You want to find out who she is and you take into account aspects such as:

1. Demographic data:

• gender,
• age,
• origin,
• marital status,
• parental status,
• language,
• location,
• a flat/house she owns,
• profession,
• education level,
• household income.

2. Motivation – so for example, information whether she enjoys buying fashionable products and whether she focuses on their quality.

3. Psychological evaluation:

• faith/views,
• ambitions/dreams,
• interests,
• life priorities,
• a problem that can be solved by the advertised product,
• pet peeves.

4. Behavioral profile:

• What does she read?
• Where does she like to spend time?
• How does the product quality affect the purchase decision?
• How does the product price affect the purchase decision?
• How do special offers affect the purchase decision?
• What does she think about your competition?

It’s also worth including a short description of Mrs. Smith. Below you can see an exemplary story from her life created especially for the interior design industry.

This is the moment when we can move on to Facebook Insights which will allow you to retrieve extra information about the target group you create. Here, you can find out what jobs your target recipients have or which sites and places they like.

Once you’ve collected the data and created user personas, you can go to Facebook and devise a target group which will be based on your personas. Remember to include location, age, language, interests, education, relationship status, industry and all other aspects that are of interest to you.

It’s a good idea to narrow down your target group to specific interests such as minimalism or environmental protection. Thanks to it, you let Facebook know that you want your recipients to have particular character traits and interests. Those who will fail to meet your narrowed expectations won’t be included in the target group.

Check the graphics below to see an exemplary target group.

Creating advertisements in Facebook Ads

Ad formats

Creating a Facebook ad requires taking a few steps. First of all, you need to select your ad format. Go for:

• A carousel – minimum two photos or movies that can be scrolled. Each of them should have a separate description,
• Individual images or videos – such ads use static photos, movies and many other images to create slideshows,
• Collections – applied in the case of mobile devices. The items are displayed in full screen mode,
• Instant Experience – this a mobile landing page opened as a result of the recipient’s reaction to the advertisement (applies to an individual image/video/slideshow and collection). It’s displayed directly on Facebook.

For the time being Facebook allows using both vertical and square advertisements, therefore, it’s worth taking advantage of this solution.

It’s a good idea to create a few (3-5) advertisements within one set, just as in Google Ads. Advertisements are rotated on the same principle by optimizing impressions for the most effective ones.

Before you publish advertisements, make sure that they look well on mobile devices. Most people scroll Facebook on their phones, therefore, your ad is displayed in a much smaller format than on a computer or laptop screen. Remember to include your company logo and keywords or motto of the campaign. Thanks to it, you’ll inform your target group that this particular project is an advertisement and although it may decrease traffic to your website, it’ll be more valuable as it won’t mislead those users who expect to find there an article, not an offer.

Targeting ads

Target your advertisements based on demographics, location and remarketing. Try to reach those users who interacted with your website, advertisement, application or fanpage.

• Demographics will enable you to determine the language your target recipient speaks. Thanks to it, you’ll find out whether your projects should use slang, jokes or maybe more official language.
• Mentioning location will certainly draw the attention of people living in a given area. This way, you inform recipients that the offer is available right next to them.
• Finally, remarketing will remind recipients about your brand and encourage them to buy or visit your website again. Moreover, advertisements can be used to convince recipients that buying the product was the right choice. Give them a sense of belonging to an elite group of customers or suggest that they can become brand ambassadors.

Ads placements

Use different sets of advertisements for different placements as they’re characterized by various guidelines for the graphics dimensions. If you decide to publish the same graphics in several placements, it’ll certainly be cut to size in some places. However, if you don’t have a sufficient budget at your disposal, you can use images that will work well in any placement.

Next, you need to consider where your recipients spend most of their time and how they use social media. You need to find out whether they solely scroll Facebook feed or whether they interact in a different way. Do they have the app or do they simply use Messenger without having a Facebook account? Or maybe your recipients prefer to check Instagram after work? Find out where your potential customers are and wait for them there.

Ad Images

The applied images should be attractive and eye-catching. Use graphic visualizations of data, photos presenting people (especially their faces) which express emotions and subconsciously increase the recipients’ feeling of empathy or need to interact.

It’s perfect when images support the content. If you advertise a dog beauty salon, include a photo of a stylish maltese. A photo showing a fit man or woman will encourage recipients to work out with a personal trainer and to take advantage of the services on your offer. Let the photo be the result of buying your products or services.

The text should take up maximally 20% of the image. And these are both aesthetic reasons as well as restrictions imposed by the portal itself. Breaking the rule may result either in your advertisement not being displayed at all or in reaching a smaller group of recipients.

To conclude, the less text in the image, the lower the cost of advertising and the wider the range. Of course, there are exceptions that prove the rule and you can learn more from Facebook Business Help Center.

The industry vs. Facebook Ads

When it comes to e-commerce, collections and product catalogues will be the most effective.

If you run B2B business which specializes in complex products such as start-ups, IT industry or niche sectors, it’s a good idea to use videos that will outline assets of the offer, recommendations and potential benefits for the users.

If you wish to present your products from different angles, it’s advisable to create a slideshow. This way you can demonstrate your developing projects or engage potential customers in the health, beauty or fashion sectors.

In certain industries, the so-called social proof is a very valuable element of the advertising campaign. This phenomenon consists of a father figure (a doctor, professor, scientist, celebrity) recommending a given product or brand. A recipient who respects the expertise of such a father figure is much more likely to check the offer or make a purchase. In this situation you can refer to:

• popular institutions,
• brands,
• experts,
• professors and scientists,
• celebrities,
• statistics (number of users, results, achievements, case studies),
• obtained certifications,
• references in trade magazines,
• honors and awards.

The content of advertisements in Facebook Ads

Now we’re going to share with you a few pieces of information that will certainly help you create more valuable content.

Facebook Ads consist of:

• graphics, photos, videos,
• the heading under them (in the form of a bar under the graphics),
• the main text displayed above the graphics, photos or videos,
• the text on the graphics,
• a description of the link placed under the heading in the news feed (it depends on the type of the placement whether it’s displayed),
• a call to action button.

The call to action button suggests recipients what further steps they should take after seeing the advertisement. At the same time, it shows what will happen if they click the button. You can encourage users to make a purchase (“buy now”), sign up for a newsletter (“subscribe now”) or download an ebook (“download for free”).

It’s worth taking into consideration various ad formats when creating content. Write longer and shorter texts to compare which of them are more effective. Try using ads with and without emoticons, different graphic variants or ways of communication such as addressing your recipients directly or impersonally. However, remember that all these solutions shouldn’t be tested at the same time because then you won’t be able to tell which of them turned out to be the most effective. Instead, implement only one change within one A/B test.

Eye-catching text elements

• Content tailored to the recipient

Let’s start from the way you communicate with your recipients. Address them directly to increase their engagement, draw the attention to the subject or initiate dialogue. Of course you can always try the impersonal method of communication to see which one works best for you.

It’s very common to address the whole target group at the beginning of the sentence:

“Students! 20% discount on education books until Sunday”

“Marketers! Discover 10 innovations in social media in 2020”.

• Emoticons

Facebook eagerly uses emoticons. Incorporate them in your texts to draw the recipients’ attention to the elements you want to highlight. In this case, you can use them in several ways such as:

• referring to the content of the advertisement (e.g. when writing about ecological aspects, use the emoticon of a tree or a leaf),
• highlighting the first sentence of the main text to attract users’ attention,
• highlighting the heading (meaning the content under the video or graphics),
• highlighting bullet points and links (arrows will be perfect here).

Remember to find a happy medium. Very often you can encounter advertisements with too many emoticons which make the whole message slightly chaotic and consequently can daunt users.

Let’s have the borcas brand as an example – we advertised their desk, Vogel, in the news feed, right column and on the marketplace.

• Highlighting and listing the offer

The topic sentence should include the most important information about your offer. The more text you write, the bigger the chance that Facebook won’t display the whole advertisement. If the content is too long, it’ll be cut in a given place and replaced by three dots. Then, users will need to expand it manually.

Use bullet points. It’ll allow you not only to organize the content and make it user friendly but also to highlight the most relevant pieces of information. This solution is often applied in ads which are supposed to promote agendas of given events or to provide users with assets of downloading e-books.

• Catchy descriptions

Even a short advertisement should include a few paragraphs and each of them should be devoted to a different subject. When advertising a book’s premiere, you should say about it in the first paragraph, then, in the second paragraph, you should mention the author and their publications and finally you ought to provide the date and place where recipients can purchase the book.

Short sentences and understandable vocabulary are also important in advertising. You should respect your recipients and make it easier for them to comprehend the offer. Content which provides only essential pieces of information is much more user-friendly. Remember that people don’t see solely your advertisements, there are many other distractors such as content on the news feed, banners, offers, notifications, messages or other elements.

Keep in mind that Facebook is a social media platform and most of its users communicate in a simple, everyday language, therefore your ads should be tailored to them. Don’t overuse specialized, industry vocabulary. It’ll be much easier to understand and read a short, comprehensible text. Advertising premium offers is the only exception to this rule, in this case, the content and the ad format itself should show that it’s exclusive.

Remember about being specific, you have only a few seconds to convince users to take advantage of your product range. Stir their imagination and let them think about the goods you offer.

1. Talk about specific issues:

“You don’t have enough space to store your pictures?”

“Want to learn more about Facebook Ads campaigns?”

2. … And methods in which your products can solve them:

“Take advantage of the data cloud. All files in one place, even offline.”

“Take part in the Facebook Ads conference and learn:

• how to set campaign budgets,
• what content attracts the recipients’ attention,
• how to reach a business client,
• what’s in store for Facebook Ads.”

3. Use adjectives to quickly stir the recipients’ imagination:

“A flowery dress” instead of “a unique dress”

“Chocolate coffee” instead of “aromatic coffee”

Outline your assets, however, try not to focus exclusively on them. If famous speakers take part in your training sessions, inform about it but don’t expect every user to know their names. On the other hand, if you advertise computer equipment, remember that not everybody is an IT specialist, therefore your offer should also include other advantages of the product.

Underline both functional benefits (those that can be physically checked – e.g. meeting speakers, trying out more disc space for a certain period of time, offering bigger club or gym area) and emotional advantages (those which appeal to emotions: “become a party star”, “sing like Shakira”).