If you want to avoid using cheesy ads to promote your business on FaceBook, this post will be helpful to you. Last night, I attended the Charlotte SEO & Search Engine Marketing Meetup, a group offering insight into search engine marketing, search engine optimization, pay per click advertising and more.
While there, I met some really cool people, including Nathan Richie, Curt Buthman and Cindy Dupuis-Swigart. I also enjoyed a presentation by Robert Enriquez entitled, “Using Different Facebook Ad Techniques to Drive Targeted Traffic.” If you want to avoid looking like the guy in this picture, on FaceBook, these tips will help you:
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Understand The Interruption. Unlike a Google ad, a FaceBook ad is an interruption. When you advertise on Google, people find you because they are looking for you. When you advertise on FaceBook, people find you because you interrupted their FaceBook experience with your ad. A FaceBook ad campaign must be carefully planned to deliver value so, in the mind of the person clicking on your ad, your interruption was worth their time. And not cheesy, like the guy in the picture.
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Avoid Banner Blindness. Robert emphasized the importance of swapping your ad regularly, not only to test different text and graphics, but also to avoid “banner blindness.” When your ad is delivered to a person multiple times, at some point they simply won't see it anymore. They'll be “blind” to it because their eyes become accustomed to it. Banner blindness can “kill” (Robert's word) a FaceBook ad campaign, so it's worth the effort to make intermittent swaps.
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Make A Fantastic Graphic. While Robert stressed that there's no substitute for your own testing, he shared two things that he says seem to make any FaceBook ad more effective. First, the graphics somehow incorporate colors that mimic FaceBook's own colors. Second, if the graphic includes a person's image, it features him or her looking up and/or away from the main wall of content. This is logical since the title of your ad (which should be attention grabbing, one-line only, and not be cheesy) is placed above the graphic. Additionally, you want your ad to direct visitors's attention away from the main content on the wall and in the direction of your ad — which is away from the main wall content. When the person pictured in the ad is focused upward and away from the wall content, the visitor looking at them is more likely than not to mimic that behavior.
Robert shared tons of other tips, and you can access all of them by joining the Charlotte SEO & Search Engine Marketing Meetup. If you're not in the area, you can connect with Robert on Twitter or connect with him through is blog. Robert also shares office space with me, so if you're in Charlotte, you'll find him there sometimes too.
Question: Have you ever placed a FaceBook ad? What did you learn that you can share? What do you think of Robert's tips?
