How to Create Facebook Ads That Convert

Facebook is the most popular (75%) social channel for marketers to post videos — and for good reason. Facebook ads help to raise awareness, engage your audience, and build trust with potential customers. Not to mention that the average Facebook Ad conversion rate across all industries (9.21%) is more than double Google’s average search conversion rate (4.40%). In fact, Facebook video content has the highest ROI of all social platforms after YouTube. 

With this in mind, and the fact that mobile video consumption increases 100% every year, it is no surprise that more and more businesses are keen to step up their Facebook ads.

This all being said, it’s not always to create Facebook ads that convert. After all, the ultimate goal of a successful Facebook Ad campaign is to attract new customers and increase sales. Not to fear: our expert guide will help you to create ads that look good, perform well, and convert. Join the 60% of businesses who use video as a marketing tool, and the 94% of marketers who plan to continue doing so, with our help.

To create Facebook ads that convert,

1. Set clear campaign goals. 
2. Choose a target audience. 
3. Plan and execute video ad creative. 
4. Meet Facebook ad requirements. 
5. Ensure you have high-converting landing pages. 
6. Track and evaluate your campaigns. 

1. Set Clear Campaign Goals 

First things first, decide on the purpose of the ad. Do you want to increase conversions or brand awareness? Website clicks or enquiry rates? Do you want to attract new or re-engage old customers? Once you’ve decided this, you can choose your KPIs in the conversion, engagement and audience reach categories.

2. Choose a Target Audience

One of the benefits of a Facebook video ad campaign is that you can target a specific group of people. In particular, a group of people who would find your ads relevant, and who are genuinely interested in your products or service. Determine who this is first, with your campaign goals kept in mind. 

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You can then build a custom audience to target. You can create a Custom Audience from your website for any group of visitors that you'd like to reach with targeted Facebook ads. Or, you can help your ads find the people who will love your business through defining an audience based on criteria such as age, interests, location and more. You can even get back in touch with people who have engaged with your business, online or off, or reach new people whose interests are similar to those of your best customers. Reaching relevant people will drive a much higher CTR.

3. Plan and Execute Video Ad Creative

Now you’ve set goals and determined a target audience, it’s time to plan and execute an attractive and engaging video ad campaign. Video ads will look different for everyone but it should, at the very least, be relevant, high-quality, and engaging content. 

We would also recommend that you include music, voiceovers and captions where suitable — without much other text. As per Biteable's statistics, 81% of marketers say their videos perform better with music; 66% of marketers say their videos perform better with a voiceover; 64% of marketers say their videos perform better with captions; and 78% of marketers say their videos perform better with less text.

We’d always recommend that you outsource to an Ecommerce Ad Service if you don’t feel 100% confident: you’ll get a much higher success rate and ROI when you work with the experts. 

4. Meet Facebook Ad Requirements

This one might be obvious but, in order to create a Facebook ad that converts, you need an ad that Facebook will run. Once you’ve created your video ad, you need to make sure it meets all Facebook ad requirements. 

As per Facebook’s ad guidelines, your design should be: 

• File type: MP4, MOV or GIF.
• Ratio: 1:1 (for desktop or mobile) or 4:5 (for mobile only).
• Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan and stereo AAC audio compression at 128 kbps+.
• Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels.
• Video duration: 1 second to 241 minutes.
• Maximum file size: 4 GB.
• Minimum width: 120 pixels.
• Minimum height: 120 pixels.

5. Ensure You Have High-Converting Landing Pages

Stepping back from the actual ad for a moment, you need to make sure that when a potential customer clicks on your ad, your website will also convert. It should be clear, accessible and simple for your user to purchase or enquire about your service.

6. Track and Evaluate Your Campaigns

The work doesn’t end once the ad is live. Keep an eye on your campaigns and evaluate them to determine their performance over time. As we set out in our post on The Benefits of Facebook Video Ads, you will struggle to find analytics as good and thorough as on Facebook. Advertisers can track conversion and engagement metrics which can help you make informed decisions about budget allocation and the wider campaign, including when and where to run your campaign. 

We know that most marketers post their video content to social platforms in the afternoon (34%), but perhaps your insights tell you that posting in the evening (with 25% of marketers) would be more effective to target your audience. 

Need Proof? We’ve Got It! Our Facebook Ad Case Studies

#1 Wild

Wild partnered with Aura Ads to support the release of new products with beautiful direct response video, and to help unlock ad spend to further revenue growth. As a result of creating engaging ad creative, Wild saw a 20% reduction in CPA, a 10% conversion rate and a 8:1 return on investment. 

#2 Huel 

Huel partnered with Aura Ads to accelerate performance creative* production and drive better performance on paid social with direct response video ads. As a result, Huel saw a 10:1 return on investment, a 34% higher click through rate, and 50m global views. 

* Performance creative is like the intersection between campaigns that are driven by KPIs/ROI and campaigns that are driven by innovation and creativity. It is hyper-focused on the end results, typically the call-to-action that your ad supplies for audiences.

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We are Aura Ads, a unique performance creative agency designed for D2C eCommerce brands. We help clients sell more online and grow at scale with our bespoke video and static creative delivered on a monthly basis.