Social Media Marketing 6 min read
16 Apr 2020

10 Facebook Ads Hacks That Work

What's one of the first things you do in the morning?

Besides my usual routine, I check my email and Facebook news feed. Why?

Because most of my friends and family post about their lives on Facebook. I receive updates from my Facebook hobby groups. And of course, the funny memes.

And I'm not the only one who uses Facebook daily. Almost 2 billion users access Facebook every day! There's even a 7% increase each year.

No wonder Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world. It's up to you to use it to the fullest for your eCommerce business!

You see, Facebook advertising is one of the most efficient means of marketing... especially for Shopify eCommerce stores.

However, it can be challenging.

And it’s getting more challenging every day as more advertisers flock to it.

Here are ten key hacks to keep in mind when creating your next Facebook advertising campaign.

10 Effective Facebook Ad Hacks To Fully Utilize In 2022

1. Choose The Right Placement

Correct placement is very critical to the performance of a Facebook ad.

Different Facebook ad placements tend to offer different results. Some are great for making immediate conversions. Others are for identifying target audiences that can be retargeted later.

Here is what I mean.

The desktop newsfeed is great for engagement and immediate conversions. That's because it supports longer copy and link descriptions.

The mobile newsfeed and the Stories feed are great for engagement, too. But their unique, strong point is generating brand discovery and awareness that drives many users to remember the brand message. They can make a conversion (purchase or sign up) the next day on their desktop.

Speaking of ad placement... let's talk about Instagram, Facebook's little sister.

Instagram has an audience that engages pretty well. And although the ad campaigns there are more expensive than on Facebook, their generally high performance is worth considering.

Another Facebook ad hack to consider on your next campaign is to...

2. Avoid Sounding Like An Ad

Listen, this may sound counter-intuitive. But the most successful Facebook ads don’t sound like ads, at all.

Newsflash: People don’t like being advertised to. When people feel persuaded, they tend to disengage immediately.

This is particularly true in today’s business environment. Modern-day consumers are more aware than ever of the lengths that brands are willing to go to make them see and respond to advertising.

Ultimately, people tend to dislike ad campaigns since it leads to ad fatigue.

So, your Facebook ad should get the right audience to engage with your brand without interrupting their interest.

What you can do is use action verbs such as “Get”, "Create", “Learn” and “Try” and avoid exaggerating words such as “Best”, “Top” and “#1”.

(source)

Another Facebook ad hack to keep in mind is to...

3. Grab People’s Attention With Scarcity And Urgency

One way or another, you must have felt the FOMO. Especially during the pandemic.

What is FOMO?

It stands for Fear Of Missing Out. And it is innate to us as human beings.

No one wants to let an opportunity that others grabbed slip through their fingers! It makes us feel like we’re falling behind the rest.

Here's the kicker... you can use FOMO to leverage your Facebook ad campaign.

There are various phrases that you can use in your ad copy. That includes both your headlines and body texts.

You can induce scarcity and urgency with phrases such as: “limited time only”, “offer ends at midnight”, “last chance”, and “hurry!”

(source)

Your Facebook campaigns should...

4. Offer Irresistible Value

This ties in with my previous point. You have to promote something that people actually want.

The best way to target people to try or buy the products from your Shopify store is to create an exciting value offer. Then, pair it with a limited inventory and/or limited-time offer to induce scarcity and urgency.

Your Facebook ad messages should clearly communicate:

Why anyone should bother clicking your ad and claiming your offer.
What benefits do they stand to gain by buying your product or signing up as a subscriber?
Why they should choose your product over those of your competitors.

Most of the time, a user's news feed is filled with Facebook advertisers. So, your Facebook ad should...

5. Stand Out From The Crowd

As mentioned earlier, more and more advertisers are flocking to Facebook newsfeed every year.

This is why you design your ad to stand out from the crowd:

The top two ways to go about this are:

Write A Magnetic Facebook Ad Headline

The headline is the most important part of your Facebook ad. It’s what people see first, after all.

Plus, most only read the headline before sharing something on Facebook.

This is why headline text greatly influences the click-through rate and the cost-per-click of your advertising efforts. Your headlines should:

Always be clear and precise.
Use action verbs such as “Get”, “Learn” and “Try”.
Highlight the benefits your product has to offer your new audience.

You should also incorporate emojis ‎???❤️? and [BRACKETS LIKE THIS] to make your Facebook ad headline stand out. Make use of these as Facebook doesn’t allow you to bold, underline or italicize.

However, you should sparingly use these two. Use it only if appropriate for your Facebook audience and the particular message in that specific Facebook ad.

Your Facebook ad formats also matter. So...

Make Sure Your Ad Pops With Color

The last thing you want is your Facebook ad looking just like everything else on Facebook.

High-quality, high-contrast images with strong colors are great for standing out from other ads and posts in the feed.

Color is also a very strong influence on our product choices. This is why you should harness the psychology of color to appeal to different audiences.

For example, older people like blue, purple, and green. Younger people are more into yellow, red, and orange.

You should also ensure that your choice of ad color scheme matches the layout and look of the Shopify ecommerce store that you’re advertising.

You have to maintain brand consistency as the viewer moves from Facebook to your website.

This is where a sleek Shopify theme like Debutify comes in pretty handy. ?

The next Facebook ad hack can get your target audience's attention...

6. Harness The Power Of Storytelling

Storytelling is an extremely powerful marketing tool. It can deliver exceptional results across all kinds of advertising media. And Facebook ads are no exception.

Let me tell you why stories work so well.

It's because they appeal to your audience's emotional side. This type of Facebook ad also compliments their logical side that responds to the value offer.

Plus, they give the viewer a distinct memory to grasp onto. And this is key for creating brand discovery and awareness.

The ad formats you choose can help you create a winning ad.

For a Facebook ad, a video ad is unsurprisingly one of the best formats for storytelling.

But, you can also tell a story with a single image. As long as you set the right scene and accompany it with the right description.

Carousel ads are great for storytelling. With this ad delivery, you can set a different scene with each slide. The key is to make the first slide so good people can’t help wanting to see more.

Also, keep your story consistent across all the slides. Have a clear CTA at the end (once again, action verbs such as “Get”, “Learn” and “Try”).

You can create fresh content for your custom audience with the next Facebook ad hack...

7. Tap Into The Potential Of Video Ads

Video is not only great for storytelling. It also naturally stands out in a user's news feed.

And in May 2019, Facebook announced that the news feed will increasingly surface quality, original videos.

One thing to keep in mind is that video marketing can increase your ad spend. Video costs more to produce than still images.

Here's a great Facebook ad tip to use to ensure that you always get a high ROI on your video budget: Convert proven blog content into a video ad!

On your new campaign, you can adapt the blog post that drove most of the traffic each month into a short video. Even just as an animated slideshow, it can be a great way to repackage top content for the best Facebook ad.

Always include captions. 85 percent of Facebook videos are watched without sound.

Facebook also reports that captioned video ads have a 12% higher average view time than videos with none.

Also, remember to keep the video as short as possible. Keep it under 30 seconds.

It should also have a magnetic headline and great background music. If you use a video narrator, they should match your brand voice.

Running Facebook ads means you need to...

8. Leverage Social Proof

How do you target people who have never heard of your brand before?

You need to leverage social proof. Or else, your audience will simply ignore you for failing to trust your message.

You can do this with the following Facebook ad hacks...

User numbers and client logos are some of the most effective forms of social proof you can include in your Facebook ad.

However, nothing moves a cold audience like testimonials from previous clients... especially high-profile ones.

This is where video comes in handy yet again.

Your prospective customers see other customers talking about how much they enjoy your product. Maybe they even see people they respect and aspire to be, raving about how you helped them achieve something.

You can see how video is one of the most powerful motivations for your customers to purchase on their own.

One of the top Facebook ad hacks I can reveal to you is...

9. Always Be A/B Split Testing

The best practices for running a Facebook ad campaign are always changing.

A color scheme that worked great last year may not perform so well this year. And the only way you can keep up is by A/B split testing all the time.

No matter what your level of expertise is or how long you’ve been advertising on Facebook... you should always run several slightly different variations of the same ads from previous campaigns.

When you do, you can find out what works and what doesn’t.

A solid place to start is with three images and three copies. This creates nine possible ad variations to test against each other. Test the variations until you zero in on the most optimal image/copy combo.

You can also use A/B split testing for other features like headlines, audiences, placements, and buttons.

Lastly, your Facebook ad can get more leads when you...

10. Track The Competition

Tracke The Competition

The competition for Facebook Ads is stiffer than ever.

So it’s important to keep up with what the rest are doing – not to copy their ads but to borrow inspiration and tips.

The best way to go about this is to use a spy tool for Facebook Ads.

BigSpy is a great, completely free choice for spying on Facebook Ads. It supports filtering search by country, keyword, CTA, time, type of advertisement, industry, etc. It also checks ads on other social networks, such as Twitter, AdMob, Pinterest, Instagram, and Yahoo.

And these are the Facebook ad hacks you can use for your Facebook pages!

Here’s a quick recap of all the 10 Facebook Ads hacks mentioned in this post: