Facebook Ads are incredibly versatile and can help you grow your brand presence online. Find success with Facebook Ads with these 5 steps.

With over 1 billion active users, Facebook is undoubtedly the largest network of individuals in the world. To put this in perspective, everyone (and their dog!) is on Facebook, meaning your prospective clients are on Facebook too. It’s impossible to reach everyone, but with Facebook Ads, you can reach significantly more individuals and more importantly, you can use targeting to reach the right individuals. If you’re just starting out, here’s what you need to know to find success with Facebook Ads.

1. Use captivating images, ad text & CTA

Your Facebook ad’s image has a significant impact on the user’s first impression and whether or not their attention will be drawn to the ad in the first place. Use clear images with the exact dimension of 100×72 so your image takes up all of the allotted space. You only have 90 characters to explain your ad, so make it count! Let the user know what you want them to do by including a clear call-to-action.

2. Know Your Audience & Target Accordingly

Facebook has great targeting options, allowing advertisers to get selective with their ad targeting. You can really drill-down at a granular level to target based on location, age, gender, education level, and interests. Ask yourself, which users are most likely to be interested in your products and services? By selecting targeting that conveys the demographics and interests of your target market, your ads will be more cost-effective by reducing the number of unqualified clicks.

3. Separate Ad Groups for Best Performance

Separating ad groups not only reduces the chance for competition between ads but also makes it much easier to A/B test ads and understand their performance. You definitely want to separate ads based on type, for example, keep sponsored stories, promoted posts and traditional ads separate. Currently, when you create a traditional Facebook ad, the platform automatically creates a sponsored story along with it. Remove the sponsored story when you create a new ad to ensure they remain separated.

4. A/B Test Your Ad Variations

By separating ads into different groups, you will be able to more effectively test what works and what doesn’t. When creating traditional ads, try to make several variations of the ad by altering only one element, like the image for instance. When you create a campaign with 5 ads, all with the same ad copy but different images, you will be able to more accurately tell which image is more effective. Create another campaign in which you test copy across multiple ads, but keep the image the same. You can create and test as many campaigns as you want simultaneously and don’t be afraid to get creative!

5. Monitor Your Stats

The Facebook ad platform gives you plenty of data to track your ads’ performance. From your ad dashboard, you can determine click-through-rate, cost-per-click, page likes, total spend and more. Statistics like cost-per-click and click-through-rate will vary per company and industry, but after running your ads for a while, you will be able to determine a standard for these metrics. Once you have established a standard, you will have a benchmark to improve upon. Your goal while testing ads, ultimately, is to reduce cost-per-click and increase click-through-rate. If your goal is page likes, you will also find it beneficial to review the conversion rate which you can find by dividing clicks by page likes transparent and focus on improving that metric through better ad copy and images.

Facebook Ads are a great way to increase your brand’s exposure and reach your target market on the world’s largest social network, plus, it’s easy to use if you follow these 5 Facebook advertising tips. For a free social media consultation and more information on Facebook advertising and marketing, feel free to reach out to us.

Submitted by Erica Machin, Titan Growth

Boost your Adwords click-through rates and help improve your Quality Score with these 5 tips.

Pay-Per-Click advertising with AdWords can be a great way to generate more traffic for your website and gain more exposure for your brand. Whether you are using AdWords currently, or are just getting started, here is your 5-step checklist to help produce better click-through rates and ensure better results.

1. Do you have a call-to-action? 

Understandably, 70 characters for a description doesn’t leave you with a whole lot to work with, but don’t skimp on the CTA! Using a call-to-action makes it clear what you want your audience to do and can help to increase the number of click-throughs. The caveat is that your call-to-action cannot contain the word ‘click’ since it is against AdWords ad guidelines, but CTA’s like ‘contact us’ and ‘call today’ can be just as effective.

2. Is your ad copy compelling & easy to digest?

While it is not a simple task to be compelling with only 70 characters, it’s important to create ad copy that is clear, relevant and offers something of value. Do a little competitive research by searching for keywords that you want to go after and checking out your competition’s ad copy. What sort of wording are they using? Do they feature offers? Use their ads to come up with competitive ideas for your ad copy, whether it’s offering something of value like a free download, consultation or discount or just making your ad copy more interesting to read.

3. Are you using the Dynamic Keyword Insertion tool?

The Dynamic Keyword Insertion tool is too simple not to utilize and too beneficial to overlook. By adding a small tag in your text-based ad, you’ll be able to deliver more specific and relevant ads to searchers. How it works is when a user searches for any of the keywords you are bidding on, it will trigger the Keyword Insertion Tool to automatically insert that keyword into your ad or headline (Wherever you place the tag) as long as the keyword falls within the character limits. Whenever the triggered keyword is too long, the default keyword that you specify in the tag will be used instead. This tool is very effective because it shows the searcher the exact keyword they were looking for, plus, the keyword is also bolded; both of which help to increase click-through rates. If you do decide to use the Dynamic Keyword Insertion tool, just make sure that all of the keywords you bid on make sense if they are inserted into the ad.

Here’s an example of an ad utilizing the DKI tool, click here for additional details on how to set it up.

4. Are you leveraging ad extensions?

Ad extensions grant you the ability to provide more information in your ads, such as a phone number, a rating, an address, or social media engagements. Extensions help to enhance your ads to offer users a richer experience and more opportunities to connect with your company. Plus, ad extensions can be added at no additional cost and you are only charged based on ad and extension clicks, so to not use extensions could be a missed opportunity. The additional information and ad real estate you get from extensions can be a simple way to help elevate your click-through rate.

5. Do you have site links enabled?

While site links are technically a type of ad extension, they have some unique qualities that the other extensions don’t. For example, site links are the only extension that you can use simultaneously with other extensions. This allows you to use them with every ad without interfering with other features. The reason that site links are so beneficial is that they provide additional links to your web pages that users can click through to, and have been known to increase click-through rates by 30% on average. However, just because you have site links enabled doesn’t mean they will necessarily be shown in your ad every time. A combination of factors like Quality Score, ad position, and ad relevancy will ultimately determine if site links will be shown or not, but it’s always good practice to have them added regardless.

Higher click-through rates not only help draw more traffic to your website, but they also help to improve your overall Quality Score, which can help your ads achieve better placements at lower costs. This checklist is a great starting point to help you begin to improve your click-through rates and take advantage of the benefits. Using a Google certified PPC agency can help you reach your full potential on AdWords. For more information on how to improve your AdWords strategy or better leverage PPC, please contact us.

Submitted by Erica Machin, Titan Growth

Since the Google Local Carousel was launched in June, it has impacted the way users view and interact with local listings. What used to be the coveted 7-pack, has been replaced by the sleek look of the carousel for specific verticals like restaurants, hotels and local businesses.

There’s no doubt that the carousel is a prime real estate for brands wanting to promote their listing to individuals searching for their offerings.  So how can brands capitalize on the carousel?

1. Google Local Listing

It’s fair to say that local listings should be an important priority for any local business. It helps to get your business on the map (literally) and is also the first step to being considered for carousel placement. If you haven’t already, set up a Google Local listing for your business.

2. Reviews

A recent study published by Digital Marketing Works has found a high correlation between Google reviews and carousel placement. Both the number of reviews, as well as rating seemed to have an impact on whether or not a brand received a placement. So for brands that want to ride the carousel, quality and quantity of reviews can be a determining factor.

3. Local SEO

Local search is very competitive and high rankings can be the difference between your business making a sale, or your competitor’s business. Local SEO is location specific and can help local companies achieve higher rankings in search when it matters most.
If you are a local business and would like to rank better in local search or have any questions about Google Carousel, please contact us in the form below. We would be happy to help!

Submitted by Erica Machin, Titan Growth