5 Tips to Optimize Your Facebook Ads

By Jill Kurtz, Owner, Kurtz Digital StrategyWhile I believe that true relationship building comes from organic social media strategies, there are exceptions. Since Facebook started heavily manipulating who sees your posts, you just about have to pay for some Facebook ads to get good reach on your messages there.Since you likely don’t have the resources to hire an ad agency to support your efforts, I offer five tips to help you optimize your effort like a pro.1. Target to the right audience. You will get a positive reaction if your ad is relevant to the people who see it. Facebook offers a ton of parameters to help you narrow the focus of your ad audience to the people who you want to reach. Take the time to carefully target your ads based on interests.2. Be brand consistent with text and images. The text and images that you use in your Facebook ads need to be highly consistent with your overall brand messaging. All of your organic and paid outreach needs to be consistent so that there is no doubt about who you are, no matter how someone finds you.3. Include a call to action. Your ad must contain a clear call to action. Asking a user for a specific action will increase your click-through rate. Ask the user to learn more or sign up for something.4. Develop a specific page for each ad’s call to action. The message starts in your ad, but the impact really happens when the user clicks on your call to action. That click should take the person to a page that is custom to your ad program. The messaging needs to be an extension of the ad. Sending them to a generic page that does not have the same exact focus of the ad is confusing at best and alienating at worst. Your conversions will tank.5. Have a strategy. To get maximum impact for your advertising you need a strategy. Define the message, call to action, and image that is best for the ad target. Define the dates and times that are most effective for your audience and schedule appropriately. Review metrics to learn what works and what doesn’t and revise your next wave of ads appropriately. Facebook’s advertising tool allows you to easily duplicate ads and make slight tweaks.[author]About the Author: Jill Kurtz founded Kurtz Digital Strategy to help clients see the communication potential of the newest trends and technologies. She is an expert at website strategy and redesign, social media planning, and developing exceptional content. [/author]