HTE Brings You Go-To Facebook Ad Cheat Sheet for Success 🚀

July 11, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 13 minutes

Are you frustrated with the constant financial drain caused by Facebook Ads? 😫💸

Countless advertisers, much like yourself, engage in a daily cycle of launching new ad campaigns, desperately seeking that one winning shot. They tirelessly experiment with various demographics and interests, cycle through many images, and fine-tune their copy repeatedly.

Yet, despite their efforts, profitability remains elusive. It's as if they're continuously throwing their hard-earned money into the hands of Facebook with nothing to show for it. 🤷‍♂️

Do you know what a real bummer is? Putting in all that effort and still not cracking the code for a successful Facebook ad. I feel your frustration, my friend.

Hold on tight because I've got some exciting news for you. You can create your first successful ad today with clever tweaks and adjustments. Yes, TODAY!

No more endless disappointment and wasted bucks. It's time to see some serious results and leave that frustration behind. So, why waste another moment? Let's dig in and uncover the secrets that will make your ad shine like never before.

Facebook Ad Objectives

The objective you choose for your Facebook ad determines the goals you want to prioritize and the actions you want users to take. It also affects the specific action you can optimize for in the bidding section. Here are the available Facebook ad objectives:

  1. Brand awareness: This objective focuses on increasing the reach of your ad to introduce your brand to new audiences or build more awareness among those already familiar with your brand. You can optimize for ad recall lift, and you'll be charged for impressions.

  2. Reach: With the reach objective, your ad will be seen by as many people in your target audience as your budget allows. This objective is best suited for large audiences. You can prioritize impressions (total views) or reach (unique views), but it's recommended to choose reach in most cases. You'll be charged for impressions regardless of your choice.

  3. Traffic: The traffic objective prioritizes clicks to your website or a specific landing page. You can optimize for landing page views, link clicks, impressions, or daily unique reach. Your optimization choice will determine whether you're charged per click or per impression.

  4. Engagement: This objective focuses on driving on-platform actions such as likes, comments, shares, or event responses. Messenger placements are not available for this campaign type. You can optimize for impressions, post engagements, or daily unique reach and pay based on impressions.

  5. App installs: If you want to increase installs of your mobile app, this objective is suitable. You can optimize for app installs, retention, link clicks, events, and 10-second video views. The retention option targets people more likely to open the app on the second or seventh day after installing it, making them a valuable audience. You'll be charged for impressions, 10-second video views, or link clicks based on your optimization choice.

  6. Video views: With the video views objective, your ads will be shown to viewers who will most likely watch your videos. You can optimize for different length views, such as 15 seconds or less, 10-second views, or 2-second views. You'll be charged for impressions or 10-second video views.

  7. Lead generation: This objective is designed to show users lead generation ads and optimize for having your lead forms filled out and submitted. You can optimize for leads and pay accordingly. Messenger and audience placements are not available for this objective.

  8. Messages: The message’s objective aims to get users to contact you by encouraging them to message you through Messenger or WhatsApp. Audience networks and right-column ads cannot be used for this objective. You can optimize for replies and pay based on impressions.

  9. Conversions: If your priority is conversions, such as lead sign-ups, event registrations, or purchases, this objective is suitable. You can optimize for the desired action by setting up the conversion pixel. If you optimize for conversions, you'll be charged for impressions.

  10. Catalog sales: This objective utilizes your on-platform catalogs to sell more to your target audience, showing relevant ads to every user in your audience. You can retarget or show ads to new prospective customers. Optimization options include link clicks, conversion events, or impressions.

  11. Store traffic: If you want to drive users to your physical store, the traffic objective is appropriate. You can add map cards to carousel ads, and the recommended option is "store visit optimization."

Audience Targeting:

When running ad campaigns on Facebook, audience targeting plays a crucial role, and you have various options. Here are the key options you need to know:

  1. Location: Target users based on their country, zip code, city, or region—whether they live there or have recently visited.

  2. Age: Set a custom age range to target users within a specific age group.

  3. Gender: Target all genders or focus exclusively on men or women.

  4. Language: Show ads to users based on the languages they speak.

  5. Demographics, Interests, and Behaviors: This section, called "detailed targeting," allows you to target people based on various factors such as their parental status, homeownership, interests (e.g., vegan food), or professional fields (e.g., B2B).

  6. Exclusionary Targeting: Ensure that certain individuals who belong to your target audience do not see your ad. This can be useful if they already like your Page, for example.

Custom Audience Options:

Custom audiences enable you to target more specific users based on their relationship with your site. You can create these audiences using email lists, on-platform actions, in-app events, or on-site tracking. Here are the options available:

  1. Website Traffic: Retarget users based on their activity on your website, including specific page views or actions like adding products to a cart.

  2. App Activity: Target users who have opened your app within a specific time frame or performed certain actions within the app.

  3. Customer Files: Use customer information, such as email addresses, to target specific users through Facebook Ads. This could include an email list obtained after users made a purchase.

  4. Offline Activity: Target users who have interacted with your business in-store or over the phone. To use this option, you need to set up offline events.

  5. Video: Retarget users based on their on-platform video views, reaching out to them based on how long they watched your videos.

  6. Instagram Business Profile: Connect with users who have interacted with your Instagram business profile or engaged with your Instagram Ads.

  7. Lead Form: Show new ads to users who have taken some action with your lead form, even if they only opened it without completing it.

  8. Events: Retarget people who attended, engaged with, or expressed interest in your on-platform events.

  9. Facebook Page: Create an audience based on users who interacted with your Page in specific ways.

  10. Instant Experiences: Connect with users who opened, clicked, or interacted with your Instant Experience Ads.

  11. Lookalike Audiences: Create an audience that resembles your custom audiences. This is an effective way to reach new, similar audiences based on your high-value customers.

Placement Options:

Placements determine where your ads appear; certain placements may have specific limitations. You can also target users based on their devices, such as desktop or mobile. Here are the available placement options:

  1. Facebook Feeds: Ads appear in users' Facebook feeds, making this a popular and flexible option.

  2. Instant Articles: Ads are displayed within the instant article format, providing additional information about the articles.

  3. In-Stream Videos: Video ads can be inserted into high-quality content, interrupting users who are watching other videos.

  4. Right Column Ads: Ads appear in the right column of Facebook's desktop newsfeed.

  5. Suggested Videos: This placement is available on Facebook and the Audience Network, suggesting your video to users after watching another video.

  6. Marketplace: Show your ad to users browsing through Facebook's marketplace, targeting users already in a purchasing mindset.

  7. Stories: Stories are available on Facebook, Facebook's inbox, and Instagram. You can display vertical images or short vertical videos (up to 15 seconds) with a clickable link.

  8. Instagram Feeds: Ads appear in users' main Instagram feeds, benefiting from higher-than-average engagement and click-through rates.

  9. Audience Network Ads: These ads are displayed in apps within Facebook's network, allowing your ads to reach beyond Facebook. They typically have a lower-than-average cost-per-click (CPC). Note that lead generation objectives cannot use the audience network.

  10. Messenger Inbox Ads: Your ad appears in Messenger, but not as a message users must open. This option is unavailable for the Engagement or Lead Generation objectives.

  11. Sponsored Messages: This option, available only with the "Messages" objective, sends users your ad within a Messenger message.

Facebook Ad Image & Video Guidelines:

When creating ad images and videos for Facebook, following their guidelines regarding size, file types, and other specifications is important. Here's what you need to know:

  1. Ad Sizes: For most placements, you can use 1200 x 628 pixels or square 1080 x 1080 pixels ads.

  2. Carousel Ads: If you're creating carousel ads, the images and videos should be in a 1:1 square format, with the recommended size of 1080 x 1080 pixels.

  3. File Types: It is recommended to use. JPG files for images and. MOV or .MP4 files for videos.

  4. Video File Size: The maximum allowed video file size is 4GB.

  5. Vertical Video: It is recommended to use vertical video, which uses 4:5 or 2:3 aspect ratios. This format is more suitable for mobile viewing.

  6. Image File Size: The maximum size for image files is 30MB.

  7. Duration: Stories cannot be longer than 15 seconds. However, Facebook video ads can be as long as 240 minutes.

  8. Text in Images and Thumbnails: It's important to remember that images and video thumbnails with more than 20% text may be penalized in the ad system, particularly in reach. To ensure compliance, you can use Facebook's Text Overlay Tool to check the text percentage in your images.

By adhering to these guidelines, you can create ad visuals that meet Facebook's requirements and effectively engage your target audience.

Feed video ads

Burger King recently released a new video ad for Facebook. The ad is designed to be displayed between content from friends, family, groups, and pages on the newsfeed. Here are the specifications for the video ad:

Source:

  • File type: MP4, MOV, or GIF

Resolution:

  • Minimum width: 120 pixels

  • Minimum height: 120 pixels

  • Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels

Video Ratio:

  • 4:5 for mobile-only

  • 1:1 for desktop or mobile

File Size:

  • Maximum file size: 4GB

Duration:

  • Minimum duration: 1 second

  • Maximum duration: 241 minutes

Burger King may consider creating instant article video ads. When users open articles in-app, these ads are displayed within an optimized reading experience. Unlike regular Facebook video ads, instant article video ads do not support captions, but sound is optional.

It seems that Burger King wants to maintain a fun and creative tone in their ad campaign.

Facebook Ad Formats:

The choice of Facebook ad format can significantly impact how users perceive and engage with your ad, ultimately influencing the performance of your campaign. Here are the current ad format options available:

  1. Single Image or Video Ads: With this format, you can select a compelling single image or video to showcase in your ad. It is generally recommended to use images with dimensions of 1200×628 pixels or adhere to a 16:9 aspect ratio.

  2. Carousel Ads: Carousel ads have generated higher engagement and click-through rates. They allow you to feature two to ten square 1:1 images and video slides. Users can swipe or scroll through the carousel to view the different slides.

  3. Collection Ads: This format enables you to highlight multiple products within a single ad. Users who click on the ad are presented with a larger product catalog, providing them with more information and encouraging potential purchases.

  4. Instant Experiences Ads: Formerly known as "Canvas Ads," this format offers users a captivating full-screen mobile experience. They can scroll through the content and interact with the immersive elements, creating an engaging and interactive ad experience.

Facebook Ads cheat sheet that covers everything you need to consider when planning your campaigns. Please keep this information handy and review it before creating new campaigns to ensure you don't miss any important details. Remember to consider what you want to include in your campaigns and what you want to exclude.

Selecting the right ad format that aligns with your campaign goals and creative assets can capture users' attention and drive meaningful interactions with your brand.