Category: Social Media

Working in social media marketing, there are so many constantly changing variables to keep track of. For some, this is why they love marketing. For others, this is a point of frustration. Personally, I love the ever-changing landscape that is social media marketing. Daily it feels like there is something new to discover and (inevitably) some new challenge to conquer.

A brand standard is non-negotiable. This is a concrete value or practice within your brand or agency. For example: Daily we show up here at The AD Leaf ® at 8:00 am. This is a company-wide standard. 

A best practice could be the different routes we all take to get here at that set time. One day it may be that I take US 1. A colleague of mine may take a different road depending on traffic. The start of the workday is set. But the way to get to work may change depending on a plethora of variables. This is what the best practice is like.

This changing landscape is something to keep up with as we mentioned above. How do best practices fit within creating Facebook ads? Below are 4 best practices that we perform (at least for now) when creating Facebook ads. Contemplate these for taking your ad strategy to the next level.

#1 Your Facebook ad must be visual.

2020 marketing predictions show that social media is only going to become more…well, social. This means that there are going to be more image-based interactions, especially within branding and product search with areas such as eCommerce. In order for you to keep up with the times, your Facebook ad must be visually compelling. Having a visually engaging Facebook will cause the Facebook algorithm to treat your ad more favorably. Have you heard of the old saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? Unfortunately, the Facebook algorithm (and honestly, the majority of the social media niche) didn’t get this memo. To stand out and be memorable, you have to have a visually compelling image. This will cause Facebook to not only treat your ad more favorably, but your ad will also be more likely remembered and shared across platforms. 

#2 Your Facebook ad must be relevant.

The success of your Facebook ad strategy hinges greatly on not only the visual potency of the ad but also the relevance of the ad. How relevant is the ad with your target audience? This is huge. You wouldn’t want to create an ad for artic snow parkas and marketing it all the way down south in Palm Bay, Florida! Not only that, but you want to place the ad before not only the right audience but the right intentions of your audience. This is critical, as you are spending time and money and need to ensure the ad you are running gets in front of the right people with the right intentions. 

#3 Your Facebook ad must be enticing. 

What makes your ad different than any other? Why should your viewer click on your ad to view more? Why should they visit your website? These are great questions to create a great, enticing ad. You should compose it in a way that is believable. For example, saying something like “Get a free roof today!” isn’t believable to me. I would read that and think it was a scam. But if a company was upfront with me I would trust them more and be more willing to click on their ad. If it read something like this I would definitely stop to find out more: “Did you know that going solar can get you a new roof in the process? Contact us today to learn how this happens at no cost to you!” When I read that, I see how this could be possible, and I don’t feel trapped by the transparency of the ad. 

#4 Your Facebook ad must have a clear call-to-action.

As stated above with the second free roof example, I ended it with “contact us today to learn how!” Your ad needs to cause your viewer to finally do something with your ad. Imagine this process as a link in a chain: each one builds upon one another for a specific and intended outcome. I saw a huge increase in getting leads when I pushed past my personal apprehension to asking the viewer to do something with the ad. When I began saying things like “Go here to get 20% off” or “Click the link below to get a FREE quote” I started seeing great conversion rates. It’s always helpful to create a sense of urgency with your call-to-action. What problem are you solving for the audience? In our scenario, we are providing a service by making it known to new homeowners that they have a way to get a free roof when getting solar panels installed. So what problem are you solving with your clients? Let that be the motivator for creating a great call-to-action.

Great! We hope that these Facebook best practices will help create the links in the chain creating greater conversion rates for your Facebook ads! These are great best practices to help take your Facebook ad strategy to the next level. Looking to take your brand to the next level? We at The AD Leaf ® would love to work with you by creating cutting edge, smart marketing campaigns to help you and your business prosper. Call us today to begin.

Every once in a while, a brand– or in the most recent case, a whole state– will draft and post a social media or standard marketing campaign so poorly thought out you wish you had been in the boardroom when it was approved. Rarely aiming for offense, the brands quickly become social media cannon fodder, apologizes, and the populace moves on to the next blunder. They succeed in that these gaffs get people to talk about the brand, but the effect on their reputation is rarely worth the chatter. Here are five marketing mess-ups to avoid and why they didn’t work.

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Ah, the wonderful world of Instagram. Did you know that June of 2018, Instagram had one billion users scrolling and double-tapping photos for that month alone?

One. Billion. Users.

That is a significant amount of people utilizing the platform. Instagram is different from other platforms such as Facebook in various ways. For example, Instagram is a heavily image-based platform where people and communities gather around images specifically, where other platforms such as Twitter or Facebook are more copy based with many more options to build out a profile. This is one of the more unique things about Instagram versus other accounts is its simplicity. Being largely a photo-based platform connected now with Facebook, along with the rise of 3+ smartphone cameras, we’d say that Instagram isn’t going anywhere soon.

An Instagram bio is something that many users don’t think much about. You have 150 characters and a link to communicate your brand. If you think about it, the bio is the “greeting” of your account. Social media accounts can be and often are extensions to your brand, so how you craft your bio is a reflection of the brand you are wanting to communicate with the one billion users who are scrolling. An Instagram bio is not a separate part of your profile: it is apart of your profile. Your Instagram feed and your Instagram bio are one message; and that message matters. So what are some tips on crafting an Instagram bio like a boss?

• The first rule is that there are no rules when it comes to creating a bio. There are best practices, but as is relevant for all social media, there isn’t one set, hard drawn line in the sand saying that this is the only right way to do something. So we encourage experimentation! Think about your brand. What do you want to communicate? Do you want a lot of information? Remember: you have 150 characters to work with. 
• Let your bio be a call to action. This means using verbs, for example, is a good idea. Think about what the “one thing” you want your brand to communicate, and then craft that for your bio. Then add a call-to-action directing your audience to the link you have there.
• This brings us to the next principle: Make your bio link count. This is important. Let this be an extension of the one message you want to communicate. If you have any links you’d like to direct people to try signing up for a free multi-link account such as Linktree to house the various places you’d like to direct people to.
• Another tip would be to be creative with the layout of your bio. It can be tricky, but adding things like line breaks within your bio can help take it to the next level by creating a list format that is quite popular. But if you’re like us, you’ve bumped into the frustration knowing exactly how to create a different bio layout within the app. To get around this, try logging into your Instagram account through a desktop browser. There, you will be able to add all the line breaks your heart could desire.
• Next, try adding an emoji to your bio to really catch people’s attention! Sometimes this can feel inappropriate, but understanding that the goal of social media and the context of these emoji can be different than traditional business formatting will help you make the jump. Just make sure that if you do use emojis that they are on-brand with your profile and/or business. Some great ways to use emojis for the more professional profiles can be the telephone emoji to add a business number, a laptop emoji to link a website, or a world emoji to indicate that your business is worldwide. 
• Our last tip would be to utilize hashtags if you see fit. This can be a great way to create greater discoverability of your page, brand, ideas, or products. Hashtags can also be a great marketing tool if you have a business or idea you are promoting. Don’t forget to change your bio regularly, especially if you have a promotion going on. Remembering that your bio is a part of your profile, not a separate entity, will help you grow in valuing the importance of the bio. So use those hashtags to help your profile become more discoverable!

There is no one way to craft the perfect Instagram. The choice is completely up to you and the message you want to communicate.

Remember that you only have 150 characters and a link to use – so make your bio count.  Craft it around the “one thing” you want to communicate. Don’t forget to make it a call to action by potentially using verbs that direct your audience to specific links. Log into Instagram on your desktop to be able to get creative with your bio’s layout that you aren’t able to perform in-app. Sprinkle in some emojis that are on-brand that will catch people’s eye, along with creating greater discoverability by utilizing hashtags. As you implement some of these best practices, you will be crafting a bio like a boss quicker than someone can create a new boomerang. 

Let us help you not only craft that incredible Instagram bio, but also take your company to the next level. Give us a call to discuss all the ways we at The AD Leaf ® can help you not only create compelling bios, but also capture a greater audience through engaging, creative, and unique content tailored just for you. Call us today at 321-255-0900.

Anyone who has done even one Facebook Ad has had the same question: How does my competition do it? Whether good, bad, or ugly, it’s both best practice and human nature to want to know how your competition is advertising and who they’re targeting. However, what used to be a guessing game is becoming a bit clearer thanks to Facebook’s push to be more transparent to its base, allowing you to “spy” on your competitors.

While you won’t get a direct listing of who a particular ad is targeted toward (you can only gain insight into that by being a part of the target audience and seeing the ad in your feed) you will get clues to help you piece together your Facebook Ad strategy, which, if you’re marketing nerds like us, is like Christmas morning! There are two ways to go about spying on your competitor’s ads: through their page itself and the Facebook Ad Library.

The first way is to look at the page transparency right on the Facebook page itself. Go to the page you’d like more information on, click “see more” next to Page Transparency, and voila! Here you’ll see the history of the page, the location(s) where the page is managed, and the ad(s) the company is currently running. It will also give you the option to click through to the Ad Library, where you can see a history of what ads the company has run in the past.

The second way is to skip the page and go right to the Ad Library itself. Once there, you can search either by a company or by topic. When searching by topic, you’re able to take a look at any ad that matches the criteria that you search for. It can take a few tries to get your search keywords right, but it is worth the added effort. In addition to what you can see through the Page Transparency, you can also click to see how much they have spent on individual ads and as a total of all ads. This not only helps you to set your own budget, but it also shows you how successful their ads have been at targeting, which is key information. A low spend on a long-running ad tells you there is ad space to be won with proper targeting.

The information you can gain from Facebook Ad spying isn’t perfect and does rely on you correctly drawing conclusions. Still, it can show you what types of ads your competitors are running, what they look like, and how much they’re spending, which are good weapons to have when creating your own ad. 

If you’re reading through this and it’s coming off a bit like a foreign language, that’s okay! This information is designed for people who already have a high-level knowledge of Facebook Ads. That’s where we come in. Let us flex our marketing prowess and give you expert social media recommendations based on this in-depth analysis. Give us a call today at 321-255-0900 or email us at info@theadleaf.com to schedule your one-on-one Facebook Ads discovery session.