How to Successfully Design Facebook and Instagram Ads
How to Design Facebook and Instagram Ads that Attracts your Target Audience and Improves CTR.
My name is Mac Frederick and I used to work for Google. Over the past 6 years I have been running my own small business digital marketing agency helping other business owners with SEO, Paid Advertising, and more!
What you need to know to Design Facebook & Instagram ads.
Winter is coming. Well, besides the snowstorm hitting the Northeast this week (and a failed pun), Meta implemented its new Facebook ad guidelines and targeting exclusions for iOS14.
And later this year, Meta is rolling out restrictions for Android too.
Social media ads on channels like Facebook and Instagram are going to be competitive for e-commerce businesses in 2022.
Yet, many already find platforms like Facebook Ads Manager and Facebook Business Manager complicated. But the updates keep rolling in, and change is the only constant. Ultimately, making it harder to navigate the professional platforms for businesses. (Let us know if you need help with this.)
But don’t worry, Team Momentum has got your back.
Here is The Easy Guide to Design Facebook & Instagram Ads that drive sales and increase traffic to your e-commerce store or business website.
KEY STAT: This year, US advertisers will spend $50.30 billion on Facebook ads, up 32.1% YoY. (source)
The Challenge in 2022 for Social Media Ads.
Since March 19th, advertising AID and other identifiers for data tracking will be limited for users on iOS 14. “Apple made the tracking of personal data ‘opt-in’ with its IOS 14 release. As of September 2021, only around 21% of consumers have opted in to allow app tracking. Google is limiting identifiers in Android in late 2021.” – The Fast Move
Read full Article on 2022 Facebook & Instagram Ads Guides and Exclusions on Meta’s Business Blog.
Users, consumers, visitors and PEOPLE want to be treated like humans, not data. This includes a desire for privacy about what they do with their devices, specially in offline events. It is likely that your targeted facebook user doesn’t want you and your pixel tracking their every move. In and out of a platform, like Social Media, without explicit consent.
There is a need for users to feel like they can trust advertisers and brands with their data. That means they do not want to feel like your e-commerce company is a “Peeping Tom” for their consumer behavior.
As a result, we want to pay special attention to this 2022 trend when you Design Facebook and Instagram Ads.
Where there is a problem, there is always opportunity.
Solution
As marketers, we forget that EMPATHY is the force that drives the connection between the companies we advertise using Facebook Ads, and their clients.
It is a relationship that should be valued and respected.
Now, social media users are very aware that platforms, like Facebook & Instagram Ads, have been monetizing their data and behavior. On and off platform. PPC social media ads have invaded their feeds using data they had no knowledge was being shared, and used to exploit their consumer behavior. Advertisers have been using the consumer’s device to spy on them and make money based on the information collected.
Wouldn’t you feel invaded, too?
As a consequence, this has proven to cause distrust among consumers. We believe it is the reason behind “Marketing Blindness”, or the habit of ignoring promotions like Facebook and Instagram ads. Target audiences are developing an “immunity” to modern marketing efforts.
Users don’t like being sold to, they like being acknowledged. Seen. Recognized.
So, let’s work on the message: Creating Facebook and Instagram Ads. Meaning, how we communicate what we sell. As an improvement to the user’s life.
Your goal is to communicate that efficiently, as quickly as possible. And we mean “in the blink of an eye” speed.
Market WITH people, not AT them. – Seth Godin
Therefore, we need to change the way we think about advertising and marketing. Including Facebook and Instagram Ads. We have to learn to CONNECT with our audiences through paid campaigns.
How? By offering solutions to user’s problems in a personalized manner. Using empathy and studying their personas. Good advertising requires understanding what the targeted user needs, and delivering that message in a way that connects with them.
When users see your Facebook and Instagram ad, they should immediately think: “Wow, that’s super cool and useful”. Instead of: “how do ‘they’ know I was talking about vacuums yesterday with my mom.” I bet it has happened to you. Or seen it happen to a friend. We are the metaphorical ‘they’. We are the marketer and advertisers trusted with user data.
If we want to keep the attention of our target audience, let’s act with respect and empathy. When marketing messages to users so they feel less invaded, and more appreciated. They crave improved UX, or User Experience. In order to do this, you need to SEE your e-commerce business product or service from their perspective.
In 2022, consumers want to go into a book store and have it arranged according to their preferences in subjects and authors. Personalized. Each user is special, and they should feel like the message, or in this case your Facebook & Instagram ads, were designed specifically for them.
Ideally, this is how data and tracking should be used in Digital Marketing today. Humanity. For better UX.
In order to do this you need empathy. The ability to see things from someone else’s perspective and understand (without necessarily sharing) their want or need for something.
Intro: Three Ways to Promote in Facebook + Instagram ads
Our town, own rules.
The official Facebook Business blog lists as two main options to advertise on their Facebook platform (that mind you, is now called ‘Meta’, as in Metaverse).
We like to think of it as three. For instance, Facebook and Instagram are two different channels but owned by the same company, now Meta. There IS two ways to Advertise on Facebook AND there is a third way to advertise on Instagram only.
Why include Instagram then if it’s a different channel? Because visually, the ads mostly share the same attributes and aesthetics. Same rules. You can even advertise and schedule content on both Facebook and Instagram Ads inside Meta’s platform.
So, here are the THREE ways to promote your e-commerce business when you Design Facebook and Instagram Ads:
Intro
There are three Ways to Promote your E-commerce Business posts with Facebook & Instagram Ads.
- Boost Post on Facebook (screen shots)
- Just click the “Boost Post Button” under the post you’d like to promote. (screenshot)
- Preview Your Ad
- Check Your Insights to make sure it’s content worth spending bucks on.
- Specify your goal. What do you hope to achieve by promoting this post?
- Currently, these are the options available on Facebook Ads
- Automatic (you let Facebook and Instagram Ads decide)
- Lead Generation
- Get More Messages
- Increase Engagement
- Get Web Traffic to a Page (website / e-commerce)
- Promote Calls to a phone number
- Currently, these are the options available on Facebook Ads
- Customize the Call to Action Button (select one from list)
- Choose or create your target audience
- Set the Budget
- Determine the time frame for the promotion
- Decide if you want to include the Facebook Ad on Instagram as well
- Add a Payment Method
- Click on the blue “Boost Post Now” button at the bottom.
Above, an image carousel for screen shots showing the steps to promote on Instagram.
-
Boost Post on Instagram
- Click the blue “Boost Post” button under the post.
- Select one:
- Boost Post with a Facebook Ads account from which you want to manage this post, including payment methods and more.
- Boost Post without a Facebook Ads account. (we will select the second for this example).
- Select a Goal
- More Profile Visits
- More Website Visits
- More Messages
- Edit the URL and Call to Action Button.
- Set your Audience
- Automatic
- Create Your Own
- Set your budget for the promoted post
- Review and click the blue “Boost Post” button at the end of the page.
-
Create and Manage Campaigns using Facebook Business’ Ads Manager.
- This requires more studying and familiarization with Facebook Ads platform. The steps are basically the same, but the features, segmentations, and tracking options are much more useful if you plan to keep using Facebook and Instagram Ads as part of your PPC campaign strategy.
Additionally, your can read our article here about creating ads in Facebook Marketplace.
Here’s a complete guide from Buffer to create an ad for both Facebook and Instagram using Facebook’s Ads Manager.
To create audiences and targeting on Facebook Ads Manager, follow this complete guide.
Designing a successful Facebook & Instagram ad
Select a “Color Palette” and fonts for Designing your Social Media ads. This is sometimes called a branding kit. Browse online for help getting the attention of your audience. Color psychology is a really good tool to use when choosing a color schema.
Keep this branding kit in hand when designing, and stick to the colors and fonts selected. This consistency is essential for successful brand awareness, customer retention and conversion campaigns.
Below, some great examples of how to Design Facebook and Instagram Ads. Read the article here.
Free Tools for Facebook and Instagrams Ads: Templates and Graphic Design
As a small to medium sized business, you can’t always hire a professional graphic designer. Momentum Digital highly recommends using a professional service for graphic design. A lot depends on it, so look at it as an investment. Especially with good ROIs.
But, in case you are doing this social media ad design journey solo, here are some good free tools that offer free templates:
CANVA
This is our personal favorite. It simplifies graphic design and content creation. User friendly and very useful. In Canva, you can share designs with teams, specific people or create folders. You can choose to start a design from scratch, or browse hundreds of free templates.
Use your branding kit to select colors and fonts, or even better, create the kit in Canva.
CRELLO
We recommend this tool specially for social media ads with animations or videos. The online design software Crello is now Vista Create. It has great reviews and it is well known for variety, customization, and support. It offers steady graphics and animations that play stunningly.
DESIGN WIZARD
For example, Design Wizard has over a thousand fully licensed templates to use for Facebook and Instagram ads in 2022. And it integrates automations with platforms like Buffer, HubSpot and Marketo. This is a great option for helping design a successful Facebook and Instagram ad.
You can also read this article about graphic design tools.
In conclusion…
To summarize, you don’t need to be an expert graphic artist to get professional results out of your ads on social media. Create a space in your schedule to produce these ads using online tools. Or, if you’re short on time and can’t have an in-house creative marketing department, we are ready to help at Momentum Digital, so get in touch!
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