3 Ways to Optimize How Your Instagram and Facebook Targeted Ads Work

0
970
3 Ways to Optimize How Your Instagram and Facebook Targeted Ads Work

In the world we live in today, mobile devices officially outnumber our global population, with a whopping 7.9 billion connected mobile devices between us all. This makes for an unlimited amount of opportunity for online marketers to reach us, no matter where we live. 

To add to this, our global population is spending more time online than ever before — specifically on two of the world’s leading platforms, Facebook and Instagram. If you’re not advertising on either of these platforms, that’s a whole lot of missed business opportunity. 

To learn more about how to optimize Instagram and Facebook targeted ads for true success, this blog is the guide you need. 

Expert Tips on How To Optimize Instagram and Facebook Targeted Ads 

Any business owner that advertises on Facebook and Instagram will tell you that the task of measuring the success of cross-platform ad campaigns is a complicated task. Most business owners simply don’t know how to measure and interpret metrics, or they aren’t using the right measurement techniques. 

But before you learn how to measure your ad campaign success, it’s important to optimize your campaigns, first. Any Facebook or Instagram advertising agency will tell you that your overall goal should focus on planning your media for brand campaigns.

This is based on a few essential steps, including: 

  • Establishing the goal of each brand campaign
  • Planning out how to promote the campaign, i.e. the best type of advertising
  • The creation of a content calendar 
  • The creation of visual content 
  • Post scheduling 
  • Ad monitoring and response

This is a very simple breakdown of planning a brand campaign, but this is where you should spend the majority of your energy when optimizing your advertising on Facebook and Instagram.

At the end of the day, your campaigns should focus on placement optimization. This means you need to find the right people in your target audience, at the right time. For example, placement optimization may focus on link clicks. Essentially, you’re targeting people in your audience who are most likely to click on ad links. 

This a proven method to help your campaigns reach more people, at a lower advertising cost. Here are three essential tips when establishing your brand campaigns across Instagram and Facebook:

  1. Prioritize the Overall Outcome of Your Campaigns

It’s important to remember that campaign delivery is never going to be exactly the same across both platforms. So when you’re planning your media, keep in mind that you need to look at the bigger picture in terms of campaign delivery. 

Just because one campaign has performed better on another platform, doesn’t indicate poor ad optimization. Instead, focus your attention on the overall outcome of both campaigns, and learn from your shortcomings.

  1. Think Big, Spend Big 

Some businesses may not have a huge advertising budget to spend on both Instagram and Facebook advertising. That’s understandable. But when we say ”spend big”, this simply refers to allocating all of your ad spend on these two platforms, rather than across smaller, multiple placement campaigns.

You are guaranteed evidentiary success when investing more on your ad spend, and a larger audience, versus dividing this spend between smaller ads, and smaller audiences. 

  1. Don’t Be Afraid To Test for Yourself 

The more research and metrics you have in your repertoire, the better. Measurement is what allows business owners to evaluate their decisions and adjust their ad spend where necessary. 

With this in mind, don’t be afraid to set up randomized control ads to test their efficacy. Set aside some of your ad budget for this very purpose so you can measure the buying habits of your audience across both Facebook and Instagram. 

Creative Considerations To Keep in Mind When Creating Ads 

Aside from all the numbers and scientific metrics, it’s important to remember that creativity is a big part of advertising success across both platforms. Bear in mind that your average audience member is bombarded with advertising materials on a daily basis.

How can you create ads that actually mean something to them?

  • Relevance is important — make sure your ad connects with your brand and is useful to your audience 
  • Time is of the essence — keep your ads short and include your branding as close to the beginning as possible
  • Keep each ad scene shorter, rather than longer — this is important with ads in Instagram stories 
  • Product demos are priceless — if you’re advertising a product, show it in use 

Finally, you want to make sure that you always optimize your ads for mobile use. Mobile video makes up three-quarters of the world’s mobile data traffic. In other words, there are more people watching video and story advertising on Facebook and Instagram than ever before. To optimize your engagement levels, get automatic Instagram likes from a trusted vendor.

Make sure your story and video ads are succinct and bespoke for mobile optimization.

What Types of Ads Should Marketers Focus On?

The burning question is where should you really focus all of your advertising spend? With so many avenues of advertising available today, it can be difficult to narrow down your campaign goals. Here are some of the best types of ads that are most popular with your average audience member:

  1. Story Ads

You should be advertising on both Instagram and Facebook stories. The reason why story ads is number one on this list is because they are the most-watched feature on each platform, but specifically Instagram. 

This means that story ads are a brilliant opportunity for optimized placement and business exposure. Story ads are time-limited (15 seconds) and appear in-between an end user’s other Instagram or Facebook stories. So, they must be short, concise, and distraction-free. 

Stories are a good opportunity to create authentic, non-filtered advertising that will catch your audience’s attention because you are already in their personal space. This type of advertising is brilliant for running high-impact, but time-limited business offers, such as promos and limited edition products.

Another great advertising idea is to share behind-the-scenes snippets of your business to boost your brand awareness and build brand trust.

  1. Photo Ads

Photo advertising is the ”OG” of both Facebook and Instagram advertising. This form of advertising has been around for quite some time already and has set the stage for many other forms of advertising across both platforms. 

Even if it’s the ”oldest” form of advertising on either platform, it’s still effective and can have an impact on your audience. These ads usually appear in-between regular posts on a user’s feed as they scroll. 

In terms of creativity, photo ads are pretty limited to a landscape or portrait-style image. However, this means they are easy to produce, simple, and cost-effective. Another great benefit is that these ads can be highly targeted to your ideal audience. 

This type of advertising is ideal for quick, win-lead generation campaigns.  

  1. Video Ads

These are very similar to photo ads, except your audience is treated to a video, instead of a still image. They also appear in an end user’s feed, in-between their regular posts as they scroll. Your video ads are limited to either 30 or 60 seconds to capture your viewer’s attention. 

Despite what research says about audience focus and attention span, video (in the form of stories and Instagram TV) is very popular and effective. However, it’s important that video ads clinch user attention in the first few seconds. Otherwise, they’re lost forever. 

Video advertising is versatile, too. They’re great for promoting a multitude of brand awareness campaigns such as product promotion, product demos, business offers, walkthroughs, and behind-the-scenes snippets.  

  1. Carousel Ads

Facebook carousel ads have set the scene for success with this form of advertising. As such, Instagram has latched onto this successful ad trend, too. Carousel ads allow your viewer to swipe through a rotating collection of photos and videos of your products/services.

With each carousel, you can display a range of 3, 5, or 7 photos or videos, each with its own call-to-action. Carousel ads are a brilliant tool because they can be optimized based on which links have the highest click-through rate. 

You also have plenty of opportunity to make an impression on your average viewer by displaying an assortment of products, or video snippets. They are best used for displaying a product range, telling a unique story about a product, or launching a product.  

  1. Collection Ads

This is an especially effective form of advertising because your audience is able to make direct purchases of your products or services through each collection ad. Your content appears in a grid, with one stand-out image or video displayed above a series of smaller images. You can also include a strong call-to-action to promote the main product/service.

This is one of the only types of advertisements on Facebook and Instagram that allows viewers to make a direct, in-app purchase. This basically cuts out the ”middle man”, and makes it convenient and easy for your users to purchase your products. 

This is a solid advertising investment if you’re a social media seller, i.e. an e-commerce business. 

Find Startup, Technology, and Business Advice Here 

Instagram and Facebook targeted ads are all about trial and error if you’re a startup business finding its feet. Remember that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. It’s best to do your own business research and not be afraid to test campaigns, and fail. This is how you measure and find advertising success! 

If you’re looking for a variety of articles to help you along your startup or entrepreneurial journey, be sure to explore this site for all the advice, tips, and how-to’s you need.