Social network advertising rules can be confusing to navigate.
That’s why we’ve created these 10 commandments to always follow when creating an ad on Facebook or Instagram to optimize your results.
1. Rename the campaign to make it easier to find your way around
Our first tip, which may seem insignificant, but is essential if you want to be able to find your way through all the campaigns in your ad manager: rename your campaign.
For example, you can write the date, the Facebook or Instagram social network and then the campaign objective (Interactions, Traffic, Conversion…).
2. Define your objective
The next step is to define the objective of your advertising campaign.
Facebook offers a total of 11 advertising objectives, organized into 3 categories: awareness, consideration and conversion.
Awareness is about making your brand known and more visible, consideration is about providing more information about you and your products/services, and conversion is about encouraging your audience to buy/book.
Of course, you’ll need to define this before creating your campaign.
Your text and visual(s) will be created according to the chosen objective.
For example, if your objective is to drive traffic to your website, you may decide to use a suitable format such as a carousel.
3. Select the right audience for your target
First, you’ll need to define your target audience.
Then, when you select your audience on the ad manager, you can choose the attributes of this audience according to your target.
For example: if you want to target only Parisians aged 30-55, who are interested in travel, luxury, city-breaks…
4. Insert a Call to Action
This Call to Action is very important if you have a Traffic or Conversion objective.
It will encourage the audience to take action, to click, to buy… The aim is to convince with a few words that must be carefully crafted.
In particular, you can use an action verb: “subscribe”, “buy”… It’s also possible to arouse emotion with storytelling: “plan your dream vacation today!
You can also play on FOMO, Fear Of Missing Out: the fear of missing out on something.
For example, the audience may feel the fear of missing out on an opportunity or promotion.
5. Respect the format of Facebook posts
To optimize your ads, don’t forget to respect the formats and sizes adapted to social networks.
For example, if you want to publish a carousel, you’ll need to respect the following size: 1080 x 1080 pixels with a minimum of 2 cards and a maximum of 10 cards.
It’s also very important to use high-resolution visuals to make your ad look attractive and appealing.
6. Don’t forget the Facebook pixel
The Facebook Pixel is an indispensable analysis tool.
This code, to be inserted directly on your website, will enable you to target audiences interested in your brand (for example, those who have already visited your website).
It will also enable you to target audiences similar to those on your site, and obtain data on your traffic.
In short, it will increase your advertising investment.
7. Remember the 20% text rule
There’s one rule we recommend you keep in mind when optimizing your ads on social networks: the 20% rule.
This was introduced to encourage advertisers to limit the amount of text appearing on the visuals of an ad.
If you don’t respect this rule, you’ll be directly penalized: either by having your ad removed, or by having a reduced reach.
8. Content must not be false or misleading
Indeed, it is forbidden to promote content with unverified and unprovable information.
Advertisers who repeatedly publish content deemed misleading or false will then be restricted on Facebook or/and Instagram.
9. Do not promote certain types of content
The content of the advertisement must under no circumstances promote the following products or services, failing which the advertisement will be removed.
- Products associated with cryptocurrencies
- Casino games (must target 18+ age group only)
- Illegal products and services
- Discriminatory practices
- Weapons, ammunition or explosives
- Products or services for adults
- Content must be free of profanity, grammatical errors and punctuation mistakes.
- Ads must not link to a non-functional landing page
10. Respect copyright laws
Advertisements must not include any content that might infringe or violate the rights of third parties, such as copyright, trademark, privacy, public image or other rights.
For example, if you want to advertise using UGC (User Generated Content), you absolutely must have the person’s authorization.
If it’s an influencer, it’s customary to pay him or her if you use one of his or her photos or videos for an ad.
From now on, Facebook and Instagram ads will hold almost no secrets for you.
The best advice is to practice and test and learn.
Then you can see what works and what doesn’t for your brand.
Now it’s your turn!
