Take your Facebook and Instagram ads from mediocre to memorable!

 

In the final part of our series on Facebook & Instagram advertising mistakes, we will cover 3 more slip-ups that may seem simple, but incredibly important to your advertising success: Leading with a hook, closing without a CTA, and aiming for the wrong goal.

 

So, if you want to ensure that you make the most out of your time, energy, and most importantly, your budget, continue reading to learn more about social media advertising mistakes that could keep your business from reaching the next level.

 

Leading Without a Hook

 

When you’re fishing for attention, you need a hook!

 

The first social media advertising mistake that we’ll be covering in today’s blog post can seem quite simple, running ads without a hook. In other words, this means running an advertisement without enticing text and graphic elements that are designed to attract attention, and draw your target audience in.

 

While a hook is a necessity in every form of advertising, it is especially important when it comes to advertising on social media. Unlike other advertising channels, social media users can simply scroll right past your ad while they’re on Facebook or Instagram!

 

So, if you want to minimize the odds of this occurring you need to lead with a hook that your target audience can’t ignore.

 

This means utilizing both the text AND graphic portion of your ad to immediately grab attention. For your specific advertisement, this can change depending on the industry that you’re in, or the offer that you’re promoting.

 

For example, you can:

• Call out your target audience > Attention Vancouverites!
• Highlight your unique promotion  > Get 30% Off Your First Order
• Showcase your business > Industry Top Rated

 

By immediately calling out your target audience, showcasing your offer, or highlighting your business, you can increase the odds that your advertisement grabs attention and encourages potential customers to learn more about your promotion. 

 

On the other hand, if you didn’t have an attention-grabbing hook, Facebook and Instagram users would be much more likely to scroll right past your ad after only reading a few words.

 

For example: let’s say that your client is a local realtor that wants to build leads by offering free home evaluations in exchange for contact info. Here are 2 hooks:

 

• Advertisement 1: Get a FREE Home Evaluation within 24 hours ⏰…
• Advertisement 2: A Home Evaluation is the first step to selling your home…

 

I think you can imagine which ad people are most likely to scroll right by!

 

When it comes to advertising on Social Media, a hook is simply a non-negotiable. In fact, it could be the factor which dictates whether your ad succeeds, earning your qualified leads, or fails, wasting your marketing budget and time. 

 

So, if you want to run a successful advertising campaign on Facebook or Instagram, remember to lead every advertisement with an attention-grabbing statement or graphic! Without a hook, you might be missing out on a huge chunk of business. 

 

 

 

 

Closing Without a CTA

 

If you want your ads to enact action, you can’t forget about your CTA!

 

The next social media advertising mistake that we’ll be covering in today’s blog post is leaving out a “Call-to-Action”, otherwise known as a CTA. As the name suggests, a CTA is essentially a direct command on your advertisement, that relates to your specific advertising goal. In practice, this can look like a prompt to call now, or a button to your website. 

 

Similar to our previous point on hooks, while a CTA may seem minor, it can be the difference between earning a new client, or missing out on new business. With that being said, if you want to maximize the effectiveness of your ads, you should align your CTA with your offer, AND test out variations.

 

For example, Let’s say that you’re a local landscaper looking to promote a 20% discount for first-time clients. In this instance, a prompt that says “Claim Your Discount” is much more likely to earn you leads than a general prompt like “Contact Us”. 

 

On the other hand, let’s continue with the previous example, and say that you were introducing brand new gardening services. In this instance, a prompt that says “Learn More Today” is much more likely to earn you website traffic than a general prompt like “Visit Our Website”. 

 

In these scenarios, a general CTA can work, but one that aligns with your offer will always perform better. By aligning your CTA with the key points of your offer, you can cleverly remind your target audience of what attracted them to your business, or you can add a sense of urgency.

 

Now, if you want to take things one step further, you can test multiple CTA’s to maximize your conversion rate. For example, let’s use our 20% discount scenario. Here, “Claim Your Discount” may work well, but another CTA may do even better. For example, the sense of convenience and urgency that comes with the prompt “Book Online Today” could be more effective! At the end of the day, you won’t reach your potential unless you test out your options.

 

So, if you want to maximize your Facebook and Instagram advertising success, you NEED to include a CTA no matter what your advertising goals are! Whether you’re looking to directly earn sales, or you want to educate potential customers, if you want your target audience to take action, you should always include a CTA when you advertise on Facebook and Instagram. 

 

 

 

 

Aiming for the Wrong Goal

 

If you want to reach your goals, you need to make sure that you’re actually aiming for the right thing!

 

The last social media advertising mistake that we’ll be covering, is selecting the wrong campaign objective, and the subsequent performance goal. Again, similar to the previous points we’ve covered today, making this mistake may feel minor… However, unlike our previous points, this mistake can directly impact how Meta AI advertises your business.

 

So, you need to be careful when you check these boxes!

 

When you launch ads on Facebook and Instagram, picking a “Campaign Objective” is one of the first things that you do, and you get to choose from the following options:

 

• Awareness: Get more people familiar with you or your brand.
• Traffic: Get more people to visit your website.
• Engagement: Get more people to interact with your content – Like, comment, share.
• Leads: Get more contact information from potential customers.
• App Promotion: Get more people to download your app.
• Sales: Get more people to purchase your products or services.

At a glance, you would think that these options act as the foundation of your advertising, and that your choice of objective would dictate how your campaign functions. But, in reality, the only thing that your campaign objective dictates are the options that you have for your “Performance Goal”. And, this goal is what will actually drive how Meta AI advertises your business. 

 

For example, let’s say that you chose “leads” as your campaign objective. In this situation, that campaign objective would give you multiple performance goals, including maximize daily unique reach, and maximize number of conversions. In this instance, your campaign will operate completely differently depending on what you decide to maximize, even if your campaign is set with “leads” as its objective. 

 

While this may seem like a simple annoyance that you might experience during set-up, this mistake is incredibly easy to make, and if you don’t catch it early on, you can waste a tonne of time and money with an ad aiming for the wrong goal, and targeting the wrong people.

 

So, if you want your Facebook and Instagram ads to reach your specific goals, you need to review every single checkbox with a fine tooth comb before launch. It may take a few minutes, but by double-checking your performance goals, you can ensure that you spend every single advertising dollar how you want to.

 

 

 

 

In conclusion, in the final part of our series on Facebook and Instagram advertising mistakes, we took a deep dive and learned how crucial a CTA and hook can be despite their simplicity, and, how your ads work to achieve your performance goal, and not your campaign objective. So, now you should be fully informed and 100% prepared to launch a social media ad campaign that will operate effectively AND efficiently.

 

But! If you’d rather focus on your day-today, and have your social media ads managed by experts, you can always contact us to learn more about our Social Media Advertising services.