No matter the platform, how to define a “good” click-through rate (CTR) is usually somewhat of a conundrum. Seriously, can there really be a universal number we should all aim for when we’re all advertising wildly different products and services?
The truth is that there are some products—generally ones that serve niche markets—that just won’t garner as much attention as others. After all, a good ad can only do so much when you’re selling gluten-free, vegetarian cat food. However, there are certain optimization and design practices you can follow to ensure you’re doing everything in your power to maximize CTR potential.
Determining Your CTR Sweet Spot: Other Metrics to Consider
Before we get into the details of how to maximize CTR potential, it’s important that you understand that not every click is a good click. What I mean is, you shouldn’t design and optimize your ads to entice just any old Facebook user. Instead, you need to focus on getting clicks only from your target audience.
Think of it this way: Let’s say you have a CTR of 40 percent. That would be incredible right? Not necessarily. Because in this example, you also haven’t gotten any conversions. Nada. Zip, zero, zilch. And that’s, well, not so incredible. See, if you’re not getting any conversions, it really doesn’t matter how many clicks you get. They’re worthless, and they’re wasting your money.
The first step in determining your CTR sweet spot is to shift your mindset from “how can I maximize clicks?” to “how can I maximize relevant clicks?” So, while CTR is an important metric, you should also be paying extra special attention to your cost-per-conversion. The more relevant your clicks, the lower your CPC will be.
Another way to make sure that you’re getting clicks from the right people is to check the relevance score. Relevance score is a handy one through 10 scale that measures—you guessed it—how relevant your ads are to the people who see them. If your relevance score is low, try making some adjustments to your audience targeting. Try to keep your relevance score above a five.
Alright, now that you’ve graduated from section one and have a better grasp of what “good” click-through rate means, it’s time to move on to our tips for increasing CTR.
Top 9 PPC Agency Tactics for Boosting CTR in Facebook Ads
1. Refine Your Facebook Ad Audience Targeting
Before you create your Facebook ads, you first need to figure out who your target customers are and then create an audience within Facebook. You have several options to choose from: saved audiences, custom audiences, and lookalike audiences.
Custom audiences allow you to target existing leads and customers. You can import lists of current customers and leads, target by app activity or Facebook engagement, or target consumers who visited specific URLs on your site. Since custom audiences are comprised of people who have already shown an interest in your products or services, they are best used for retargeting campaigns.
Creating a saved audience is good for finding new customers for your brand based on specific interests, demographics, and behaviors. For this type of audience, it is important to add as many conditions as possible in order to ensure that you’re only targeting people who are likely to be interested in your product. For example, if we were actually going to try to sell that gluten-free, vegetarian cat food, we could start by refining our audience to target gluten-free vegetarians who own cats:
And finally, we have lookalike audiences, which are automated and can be used to find new customers based on data from a pre-existing audience. For example, you could use a custom audience of your current customers to find relevant users who are likely to purchase your product based on their shared interests and demographics:
2. Make Your Facebook Ad and Your Offer Relevant to Your Audience
Like we’ve already discussed, it’s important to make Facebook ads relevant to the people who view your them. But just how exactly do you do that? First, you need to design an ad image and copy that will appeal to your target audience. Before you begin designing, spend some time evaluating the interests of your ideal customer. What kinds of things capture their attention? What sort of offer might appeal to them? Are they more interested in the quality of your brand, or do they need a special offer to push them toward conversion?
Use your assessments to design imagery and text that will stand out. For example, if you’re selling car covers to Mustang owners, it’s best to include an image of a Mustang within the ad. If it’s a retargeting ad, you may want to try adding a special offer that will compel them to take the plunge.
3. Create Captivating Headlines & Sparkling Facebook Ad Copy
After the image, your headline is the most important part of your ad. The image may be what gets them to stop scrolling, but your headline is what keeps them interested. Focus on crafting headlines that will motivate them to click on your ad. This is also where you should mention or reiterate your most pertinent information, whether that be a discount code or a special feature. Be sure to A/B test different images and headlines to find out which work best.
Unfortunately, not everyone is going to read your ad copy. After seeing your image and your headline, many viewers have already made up their mind whether they’ll click or scroll right on by. However, that’s not to say that no one will read your ad copy or that it’s not a critical component. In fact, if you get lazy with your ad copy, you could really bruise your CTR. And since you’re reading this post, I’m guessing that’s not something you want to do.
When you’re coming up with ad copy, stick with your brand feel while making it enticing to the reader. Use actionable language and speak to your target customers by appealing to their specific pain points.
4. Create a Sense of Urgency in Your Facebook Ad
Creating a sense of urgency in your headline and ad copy will help you get more people to purchase or add to cart. Focus on using words and phrases like “Ends Soon,” “Order Now,” and “Last Chance.” This way, the people viewing your ad will feel like they have to act on your offer immediately or they’ll miss out. Otherwise, consumers will feel like they have ample time, leading them to put off their purchase or never make on at all.
5. Don’t Get Long Winded in Your Facebook Ad
If you get carried away and write a novel for your ad, most people will fall victim to their TL;DR habit and skip it. Your copy and your headline need to be concise—you should be able to captivate and entice your audience without writing a persuasive essay. As a general rule of thumb, keep your ad copy between 120 and 150 characters and your headline between 60 and 100 characters.
6. Facebook Ad Content Offer – Free and Value-Driven
Offering free content can be an excellent way to get customers to engage with your brand and become leads. Going back to our gluten-free cat food example, you could offer a free download of an eBook about proper nutrition for cats. Not only does this free, value-driven content promote trust and favorability with your brand, but it also helps the reader see you as an industry expert.
7. Use Color in Your Facebook Ads for Pete’s Sake
Remember, the image is most important since it’s what will catch a consumer’s eye and get them to stop scrolling through their endless newsfeed. Be sure to use bright colors and images that speak to their interests. Because the newsfeed background is white, dull and empty white space in your ads will do you no favors.
Bonus Tip: Studies have shown that consumers prefer ads that use contrasting color combinations.
8. Facebook Ad Limit Text Overlay Tool
In the “olden days” of Facebook advertising, you couldn’t even use images that had more than 20 percent text. But Facebook changed up the rules a bit late last year. Now you can upload images with as much text as you like and receive a score of “ok,” “low,” “medium,” or “high” depending on the amount of text you used.
But, there is one big snafu: the more text you use, the lower the delivery of your ads. In fact, with a score of “high,” it’s possible that your ads won’t be delivered at all. Because of this, it’s best to pretend that Facebook’s original rules are still intact—just aim to keep text at a score of “ok.” You can upload ads to the Facebook text overlay tool to test them out before uploading them to your ad set.
9. Optimize Your Facebook Ad Campaigns for Conversions
Facebook has three different campaign objective categories: awareness, consideration, and conversion. To maximize the number of clicks on your ad, you need to create conversion campaigns. This is because the objective you set at the campaign level tells Facebook how to optimize your ads and your budget. If you select awareness, Facebook will focus on getting the most impressions for your ad rather than the most clicks.
Final Thoughts and Takeaways
Following these guidelines will help you create and optimize Facebook ads with fewer irrelevant clicks, higher conversion rates, and the best possible CTR. Just remember to monitor your ads and test different images and copy so that you can continue to improve your results.
For more information about how to create and optimize Facebook ads or for other PPC agency tips, contact our expert team today and set up a free consultation.
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