Basic Tips for Designing Facebook Ads
Contributed by Logan Rhea
Advertising on Facebook has quickly become a convenient way to reach your target audience and stay top-of-mind. When designing ads specifically for Facebook, it’s important to keep it simple and the best way to do this is capturing viewer attention through graphics. You can do this with images alone or by adding a call-to-action (CTA), but keep in mind Facebook’s text limitations.
Add a Call To Action.
You can have the best looking ad out there, but if viewers aren’t sure what to do with it or where to go, it’s a bust. By adding a CTA or an incentive, you hold the viewers hand to the next step. You can either do this in the post portion or on the image itself. We feel that adding text to the image makes it even more eye-catching, but you be the judge. Just be careful that your ad meets Facebook guidelines.
So you want an ad… but where do you even start? Facebook recommends images be sized at 1200 x 628 pixels and the best way to make sure you’re maximizing your delivery is to use very little or no overlaid text.
Facebook is a bit finicky when it comes to adding overlaid text. They ask that the text be kept to a maximum of 20%. Ads that don’t meet the 20% text rule will either reach fewer people or not run at all. They are flagged as “OK” “LOW” “MEDIUM” and “HIGH.” Luckily, Facebook offers an ad checker tool.
What helps me when designing Facebook ads is this nifty Facebook grid (see below). People get confused thinking the 20% text rule means you can place the text anywhere as long as it’s not A LOT of text, when in actuality, you can fit as much text as you want on the ad as long as it fits within 20% of the allotted space, which is about 5 rectangles on the grid. Shrink the font down to 3pt (not recommended) but you could get a lot of info on there!
Sometimes, logos and watermarks will read as text, so ask yourself… “is putting my logo on here really necessary?” Viewers will see your logo through the page that the ad is posted from, so is it necessary to add it to the image as well? Sometimes the answer is no. If you do decide to add your logo, make sure to keep it clean and simple and to not distract from the image or messaging.
People Like People
When designing ads that feature people, make sure you’re choosing images that represent your target audience. You can even target your ads based on gender/age/interests/etc. So for instance, if you feature a male in your ad, you can target the ad to reach only males and vise-versa. This specific type of targeting is why advertising on Facebook has become increasingly popular.
Formatting Options
Want something with a little more pizazz? Try adding a single video or a 360 video, maybe add a slideshow or carousel. Here are some examples.
