One of the most sweeping changes this century has been social media, the largest of which is Facebook. With billions of users, you can’t afford to ignore Facebook as a potential source of clients but it’s all too easy to put clients off rather than attract them. The key word in “social media” is social. Old school ads that acted as info dumps just won’t play on social platforms. Your ads need to be humanised, relatable and interesting if you want them to draw clicks.
How to humanise your Facebook Ads
Good news! It’s not hard to humanise your ads, you just need to consider a few things first:
Visit or create your audience personas
All marketing is about connecting with an audience, so you probably have already created user personas for your other advertising, if not, this is a good time to start. A user persona describes your ideal customer of one kind (you may have many personas each of which represents a different audience segment). You can use the persona to personalise your content to appeal to these individuals rather than trying to be all things to all people.
Always include images or videos
There’s no doubt about it, that when people are scrolling that endless Facebook feed, it’s easy for people to switch off and stop reading. That’s why you need images or videos that cut through the noise – to catch the person’s attention so that they want to read your copy or take action. The best copy in the world is worthless if nobody reads it.
Use Emojis
Not only does the use of emojis make your ad more like a social post, emojis make it easier to consume information in bite sized pieces – these little algorithm loving icons are guaranteed to increase your click through rate and get more people to take action
Test your ads
That doesn’t just mean AB testing and working on your calls-to-action, it means talking to real customers and finding out how they feel about your adverts. There is nothing more valuable than valuable feedback when it comes to developing ads that people can relate to. Learn to seek out feedback and when it’s offered, learn to listen and act on it.
Tell stories
It sounds hard but we’re not talking about writing a novel here. We’re talking about creating the kind of advert that people see themselves in. The ad should raise a problem that the reader has and then offer a solution to that problem that works in the way they want it to.
Be real
People talk a lot about authenticity nowadays but so few people actually show authenticity. Don’t be afraid to insert your personality and your thoughts into your ads. They say that “people buy from people like them” and the only way people can get a sense of who you are online is for you to put your personality into everything that bears your brand.
Keep things simple
Unless your target audience is only educated professors with a penchant for pretentiousness, you want to try and keep your ads simple. That means keeping your language simple and clear, fully articulating what benefits you’re offering to the person reading the ad and always ending with some sort of call to action. You won’t get the clicks unless you ask for them.
Don’t be pushy
This one’s normally easy for most people to do but if you’re thinking that Facebook is a space to recreate the (bad) old days of pushy car salespeople on the forecourt, think again.
There’s nothing that internet users hate more than the feeling that you’re trying to sell to them. Facebook is a place people go to hang out with friends and family, not with virtual street peddlers. Dial down the selling and focus on creating relationships, instead.
Final thoughts on Humanised Ads
You don’t have to completely scrap your existing marketing strategy as regards to social media in order to make your ads on Facebook more appealing, you just have to make those ads connect better with those people you are wanting to reach. The tips above should see you well on your way to making sure your ads see a real return on your investment.
Tenai Seymour is a Facebook ads specialist.
