Do you see others growing their business using Facebook ads, but aren’t sure it’s right for you?
Or do you want to run Facebook ads, but aren’t entirely sure where to start?
Reach on Facebook Fan pages is down. We all know this. Facebook is becoming a pay-to-play landscape.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve given a ton of tips and how-to’s of free strategies to get more engagement and more reach on your Facebook fan pages.
But even with all the free strategies, I strongly believe that if you’re going to really make a go of it and grow your business on Facebook, you’ve got to invest in some Facebook advertising as well.
To be honest, my family’s business wouldn’t be anywhere near where it is today without Facebook ads.
Without the help of Facebook ads:
- There’s no way we would have as many super targeted fans (just over 19,000).
- We would not have such a highly engaged Facebook Group talking about our product (over 5,000).
- And we certainly would not have had as many sales (On August 20th, 2105 we passed 4,000 customers!).
Most of our customers first see us on Facebook, and the vast majority of those, see us through an ad.
So, today, I want to give you:
- 3 reasons why I believe Facebook ads are so valuable
- The 4 biggest rules you should know when creating your ads to make sure they get approved
- A super awesome tool to learn the step-by-steps of creating a quality Facebook ad.
Why I Believe Facebook Ads Are So Valuable
- You can use Facebook ads in so many ways—to grow a fan base, gain social proof and validity of your business, to get more engagement on your fan page, to get more people to see your website, and my personal favorite, to grow your email list and get leads that eventually turn into sales.
- If someone engages with your ad, they are that much more likely to purchase your product/services.
- You don’t have to spend a ton of money. You decide how much you want to spend and for how long. So many other paid marketing strategies take a good chunk of change up front. With Facebook ads, you can effectively spend $5 a day, up it if you’d like, or stop it at any point.
The Do’s and Do Not’s of Facebook Ads
Have you heard horror stories of people getting their ad accounts shut down? Honestly, many of them are true. Facebook can and will shut down accounts for not following their guidelines.
I have lived through this and I will tell you it is not fun. When I first started playing with Facebook ads, I really didn’t know what I was doing, I didn’t know the rules, I made multiple mistakes, had too many ads not be approved, and I ended up having my account shut down.
Luckily, I am part of the 1% people who got their ad account back after being shut down! (I will tell you all about what I did to get it back in a later blog post.)
Especially as an entrepreneur in the health and wellness field, staying compliant with your Facebook ads can be tricky. So, I educated myself about what I can and can’t do in advertising and I want to share some of it with you.
- No before and after pictures.
I know this can be frustrating, especially since for those of us in the health and wellness arena, before and after pictures can be the easiest way to get across the power of our products/services. Instead, focus on the benefits. Choose pictures that show a healthier lifestyle, or the end result.
Used from Facebook advertising policies examples
- Do not refer to someone’s personal attributes.
This includes a lot of stuff: race, ethnic origin, religion, beliefs, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, medical condition, financial status, membership in a trade union, criminal record, or name.
While you can target based on these, you cannot actually write them in the ad.
For example, we target women who are 45 and up. But I can’t say in my ad copy, “Are you a 45 year old + woman looking for…?”
Where this tends to stick people is with medical condition.
I have seen ads be disapproved for saying “Are you sick and tired of…” Even if the words that come next are not health related, it doesn’t matter.
Ads are first approved by a computer, then by a person. The computer will search for words like ‘sick’ and ‘tired’ and is not able to understand the context of it.
Instead, just like with the pictures focus on the benefits.
Not okay: Are you frustrated with your high cholesterol?
Okay: Are you ready to jump-start your journey to wellness?
Some additional examples, also taken directly from Facebook’s advertising policies
3. You cannot make deceptive claims.
This one can be so tricky. What may simply be a true story to you, can be seen as a deceptive claim to Facebook. The 2 biggest no-no’s tend to be related to money or health.
Not okay: Make $300k in 30 days!
Not okay: Lose 30 pounds in 1 week with no diet or exercise!
Borderline: Learn how I lowered my cholesterol 73 points in 1 month!
Okay: Within 1 month, my cholesterol dropped tremendously!
Those last 2… that’s my mom’s story. After trying for 2 years to lower her cholesterol, it dropped 73 points in 1 month using our product. It’s a fact and she has the medical records to prove it. But that doesn’t matter.
That can be seen as a claim because someone could read it and think, “Oh, this will lower my cholesterol 73 points in 1 month too!” even though it is not saying it will do this for you too.
Changing the wording to say “dropped tremendously” makes all the difference because for one person tremendously could mean 20 points, while for another it could mean 73.
For more information on staying Facebook ad compliant:
Go straight to the source and be sure to stay current with Facebook’s policies because they can and will change over time. https://www.facebook.com/policies/ads
For more info about your privacy Policy, check out this article: http://imscalable.com/blog/retargeting-privacy-policy-updates/
Like your ads to perform better?
Click here to register: https://jennpossick.com/masterclass
