If you are running Facebook ads, one of the most important skills you need to have is creating converting ads. If you are only running ads with no conversion, it means you are throwing money down the drain. 

With a conversion rate of 9%, Facebook has a better conversion rate than Google, whose conversion rate is 4%. However, there is still room for improvement. This article will guide you in creating and converting Facebook ads. We will also show you samples from which you can learn.

Understanding Facebook Conversion Ads

A Facebook ad can have different goals, such as taking visitors to your site, increasing video views, and other actions to help grow your business. In simple terms, they encourage viewers to take action.

Some of the goals of Facebook conversion ads are:

• Increase sales. The ad may aim to encourage people to take a buying action on your website.
• Drive traffic. The ad may encourage people to visit your landing page.
• Prompt action. It may encourage its viewers to act, such as adding an item to a cart.

Facebook Ad Delivery Options

There are two ad delivery options on Facebook. These are:

• Standard. Distribute your ad spending evenly throughout your campaign. For instance, if you set your ad spend at $140 in a 7-day campaign, Facebook will try to spend $20 daily. This is the default Facebook delivery method.
• Accelerated. This ad strategy tries to get the best results within the shortest time possible. It is a good strategy for brands to get their ads in front of people as soon as possible.

How Facebook Bidding Works

Facebook bidding works the same way as an auction, meaning that advertisers bid to have their ads appear in various places on Facebook. The maximum bid usually gets the most ad placement, even though other factors affect the ad delivery.

There are several conditions to consider when making an ad bid. These are:

• Bid value. If you want to win the bid, you must bid considerably. However, you will not always pay what you bid for, as Facebook has its set of rules.
• Relevance score. Ad relevance is also another factor that Facebook considers. A high score will make people spend more time on Facebook. Your ad quality will determine how much interest people show in your ad. Facebook uses positive interaction factors such as clicks, likes, and comments to determine how many people are interested in your ad. 
• Projected action rate. When Facebook thinks your ad will get more clicks than other ads, it will prioritize it.

How to Set Up a Facebook Conversion Ad

When creating Facebook ads, setting up the goal of the ad isn't enough. You also need to set the optimization events. Optimization events refer to what you want Facebook to optimize. For instance, you should set clicks as the optimization events if you need more clicks. When you do that, Facebook will show your ad to people it feels will bring the lowest cost per click.

Facebook recommends that you should have at least 50 optimization events from your conversion window every week. Optimization events should be attributable to your ad and within your window. If the clicks don't result from someone viewing your ad, they don't count toward the 50.

Choosing a Conversion Strategy

One of the factors to consider when considering whether to go with Facebook ads will be the amount of activity your site receives. You can use the Meta pixel to measure this. With this option, all you need to do is insert a piece of code on the backend of your site to track key performance metrics. 

The pixel conversion results will show you the kind of activity your site gets. Consider this metric to determine whether Facebook conversion numbers work for your site. Remember that pixel event numbers measure all website activities and not just what Facebook ads drive. Here are a few pixel event benchmarks

• If you get less than 500 monthly pixel events, you should focus on building more online data and a bigger customer base.
• 500 and 10,000 monthly pixel events, you can try intent-based targeting and conversion optimization.
• Over 10,000-pixel events. Use conversion optimization in your marketing strategy.

Facebook recommends the following conversion options when creating an ad and optimizing it through pixels:

• Landing page views. This conversion option provides better insights than link clicks, as it only tracks after your site has loaded. Its main downside is that it will still count as a click when someone clicks a page and closes it before it has loaded, impacting the quality of the insights.
• Page views. There are high chances of getting page views and, therefore, will have a high conversion level.
• Purchases. If you aim to make sales, you may be tempted to jump in and start optimizing for purchases. However, getting purchase conversion can be challenging, especially when you are getting started.
• Automatic placement. You can set your ad to allow Facebook to find the best conversion opportunity among its many apps. It can be a good way of reducing your budget and enhancing your reach.

Setting the Target Audience of a Facebook ad

You can use the Facebook ad manager to set the following ad targeting methods. 

• Custom audiences. If you have a particular audience in mind, Facebook allows you to upload a data file with a list of your existing customers. Once you do that, Facebook will show your ad to these customers. Alternatively, you can create a custom website audience for your website visitors.
• Demographic targeting. This option allows you to target your ad to an audience based on different factors such as age, sex, location, or social media behaviors.
• Detailed targeting. If you need to target a Facebook user base depending on more than just their demographic information, detailed targeting enables you to do that. 
• Cross-border targeting. Cross-country targeting will serve the purpose if you want your ad to reach a demographic outside your border or geographical location.

Creating a Bid Strategy

The conversion results often align with a business goal, and it's therefore essential to measure if it brings in the desired results. A good way of doing that is by setting a bid cap. This will also allow Facebook to refine your ad to target the most important people. Here are some of the bidding strategies allowed by Facebook:

Lowest cost

This bidding strategy aims to get your ad in many ad placements at the lowest cost possible. However, this method has a drawback in that you do not have control over the actual cost of your bid.

Lowest cost with a bid cap

This works like the lowest cost strategy but sets a cap or amount that Facebook should not exceed. It is an excellent strategy to prevent paying more than your bid. However, you need to avoid setting your bid too low, or Facebook might have challenges spending your bid. Note that bids differ from the results, so you might pay less than what you bid for.

A target cost

This gives the Facebook system a target cost and informs it to bid for the results. In other words, you are telling the system that this is what I can afford to pay. When using this strategy, Facebook can increase or reduce your bid amount but will try to keep your cost around the bid cost. 

This is a good strategy for getting a lot of conversions. Since it limits your average cost per conversion, it is also a good strategy for scaling your Facebook campaigns. Therefore, you can increase your campaign budget without the risk of overspending.

Some of the areas where you can effectively use the target cost are:

• Conversions
• App installations
• Catalog Sales
• Lead Generation

During the Facebook learning curve, you might see fluctuations in the ad cost before Facebook understands your campaigns. As noted earlier, Facebook will require 50 weekly events to understand your ad.

Measuring the Result of Your Facebook Campaigns

Here are the steps to follow when measuring the results of a Facebook campaign.

Determine Your KPIs

Before you start measuring the success of your Facebook ads, you need to determine your key performance indicators. Ensure that your KPIs align with your business goals if you will be able to measure the success. Some key metrics to track in Facebook advertising are reach, clicks, conversion rate, cost per click, and the return on ad spend.

Track Your Metrics

After defining your KPIs, you can now use Facebook Ad Manager to see data on your ad campaigns. Again, Facebook pixel can be a good option for measuring people's actions after clicking on your ad. You can then use the data to optimize your Facebook ads.

Analyze Results

After tracking different metrics, you should analyze the results to determine the performance of your ad. Some of the metrics to consider are:

• Click-through rate. This tracks the number of people who clicked on your ad after seeing it on Facebook. If your ad has a high CTR, it indicates it is relevant and engaging to your audience.
• Conversion rate. This metric tracks the number of people who took action after coming across your ad on Facebook.
• Cost per click. This metric measures the average cost of every click on your ad. When the CPC is low, It shows you have an effective ad that is reaching the right audience.
• Cost per acquisition. This Facebook ad metric measures the cost of acquiring a customer based on their action after clicking on an ad. In other words, this is the amount you pay to acquire a customer. To get your CPA, you should divide the cost of your ad by your total conversions.
• Cost per lead. This metric will show the cost of acquiring potential customers showing interest in your product after coming across it on Facebook. CPL is the total cost of an ad campaign and is measured depending on the number of leads it generates. 
• Cost per mile. This metric measures the cost of an ad per 1000 impressions. This metric helps to determine how effective a Facebook ad campaign is. For instance, you can use the CPM to measure the effectiveness of different ad formats and optimize the ad campaigns for better results.

Factors Affecting the Cost of Facebook Advertising

When considering how much you will pay for your Facebook ad, Facebook considers several factors, such as:

• Audience. Your target audience will affect the amount you pay for your Facebook ad. If you want your ad to target a particular age group, sex, or gender, you can expect an increase in your advertising cost. This is on top of the number of advertisers targeting the same audience.
• Ad budget. One of the things you need to select when creating a Facebook campaign is an ad budget. While a big advertising budget will take your campaign to the next level, you can also make a small ad budget work for you. But it's important to remember that a small budget will have fewer conversions due to budget constraints.
• Ad quality/relevance. When you create an Ad, Facebook will assign a score ranging from 1 to 10 depending on its relevance level and engagement.
• Ad objective. A good Facebook ad can have different objectives, such as awareness, consideration, and conversion. Once you have decided on the primary purpose, you need to pick a specific goal. The ad cost will be higher if you have a more valuable ad goal.
• Ad placement. When placing an ad on Facebook, you can appear on different platforms such as Facebook Newsfeed, Instagram, Instagram stories, Facebook Messenger, and Audience Network. You will pay a unique cost per click depending on which platform you choose your ad to appear on.

Sample Facebook Ads You Can Copy

The good thing about Facebook ads is the amount of freedom they offer. No matter the message and product, you can always craft a message that meets your individual needs and follows the latest Facebook ad trends. The good thing is that you must not be a genius to create a great Facebook ad. Instead, you can get inspiration from some outstanding Facebook ads to create an equally great ad. Here are a few great Facebook ads from which you can get inspiration:

Project  Repeat

One of the reasons why this ad clicks the right boxes is because it breaks the notion that you need a large budget for your Facebook ad spend.

The ad will make use of a customer as a display board, which is smart considering how good the conversion is for content that is user-generated. This proves that ads which are less polished can make your ad clickable as more customers are getting tired of the messages from traditional marketing. You can learn from this ad that content which is user-generated can really click with customers.

Grin

Creating an ad on ROI isn't one of the most interesting topics many would want to do. However, Grin took this challenge head-on and created a lighthearted ad on Influencer ROI. The ad features text that is brilliant with contrasting colors that easily grab your attention. The pain points are a bright yellow color.

This ad ticks for a number of reasons. These are:

• Determines the pain points. Grin realizes that its audience is more interested in measuring the success of influencer marketing than determining whether it actually works.
• Have fun with it. Grin uses fun words and emojis to make their ads more interesting.
• Use interesting words. Grin uses charming words to make their offer more interesting.

Nom Nom

Nom Nom creates an ad that totally ignores the traditional rules of limiting the number of characters. On the flip side, they realize that there are viewers who may not have the time to read all the text and, therefore, add the traditional TDLR text to the ad below.

Some of the lessons we can learn from this include:

• Use testimonials with a short ad copy to create something convincing.
• Include some key details in your text but always ensure that the creative part of the ad grabs the reader's attention.

Final Thoughts

Facebook ads have become a big alternative to the traditional advertising method. However, you should use the right ad for your Facebook campaign for the best results. By using our guide and learning from the best ads, it should be easy to create a Facebook ad that will excite viewers. We advise that you also read our comprehensive guide on social media marketing.