The power of social media is incomparable in today’s world of marketing. Social media allows companies to break down any unwelcoming demeanor that they once carried and directly relate and speak to their customers. It’s a fun and informal way of building a company’s brand and more importantly, their personality.

But in order for social media to be effective, a company needs likes and followers. This allows users to listen and read what they have to say.

So how do they go by this?

Advertising.

Jef I. Richards once said, “Creative without strategy is called ‘art.’ Creative with strategy is called ‘advertising.’”

We’ve already gone over Facebook best practices for posting, now let’s take a look at how to master advertising on the most powerful social media platform today.

Tips For Facebook Ads in 2015

TIP: This or That?

Don’t limit yourself to one copy or photo when you run your Facebook advertisements. Try picking two or three photos that are each distinct in their own way. It’s important for you to explore what catches your target audience’s eye. Don’t doubt the power of a stunning cityscape.

Keep your copy fun and energetic, while providing some value to the customer. Try advertisement headers that start with, ‘Did you know…?’ or ‘How To….” Draw your clients in, let them know you have something they need.

TIP: ???

Questions are a great to engage with your followers. e-CBD, an Australian digital marketing agency found that advertisements with multiple question marks in their copy had a higher click-through rate (CTR).

They also discovered the more question marks a post had, the higher the CTR became.  Since ad headers are only allowed to be 25 characters, use only one question mark in the header. Ad body text ranges from 30 to 90 characters, so strategically place two to three effective question marks to convey your message. In your next round of ads, try throwing in a few logical question marks and see how they perform. Just try not to overuse them. Don’t forget, ads have a limited character count.

TIP: Targeting

When choosing audiences to target, its almost instinctual to select, “People Who Are Not Connected To,” your business page. It’s obvious that you want to reach new people, but try taking it from a different approach.

When it comes to boosting individual page posts, try targeting people who have already liked your page. Users that have liked your page may not always get your updates on their feed. Appear more frequently on their feed by utilizing Facebook ads, allowing users to receive more of your content.

Bonus Tip: Companies can also set up, ‘Lookalike Audiences,’ on Facebook’s Business Manager. Lookalike Audiences allow you to reach potential customers who are similar to those who have already liked your page or those who have visited your website. This is helpful because it targets people who share the same interests with your current customers.

TIP: Add A Call To Action Button

Facebook gives you the option to add a Call To Action (CTA) button to the bottom right corner of your ads. These buttons include, ‘Shop Now,’ ‘Learn More,’ ‘Download,’ and more. Adding one can help focus your ad to a greater degree and prompts the reader to take an action.

Heyo, a Facebook advertising tool, ran an A/B test between 2 similar ads. The only difference between them was the use of a ‘Learn More’ button. This CTA button proved to be successful resulting in a 63.6% increase in conversions and a 40% decrease in cost per click.

TIP: Don’t Skip Behaviors

With over 1.2 billion active users, Facebook has the ability to collect an abundance of information on their users. Facebook knows if you’re engaged, sick, or spending too much time on Farmville.

So how can a company use this information? Companies can focus their ads on those who have displayed behaviors that would benefit from their products or services.

For example, purchase behaviors include, buyer profiles, food and health, beauty and more. With buyer profiles, you can target users classified under categories such as: DIY-ers, foodies, fashionistas and more. So if you’re looking to increase the sales of your cute suede brown bootie, send your ad over to those fashionistas.

Whether you are looking to start advertising on Facebook for the first time or want to try something new, these are tips to try and add to your creative arsenal. Let us know which ones you execute and how they work out below!