Loading...User personas in Facebook Ads
User personas - who are they?
Ola has recently written about user personas on our blog. Just to remind you, a persona is your exemplary, ideal customer. By using the data at your disposal, you can create a few fictional people who will represent a typical person belonging to your target group.
Creating user personas allows you not only to see who your real recipients are but also to give them specific character traits or life story and to see what they have to deal with in everyday life or what are their needs. All of these will help you understand why they actually need your product or service.
Creating user personas enables designing better projects and targeting advertisements more effectively. Taking John Adams or Kate Smith (because user personas have names and surnames) into consideration will help you to tailor content of your advertisements, language, method of communication, graphics or the place where the ad will be displayed on Facebook or Instagram.
How to create user personas on Facebook?
Surprisingly, the target group to which the ad is addressed is often disregarded while creating the advertisement. But you should consider whether you target your message at an expert in a given field, a caring mother, an athlete or a teenager. Each of these groups use different methods of communication and you should also use different words to tell them about the assets of your company. In Delante, we create personas on the basis of data from Facebook Statistics and Facebook Insights. We start from checking the gender, age of people following our client’s fanpage and the language they use in everyday communication. At this stage, it’s also important to find out which pages are liked by these people. Of course, we also keep in mind whether the campaign is supposed to be local or whether it should reach a wider range of recipients. If it’s local, then any liked local restaurants, cinemas or organizations can be helpful in targeting. Next, we think who our recipients can be. It’s a good idea to create a few user personas. So let’s have an example, thanks to the available data you find out that your client’s fanpage is the most popular among women aged 25-34 and the campaign targets the whole country. Now you can create a user persona - Mrs. Kate Smith. You want to find out who she is and you take into account aspects such as: 1. Demographic data:- gender,
- age,
- origin,
- marital status,
- parental status,
- language,
- location,
- a flat/house she owns,
- profession,
- education level,
- household income.
- faith/views,
- ambitions/dreams,
- interests,
- life priorities,
- a problem that can be solved by the advertised product,
- pet peeves.
- What does she read?
- Where does she like to spend time?
- How does the product quality affect the purchase decision?
- How does the product price affect the purchase decision?
- How do special offers affect the purchase decision?
- What does she think about your competition?
“Kate simply loves minimalism. She works in a prestigious corporation and deals with human resources management. She lives on the outskirts of a big city, thus escaping the fast urban lifestyle. She's recently moved in so together with her family, she's looking for the perfect home furnishings.”
This is the moment when we can move on to Facebook Insights which will allow you to retrieve extra information about the target group you create. Here, you can find out what jobs your target recipients have or which sites and places they like.
Once you’ve collected the data and created user personas, you can go to Facebook and devise a target group which will be based on your personas. Remember to include location, age, language, interests, education, relationship status, industry and all other aspects that are of interest to you.
It’s a good idea to narrow down your target group to specific interests such as minimalism or environmental protection. Thanks to it, you let Facebook know that you want your recipients to have particular character traits and interests. Those who will fail to meet your narrowed expectations won’t be included in the target group.
Check the graphics below to see an exemplary target group.
Creating advertisements in Facebook Ads
Ad formats
Creating a Facebook ad requires taking a few steps. First of all, you need to select your ad format. Go for:- A carousel - minimum two photos or movies that can be scrolled. Each of them should have a separate description,
- Individual images or videos - such ads use static photos, movies and many other images to create slideshows,
- Collections - applied in the case of mobile devices. The items are displayed in full screen mode,
- Instant Experience - this a mobile landing page opened as a result of the recipient’s reaction to the advertisement (applies to an individual image/video/slideshow and collection). It’s displayed directly on Facebook.
Targeting ads
Target your advertisements based on demographics, location and remarketing. Try to reach those users who interacted with your website, advertisement, application or fanpage.- Demographics will enable you to determine the language your target recipient speaks. Thanks to it, you’ll find out whether your projects should use slang, jokes or maybe more official language.
- Mentioning location will certainly draw the attention of people living in a given area. This way, you inform recipients that the offer is available right next to them.
- Finally, remarketing will remind recipients about your brand and encourage them to buy or visit your website again. Moreover, advertisements can be used to convince recipients that buying the product was the right choice. Give them a sense of belonging to an elite group of customers or suggest that they can become brand ambassadors.
Ads placements
Use different sets of advertisements for different placements as they’re characterized by various guidelines for the graphics dimensions. If you decide to publish the same graphics in several placements, it’ll certainly be cut to size in some places. However, if you don’t have a sufficient budget at your disposal, you can use images that will work well in any placement. Next, you need to consider where your recipients spend most of their time and how they use social media. You need to find out whether they solely scroll Facebook feed or whether they interact in a different way. Do they have the app or do they simply use Messenger without having a Facebook account? Or maybe your recipients prefer to check Instagram after work? Find out where your potential customers are and wait for them there.Ad Images
The applied images should be attractive and eye-catching. Use graphic visualizations of data, photos presenting people (especially their faces) which express emotions and subconsciously increase the recipients' feeling of empathy or need to interact. It’s perfect when images support the content. If you advertise a dog beauty salon, include a photo of a stylish maltese. A photo showing a fit man or woman will encourage recipients to work out with a personal trainer and to take advantage of the services on your offer. Let the photo be the result of buying your products or services.
The text should take up maximally 20% of the image. And these are both aesthetic reasons as well as restrictions imposed by the portal itself. Breaking the rule may result either in your advertisement not being displayed at all or in reaching a smaller group of recipients.
To conclude, the less text in the image, the lower the cost of advertising and the wider the range. Of course, there are exceptions that prove the rule and you can learn more from Facebook Business Help Center.
The industry vs. Facebook Ads
When it comes to e-commerce, collections and product catalogues will be the most effective. If you run B2B business which specializes in complex products such as start-ups, IT industry or niche sectors, it’s a good idea to use videos that will outline assets of the offer, recommendations and potential benefits for the users. If you wish to present your products from different angles, it’s advisable to create a slideshow. This way you can demonstrate your developing projects or engage potential customers in the health, beauty or fashion sectors. In certain industries, the so-called social proof is a very valuable element of the advertising campaign. This phenomenon consists of a father figure (a doctor, professor, scientist, celebrity) recommending a given product or brand. A recipient who respects the expertise of such a father figure is much more likely to check the offer or make a purchase. In this situation you can refer to:- popular institutions,
- brands,
- experts,
- professors and scientists,
- celebrities,
- statistics (number of users, results, achievements, case studies),
- obtained certifications,
- references in trade magazines,
- honors and awards.
The content of advertisements in Facebook Ads
Now we’re going to share with you a few pieces of information that will certainly help you create more valuable content.Facebook Ads consist of:
- graphics, photos, videos,
- the heading under them (in the form of a bar under the graphics),
- the main text displayed above the graphics, photos or videos,
- the text on the graphics,
- a description of the link placed under the heading in the news feed (it depends on the type of the placement whether it's displayed),
- a call to action button.
Eye-catching text elements
- Content tailored to the recipient
- Emoticons
- referring to the content of the advertisement (e.g. when writing about ecological aspects, use the emoticon of a tree or a leaf),
- highlighting the first sentence of the main text to attract users' attention,
- highlighting the heading (meaning the content under the video or graphics),
- highlighting bullet points and links (arrows will be perfect here).
- Highlighting and listing the offer
- Catchy descriptions
- how to set campaign budgets,
- what content attracts the recipients' attention,
- how to reach a business client,
- what's in store for Facebook Ads."
