Facebook Advertising – Body Copy

As we discussed in the prior post on Facebook advertising, an ad starts with a great image. After the user’s attention is grabbed it’s essential to follow-through with proper copy.

The best Facebook ads consist of three important areas: Action, Offer, and User Benefits. Below I will cover these in more detail.

1. Action – Each ad needs a call-to-action. The call-to-action can be established with one question: What do you want to the user to do? Some examples include: “Reserve a Ticket”, “Watch this video”, “Join”, “Download”, and many more. The action of the user is the ultimate goal of any ad.

2. Offer – In a competitive industry, many products need to have an offer to get the user’s attention. Examples of offers could be “Free Shipping”, “This Week’s Deals”, and “Free Return”. Offers are not always the solution, but they certainly help.

3. User Benefit – I am under the assumption that your product or service has a benefit to someone. If not, then Facebook advertising is not going to help. You probably already know the user benefits, but the trick is working that into clever, short, copy. The following good examples are succinct and make the point: “42 mpg”, “one size fits all”, “All-Natural”, ”Large Selection”.

I’ve often found the better ads incorporate all three of these items. Of course, this is not easy. How does one say so much in 135 characters? Not only is it 135 characters, it’s often the shorter text that gets more results. This is one, of many areas, where great copy writers earn money.

Let’s look at some examples of actual ads that were targeted toward me on Facebook.

The Ashley Furniture ad above has 2 of the 3 essential elements of a good ad. (1)User Benefit - They offer a “fresh look” for 2012. Whether that’s a user benefit to me or not, is debatable. The attempt is there. (2)Offer – This ad has two offers: 21% off and 5 year financing with no Interest.

It’s missing an Action. However, this is a strong case where it may not be needed. It’s likely that the goal of any furniture store is to get users to come into a store. The offer, in this case offers, was delivered. I know they have deals and financing. I don’t need to click the ad. Ashley Furniture was able to deliver the message … without spending a dollar on me.

Above is an ad from AuthorityDomains.com. This ad is clearly targeted at me and the search engine optimization industry where I have immersed myself. (1)User Benefit – This ad is offering me benefits that I will understand in the SEO world. Link buying is often a shady practice, associated with shady SEO marketers. It clearly has several issues and this ad is letting me know that they have addressed these concerns. (2)Action – “Come see why we are different”. Why are they different? I don’t know, maybe I should find out.

This ad is missing an offer. A free trial would certainly give me an extra incentive to click. With a product like this, where I am already skeptical, it would be hard for me to jump in feet first.

I could not resist this ad from my Alma Mater. Lander University, a small college in South Carolina, is where I earned my Bachelors degree in Computer Science. Apparently, Homecoming is around the corner. (1)User Benefit – I have the opportunity to “reunite with classmates and reminisce.”

I do not see a discount on lodging or meals (Offer). I would bet that local hotels have made arrangements on lodging. If not, they should. I also do not see an Action. Do I need to reserve a spot? What’s the process for attending?

These areas (Action, Offer, Benefit) could apply to many areas of marketing. Not just Facebook. Not just online marketing. It’s often the case, where online marketers forget, or never knew, basic marketing common sense. The technologies change, but people are predictable.

What success have you seen with Facebook advertising? When do you take action an ad?

Tags: advertising, Facebook, Facebook Advertising, PPC
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