Digital Marketing for Financial Advisors (Step 3: The Basics of Creating Facebook Ads)

Facebook and Google have now become the two largest mediums for advertising.  Within Singapore itself, 4.1 million people own a Facebook account (as of 2019), which means that you have the potential to reach 4.1 million through Facebook advertising. 

So here comes the question, what type of Facebook ads is the best for you? 

Well, generally there are a few common ad formats that you can choose: Image, Video and Carousel.

Image

This is the easiest and most straightforward ad to create. You can consider using image ad if you are only focusing only on 1 product/selling point. Most importantly, you should have an image and tagline that is powerful enough to incite emotions and capture attention.

Video

It is old news that videos have an edge over images, given that Facebook gets 100 million hours of video views daily. We would usually recommend creating short videos that are under 1 minute, best if it can be just 15 seconds — the duration of an Instagram story. The first 3 seconds of the video is the most crucial as the content will determine whether the viewer continues watching your video.  

Hence, video ads are usually more complicated and time-consuming to create, given that you would need to think of an attractive storyline, and also condense all your key points within the time limit.

Despite the hassle, having a video ad would make it easier to get your point across if your intention is to educate your audience on concepts such as the importance of retirement planning.

Carousel

Carousel ad is recommended if you are trying to promote multiple products/selling points. The benefit of using carousel ad is that you can provide more information and details through the cards (up to 10). However, creating the ad can be quite taxing as you would have to put up a number of photos/videos and brainstorm different titles to maximise the effectiveness of the ad. 

Characteristics of an Effective Ad 

Here are some characteristics of an effective Facebook advertisement:

  • Good design
  • Strong copywriting
  • Differentiated
    • Instead of images, you may opt for cinemagraphs / gifs, which are the sweet spot between videos & images
  • Strong Call-to-action
    • Make it urgent by having a limited-time-only offer, or provide an attractive lead magnet e.g. cheat sheet, e-book
  • Appeals to audience’s needs 
    • A/B testing can be done to determine which ad design / ad copy appeals more to your target audience

What is the Best Ad Format?

Honestly, there is no right answer to this. What’s more important is for you to consider which format is more effective in communicating your intended message. If you are adventurous enough, you can experiment using various ad formats to find out what works best for you!

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