If you are a regular reader of my blog you’ll know that I love Facebook Ads. I’ve used them for my church, for other churches, ministries and charities over the years to great success. They are an incredibly effective way to reach people. I also see bad Facebook ads and I wonder about how they ever got approved. Here are seven huge mistakes you can avoid:
1. Yawn-Worthy Ad Creative
The biggest challenge is that you’ve got to capture your audiences attention. They are scrolling down a social feed. Why would they stop at your ad? What is so interesting or engaging to make them stop? You ad needs to evoke the right response. It needs firstly stop them scrolling. Then get them to find out more.
I write more about compelling creative ideas here: How To Get More Visitors To Your Church With Facebook Ads
2. Audience Mismatch
You can have the best ad creative but put it in-front of the wrong audience. Facebook ads manager has powerful interest targeting tools. Use the right one for the right audience.
Read The Worst Mistake I see Churches Make Using Facebook Adverts for more information about audiences.
3. Insider Language
Church’s are notorious for using language that other people don’t use. Fellowship anyone? No one else that I know uses that term. Use terms that are in the everyday language of your culture. For example, In my culture we would not say fellowship, we would say looking for community?
4. Poor Audio
If you are using video, ensure your audio is great. Tinny audio that drops in and out and is overwhelmed by background noise isn’t going to cut it. Bear in mind the vast majority of people don’t even listen to audio, they read the subtitles of the video. So if you’ve got them listening to the sound they brilliant! Make sure its great.
5. No Subtitles
Like I said most people watch a video on their Facebook feed with the sound off. Make sure you include subtitles. Facebook has its own system that you can use. You need to correct it often in the editing and the font size can be too small, but its a great start. Many online specialists now use third party apps to use more impactful subtitles that can be read easily on a phone.
Want to know more about the data that supports this? Read ‘Seven Compelling Social Video Statistics That Will Make You Rethink Video’
6. Budget Allocation
Make sure your budget matches the goal. There is no point in having a tiny budget if you want to fill a stadium. Facebook is still incredibly cheap for the amount it costs to put an ad in-front of someone.
7. Wrong Campaign Goal
If you are targeting those who have never been to your church before that is called a ‘cold traffic ad’. With cold traffic ads your goal should be that you want to ‘reach campaign’ type to reach the people you are targeting. Don’t use a ‘conversion’ campaign.
These are just a few of the common mistakes churches make. If you want to improve your Facebook ads skills then check out my ‘Facebook Ads For Churches’ course.
Your Turn
Got any questions or queries about Facebook ads? Leave a comment below.
