However, reaching this audience is getting tougher, owing to the drop in organic reach and the rise in cost per customer acquisition.

Here’s what Hootsuite found:

“As of the end of 2020, organic reach is still on the decline. The average reach for an organic Facebook post is down to 5.2%. (For the record, at the end of 2019 it was 5.5%, and the year before that it was 7.7%). Meanwhile, the average engagement rate in 2020 for an organic Facebook post was 0.25%. That number drops to 0.08% for those of you with more than 100k followers.”

Going by the numbers, you are obviously running Facebook ad campaigns to promote your business. If you’re looking for ways to do this better, let’s get to it:

Facebook ad hacks you need to try to increase your ROI and ROAS dramatically

Ad hack#1: Play on people’s emotions with FOMO marketing

FOMO or the “Fear of Missing Out” has become an extremely common marketing tactic that works on the human nature of taking swift action in the fear of missing out on something cool.

If you want to make the FOMO emotion work for your brand’s sales, your Facebook ad copy needs to make the reader think that the product or service is already being used widely and they’re missing out on something incredible if they don’t get on the bandwagon.

Here’s how Five Four puts this ad hack to use - both in their ad copy as well as the text on the graphic:

Ad hack#2: Use the inverted unicorn ad targeting strategy

Usually, marketers get picky about their Facebook ad targeting by running their ads for a very specific audience to increase relevance and click-through rate. They believe that if you appear multiple times in front of a targeted audience, some people may get excited enough to click it. For example, if you’re selling PPC marketing software, your Facebook ad will likely target people who:

• Work in management titles
• Have an interest in marketing, or
• Are recent visitors to your site

This ad targeting strategy makes ads more interesting by appealing to multiple interests of a user. This dramatically increases sponsored post engagement rates and relevance scores, which in turn increases reach and lowers the cost per engagement.

Here’s how Larry Kim uses this strategy in his ads:

Ad hack#3: Use a cliffhanger

Cliffhangers are one of the most powerful marketing elements used by copywriters to hook their audience. The cliffhanger technique is a fantastic way to hold your reader’s interest and make your writing and marketing more effective and engaging.

A cliffhanger is an information gap that intrigues people and drives them to explore more.  And where better to use a cliffhanger than your Facebook ad’s headline.

The recipe for an effective cliffhanger in your ad copy is simple: Tell people a great story but leave out the best part. And promise them to reveal the rest when they click on your ad.

The cliffhanger technique works on a simple human behavior: People hate the feeling of deprivation left by information gaps. This makes them curious enough to go the extra step and find out the missing information.

Here’s how Eyeson Business puts this ad hack to work:

Ad hack#4: Use visual contrast in your creatives

A typical Facebook user is bombarded with a sea of content on his/her newsfeed daily. To stand out against the background noise of news, politics, and status updates, your Facebook ad should strongly incorporate 2 elements: great ad copy and an attention-grabbing visual.

Your Facebook ad’s ultimate goal is to catch people’s eye with the right interplay of stunning visuals and compelling copy. Using visual contrast in your ad creatives is a time-tested way to attract your target customer’s attention to your eCommerce Facebook ads and increase ad clicks and conversions.

Here’s how Try The World has used this ad hack:

Pro tip: If you’re promoting a product, make sure it is the center of attention in your ad creative and the contrasting colors don’t diminish its presence or distract the audience you’re targeting.

Ad hack #5: Foolproof your audience pool using data science and AI

Custom lists are great. Targeting people similar to your custom list is great too. But if you want to foolproof your Facebook ad’s targeting, it’s time for you to leverage the ultimate Facebook ad hack - data science and AI.

Using smart data science solutions like Alavi, you can leverage the power of technologies like artificial intelligence to process thousands of consumer digital data points.

Alavi helps you identify Facebook audiences that want your products and your brands, based on parameters more than just the basic demographics.  

To Wrap Up

Creating amazing Facebook ads is a process that you can master with a complete understanding of ad design, copywriting, target audience, advertising metrics and much more. Incorporate the hacks we've shared above to see a monumental change in your ad performance over time.

If you’re new to the world of managing ad campaigns, consider going for a digital marketing management application like Alavi.ai, which easily allows you to optimize and expand your online campaigns. Now track your campaign’s performance with a unified dashboard and get recommendations on how to make the most out of your ad spend.

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