Steal These 9 Instagram Templates and Make Them Your Own

There’s a myth that if you design something using a template, that you’re limiting creativity. That templates create repetitive content and miss that… special something.

It’s nonsense. Creativity thrives with boundaries.

Some of the most creative content on Instagram starts within a repeatable template or framework. And the truth is, the most successful brands in the platform depend on Instagram templates.

Templates save you time so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel with every new post.

They are also essential to brand building. When there is a level of consistency in your Instagram creative, repeated visual elements, they become a part of your brand. Your audience recognizes a color, a font, an illustration style.

It’s important to develop Instagram templates for your brand that are unique and align with your messaging. And there’s a ton of inspiration out there to kick start new template ideas for your business.

Today, I’ll be focusing on Instagram feed concepts and examples. In a future guide, we’ll review similar Instagram template ideas for Stories.

Below are 10 Instagram templates to consider using for your brand. These are concepts that you can easily recreate and make your own.

1. Messaging

Recreating SMS or iMessage conversations as social content has been around for a while. It’s still very popular, relatable, and visually engaging. More recently, some brands have used Instagram DMs as the visual inspiration for this style.

These fall into the larger user interface category of Instagram templates. A social image or video that’s inspired by design elements from apps or other software. Our first three template ideas below are user interface designs.

2. Reminders and Notifications

Reminders and notifications are perfect templates for encouraging action. Continuing with the user interface theme, anyone who uses a smart phone is already programmed to pay attention to these designs. These work for short messaging and can easily be layered with photography (phone background).

The iOS “Reminder” Instagram templates (see the Tentree example) have been adopted by many brands for short and inspirational copy. Because this specific concept is widely used, be sure to make it your own through color, fonts, and other brand design elements.

3. Calendar – Schedule

Our final user interface concept is calendars. We look at our calendars constantly. Just like with notifications, we are trained to recognize the design. This is a simple story telling medium. Consider common calendar items for your audience. Which appointments would resonate most? What would normally be the worst part of their calendar? Which items are they missing from their calendar? What can you exaggerate or simplify?

You don’t have to stick to the iOS calendar design in our examples to use this concept. Listing a calendar, schedule, or run of show in any visual format gives you the same storytelling opportunity.

4. Fake Charts

Sharing data and charts evokes authority and trust. But even if you don’t have access to insightful data every day, you can use charts as a template for other types of content. Consider using charts to compare subjective ideas, illustrate humor, or call out product/brand features.

5. Venn Diagrams

One of the simplest charts to consider using as one of your Instagram templates is the tried and true Venn diagram. It puts an immediate focus on commonalities between 2 ideas or more ideas. They create immediate intrigue to understand the messaging. To make your Venn diagrams more engaging, start with two ideas and try to brainstorm 10 or more ways they can be connected. Give special attention to the weird and uncommon items.

When attempting to create Venn diagrams with 3 or more base circles, I recommend starting with pencil and paper. There may be a lot of erasing to get it right. And don’t be afraid to more base ideas into overlap areas, and vice versa.

6. Tweets

If you’ve been on Instagram at least once in the last 3 years, you know that Twitter screenshots are a very popular format. There’s a few reasons this works so well.

When sharing Tweets to Instagram, stick to one or more specific formats. Decide whether you want this to include branding, brand colors, or other brand design elements. Consider using your image editor of choice to recreate the look of your Tweet to have more control over the design and layout.

7. Checklist

Everyone loves a list. And if that list lets you check things off, even better. This is another relatable concept and visual that encourages the viewer to be inquisitive. To mentally check off the list. Or if the checklist is really helpful, to save the post and come back to it later.

8. Technical Diagrams

A technical diagram is essentially a visual list. Taking a visual and adding technical labels to it allows the viewer to digest a longer list more easily, and with more context. This can be done with a photo or illustration. The list can even be one item long. A technical diagram can be a helpful resource or more abstract, even humorous.

Here’s an additional Delta example to checkout that creatively utilized Instagram’s tagging feature to label each item in their diagram. They creating 12 Instagram accounts so they could tag and give additional information on each of their new COVID-19 safety procedures.

9. Choose a Favorite

Perfect to engage your audience and encourage comments “Choose A Favorite” images offer a list of items for the viewer to align with. They pick which item is best, their favorite, etc. A recent trend with this format is to “Choose 3”. And throughout the 2020 Pandemic, many brands have used nostalgic product images with this template for fans to choose their favorite from the past.

The Instagram Design Blueprint (100+ Instagram Templates)

Upgrade your Instagram feed with 100+ Canva Templates (and examples!) you can swipe and use right now, plus our brand creative cheatsheet. Grab your copy of The Instagram Design Blueprint here.

Establishing brand templates is an empowering, time-saving step. That’s why we’re excited to launch this new resource designed specifically for you. It includes:

• Over 100 Editable Instagram Feed Canva Templates
• 50+ Instagram Story Templates
• Idea Bank of Brand Examples (130+ examples for inspiration!)
• Tutorial videos to walk you through customizing our easy-to-use templates
• Additional tools and resources to improve your Instagram creative

 

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Facebook Boycott: How To Pivot Your Ad Dollars #StopHateForProfit

Facebook’s 3 billion monthly users is larger than any country, organization, or religion in the history of humanity.

With that size comes influence. And responsibility.

Social networks, Facebook especially, have a responsibility to reduce their negative impact on society. That’s the premise behind the #StopHateForProfit Facebook boycott campaign from the ADL, NAACP, Sleeping Giants, and a few other non-profits. The boycott challenges brand advertisers to stop all ads on Facebook owned properties during the month of July.

The purpose of the Facebook boycott is to reduce bad actors on the platform, specifically any content promoting violence, white supremacy, or voter suppression.

Facebook can do a lot of good in the world. We want them to make these updates to improve the health of the platform.

Joining The Facebook Boycott

Social Fresh has joined the boycott because we believe Facebook can do more in these areas.

The North Face was the first household name to sign on. As I’m writing this, more big brands are coming on board including Verizon, Unilever, Coca-Cola, and more.

If your business is considering joining the boycott, it’s important to have a plan and be intentional. Let’s walk through some questions you should consider. And get specific about how to pivot your ad dollars away from Facebook – and still be successful.

4 Questions To Ask Before Joining The Facebook Boycott

Question 1: Do you believe in the campaign?

Don’t join the Facebook boycott out of fear. Truly consider if your business aligns with the cause. And why. Understanding why you support this boycott is important. How does it align with your brand purpose?

For example, two of our brand values at Social Fresh are a focus on inclusion and improving platform health on social networks. The boycott aligns with these values by both protecting targets of hate on Facebook and reducing the impact bad actors.

Question 2: Can you join the boycott?

We are in a trying time. Many businesses are struggling. And many depend on Facebook and Instagram ads for a large part of their revenue. If it is going to do significant harm to turn your ads off, do not join the boycott.

Question 3: Where will the money go?

Whether you are stopping $5k worth of ads or $500k, decide where that money will go. I have some suggestions for you below. It comes down to 3 main options: supporting relevant causes, alternative ad platforms, and working with publishers.

Question 4: What statement will you make?

If you choose to support the Facebook boycott, say why. Even if you cannot pull your ad dollars, explain that. Maybe you can pull 10% of your ad budget for the month and work on becoming less reliant on Facebook in the long term.

Talk about that, and why even that small step is important for your business. Anyone will be able to see if your business is running ads on Facebook, so if you support the boycott say so early to get ahead of being called out.

Those 4 questions ground your decision to join the #StopHateForProfit boycott (or any boycott).

Let’s walk through 5 steps to help you reallocate your Facebook dollars to meaningful marketing options.

5 Steps For Reallocating Facebook Ad Dollars

1. Identify Your Business Goal

Every business has different business realities. Can you invest your ad budget in a relevant cause? Does it need to drive sales? Decide what percentage of your Facebook ad dollars needs to drive business results for July and define those results.

If the freed up ad budget needs to work for your business through other ad channels, that’s fine. Make it a conscious decision.

2. Make A Statement With Your Ad Budget

Consider how your ad spend can both work for you and make a statement. Jerry Daykin, Media Director at GSK, suggested that brands “need to think about where they are investing positively.” Specifically, look to invest in “a direct partnership with a minority-owned/focused publication to really validate the point.”

Look for partnership opportunities with businesses or causes that align with your brand values.

3. Invest In Alternate Ad Platforms

If you need your ad budget to work hard for the business, there are many platform alternatives to Facebook ads.

Scott Monty, former Global Head of Social at Ford and executive advisor, recommends focusing on the results you need. “Use Youtube and Google for awareness, split 80/20. And for sales, use Twitter and Pinterest, split 50/50.”

Don’t try to spread your budget across a dozen new channels. Choose 1-3 options that make sense for your business.

Mindy Thomas, Marketing Director at Paul Mitchell Schools, said for their locations, lead generation is always the main objective. They are advising schools that opt into the boycott to split their budget 70% to Google and 30% to Snapchat ads.

4. Look To Creators and Influencers

Like many marketing channels, influencers and smaller media outlets were hit hard during the pandemic. Podcasters and YouTubers have seen drops in revenue. Look for industry-specific creators and niche influencers that align with your needs.

Podcasts are a great low lift option that any business can tap into.

I recommend using a free audience search tool like SparkToro. It focuses on helping you find podcasts, influencers, or YouTube channels that might be the best fit for the audience you need to reach.

5. Test Something New

If your business has been wanting to test ads on Snapchat, TikTok, or LinkedIn, now is your chance to invest in something new.

Shama Hyder, Founder and CEO of Zen Media, recommends a PR focused approach. “Most companies try to advertise direct and push to their site but a much better move is to amplify 3rd party credibility.”

Once you see earned coverage results, Shama recommends that businesses should “amplify those using LinkedIn ads and Twitter ads.”

Another alternative for brands to consider is spotlighting their thought leaders or executives. Scott Monty also recommends brands “look into Reddit as a place for community involvement – particularly an AMA, if appropriate.”

Will It Work?

People have asked me if I think this boycott can effect change at Facebook.

In short, yes.

I don’t think Facebook is going to lose a ton of money from this – that’s not the point. It’s about public pressure and consistent improvements to the platform.

There are two main reasons I think the #StopHateForProfit Facebook boycott is working and will create change:

1. It’s building on the anti-racist and anti-hate movement of Black Lives Matter. The energy and power of the BLM movement has created real change. Brands are responding in real-time.
2. Anyone can track who is running ads on Facebook through their Ad Library. That makes the boycott transparent on a massive scale. And, that ad library would not exist if it wasn’t for past public pressure on Facebook.

Public pressure from advertisers has already resulted in positive changes on Facebook. We won’t solve everything in one month, but every step to reduce the negative impact of social platforms is important. Brands that get involved to drive change are making a difference.

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The Social Media Technology Pyramid

What makes each social network different is the type of content created, how that content is created, and why that content is created.

Consumers share a large variety of content for different reasons on different social networks. And social media platforms are evolving, which changes what we share. Snapchat and TikTok have been big drivers of these evolutions.

In a January interview Evan Spiegal, CEO of Snap, was asked what he thinks about TikTok. In a refreshingly honest answer, he said he “loves TikTok” and is a “big fan.” He went on to describe how he thinks about TikTok as a technology platform compared to other social networks.

He thinks about the category of social technology as three tiers in a pyramid.

1. Communication – Self-expression, talking to friends and close contacts, higher frequency. This would be where Snapchat and Messenger sits.
2. Status – Showing people who you are, that you’re cool, getting likes and comments, lower frequency than communication. Instagram is the best example here.
3. Talent – Making media to entertain other people, even lower frequency, higher production. Think TikTok and YouTube.

As you go up the pyramid, the time and energy needed to create content goes up and the frequency of content produced goes down accordingly.

It’s easy to send a simple, image, video, or text on Snapchat. It does not take a lot of effort. There are few mental barriers. It’s much harder to learn a TikTok dance or put in the production time needed for a more polished YouTube video.

Spiegal says the appeal of Status content as more limited because “people only do something ‘cool’ once a week or once a month and not necessarily every day.”

Another important aspect of this pyramid is the ratio of the content creator to the content consumers. At the bottom of the pyramid, everyone creates and consumes almost equally. As you go up the pyramid, the potential audience size increases and the number of people actually creating the content decreases.

Talent social platforms are more of a lean-back experience for most consumers. While Communication social platforms are lean-in. There is more discussion, engagement.

I like how this theory matches up with the relatively recent trend of personified brand personalities on Twitter. If Twitter is closer to the Communication tier than it is Talent, it makes sense that brands who can make the platform more personal and conversational are doing well.

Compare the pyramid to your social media strategy. Do your assumptions of how users consume your content on each channel match up?

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Seek Surprises in Your Instagram Data

At our 2015 conference, I talked on stage about the large shift we were seeing in Instagram becoming the most important social network for brands going forward. In large part, that is still true today.

On recent episode of The Social Toolkit podcast, I got to speak with Bob Gearing, who is the Global Head of Enterprise at Socialbakers. We got to talk about some of the big brands Socialbakers works with and every topic we touched on — from the Super Bowl to shoe brands — always circled back to Instagram.

You can listen to the full podcast here. Here’s a few highlights from our conversation.

Seek Surprises in Your Data

Bob talked with me about working with Crocs on their Instagram data data and learning that product photos and carousels were producing the most engagement in their feed, but not being posted very often.

Both of these insights could be surprises.

Carousels

There is an impression for some Instagram users that carousel ads can produce lower engagement than a single photo. For Crocs, Carousels were producing their highest engagement numbers.

Carousels are definitely an underutilized format in social. They are especially undervalued as a Twitter ad format, but Instagram has a very special benefit. Bob points out in the podcast that Instagram will often resurface each frame of your carousel, even if a follower does not engage with the first image they see from the post.

This gives you multiple opportunities to gain awareness and reengage a user on Instagram Carousels are the only format that this is true for.

Carousels are also a more creative format. You can do much of the story telling that the story format allows you. You can overlap messaging and image across multiple images. You can even share long form copy, treating each frame as the page of a book or slide deck.

Bob also mentioned that carousels will start to allow shoppable tags some time this year (2020). Which is a great opportunity for all ecommerce brands to pay attention to.

Product Shots

The other surprise might be that product shots of Crocs were also one of the highest engaging types of content from their Instagram. As social media pros we are taught not to hit our audience over the head with “salesy” content or too many calls to action.

But, that’s not always the case.

Especially in fashion and aspirational goods, consumers want to see the product. And maybe only the product. Bob said this was very clear for Crocs in the data Socialbakers reviewed.

Not only was they able to tell that product shots were doing really well, but they broke down product shots into 3 categories: shoe focused, foot/leg focused, and full body. The closer you zoomed in on just the Crocs shoes, the more engagement posts received on average.

Always test new content types and formats and always look to be surprised by your social media data.

Listen to Engage

Bob also talked with me about how Crocs looked to their Instagram content to try and understand what colors were getting more reaction than others. Which colors were over indexing on engagement. It turns out that there was a lot of love for the basic white Crocs clog. Another win for contrast.

They also saw this in a photoshoot they did at Mall of America with a couple volleyball teams. Bob said, “Everybody was doing the white classic clog.” There is even a hashtag for the trend, RockWhiteCrocs, that Crocs and fans both use to celebrate this new-ish fashion icon.

Social media is a data gold mine, but the important thing to remember is you are looking for insights to act on. Any time you are thinking about “social media listening” – remember the phrase “listen to engage.” Always think about how you can act on the data.

“Ultimately, listening to engage with their audience and their photo shoots lead Crocs to double down on some of those pieces that were trending with their younger audience,” said Gearing. “That younger audience has actually helped reinvent the brand over the last few years.”

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Get more insights and interviews like this from industry leaders every week. Search for “The Social Toolkit” in your podcast app today or click here to listen today.

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Facebook Is Testing Two Rows of Facebook Stories

Facebook has been very clear. They see stories as the future of social media.

In 2017, Facebook added stories to the top of the app’s home screen. And every day since then, they’ve worked to get the app’s mainstream user base to adopt and love stories.

And it’s working.

Earlier this year TechCrunch shared numbers that showed Facebook Stories reaching 500 million daily active users, in less than a year from the feature’s launch. This matched WhatsApp and Instagram story user numbers.

Facebook has not shared new DAU numbers for any of their story platforms since (so we are due some new numbers). But since Facebook is twice the size of any other social network, we can feel pretty confident that Facebook is currently the largest stories platform.

Anecdotally, I’ve seen the quality of Facebook stories increase dramatically over the past 18+ months. The Facebook Stories platform is not just a copy of Instagram’s story feature. Even though it benefits dramatically from users and brands being able to easily cross publish from Instagram Stories.

The main way Facebook is working to convince users to create and view more stories is through shear pixel brute force. Over the course of the past 18 months Facebook Stories have increasingly taken over more and more of the Facebook home screen, a few hundred pixels at a time.

Here’s a rough timeline of what percentage Facebook Stories take up on the Facebook home screen when you launch the app:

• Pre-stories Facebook – 0% (an innocent time)
• March 2017 – 13%
• Early 2018 – 20%
• Early 2019 – 30%
• November, 2019 – 45% (current test)

We saw this most recent test last week and it’s the biggest leap yet. Some users are now seeing this test of a double stack of Facebook Stories on their home screen.

Source: Nicole D’Alonzo

Let’s see how this looks visually over time. Stories are slowly taking over as the main thing Facebook wants you to do when you open the app.

Facebook makes a big discovery leap here. Besides giving way more real estate to stories, the double stack of stories means they are now surfacing 7+ story thumbnails instead of 2-3 story thumbnails, as with the previous treatment. More than twice as many faces you already know and might click on.

They’ve basically given over the whole home screen to stories when you open Facebook. The next step for Facebook is to get more users to CREATE stories. More stories equals more inventory for ads. Watch for more tests to encourage all users to not just view stories, but CREATE more stories.

If Facebook wants stories to be the dominant social media content format, they can influence that trend heavily. Brands should consider how a story-first social media world might change their content strategies.

At Social Fresh we produce high level industry briefings on the State of Social Media. We review platform updates like this, macro trends, tactical spotlights, and a ton of great brand creative from the quarter. Email me jason@socialfresh.com for more info.

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Are “stories” really the future of social media?

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How Does Snapchat Survive: A few humble suggestions.

Snapchat will turn 8 years old this year. And, to put it simply, the platform is struggling.

Am I a Snapchat hater? No.

I would love to see Snapchat succeed.

We need MORE competition in the social media platform space, not less. But my honest take today, is that Snapchat is struggling to make money and compete with other social networks. To such an extent that they’re survival as a platform is definitely on the line.

Even Twitter, who is famous for their stalled user growth for several years now, is making more progress in DAU growth the last few quarters than Snapchat today.

Twitter, also, is profitable.

I had a great chat with Edgar Alvarez at Engadget last month for an article he was writing about Snapchat’s identity crisis. I think he got a lot right in his piece, but I wanted to expand a little on what Snapchat can actually do to recover.

We’ve never had a social network like Snapchat, in many ways. But their biggest unique attribute currently is they are not as SOCIAL as other traditional social networks. Their future success relies on fixing that one issue.

If Snapchat focuses on becoming a better SOCIAL network, they can still do some cool things. They can still grow. They can still compete for a larger play of ad dollars.

Before I dive into some specific suggestions for Snapchat, let’s look at why these changes are needed.

Why Is Snapchat In Danger?

First. Snapchat is not growing. This chart shows you their user growth plateau. They seem to have stopped the bleeding in Q4 where user growth was flat, but clearly this is not a thriving social network in terms of growth.

Second. Snapchat is running out of money.

They are losing a couple million dollars a day. They only have enough money to last them for a year or two. That’s their window, and that’s just to NOT run out of money before they have to take on more investment in late 2019 or 2020. The money issue alone means they will need a billion dollar investment or need to be acquired.

Third. Snapchat is the best, free R&D department Facebook never asked for.

Snapchat says they are a camera company. And every cool camera feature they roll out is great. But the camera company is not making money. This is why they need to focus on how to be a better social network. In the meantime they are innovating for other, more SOCIAL social networks to reap the benefits.

Fourth. Snapchat is mainly used as a private chat app and as a private creator tool. And, those features don’t make as much ad money as public social network features. At least not yet. This focus on chat and the camera is where they started, but those roots are will drag them down if Snapchat does not change.

Bonus. I’ll also add here that Snapchat seems to value innovation over all other business items. While this makes a really interesting platform, it might not make the best business. They show signs of starting to turn that corner, but the question is are they doing that fast enough? So far, it doesn’t look like it.

The biggest example of Snapchat’s business immaturity is the treatment of their Android app. It’s been listed, since before their IPO over 2 years ago, as one of their main challenges to growth.

Meaning, they keep saying “our Android app is so bad people don’t use it and leave the platform because of it.” How can a company know this for years and still not have a workable fix rolling out? Especially when international growth is so important for Snapchat and relies largely on Android users.

How To Save Snapchat: 8 Humble Suggestions

It’s simple. Social networks require a few basic functions to work well. We know this because there are several profitable social networks out there to learn from.

1. Improve Profiles and Discovery

It needs to be easier to search for, discover, and learn about other users. If users want to stay private, they can. Instagram, Twitter, even LinkedIn have strong discoverability with plenty of privacy options. If you can’t easily find other people and accounts to connect with, the “social” part of the social network is hard.

It also needs to be easier to search for content. For stories this can be from hashtags, from copy in the stories, from location info. Something.

2. Broaden the Feed

All social networks have a feed. A stream. A column (or row) of content to browse easily. Snapchat’s story browsing works well, but because of the limited discovery it focuses on either very close connections (chat friends) or very broad to no connection (brand publishers). They are missing the interesting middle of content from a broader universe.

3. Add Public Comments to Stories

Instagram needs this too.

But Instagram has their post feed full of comments to fall back on.

Being able to browse public or semi-public comment threads is a major ingredient of any social network. It’s what creates real discussions. Discussions drive engagement, connection, friendships, learning. You know, all the parts of a social network that make it SOCIAL.

4. Make Stories Public

Yes, yes, I know. Snapchat is private. I don’t care. Snapchat already gives users the option for a story to be viewable to “everyone.” So this is not actually such a big leap as it may sound. Snapchat has also done a decent job helping their publishers stories show up in more places.

They just need to continue to do this for all content on the platform (that users choose not to make private). And encourage public content in a way that is more discoverable.

5. Make Stories Permanent

There are rumors that Snapchat is looking seriously at this. You can share certain public stories outside of the app already and they will stay live for 24 hours to 30 days depending on the content. Even semi-permanent content is a nice leap. But, again, just roll this out to all content as an option.

This is a problem for the story content format across all social channels. Stories are harder to create. They require more resources from people and businesses. Social networks can make the value proposition for creating story content more attractive by simply showing story content in more places for a longer amount of time.

If I had to guess, I think Instagram will solve this first. They’ve already created permanent story highlights on profiles.

The biggest benefit here is that businesses and creators will get a much larger return on their content. It will get shared more. Be seen more. Get linked to, etc.

6. Make Stories Embeddable

This requires permanent stories to work. Snapchat has toyed with making stories embeddable, but this is not available for all content yet. And it does not really make sense unless you also allow stories to be permanent. Embedding stories means other websites, blogs, media companies can promote Snapchat content for them.

Snapchat stories could be embedded by the NY Times or other major media channels. This exposure would be great for awareness and promotion on the platform, as well as increase discoverability.

7. Build a Social Network Website

Yes social networks are mainly mobile machines today. And honestly, this one is probably the most optional item on the list. But being able to access a social network on desktop opens up a ton of discovery for the rest of the world.

If Snapchat did this it would show they have clearly turned the corner from a chat app with cool camera features to a real social network. We see glimpses of what this could be on story.snapchat.com, but it is not the full experience.

For stories to be more shareable across the web, you need a web link for each piece of content. Otherwise, you’re excluding billions of people that could learn more about Snapchat.

8. Improve Story Previews

This is another story format issue that all social networks can fix.

Stories are harder to navigate visually than a photo or text post. We don’t know what is in them before we browse. The fix for this is already out there luckily. Video previews.

If you hover over videos on YouTube you will see it. They animate a small section of videos at a low frame rate to help you get a better idea of what you’re getting into visually. Or just preview the full video. TikTok has tested a couple versions of this on the web with their embedded video browsing and main web feed (see below), without the hover needed.

Learning from TikTok

Many of these suggestions will scare die hard Snapchat users and maybe have scared Snapchat themselves.

I assure you though, the platform will thrive with these changes. One of the many ways I know this can and will work is because recent social media upstart TikTok has made a lot of these changes already, and better than many of the social networking leaders that came before them.

TikTok’s global growth seems destined to make them the first truly global social network and first new social platform since Snapchat itself. If Snapchat does not adopt these changes, they will be replaced by TikTok and others.

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Facebook Ads Are Dead, Long Live Facebook Ads.

What works and what withers in the realm of Facebook Ads is a constant game of testing, research, and adjustment.

Beyond the usual tumult, Facebook made some significant changes to the platform this 2018 that require adjusting your strategy.

Despite the politics of 2018 for Facebook and the changes to their ad platform, Facebook Ads are still the #1 tool in your social marketing arsenal.

Whether starting out with Facebook ads, or revisiting your social ad strategy, these 4 core pieces will make or break your campaign.

Skip any of these steps, and you’ll be paying more than you need to for a successful Facebook ad push.

1. Know Your Audience

Ensure your ads reach the right people at the right time by getting a good grasp of your target audiences. Aside from general demographics and geographies, understanding their interests and behaviors can elevate your ad targeting tremendously.

This sounds like common sense, but actually taking time to find new and unique ways to understand the interests of your target audience is huge.

Combine different demographic and interest-based targeting options to get your messaging exclusively in front of the audiences most likely to act … and only pay to reach those users.

In light of its privacy scandals, Facebook removed dozens of third-party targets, meaning advertisers can no longer reach certain highly specific audiences, like frequent credit card users, credit score targeting, or those in the market for a Chevy SUV.

Also problematic, Facebook cut most of its workplace targets, only keeping large global brands. Without expansive workplace targeting, B2B marketers have less prospecting opportunities on Facebook, leaving LinkedIn as the dominant player in that space, at a premium.

Despite this roadblock, there are plenty of other opportunities to use Facebook for prospecting, lead cultivation, and customer retention. Upload your company’s email lists to boost retention and referrals among current customers, then create lookalike audiences based on those lists to reach prospects who share similar attributes to your customers.

Brainstorm with your team, or even bring in an expert to help you brainstorm, to come up with new interest-based targeting options that will help you reach the right people with your ads. Consider which of the below items your target audience would like that others might not like.

• Websites, Blogs, Media Organizations
• TV Shows, Movies, Magazines
• Events, Conferences
• Software, Apps
• Celebrities, Famous People
• Nonprofits, Charities, Professional Orgs

2. Content and Creative: Avoid Being Spam

No one likes spam (the content type, not the food).

Facebook implemented advertising restrictions in 2018 to reduce spam appearing on users’ timelines.

Specifically for ad images, text cannot occupy more than 20% of the image. Facebook has gone back and forth on the 20% Rule for a few years, but has finally tightened it up and now heavily limits or completely stops ad delivery for those with excessive text.

A handy tool to determine if your ad images meet Facebook’s standards is the Text Overlay Tool. By uploading your ad creative to the Image Test Check, Facebook will rate your ad from “OK” to “High.” Ideally, you would want a rating of “OK,” so the ads would run normally.

If your rating ranges from “Low” to “High,” you will need to adjust the ad images by either making the text font smaller or removing text. It might take several tries to optimize the ad to the “OK” rating, but this is crucial to ensure the ads have the highest possible reach.

With the media storm surrounding Facebook’s recent political scandals, advertisers who promote anything related to political and/or national issues must adhere to Facebook’s updated political advertising policy. Part of this includes the authorization of anyone managing your page. To become authorized, Page and ad account admins will have to verify their identities and addresses, in addition to disclosing who is paying for the ads.

Even if you do not publish political content, Facebook’s overaggressive automated filters often flag non-political posts, so leave plenty of time for a potential appeal process before starting your campaign.

3. Let’s Talk Money

The beauty of advertising through Facebook is that you can generate impactful results with a relatively low budget.

When deciding on exactly how much money to allocate to your ad campaign, you would need to factor in how long the campaign is, how many ads you’re planning on running, and how large the target audience is.

For example, if you have a small, niche audience, you do not need to spend as much as a statewide or nationwide campaign. Otherwise, your ads will be hitting the same people over and over again.

There is a fine line between reminding people of your ad and annoying them. The ideal frequency in which people see your ads is three.

Whether you are just starting out with Facebook ads or a veteran, consider your budget carefully. Facebook ads can do a lot with a few hundred dollars if setup properly. Your initial ad testing does not need to be huge to show you what works.

4. Testing, Testing, 1, 2…

Utilizing Facebook Ads Manager, you can make the most out of your budget by evaluating how well the ads are performing.

This step is what takes any good results with Facebook ads to great.

As with any A/B testing, it is essential to have different variations of your ads to gauge which ones are helping you achieve your campaign objectives. Facebook has recently made this easier with Dynamic Creative, which automates the process of combining text, images, headlines, and calls-to-action into separate post ad variations.

Soon after your ads have been running, turn off any underperforming ads. Deactivating these ads will prevent you from wasting money on ads that are ineffective.

For instance, if part of your campaign goal is to drive traffic to your website, you would want to turn off ads that have low link clicks.

Consider this: a robust Facebook ad campaign may start with thousands of ad variations, with different combinations of visuals, headlines, and captions. After letting them run for a week, narrow down the ads to the ones producing the best results for our campaign’s goals.

Eventually, you will end up only running the best of the best, generating top-tier outcomes.

You may think you know what will drive the desired action, but you don’t know until you test it.

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Let us know what questions you have about Facebook Advertising in the comments and we might cover it in a future blog post.

We went into a lot more detail about how to improve your creative, targeting, and testing at Social Fresh 2018. Catch my workshop session and 20 others by getting access to the Social Fresh 2018 Video Pass.

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