For business owners, it’s a common question: Is budget better spent on Facebook ads or Google ads?
The answer, however, isn’t as simple or straightforward as the question.

On one side, Google has made a name for itself as the internet’s go-to search engine. On the other, Facebook is where more than a fourth of the world stays in touch with friends. Both are valuable places to advertise — but for different reasons. For your next campaign, which you choose depends on several factors. First, let’s define both types of advertising.

What is Facebook advertising?

Facebook advertising is a paid system that allows businesses to serve branded messages to users of the world’s largest social network. Placements on Facebook include the newsfeed, the sidebar, and the audience network on mobile.

What is Google advertising?

Google advertising is a paid system that allows brands to amplify their messaging throughout the Google network. That includes over 2 million websites and the results pages of 3.5 billion daily searches.

Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads

Both Google and Facebook have a reach that extends to all corners of the internet. Google’s display network reaches 90% of people online, and searches in its proprietary engine have topped a trillion per year. Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 2.2 billion users.

Advertisers are no strangers to either network — Google and Facebook own 60% of digital advertising dollars worldwide. With Google dominating, there’s something for everyone on the network — but at what cost? Here are a few things you’ll want to consider before you choose one over the other.

How granular your targeting needs to be

Facebook keeps a mountain of data on its users. Even though it’s cut ties with third-party data collectors, the social network still allows advertisers access to a trove of audience information, which is primarily offered by users.

Google, on the other hand, serves ads contextually based on keywords and behavior. It has no storage of user information that can compare to Facebook’s. That makes Facebook the choice of advertisers whose product may center around a specific detail in someone’s life, like the birth of a child, for instance.

What you’re advertising

Google has reach and seniority on its side, but when it comes to ad creative, Facebook takes the cake. Formats like the immersive Canvas (now known as “Instant Experience”) can make a product showcase out of a user’s screen, 360 video can turn a mobile device into a window to the world, and lead ads can generate leads straight from the platform.

Facebook’s interactive ad types make the social network an ideal choice for businesses advertising sleek products, or fun offerings that lend themselves to visual demonstration.

In contrast, Google’s ad types are myriad, but they’re far less engaging. If you’re looking instead for flexibility in the way you advertise your product, you’ll want to go for Google. For engagement, opt for Facebook.

If your ad campaign has viral potential, the ability to like, comment, and share will only add to its reach. If it doesn’t, Google ads may provide a better audience.

Your industry

Ultimately, where you choose to allocate your budget may depend on the industry you’re in. Google Ads is known to draw high-value traffic in select business areas. And as more businesses in those spheres flock to the network, bidding highly on keywords relevant to you, they drive cost per click up.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t use Google ads; you simply may find less competition on Facebook. And less competition translates to lower CPC. In your industry, it may make sense to start on Facebook.

The goal of your campaign

The goal of advertising, ultimately, is to attract buyers and keep them. But, not every ad goes for the sale. Like members of a team or business, each campaign plays a unique role in accomplishing that ultimate goal. Here are a few smaller goals you may be considering for your next ad group:

Top-funnel goals:

At the largest part of your funnel, the top, is where visitors begin to learn about your brand and its solution. They might follow and engage with your social media accounts, or maybe search for information on a particular problem. So, common ways of measuring awareness of your brand are:

• Website visits
• Social media interaction
• Social media reach
• Blog reads
• Social shares
• Newsletter subscriptions

Middle-funnel goals:

Where the funnel starts to shrink in size is where prospects begin to eliminate options within the same category of product or service. For example, if prospects have determined to outsource PPC management to an advertising agency instead of purchasing software to do it themselves, this stage is about finding the right agency. A business trying to measure success at the middle of the funnel could do so with:

• • Session length
  • Bounce rate
  • Case study downloads
  • Email opens
  • Email click-throughs
  • Landing page visits
  • Webinar signups
  • Demo signups

  Bottom-funnel goals:

  The bottom of your funnel is where prospects make a decision to purchase your product or go with another. Some common ways to measure bottom-funnel success:

  • Sales
  • Revenue
  • Gross profit
  • Sales page conversion rate

  So why do these stages matter? They correlate to the users of each network.

  Facebook stands out as a top-funnel titan, with the ability to spread viral awareness that Google can’t match. Social is where people go to browse and share the things that matter to them. Those things are rarely middle- and bottom-funnel campaign material.

  Google beats Facebook when it comes to drawing bottom-funnel traffic. The reason is the intent of searchers.

  By “intent” we’re referring to a searcher’s need for a solution to their query. After all, that’s why you navigate to a search engine in the first place. If you’re searching, you’re looking for an answer.

  When that query contains keyword phrases relevant to a Google advertiser’s business, an ad on the corresponding search engine results page appears. These ads drive searchers to landing pages where they can claim an offer relevant to their solution. If they’re searching for email marketing software, a Google ad might direct them to a page where they can try the software for free.

  Here’s an example from Sendinblue:

  

  

  Are you B2B or B2C?

  Facebook traffic is much less qualified than Google Ads traffic, which is full of intent. Still, this is no problem because the CPC is so much lower on Facebook. For example, say you have an 8% conversion rate on Google AdWords and a 3% conversion rate on Facebook:

  • • • • If you’re paying $8 per click on Google Ads, each conversion costs you $100.
        • If you’re paying $0.70 per click on Facebook, each Facebook conversion costs you $23.33.

        This comes down to more than how big your budget is. It’s about spending as efficiently as possible. With a higher conversion rate on one network, it may seem ROI is higher there. However, the truth may be you’re paying more per conversion.

        Breaking down the numbers

        In the example above, 1,000 clicks on Google at $8 apiece will cost you $8,000, while 1,000 clicks on Facebook at $0.70 apiece will cost $700. With a conversion rate of 8% on Google, you’ll have earned 80 conversions from those thousand clicks. On Facebook, with a 3% conversion rate, you’ll have earned 30. So, $8,000 for 80 conversions on Google averages to $100 per conversion. On Facebook, $700 for 30 conversions averages to $23.33 per conversion.

        That means you could spend ten times more on Facebook — generating 300 conversions for $7,000 — and spend a thousand less than it costs to convert 80 people on Google. Too often, marketers get caught up in conversion rate, but a higher conversion rate doesn’t guarantee efficiency.

        Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads: A final look

        As is the case in many comparisons of tools and networks, the answer’s rarely black and white, and it rarely has to be one or the other. Facebook and Google can work powerfully together, especially when it comes to remarketing.

        With the Meta Pixel and Google retargeting, advertisers can draw visitors back to their landing pages when they don’t convert by serving remarketing ads throughout both networks. Many marketers actually recommend starting with remarketing on both networks.

        When it comes to where you should spend most of your budget, there’s no right or wrong answer. It depends on which works best for you. Let these considerations guide you if you’re just getting started, but continue to collect data on which works best and adjust accordingly.

        Measure KPIs throughout the funnel and boost campaign conversion rates with landing pages from the industry’s most robust landing page platform. Sign up for an Instapage 14-day free trial today.

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While advertising rules and trends may change, one fact remains constant.

Personalizing advertising campaigns is where success lies. Providing fully personalized experiences to every audience segment in the advertising funnel gets you conversions, and eventually, a high return on ad spend (ROAS).

Personalization isn’t a new phenomenon, it has been used in the pre-click stage for years—from dynamically inserting names into emails to programmatic advertising. However, advertisers still aren’t using personalization in campaigns to the strategy’s full potential, specifically in the post-click stage.

Let’s change that.

Enter Google and Facebook.
How Google and Facebook can help with personalization

Facebook and Google are powerful advertising platforms designed around personalization.

Both advertising giants gather data about their users and show them content based on their actions and preferences. Information learned by the platforms is used for data models that progressively make advertisers’ campaigns “smarter.”

Advertisers can learn a lot about personalization from looking at Google and Facebook. In this blog post, we’ll examine some of the personalization practices used by these two advertising platforms—and how to implement them in your own ad campaigns.
Google personalized search

Google introduced personalized search in 2004. The primary purpose of personalized search is to increase the relevance of the results for a particular user. Arguably, this is where the trend towards online personalization, browser cookies, and search engine optimization (SEO) truly began.

The Google search results a user sees aren’t just based on the traditional ranking factors—such as the relevance of the web pages to the search term or their authority—they are also sorted based on the information that Google has collected about the user with browser cookies. The information includes the user’s location, search and browser history, device, other Google products they use, demographics, and interests.

Google shows users what the platform expects they’re searching for, based on what they’ve searched for in the past. Since Google owns 92% of the search engine market worldwide, audiences have grown used to this kind of online experience over time, signifying personalization is not a marketing fad, but it is here to stay.

Advertisers now need to segment and personalize experiences based on users’ demographics, interests, and devices to create an enjoyable user experience and a smooth transition from the initial ad click to the post-click experience.

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Meta’s social media platform Facebook has a lot of users—2.93 billion of them as of Q1 2022. Around 179 million of those users are in the USA, so whether you operate in North America only or in the global marketplace, that’s a huge amount of potential customers. Of course, it’s not quite as easy as shooting fish in a barrel; you need to approach your advertising with caution.

Not every Facebook ad you post is going to be successful—some will work better than others. That’s one of the realities of advertising on social media. So, you want to be able to not only see how an ad performs as a whole, but also learn which elements of your ads are weak and which have some strengths. That way, you can improve as you move forward.

That means you need to carry out regular audits of your Facebook Ads to monitor performance and identify those strengths and weaknesses. Doing so means that your next set of ads should perform better and need less tweaks than previous ads.

So, what is a Facebook ad audit and how do I perform one?

Put simply, you want to analyze the effectiveness of your ads. You need to look at what strengths your ads have as well as identifying the areas you can make improvements in so that you can have a better ad strategy moving forward.

There is no set process to perform a Facebook Ads audit and how you approach it is going to depend on your business priorities as well as your preferences. But there are a few main areas most audits will examine:

• Demographic targeting
• Content
• Creative elements such as images and videos
• The structure of your ad campaigns
• Account overview
• External links such as landing pages

.

Areas to audit

Let’s look closer at those main areas and see what’s so important about them, how you can audit them, and how to make informed decisions about what changes may be needed.

1. Demographic targeting

It doesn’t take much to make a Facebook ad, but have you thought about who you are targeting? Are you ensuring your ad is actually seen by those people? For example, if you are advertising your dog grooming business, then your target audience is likely to be pet owners not people looking to invest in Microsoft Teams phone. You want to be sure that your target demographic group is seeing your ads and, ideally, then clicking through to the relevant landing page.

If your ad isn’t reaching the right people then it is unlikely you will see a good return on investment. Audience targeting should be the thing you look at first as without potential buyers, your ad will be fairly ineffectual. Meta offers a free tool—Facebook Audience Insights—that allows you to see the makeup of the audience on any campaign or ad.

Meta also offers a meter that identifies the potential audience of any ad before you post it. You should aim to have that meter reach at least halfway for the audience you want to target. The great thing about this feature is that it allows you to make some tweaks prior to posting, so you know you are reaching the right people.

2. Creative elements

People spend a limited amount of time on their social media accounts, so capture their attention as they scroll down their newsfeed. Your creative elements include not only images, but also your headline text, the body copy, and any other media you include in the posts such as videos.

Your ads need to not just capture a potential customer’s attention, they need to engage with them too and make them want to learn more about you and your products. You need to keep some consistency across the ads you post as well, as the messages you give and the branding and landing pages of your business.

What will happen if a customer likes what they see in an ad and then clicks through to your landing page and finds contradictory messaging?They will get confused, and they will likely leave quickly thus leading to an increased bounce rate for your site. Analyze which ads are driving the most visitors to your site (and which drive the least) and use the better performing ad as a benchmark.

Run A/B testing on all your content, both Facebook Ads and your website, to see which individual elements work best. These can include even the most basic creative elements such as font type and color. Look at all your ads from the last year and identify those that have performed best. Then, dig into the data to see which common elements these ads share so you can build on that.

3. Structure

It may not seem as obvious but your campaign structure can play a major role in how successful your ads will be. To improve your structure, you need to have a very clear view of your objectives but also an understanding of how Meta’s algorithms work. Having insights into both those factors can help you achieve a more successful campaign.

When you create a new campaign on Meta, they will ask you what your Facebook ad objectives are. They then use the info you provide to optimize your campaign. Meta heavily relies on ML (machine learning) these days, and putting together a clear campaign objective that is reflected in your actual campaign means that you can work better with their algorithms.

Another aspect of structure you need to examine is the customer journey. That journey will not always start with a call to action that pushes a customer to a sale. Sometimes, you need to nurture the customer, to inform and educate them, so you may have a campaign that includes info on, say, auto dialers, to allow them to become familiar with the solution you are offering.

Sometimes, you want to move them slowly through your sales funnel until they feel they are ready to make an informed decision to purchase your product or service. One major advantage of initially focusing on that journey instead of instant sales is that you are more likely to build a positive relationship with customers and that in turn will lead to better customer retention rates and a higher CLV (customer lifetime value).

4. Overview of account

While perhaps less important than the preceding factors discussed, a well-organized account overview can be crucial if you are running multiple campaigns and ads. You should ensure that both campaigns and ads are clearly labeled and have names that reflect their purpose and objectives.

For example, if you plan a campaign that has the primary objective of generating leads, then give it a name/title that clearly reflects that, such as “Lead generation #1/2022.”

This is going to make things far easier for you when it comes to monitoring, tracking and analysis. Having clear goals for each campaign makes organization and auditing of those campaigns far easier.

5. Links and landing pages

Your Facebook Ads campaigns are not just about what people see on Facebook. Unless you are a very small business operating a direct sales model, at some point you want your potential customers to click through to a landing page or to other parts of your website. That means you need to ensure that you give as much attention to those external links as the ads themselves.

As already mentioned, you want consistency in branding and messaging across all touchpoints. If a customer sees a fantastic ad then clicks through to a messy and confusing landing page, then your conversion and bounce rates will suffer. You need to ensure that your website and landing pages are fully optimized, from loading speed through to all the relevant content.

Your conversion rates can be a good indicator that those landing pages are up to par, but carrying out regular A/B testing on those pages is still advisable. What worked in March may not be working as well in November. Every aspect of your campaign should be checked and analyzed on a regular basis.

The takeaway

Of course, the aspects discussed are not the be-all and end-all of a good Facebook Ads audit but they are the main ones to focus on. You should review several key metrics, and you can analyze these from your Facebook Ads manager dashboard. You can even create your own specific custom metrics in Databox. Some of the other metrics you can track includes:

• Costs vs. conversion
• Cost per result
• Cost per click
• Campaign goal
• Ad placement
• Facebook Ads report

The structure of depth of your audit is very much going to depend on your personal preferences and what you want to achieve. For example, you may want to understand why what you thought was a well-constructed ad campaign did not perform to your expectations. However, knowing what factors affect success can help you customize an audit so that you can utilize it to improve results.

As Facebook Ads become second-nature, you can even construct an audit template in the same way you would have a business proposal template. Combining a template with Meta’s analytic tools can make audits a relatively simple process to ensure they are as performing as well as they can.

So what are you waiting for? Get started today with your Facebook ads audit.

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There’s been a lot of speculation over the years about the best time to run Facebook ads. It seems like every other day someone new comes out with a study that disproves the last one.

First, it’s, “The weekends are the best time to post!” Then somebody proclaims, “No, weekends are the worst! It’s the weekdays that get marketers the best ROI!” Then it’s, “You’re both wrong! The best time to post depends on the industry you’re in!”

At this point, everybody’s had a chance to weigh in. I’ve even read an article that claims the best time to post could be when your fans aren’t online.

What a lot of marketers aren’t weighing in on, however, is the question of the best time to run Facebook ads.

Today we’re going to change that. The only thing is … you may not like what we have to say.

The answer is: It depends. And here’s why …

The difference between organic posts and paid ads

In a perfect world, all your Facebook fans would see each and every one of your organic posts. They would like your posts, comment on them, and share them so much that your sign-ups and sales would soar through the roof.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world; and not all posts are created equal.

Ever since Facebook introduced the news feed in 2009, marketers have been obsessed with trying to outsmart the algorithm responsible for limiting branded content users’ feeds, formerly known as “Edge Rank

But there’s a fundamental difference between figuring out the best time to post an organic Facebook update and the best time to run a paid advertisement.

You see, your organic posts can only appear in the news feeds of people who already “like” your page. If someone hasn’t “liked” your page, they won’t see your organic post unless they go searching for it.

How are ads different?

Ads are different. They have the potential to be seen by everyone on Facebook — regardless of whether or not those people have “liked” your page.

The people who are seeing your organic posts in their news feed have already subscribed to them — so they expect to see an update from you once in a while.

In contrast, ads are inherently more intrusive. Marketers have bribed their way into our news feeds, in some cases forcing us to digest content that isn’t relevant to us at all.

And that’s why it’s silly to make decisions about when to run ads based on the best time to post. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. People are more likely to engage with posts because they’ve already consented to see them. Whereas with ads, you never know what you’ll see next in your news feed.

I’m still trying to figure out why on earth someone would serve me, a person with no children, this ad for potty training advice and related products:

The time you run your ad won’t matter if you’re targeting it to the wrong audience.

But if you’ve nailed down your target demographic, and you can’t rely on all the “best time to post” advice, then you’re probably wondering …

How do I determine the best time to run Facebook ads?

To figure out when to run your ads, you need to have a deep understanding of your business, your industry, and your customer.

For instance, if you’re a company that manufactures snowblowers, it probably wouldn’t be smart to run your ads in the summer. That’s just common sense.

But you need to get more analytical than that.

For example, the highest-earning day of the week for online retailers is Monday, while Saturday and Sunday have been the lowest. Consumer spending has also been known to increase in the beginning and middle of the month, because of something called “the paycheck effect.”

Understanding industry statistics like these are valuable, but it’s still not enough. You have to know your business inside and out:

• What days do you get the most sales?
• What time of day do your blog posts get read the most?
• When do you generate the highest number of email sign-ups?

What experts have to say

Claudia Lombana, a specialist at eBay and Paypal, noticed that Monday between 11 am and 1 pm was their biggest time for mobile shopping. Newer data from Shopify confirms this.

Marketer Claire Pelletreau noticed that the best-selling day for her “Absolute Facebook Ads” guide was Monday. Using Google Analytics, she also found out that she received her most sign-ups at 2 pm.

That’s the kind of detailed analysis you need to be doing. If you’re running an ad to drive clicks to your blog, figure out what times your blog tends to get read. If you’re running an ad to generate sales, find out what day is most profitable to you.

Here’s a great step-by-step explanation of how Claire found out the best time to run ads for her business.

And here’s an example of how you should be using Facebook data to determine the best time to run your ads. Below is a report on some ads I ran for a client with the goal of generating more Facebook fans:

You can see a trend emerging over the span of a few months. The peaks represent the days that page got the most likes, and the valleys represent the days it got the least.

In this particular data set, it’s pretty easy to determine the best-performing days of the week. All the arrows in the image above indicate either a Sunday or a Monday. Why those days produced the highest ROI, I’m not sure, but I do know that many of those peaks occurred at the beginning of the week. Therefore, if I were to continue running this ad set, it would be wise to run it on a set schedule.

Keep in mind, this data is unique to this particular business. To figure out yours, you’ll need to head over to the ads manager and generate some reports.

Get as specific as you can. Break your results down by age, gender, placement, date range, action; and use that data to determine the schedule you should run your ads.

How do I run my ads on a set schedule?

Facebook’s ad creation tool makes it easy to schedule your campaigns. After you’ve determined your campaign objective, you’ll be taken to a page on which you can input your targeting, budget, and schedule:

Instead of clicking “Run ads all the time,” select “Run ads on a schedule.”

When you do that, this box will open up:

Now all you have to do is click inside the boxes that represent the days and hours you want your ads to run.

For this ad set, I’ve specified that I want to run ads at the following times:

• Monday and Tuesday between 9 am and 12 pm
• Wednesday and Thursday between 12 pm and 3 pm
• Friday and Saturday between 3 pm and 6 pm
• Sunday from 6 pm to 9 pm

Keep in mind that if you’re running a national campaign, your ad will be shown to your audience according to their time zone. So on Mondays and Tuesdays, people in San Diego will see the ad between 9 am and 12 pm PST, people in Chicago will see the ad between 9 am and 12 pm CST, and people in New York City will see the ad between 9 am and 12 pm EST. Pretty neat, huh?
From here, it’s just about monitoring, testing, and optimizing.

It’s your turn

How did you determine the best time to run Facebook ads for your business? Did you use any methods we didn’t list? Whenever you decide to run ads, make sure to create a dedicated landing page for your Facebook ad campaigns, and start generating more conversions!

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Social and digital marketers who have been in the game for awhile will remember a Facebook rule called the “20% rule” or “20% text rule.”

Facebook’s 20% rule stated that no more than 20% of an ad’s image could be occupied by text. While it’s still a guideline today, it’s no longer enforced or a reason that ads get outright rejected. 

Much to marketers’ delight, the social network decided to do away with the “20% text rule” in 2021. However, marketers can’t just throw out the 20% text threshold—it remains an important consideration. Before we dig into the legacy of the 20%, let’s revisit the reasons for it in the first place.

The history of the 20% rule

Facebook developed the 20% rule to address issues imagery noisiness and news feed saturation. When any of Facebook’s 1.96 billion daily active users log into the platform, their networks share an average of 1 billion stories each day. That’s 1 billion posts the social network’s algorithm has to prioritize in your news feed.

Do you want to see the sonogram of your coworker’s baby or the video of your cousin surfing the waves of San Diego? Would you rather read your mom’s politically charged status update or marvel at the watercolor self-portrait your friend just finished?

You don’t get to decide; Facebook’s algorithm prioritizes how content is served based on engagement. And somewhere in there, the algorithm has to account for advertisers. That’s when text overlay on ad images comes into play.

Pre-2021, Facebook advertisers could cover their ad images with no more than 20% text to preserve the visual-driven nature and quality of content users expect on the platform. To adhere to guidelines, those who paid for reach on the platform were forced to use a Facebook tool that divided ad images with a 25-rectangle grid (it’s since been replaced with a different tool, but more on that later). Ad image text that took up more than 20% of the rectangles wasn’t allowed to run.

Though developed with good intentions, the tool was largely ineffective and depended on the position of the text more than it did the amount of text. These images, though they have the same font size, illustrate how subjective the rule was:

The guideline caused advertisers on the platform headaches and additional work (so much so that people devised ways to beat the system). 

Marketers rejoiced when Facebook abandoned the 20% rule

In a blog post, Facebook marketer Mike Gingerich said the following say about the rule:

I’m not able to print 20% of the bad words I’ve said while trying to create Facebook Ads without using Facebook image representations. Using the word ‘Facebook,’ and making sure the text stays under that percentage.

First of all, Facebook’s 20% rule that applies to the amount of text that can appear within images of News Feed ads is stupid and poorly enforced, it's inconsistent and ridiculous that it applies to link thumbnail images. Did I mention that I hate it?

Still, the reason behind the rule in the first place is VERY relevant today—to protect the quality of content on their platform so that users will actually click on ads.

Why advertisers use text on Facebook ad images

The rationale is simple: If you want people to interact with your ad, you first have to get them to notice it. As we scroll through our Facebook feeds, quickly scanning for posts we want to consume, it’s the ones containing bright, colorful imagery that stop our index finger in its tracks.

This should come as no surprise, considering research conducted almost 40 years ago indicates that we tend to notice images and headlines on a page first. Then read bolded words after that, and consume block text last.

To take advantage of our natural attraction to images, many Facebook advertisers add CTAs to their ad photos, and compelling words like “free,” “you,” and “limited-time offer,” knowing they’ll be read more often than the actual post text.

Here’s an example from WordStream:

The ability of posts like these to grab users’ attention is more important now than ever following Facebook’s announcement that its news feed algorithm will be changed yet again to favor friends’ content over advertisers.’

The catch 22: Ad text isn’t a silver bullet

While many industry authorities cite using text overlay as a great way to draw social media users to a Facebook ad (including ourselves), the team over at SketchDeck, say that more text on an ad image actually plummets CTR.

After testing 48 Facebook ads to bust 6 marketing myths, here’s what they found:

The results go against everything industry insiders tell us. An ad that didn’t clearly display its value proposition using text overlay should perform better than one that did. Similarly, flashy text that reads “Free” or “Limited-time offer” should turn us off.

The SketchDeck team has a guess:

“We think the ads with text overlaid looked, well, like ads. Users saw the text or call to action, registered it as an ad, and then moved on. One of Facebook’s tips is that an ad image should not look out of place in the news feed, many users are plastering text across the images that they posts.”

Maybe that’s the reason.

However, that doesn’t mean they’re altogether worthless. In fact, a recent update from a Facebook representative suggests the complete opposite.

The current Facebook text overlay rule

Facebook Product Marketing Manager, Afsheen Ali, reached out to Jon Loomer to officially address the 20% text rule:

Our research has shown that people demonstrate a preference for ads with less text. Previously, if 20% of an ad image’s area was text, it was not approved to run on Facebook, Instagram, or the Audience Network. Some advertisers think this can be confusing, as it’s not always clear that an ad does not meet the policy requirements until after creative has been submitted. Facebook is shifting to a new solution to improve this experience which allows advertisers more flexibility while still allowing us to maintain an enjoyable experience for people.

This looked like a win-win at first glance. But, in reality, the 20% rule hasn’t changed that much at all.

While Facebook no longer outright rejects ads that have more than 20% text, they do limit their reach—in some cases significantly.

Instead of using a “run or reject” system, Facebook categorizes your ad according to the following ratings:

With Facebook’s new text overlay tool, you can upload an image to see what the chances are it will have its reach restricted. We put a couple of our own images to the test…

They passed with flying colors.

Determined to find out, we took a screenshot of one of our landing pages and uploaded it. It’s almost entirely text:

Still, we only managed to reach Facebook’s “Low” text rating:

These examples showcase what will and will not come under the new rule:

OK Image Text

Low Image Text

Medium Image Text

Image Text: High

The following are exceptions, and DO NOT count as text on your ad image:

• Infographics
• Book/Album covers
• Full Product images
• Posters for movies, festivals, sporting events, and shows
• Legal text
• App screenshots
• Cartoon and comic strips
• Text-based business calligraphy

These, on the other hand, DO count as text on your image:

• Numbers
• Text-based logos
• Watermarks, regardless of whether or not their usage is mandatory

So, should you still limit your image ad text?

In short, yes. Facebook says their users prefer ads with little to no text. Since Facebook controls ad reach and campaign cost on its platform, it’s wise to follow the new rule. That doesn’t offer as much flexibility as they’d have you believe.

Another important consideration is not just how much text you want to display, but your message itself. Think about your unique selling proposition—What’s going to draw your users in? Overlaying text like “free,” “you,” “new,” and “instantly” may not. Use these words wisely and sparingly, and your ads will continue to run with maximum reach and at minimum CPC.

Always connect all your ads to personalized landing pages to increase your conversion rates. That way you can control the message, and have plenty of space to tell your audiences about special offers that connect to the ad that got them there. Start creating your own dedicated landing pages by signing up for an Instapage 14-day trial today.

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Facebook and Instagram are two of the biggest and most popular social media platforms. 2021 statistics show that there are approximately 2.8 billion active Facebook users per month and one billion active Instagram users. Knowing this, it’s clear most brands need to advertise on both platforms—but in unique ways that suit each audience. That leaves us with the question: When should you use Facebook over Instagram?

While they can’t be treated the same, there are some best practices that can be applied to both:

• Always keep your branding consistent
• Use bold imagery
• Craft copy that complements and aligns with the visual experience

Let’s dive into when to use Facebook over Instagram and vice versa.

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When to use Facebook

Facebook and Instagram have the same targeting capabilities, but that doesn’t mean they should be used in the same way. Facebook is more of an informational platform: Users share text-heavy posts and often seek business information such as store hours, product details, and more. It’s important to take this into consideration when setting up your business page as well as your Facebook ads.

You also need to familiarize yourself with industry benchmarks. Some industries perform much better than others and it’s crucial that you know how to accurately assess your own results. Check out our ebook on Facebook benchmarks by industry to learn more.

In general, Facebook search ads work best for curated content and company events and updates. It’s easy to set up events on Facebook (including live streams and ticketing), upload photo albums and descriptions after an event, link directly to your website or landing pages, and share detailed company news or announcements.

When to use Instagram

Instagram is a visual-first platform. It’s great for both organic and paid posts. Unlike Facebook, Instagram isn’t so much an informational platform but rather a way to share candid moments, often happening in real-time. This experience provides insights into users’ lives and gives brands an opportunity to personally connect with users through behind-the-scenes photos, employee spotlights, in-situ product shots, and posts that highlight the impact brands have on their customers. Between Stories, IGTV, Reels, and in-feed posts, the options are truly endless.

Just as with Facebook, considering industry benchmarks is a must. Check out benchmarks and other stats such as click-through rate and conversion rates here.

Instagram also works well for photo contests since it’s a visual-first platform. Engagement in the form of comments, likes, shares, and saves has a big impact on a brand’s reach. Plus, generating user-created content through photo contests and tags means you have fresh, new content for Stories and posts—that you didn’t have to make yourself. Make sure that you’re consistently interacting with your audience to maintain reach and engagement by responding to and liking comments, and sharing posts from your audience, employees, and partners that highlight your brand.

Platform challenges

Even though Facebook and Instagram should be approached in different ways, A/B testing is always vital. Above we listed the best use cases for each platform, but every brand is different. There are pitfalls, challenges, and weaknesses of each platform, and A/B testing will help you find those.

There’s more to good advertising than choosing the right platform

The customer experience doesn’t end at the click—it follows through to the post-click stage, aka the landing page. We know how hard it can be to start optimizing your ad campaigns and landing page conversions, so Instapage is here to help. We offer three different plans to help take the stress out of building, optimizing, and converting—helping you create better landing pages and see stronger results. Schedule an Instapage demo here.

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Quality Score is a key factor in how well your ads perform. The more relevant your ad is to your target audience, the higher your quality score and the more likely people are to see your ad and click it. In other words, Quality Score evaluates whether you’re reaching the right audience with the right message at the right time.

One of the best ways to get a higher Quality Score across multiple advertising platforms is to optimize your landing pages. In this article, we’ll discuss how the landing page experience impacts your Quality Score on each platform and how you can improve your score across all platforms by perfecting the post-click landing page. To start, let’s dive into why Quality Score is important for advertisers.

Note: Although most ad platforms use the term “Quality Score,” others use “Ad Relevance,” “Ad Score,” or something similar. In this article, Quality Score is used interchangeably with these other terms unless otherwise noted.
What is Quality Score, and why is it important?

Quality Score is an estimate of how well your ads will perform based on their relevance to your target audience.

Scores are assigned a number from one to ten, with ten being the highest. A high Quality Score indicates your ad, keyword, and landing page are relevant to your audience, whereas a low score means they’re irrelevant.

Search engines and social media ad platforms want to show only relevant ads to users to provide them with a great user experience. Quality Score is used to determine which ads to show and how much to charge for each click or impression.

Google Ads was the first to introduce Quality Score. Many other advertising platforms quickly followed suit with similar concepts but using a different approach and terminology. Since each platform puts its own spin on the concept, they also each take a nuanced approach to post-click landing pages—one of the weighing factors in campaign relevance, and one of the easiest elements to control.

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Today’s marketing efforts fall into one of two categories: passive advertising and active advertising. Although the two are opposites, and active tactics tend to be more common, neither one is necessarily “better” than the other.

In fact, passive marketing has plenty of advantages. Let’s take a closer look at what it is, how it differs from active marketing, and some examples.

What is passive advertising?

Passive advertising promotes your products and services in seemingly small, subtle, more native ways that doesn’t inconvenience or overwhelm consumers. It involves marketing efforts that reach people whether they know it or not, such as placing ads in locations where they are looking anyway.

Example

A display ad in the margin of a website, or in between website content, is a passive form of advertising:

Since visitors have the option of looking at the ad or other content nearby, passive advertising doesn’t feel forced or annoying, but rather optional and expected from customers. It makes content and opportunity available to online users through smart positioning–but then waits for consumers to view the content on their own.

Compared to active advertising

Active marketing generally involves invading consumers’ space or time in larger, more aggressive ways. These efforts are more obvious and intrusive, so people know right away they are seeings ads.

Examples

Pop-up ads are the most obvious example:

The consumer wasn’t looking for the pop-up or expecting it, but it was put in front of them regardless. Once they see it, there’s no question they’re being targeted, and they must take action to remove it from their view. Either click through to see the offer, or close the window.

Blast email advertising is another example of active marketing, because it invades users’ inboxes, instead of waiting for users to come to you:

Similarly, mid-roll in-stream video ads are active because they disrupt the video viewing experience, and the only way to continue watching a video is by watching the ad:

Paid search advertising would be considered active as well. In comparison to SEO (a form of passive marketing discussed below), paid search ads proactively get in front of searchers based on queries:

Many businesses use a combination of both active and passive advertising, each one to a different degree, depending on the company and its specific marketing goals. Below are more differences between the two.

Passive advertising vs active advertising

Effort

Often, when brands publish digital content on the web (videos, blogs, infographics, etc.), they create “footprints” not necessarily to be immediately seen by everyone but to be found by those who are actively looking for that information.

For example, a consumer searches Google to locate a blog article about a specific topic they’re interested in. The content was already published before the search was conducted with no additional effort required to bring the customer into the business.

Although passive marketing still takes work and planning, it’s thoughtful, anticipatory, and practical, so it gets long-lasting, continued results.

Active advertising generally requires more action and effort on the part of the business. Since it’s deliberate and purposeful, it takes consistent effort, skill, and persistence to see positive results.

Intent

Intent can be strong in both cases.

With passive advertising, you’re not pushing content at consumers. However, there’s a good chance they will see it when they are purposely looking for specific information, since you’re publishing it where they are likely seeking related content.

Intent can be strong with active methods, too, because brands can proactively search for specifically targeted consumers to convert into customers. Keep in mind, though, people are often put off by pushy marketing campaigns, so if you’re not careful, consumers may be less likely to take action.

Cost

Passive marketing tends to be more cost-effective, because there’s usually only a one-time cost or minimal investment to passively market your product, service, or brand.

When publishing blogs or social media posts, for example, it may require occasional refreshing. But once it’s published, it won’t cost as much as active, consistent advertising to keep up.

Again, since active advertising requires constant attention and effort, it’s naturally going to require more marketing budget as well.

Business model & image

Some businesses may depend on active strategies more than others. In competitive industries, for instance, a brand may have to take drastic, more intrusive measures to win the attention of consumers–and may be more willing to pay to do so. However, passive marketing may suffice for already-established businesses, or those in a less competitive industry.

It’s also important to consider the corporate image you want to convey. To stay more conservative and convey professionalism, sticking with a passive marketing approach may be best. If you are primarily concerned with your bottom line and increase sales, a more active advertising method is the better option.

If you aren’t making good use of passive marketing techniques and want to try, here are some ways to start.

Examples of passive advertising

Social media ads

Most social media advertising is native–the ad matches the form, feel, and function of the content among which it appears, rather than being disruptive.

For example, image and video ads directly within the Facebook feed (or other platform’s feeds) are native because they blend in with the rest of the feed:

The only difference is that they say “sponsored” but even that doesn’t disrupt the user experience.

Ads feel especially native and passive when brands use targeting based on a user’s demographics or interests because it feels more natural when it’s relevant and shows up in their feed.

Display ads

While these Square examples aren’t as native, they’re still passive because they don’t interrupt the user experience on Weather.com:

Not only that, but they’re highly relevant after recently visiting and interacting with the Square website.

Retargeting isn’t the only way to serve relevant ads to internet users. Contextual ads are equally as important. Contextual advertising refers to placing ads on web pages based on the content of those pages, rather than past browsing behavior or user demographics.

Verizon does this by placing an ad for a mobile plan on a Business Insider article about Verizon-Synchrony:

Visitors are already on the site to read about Verizon-related content, so an offer directly from Verizon attracts their attention.

Which is better?

There’s no right answer to the question. The method you select depends on your audience, advertising goals, brand image, industry, budget, and more. It’s likely the best solution would be to combine the two.

To see how Instapage can help you create and scale the best possible campaign from ad to landing page, sign up for an Instapage 14-day free trial today.

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