When you pay for ads, you expect to get something out of it, right?

You’re funneling thousands of dollars into Facebook Ads in the hope that your investment pays off in some way, whether it’s brand awareness or purchases.

But here’s a dirty secret: advertising doesn’t always give brands a return.

It’s not unheard-of for a brand to hemorrhage money on pay-per-click advertising and have nothing to show for it.

Return on ad spend, or ROAS, is the best indicator of whether your ad campaign is actually getting results. Yeah, views are nice, but if they don’t correlate with actual purchases, does it really matter?

You’ve got to justify your ad spend, which means monitoring ROAS like it’s your full-time job.

Facebook Ads is the best way to get in front of a big audience, grow your business, and protect your advertising budget—and it’s a ROAS goldmine.

Ad impressions have gone up by 33% on Facebook, and ad spend has decreased, too.

Since 78% of social media users have found a product via Facebook Ads, it’s a prime opportunity for you to find paying customers.

But you’ve got to advertise right. Advertising is a tough gig, and every component of your campaign should work for you, not against you.

Your Facebook ad creative has to be top-notch to get results, but a lot goes into it. From images to text to calls to action to landing pages, there’s a lot to mess up here.

You need to make back your money spent on advertising. That means optimizing your Facebook ad creative to reach the finish line.

What is ROAS?

But first, we have to understand the difference between ROAS (return on ad spend) and ROI (return on investment) with Facebook campaigns. At first blush, the two sound identical, but there are some subtle differences.

ROAS is a formula used to calculate whether your ads actually brought in paying customers.

Divide your profits by the costs to run your campaign and bam—you’ve calculated ROAS.

For example, if your campaign brought in $10,000 and you spent $5,000 on Facebook Ads, your ROAS is 2X. That means you got $2 back for every $1 spent.

In terms of ROI, that would be a 200% return.

We like ROAS more than ROI because you’re looking at the fact that you spent real money to get these new customers. They didn’t just materialize out of thin air.

It’s easier to see the usefulness of your ad campaigns from a budgeting perspective with ROAS.

Oh, and since Facebook ROAS has increased for eCommerce brands by over 30%, we’d say it’s a tantalizing option for boosting online sales.

7 tips for foolproof Facebook ad creative

You might wonder, “How do I squeeze more ROAS from my Facebook Ads?”

While audience customization, retargeting, and bid adjustments certainly play into ROAS, the easiest way to boost revenue is your Facebook ad creative.

Tackle the low-hanging fruit first. Run your existing creative through these 7 tips to maximize your Facebook Ads ROAS.

1 - Split test your creative

How can you know if ad creative works better with zebra or cheetah print? Unless you split test it, you’ll never know for sure.

Split testing requires a little more work, but guess what?

You’ll see a big payoff: split testing can improve conversions by as much as 4X.

Fortunately, split testing doesn’t have to be a headache. Facebook Ads allows you to optimize for more ROAS with its Dynamic Creative setting.

Facebook will mix several versions of your copy, images, and descriptions to find the winning combination that gets the most ROAS.

Sure, you’ll need to keep testing to find out what works. But over time this will help you understand audience preferences—which means better, more persuasive ad creative in the long haul.

2 - Unify your ads with your landing page

You aren’t directing all of your paid traffic to one landing page, right?

… Right?

Your Facebook ad creative should be unified 100% with your landing page.

A shocking 77% of landing pages are just homepages—and that ain’t a good thing.

Landing pages have better conversion rates than homepages, which means you’re missing out on a ton of clicks by getting lazy with the landing pages.

We’re willing to bet that your Facebook Ads aren’t identical, which means they each need a unique landing page.

That means you should have the same:

• Messaging
• Imagery
• Branding

… on your Facebook ad creative as your landing page.

For example, if you’re running holiday ads but forgot to jazz up your landing page with fake snow and Santa hats, it’s going to look strange.

But why do we care about unique landing pages? Can’t you just reuse the same page for an entire campaign?

You could, but you’d regret it.

The average Facebook conversion rate is 9%, which isn’t too bad.

But advertisers with unique landing pages for each ad get 12 times more leads on their landing pages.

Consistency is key if you want to win visitors’ trust. Don’t catfish your Facebook leads: match the creative with your landing page, even if that means creating multiple landing pages.

3 - Try different ad placements

Facebook Ads gives you several options to showcase your ads. Whether it’s:

• Newsfeed
• Right column
• Mobile newsfeed
• In-stream video

… you can attract more leads (and preserve ROAS) by promoting yourself with the correct ad placement.

Consider this: some ad placements, like native in-feed ads, can boost your reach by 16%. Always try different ad placements to see what sticks with your followers.

Placements sound like a simple targeting setting, but this has implications for your Facebook ad creative, too.

You’ll need to create different ad sizes to match each placement’s specs. Yes, that means your graphic designer will need to pull double-duty.

However, it’s still worth it. For example, your newsfeed ads might work 50% better than in-stream video ads.

If the right ad placement and appropriate formatting mean you save money while boosting conversions, we say go for it.

4 - Give social proof

You’re selling something online. Let’s be honest: you could be a total scam artist and people would never know.

The internet is anonymous, and that rightfully puts customers on edge. They need proof that you’re legit.

Since social proof can boost conversions by 15%, you need social proof in your Facebook ad creative.

Include content like:

• Unboxings
• Honest reviews
• Humorous reviews
• Customers using your products

… in your ad creative. That makes it obvious that other people love your product, too.

If you’re struggling to use social proof, tap into experienced influencers.

They’re more than happy to review your product, share it with their followers, and add a jolt of authenticity to your Facebook ad creative.

5 - Optimize your CTAs

CTAs are such an important part of successful Facebook Ads, but so many marketers blow right past them.

90% of the people who read your headline copy will also look for a CTA, so don’t skip this!

If you’ve poked around Facebook Ads for a hot minute, you’ll notice that they give you a smorgasbord of call to action (CTA) buttons.

You can’t customize these, but Facebook includes so many of them that you shouldn’t have a problem locating the right one.

While it’s tempting to select “Learn more” as your CTA for everything, is that really what you want users to do?

Do you really want them to learn more? Or do you need them to “Buy Now?” Or “Watch Now?”

Say what you mean. Any disconnect between the CTA and your Facebook ad creative will hurt conversions.

Don’t believe us? Consider this: specific, personalized CTAs convert 202% more.

Always tie your desired CTA to your ad creative. That reinforces what you want people to do so they actually click the CTA and move through the funnel.

6 - Choose cool visuals

If we see another stock photo of people in suits shaking hands in a boardroom, we’ll scream.

You’re competing for users’ attention on Facebook. That means your Facebook ad creative has to be downright fascinating.

Follow these quick tips to source better images for your next campaign:

• Use the Rule of Thirds.
• Contrast colors. Show an image of an orange umbrella in a sea of black ones, for example.
• Tap into color psychology to give the right tone and feel to your audience.
• Be specific. If you’re marketing to people in Austin, use images of the Austin skyline or well-known places in Austin.
• Use faces. Humans naturally gravitate to images with faces and people, so ditch the passive landscape photography.

Eyeballs matter here. Now’s the time to get creative, so take risks with your Facebook ad creative.

7 - Add video

Static images have their place in advertising, for sure.

Did you know videos boost landing page performance by 80%? And that 46% of people take action after watching a video?

That’s powerful stuff.

Video helps you communicate more information in less time and engage more with your audience. If you want to stand out in someone’s newsfeed (and we’re pretty sure you do), go all-in on video ads.

Keep these videos 30 seconds or shorter to retain users’ attention. Remember, most users watch Facebook videos without sound, so add captions or use a text-based slideshow ad to get the most views.

Conclusion

The average Facebook user clicks on 11 ads per month. Will yours be one of them?

Don’t produce the same, hum-drum Facebook Ads. You need ROAS and you need it fast. Make your advertising dollars go further with these 7 Facebook ad creative strategies.

But who says you have to do this alone? Great content is the backbone of your Facebook ad creative, and we know it’s not easy sourcing that content yourself.

Trend helps businesses boost Facebook ROAS by connecting you with experienced influencers. Create user-generated content, social proof, and beautiful images to put your advertising dollars to work.

Curious how it works? Sign up for Trend—it’s free!