When it comes to creating Facebook Ads there are principles that you ignore at your peril. Here are some Facebook approaches you should avoid!
Take a look at the following images. What do you observe?
That’s right – the advertiser appear to be intentionally hiding the people’s faces!
I have never seen this technique used to this extent. It goes against everything I know about marketing.
Tradify sell job management software, and these ads are halfway to awesome. But they fall short in one critical factor.
Faces Sell
In their article, 25 Expert Tips to Create Facebook Ad Images THAT SELL, Uhuru Network make a fantastic list of recommendations for Facebook marketers.
Lets jump straight to their #1 recommendation:
#1 Show People Using Your Product
Your ad has to look like it belongs in someone’s news feed. If your audience is used to seeing updates from friends and family, make sure your ad doesn’t alienate them before they have a chance to see what it is you’re offering. Show people using your product rather than simply displaying your product by itself.
They use the above image as a brilliant example of this principle. The first image is a great shot. But seeing someone use the glasses is so much better.
Uhuru Network continue. Lets look at their principle #4:
#4 Use Images of Faces
Facebook will tell you themselves that ads with faces in them receive a lot more engagement. That’s also true for Instagram and almost anywhere we post images. We seem to relate more with ads when we can see people’s faces. It’s where most of us look when we first meet a person and it helps us to connect with them right away. It does the same thing for Facebook ad images.
This image makes you feel good. The women is happy, positive, smiling, healthy. This ad is so much better for including a happy face.
Wishpond make similar recommendations in their article, Six Facebook Ad Image Best Practices.
Their #1 tip?
#1 Happy People
The image that has proved to convert best in Facebook ads is of a happy woman looking directly at the camera. FortisBC uses this strategy, simply by showing a woman (and her baby) enjoying their company’s product.
Search Engine Journal also make this point. Their #1 tip?
#1 Happy Women
The best types of images to use in Facebook advertising are of happy women. Women who look overjoyed, free and are looking directly at the camera convert best. Also, try images of women who joyfully have their arms in the air.
Are we getting the picture here? Faces sell.
So I am really unsure about why this company has chosen to cover the most important part of their visual. What is the message this is sending? “We have people using our product – but they’re scared to admit it!”
I doubt that is actually true, but they’re not helping themselves.
A better way
iTrade also sell job management software for tradespeople and are one of Tradify’s competitors. Let’s look at their ads.
iTrade absolutely maximise the principles listed above.
In the first image the guy looks happy to be using their job management software, and he looks trustworthy – someone you would happily get around to fix your dripping tap.
The next image shows a brand new fence and the team that installed it. Their image includes a recommendation in the form of a quote. If you were a tradesman looking for job scheduling, costing, quoting and invoicing software for tradesman, you’d probably like this ad and check iTrade out.
Finally, we have a tradie with his ute, describing the benefit he received from using iTrade’s job management software. Again, this form of social proof definitely helps.
These ads do not actively show anyone using iTrade’s software. But the text implies that they do. However, when using a similar technique to the Tradify ad, the person’s face is shown.
There is enormous competition in this market niche, with the most popular Google searches being Tradify vs Fergus or Tradify vs ServiceM8.
But what about Tradify vs iTrade? I’ll let you be the judge… Which ads do you find more compelling?