In fact, the size of the Google Adwords program creates a number of challenges for “small-time” webmasters. The service’s immense popularity has resulted in extreme competition, driving up keyword bid prices and lowering ad placements for sites running on smaller budgets.

If you’ve been struggling to gain traction on this highly competitive network, take a look at the following PPC alternatives for generating paid traffic.

Alternative #1 – Facebook Paid Ads

Advertising on Facebook’s Paid Ads platform (whose “Sponsored Stories” typically appear in user profile sidebars) can be a mixed bag.

On the one hand, Facebook’s Paid Ads program provides much better targeting features than Google Adwords, enabling merchants to target users according to a number of different criteria, including age, gender, hobbies, geographic areas and more.

However, user engagement on the site is notoriously low. While some marketers speculate that the limited number of characters granted to advertisers account for these limitations, a much more likely explanation for the universally low clickthrough rates seen on the site is ad burnout.

Because Facebook users have been trained to gloss over advertisement sections on the site, your message must be truly captivating in order to draw clicks. Take a look at my article 3 Steps To Combat Image Fatigue In Facebook for more information on this.

If you do decide to pursue advertising opportunities on this site, remember that it’s nearly all about the image you position alongside your ad text. To stand out from the blur of other features on the site, select the most eye-catching graphic possible – even if it isn’t entirely related to your ad text.

For more information on this, take a look at my article called 3 Types of Image Ads That Work. In addition, choose your targeting options carefully to ensure that your promotions are seen only by the audience members to whom they’re most relevant.

Alternative #2 – LinkedIn DirectAds

Overall, LinkedIn’s DirectAds platform functions more like Facebook’s Paid Ads than Google’s Adwords, in that this PPC alternative also allows you to target the specific users who will see your advertisements within the LinkedIn website, based on their stated criteria.

Unfortunately, LinkedIn’s advertising program isn’t for the faint of heart – or the small of budget. Clicks through DirectAds promotions cost a minimum of $2/click, and although advertisers can set minimum daily budgets of $10/day, language contained in the site’s Terms of Service allows LinkedIn to exceed set limits by as much as 20%, depending on ad performance. Left unchecked, these overages could easily total thousands of dollars a month.

Given these financial ramifications, use caution when enrolling in the LinkedIn DirectAds program. Take the time to analyze LinkedIn’s core demographics to determine whether the site’s users are a good match for your ads.

In addition, because the DirectAds program provides very little information on how or when your promotions are displayed, you may also find it necessary to invest in a third-party bid measurement program to maintain a positive ROI in relation to the site’s high bid prices.

Alternative #3 – Kontera

In general, Kontera is best known for its in-text advertisements, which appear as linked content within Internet articles, blog posts and more. But besides these contextual link ads, the company also offers social media promotion services, editorial advertisements and mobile solutions, though few objective reviews are available on the efficacy of these newer service offerings.

When considering this PPC alternative, be aware that many users seriously dislike the way in-text Kontera ads display on their favorite websites. In fact, a Google search for the company’s brand name turns up as many results asking, “How do I get rid of Kontera ads?” as it does news articles praising the company’s traffic-generation services.

In addition, reviews of Kontera’s in-text ad service by industry figures aren’t that promising when it comes to ad relevancy. Consider the following ad placement that prominent Internet marketing blogger Chris Guthrie received while testing Kontera on one of his sites:

As an advertiser, it’s imperative that you know your promotions are being displayed to the best possible candidates. But for now, my verdict is to stay away from Kontera. Despite the site’s wide reach and generally low click charges, the quality of its placements simply isn’t high enough to justify its savings over other PPC alternatives.

Alternative #4 – StumbleUpon Paid Discovery

One final alternative PPC program that deserves mention is StumbleUpon’s Paid Discovery program, which is unique from the other options discussed here in that it does not require users to click on an advertisement in order to participate.

To understand Paid Discovery, we must first understand how StumbleUpon’s traditional service works. Essentially, users who are interested in discovering new Web content install the StumbleUpon browser toolbar, which randomly serves up pages designed to match their stated interests and past preferences. Paid Discovery allows advertisers to “cut in line,” introducing their content into the StumbleUpon stream ahead of other recommended pages.

But is it worth it? In many cases, no. StumbleUpon traffic performance is often quite poor when it comes to conversions; because users are simply being served pages instead of actively clicking chosen ads, their motivation to engage further with an advertiser’s site is often limited.

On the other hand, the service does have some interesting potential when it comes to link building, brand awareness expansion and social media marketing.

If you have established metrics in these areas through which you can measure the impact of StumbleUpon’s Paid Discovery service on your website’s success, the program could be worth a try.

Of course, these are only a few of the different PPC alternative sites available today. If you’ve had particular success with another option, share your results in the comment section below.

Here, I’ll focus on several effective landing pages elements and provide examples.

1.  Credibility Indicators

On landing pages, try including credibility indicators such as testimonials, reviews, awards, social media information (i.e. Facebook likes, number of tweets, etc.) and seller ratings.

Here are some specific ideas related to credibility indicators:

• Use specific testimonials for specific products/services – these tend to convert best.
• Use testimonials to reiterate your company’s core value propositions.
• Couple a longer, extremely compelling testimonial at the top of a page with a couple of shorter ones (see nuts.com example below). Whether the top one is from CNN or NYT, or a particularly eloquent customer, depends of course on your business, track record, etc.

2.  Add Elements To Your Existing Buttons

To improve conversions, add some extra pop to your existing buttons.

For example, instead of a simple “buy now” button, try dual buttons with options like “quick view” or “order now”.

If your online strategy is linked up to Facebook, try testing combinations of conversion buttons and “sign in with Facebook” buttons. Take a look at the following example:

3.  Remove Page Elements

We usually try to add elements to pages. Instead, try removing elements that can decrease the chance of a conversion (you should always focus on your primary conversion event first).

Here are several examples of items you can remove:

• Secondary and tertiary conversion events like newsletter sign-ups
• Extra links on a page
• The navigation bar
• Reduce the number of words on a page (using bullet points can help with this)

In general, cleaner pages with less clutter tend to convert better than overly designed ones with a lot of images and text.

4.  Calls To Action

I know, I know. This one is cliché and is often touted by many. But it’s not always the best strategy from a conversion standpoint to go right for the sale.

Is it possible to breakdown your sales process by collecting a little information at the original point of contact and ask for additional information in subsequent interactions?

Here are some examples of this:

• Add to cart, then ask for personal user info.
• Follow up with a phone call and ask for more information via form.
• If requesting contact info (a lead), ask for the minimum amount of variables possible on the original lead form page and request more variables on the thank you page. Offer an incentive on the thank you page for people to give you additional details.

5.  Try Different Wording

Different words evoke different kinds of emotions. Try different wording to try to improve conversion rates.

In both of the examples below, the companies use words other than “order now” to “ask for the sale”.

37 signals uses “see plans and pricing”

Crazyegg.com uses “show me my heat map” (as opposed to order now):

What are some effective landing page tactics you’ve employed for better conversions?

Ad #1

In this ad, I wouldn’t have focused on the company’s brand in the headline especially as it’s not a brand that’s well known. In this case, I would have let bigger names highlight their brand and focused my ad on the additional reasons to do business with my company like fast implementation, 24/7 phone support, etc.

For extra conversion bang, I’d ensure my ad benefits are reiterated in bullet point form on the landing page. Personally, I like 3-5 bullet points that are 4 to 7 words long. At least one of the benefits should be unique to your company/product/service (unique selling proposition).

Ad #2

It’s important to focus on the features and benefits that resonate the most with your target audience. In this ad above, the company (Disney) encourages people to share baby pictures online. Many of the other ads for the same phrase (baby clothes) focus on discount offers, shipping options, etc. While it’s true people want to share pictures of their babies, they are probably not looking to paid search ads to do just that.

PPC’s sweet spot is toward the end of the buy cycle when shoppers are about to pull the trigger and buy. The offer in the ad above is geared towards the beginning of the buy cycle when stores are maybe trying to engage/establish trust with buyers. The folks at Disney should use this channel effectively and attempt brand advertising elsewhere.

Here are some quick ways to figure out if your company is targeting the right features/benefits:

• Talk to people closest to your customers (i.e. salespeople, call center folks, etc.) and figure out what the biggest customer concerns/pain points are. Is it price? Quality? Selection? Brand? The ability to interact and share pictures? Test the variables in different combinations in your ads.

• For example, after testing many variables, you may find that a fast shipping offer and selection is what people are looking for when purchasing your product and is what gets you the best bang for your PPC buck.

• If above is not applicable, conduct a focus group and ask what your groups biggest concerns/issues/pain points are when it comes to purchasing baby clothing. Focus groups can be done intermittently with as few as 5-10 people to get basic insight and some initial testing points.

Ad #3

In this case, the advertiser is trying appeal to many groups of buyers with generic ad copy. I typed in baby clothes and an ad for a company that “specializes in custom made graphics, clothing, unique gift ideas” came up in the PPC search results.

In general, ad copy that is specific to products and/or specific groups of buyers tends to convert better than generic ad copy. And the more specific, the better ads tend to convert. A big reason for this is that it’s easier to hone in on relevant keyword terms and include them in ad copy headlines and descriptions.

A good tip is to structure your ads along the same lines as your sites navigation and/or category or product pages.

Here’s a possible example of how http://www.zazzle.com/ktvfashion could have gone about their PPC advertising.

Keyword terms (within a single ad group):

Baby sweaters, Baby sweater, etc.

Note: emphasize phrase, exact and modified broad match terms and include negative terms in the account.

Optimized Ad Copy

Get baby sweaters today

Many baby sweater styles & colors.

Fast & free shipping. Order now!

http://www.zazzle.com/ktvfashion

Now, do the same that we’ve done for baby sweaters above for all the products your company sells online.

Optimized Landing Pages

It should go without saying, information and images on the landing pages should be baby sweaters specific. In my next article, I’ll tackle some landing page flops. Stay tuned!

There’s always more to do! In this article, I’ll discuss some ideas you can use to give your account a serious kick in the butt!

Note: some of the strategies require statistically significant data before implementing.

I like to see data from at least 100 conversion events before moving forward with any strategy.

1.  Geographic Targeting

Dig through the data and determine if there are specific geographic areas that are performing better than others. If yes, think about ways to increase volume in those regions. Is there room to add a geographic qualifier to any of your search terms in the account (e.g. “Nike sneakers in NYC”, “Nike sneakers in New York City”, etc.)?

It may also make sense to target areas (e.g. NYC) with broader terms like “sneakers,” “tennis shoes,” etc. using a lot of negative match types of course.

One strategy I like is to start off PPC campaigns with generic terms (e.g. “Nike sneakers,” “Nike tennis shoes,” etc.) and broader geographic targeting (e.g. North America). From there, use analytics and reporting tools to determine which geographic areas are performing and build out from there. It ensures resources are used on areas that have proven ROI and ROAS and reduces shooting in the dark.

Naturally, this strategy also entails scaling back on what doesn’t convert or perform as well. For example, if you’ve spent a bunch of money in a state like North Carolina and there have been very few conversions, it’s probably a good idea to scale back on ad spend there.

Note: I like to create separate campaigns by geography to keep accounts well-organized.

2.  Ad Scheduling

Take a look at the data and see when your traffic is converting the best and converting the worst. The idea is to reallocate your budget from poor converting times of the day to good converting times.

For example, in one account, we noticed there were very few sales from 1am to 4am PT. So, we reallocated ad spend from 1am to 4am to 11am to 4pm PT when most of the company’s sales occurred.

3.  Call Tracking

If you haven’t already implemented call tracking in your PPC account, now would be a good time! If you want to gauge the true impact of a campaign, you’ll need to measure both online and offline conversions.

You may find once you have call tracking in place that you’ve been making the phone ring off the hook as it’s not uncommon for people to pick up the phone instead of converting online. Here are some easy approaches to see if calls are related to PPC advertising:

• Unique phone numbers. Include unique phone numbers on PPC landing pages. If landing pages are specific to a product or service, assign a unique number to each products/service and see which make the phone ring.
• Assign unique codes to landing pages: Assign unique codes to landing pages and ask callers for the code when they call. With this strategy, you’ll need to sync up codes to your ads on your back end and optimize accordingly.

Of course, you can always implement Google’s call code or use a third party tool. This will allow you to get more detailed information from specific calls and will allow you to optimize your bidding. Take a look at this article for more information on PPC call tracking.

4.  Demographic Targeting

The Display Network offers some ability to adjust bids based on age and gender demographics. It even supports excluding certain audience segments from seeing your ads.

Still in its infancy, this targeting system will get smarter over time as it gathers more data. No need to wait, however. Give it a try now if you have some very obvious audience segments that you’re trying to include or exclude – for example, all women, or only retirees.

Many B2B advertisers also like to block all youth-oriented sites, regardless of content. It’s worth experimenting with, because it could allow you to bid more aggressively for the remaining traffic.

As Google collects far more data on users (with the launch of Google+ and sweeping changes in their privacy policies), I’d anticipate this capability improving greatly within the year. We can also dream about when it might be added to the feature set on the search side.

5.  AdWords Campaign Experiments

Optimize your PPC iteratively by conducting structured tests with AdWords Campaign Experiments. Start by coming up with a hypothesis like bidding up modified broad match or phrase match terms so they take a higher priority (in relation to other match types) to test the overall impact on ROAS.

Don’t worry; the system lets you easily revert a unsuccessful test group back to the original. And it might just help you solve internal or agency-client debates about “best” practices (many people have their own wild theories about match types, for example).

You can split traffic evenly between the control group (existing bids) and the experiment group (new bids), and see test results at both the ad group level and the keyword level. The tool even reports on whether data collected has reached a sufficient level of statistical significance. You can then apply the principles learned to your ongoing account management philosophy.

Now get out there and give your AdWords account a swift kick in the backside!

Image from Shutterstock, used under license.

1.  Include A Privacy Line

In general, a privacy line below the form helps with overall conversions. Try something like “we respect your privacy” or “we do not provide information to third parties”. Other variables we’ve tested around the lead form do not increase conversions as much as this one does. Here, it’s the trust factor that tends to increase form conversion rates.

2.  Go For Fewer Form Elements

Think of gathering information from a client not as an event but as process. The idea is to ease into a relationship with your prospects — you do not want to startle or put buyers on edge by asking too many questions.

For example, with a client who sells windows that block out loud city noises, we obtain basic information like name, email and phone number and follow up with an automated email that requests more information like the size and shape of windows (we provide easy diagrams in a follow up email).

Note: it’s best to send follow up emails sooner rather than later as a hot prospect is better than a cold one. In my testing, the sweet spot is between 3 to 5 fields.

3.  Take Up Less Space With Form Fields

Don’t leave a lot of space in between form fields. The game is to have fewer elements on the page (as I mentioned in #2) and to try to incorporate more elements into a smaller space. Here are a couple ideas:

• Try 2 elements per line to take up less space. For example, ask for first/last name in one field rather than asking for the information in two separate fields.
• Reduce the amount of space between each form field.

Take a look at the Criteo.com screenshot below as an example:

4.  Use Optional Form Fields

Use optional fields on your form to decrease the amount of information requested from the get-go from prospects. Prospects are able to provide more information if they’d like but they are not forced to.

One of my favorite “formulas” is the five-field form with 3 required fields and 2 optional ones. Take a look at suggestions below for some ideas:

• Name – required
• Email – required
• Phone number – required
• City – optional
• State – optional

5. Try A Two-Page Lead Form

Another great option is to use a two-page strategy. Again, encompasses the idea of not moving too fast.

A good analogy to think of here is dating. If you ask your date 100 questions right off the bat, you’re likely to freak out them out and not get a second date. It’s a far more effective to ask questions over a longer period of time (like over a second or third date) than to pounce all over your poor date the second you meet.

Criteo.com uses this strategy effectively. Take a look at the screenshots below:

Page 1 of form:

Page 2 of form:

Note: Two and even three page forms can convert better than one page ones.

6.  Include A Lead Form Above The Fold

In our testing, the best place lead forms convert is in the upper right hand corner of page. I like to include a form at the bottom of the page even if it’s below the fold as it emphasizes the call to action and doesn’t hurt overall conversion figures.

7.  Use Compelling Words On Submit Buttons

Specific and benefit-oriented wording like “get a free obligation quote now” and “get a quote now” tends to convert better than “click here” or a “submit” buttons.

Weaving benefits into the buttons is also an excellent way to reiterate benefits. You’ll likely have many wording ideas so the key idea is to test different ones.

8. Design Buttons That Convert

My absolute favorite button colors are orange and blue, as they tend to provide the best conversions. To determine appropriate button size/wording on buttons, step away from your computer and glance at your screen.

If size is appropriate, you should be able to see both buttons and wording on buttons if you’re walking by the computer. Optimizing for a smaller screen is best to ensure both laptop and desktop users can see buttons.

As I was writing this article, I attended a session on Form Optimization session at PubCon Las Vegas 2011. The final two quick form optimization tips are  from Brad Geddes’s presentation:

9.  Sentence casing is better than phrase casing

10.  Don’t ever use CAPTCHA on forms

In this article, I’ll discuss alternative options for landing pages such as Google maps/Google Places listings, using phone numbers in paid search advertising, and strategies involving the Apple App store and Amazon.com.

Google Maps/Google Places

Using a Google Places listings is a good strategy to encourage walk-in traffic or to encourage people to connect offline with a company. It tends to work very well for local businesses like restaurants, family doctors, chiropractors, brick and mortar stores with numerous locations, etc. — basically any business that wants to drive traffic to a specific store location.

In PPC advertising, Google Places and PPC ads are synced using location extensions.

In the campaign level settings tab, advertisers have the option to choose “display Google Places information”. Advertisers also have the option to manually input business address information.

Here’s an example of a location extension in a PPC ad:

Using Google Places is a good strategy as visitors are able to get an overview of businesses at a quick glance. It’s a good idea to spend time optimizing Google Places listings not only for PPC but because ads appear in organic searches too.

A well-optimized Google places listings should display the following information: hours of operation, price range (if applicable), photos, videos, product offerings, coupons, reviews, ratings, etc.

Here’s an example of a Google Places page from Glowbal Grill & Satay Bar in Vancouver, BC:

Phone Numbers In Paid Search Ads

By adding a phone number to PPC ads, you can save a visitor skip the step of going to your site especially if they already know they want to connect with your business, get additional information, make an appointment, etc. In PPC advertising, this is done via the call extension.

With call extensions, advertisers can either use a company business number or a Google forwarding phone number – Google will dynamically generate unique phone numbers per ad group and calls are routed to your business number.

Note: Click charges apply to visitors that click phone numbers using a mobile device. The calls will cost $1 USD per call for other types of calls to the Google numbers.

Here’s an example of what a call extension looks like in a PPC ad:

Call Analytics

It’s worth noting there are several places in the Google interface advertisers can get information on incoming phone calls:

1. To see number of calls received, segment by “click type” at the ad group or keyword level.
2. For more detailed reports, go to the “dimensions” tab and select “view” then “call details”.

Here, you can see the following call details:

• Call start time
• Call end time
• Call status (missed or received)
• Caller area code
• Call type

Note: addresses and phone number work well together in PPC ads, so consider using both together in your paid search advertising.

App Store

Another strategy is to try sending advertisers directly to the iPhone app store. With this, advertisers can encourage people to buy an app or download a free app (which is hopefully tied to a monetization plan or upsell strategy).

An example is the Talking Tom app. For an extra 0.99 cents, you can get no advertising and 4 extra Talking Tom animations.

PPC advertising tip: Obviously, when targeting iPhone users, you’ll want to segment the iPhone and ensure other smart phone devices are not selected in the settings tab.

Amazon.com

Another strategy is to drive traffic to Amazon.com. This tends to work well in several specific instances.

In one case, an electronics retailer drove paid search advertising to the Amazon site instead of their site. They wanted to create an image of a “hot” product so that distributors would be convinced to stock the electronics in different places (different channels). Using Amazon also works well for authors who want to make their books look “hot” and encourage sales.

And where better to get PPC landing page conversion pointers than at the Conversion Conference? I was there in New York City a few weeks ago and partook in a number of great sessions, including one on A/B testing tips by Anne Holland and Lisa Seaman from WhichTestWon.com.

Let’s dissect some of their conversion optimization tips and apply them specifically to PPC landing pages:

Tip #1: Include Privacy Lines

Privacy lines help with opt-ins. This may seem like stating the obvious, but surprisingly folks miss the basics. So, be sure to include something like “we respect your email privacy” on or very close to your form to improve overall conversions.

My take from a PPC perspective: Privacy policies matter, but not just for email opt-ins. They also matter for the user experience and trust overall, and may even factor into Google’s landing page and website quality scores in some cases.

Tip #2: Use Short Forms

The best strategy is to ask for as little information as possible. Forms with fewer required fields tend to perform best. Think twice before going live with a 14-field form.

My PPC take: In my experience, a form with five fields or fewer works best. Choose wisely when making fields required on a paid search campaign. The fewer, the better.

Personally, I like a four- to five-field form with two to three required fields and two to three optional fields. You can always obtain additional information later such as through email blasts or trigger emails. Think of this as a first date — you don’t want to come on too strong or overwhelm them.

Tip #3: Use Relevant Product Images

Images convert better when they relate directly to the product or service that your company is selling. In a WhichTestWon.com example, they tested the image of a machine versus an image of what the machine did, and the image of the machine significantly outperformed.

My PPC take: Don’t use images to try to convey product/service features, benefits, USPs and so forth; they are best outlined in page copy. Page copy needn’t be any sexier than a bullet list of product features and benefits (bonus tip: separating the features from the benefits works best in my experience).

It’s also worth noting that bigger product images and products images from various angles tend to lead to better online conversions (sales).

Tip #4: Incorporate Benefits Into The Various Page Elements

Use headlines and button copy to outline your product/service benefits. For example, try a button with something like this:

“Get a no-obligation free quote now”

It tends to convert better than generic copy like this:

“Click for a solar consultation”

My PPC take: Although I like benefit-focused copy as a general principle, their example speaks to the “benefit” of a quote, not of the product, i.e. that the quote will be no obligation and free. So this test isn’t about benefits, but rather about testing language on calls to action that may or may not resonate with customers.

Direct, clear calls to action are what this seems to be about, and that is a good point to test. A “solar consultation” sounds open-ended and vague, so you can see why that might deter people from clicking.

Tip #5: Test Your Copy Above Forms

Entice your visitors to fill out your lead form with compelling verbiage directly above or near the form. Ah but what verbiage to use? Don’t just go with your gut; test various calls to action and value propositions to see what resonates best with your audience.

In the WhichTestWon.com example, the “Create Your Profile for FREE and UNLIMITED Access” form lead-in performed better than “Try Safety.BLR.com Risk Free.”

My PPC take: First, bear in mind that subscription-based case studies that involve fairly limited commitment and no buying may not be relevant to your business. Secondly, for weekly committed opt-ins who don’t really want to spend anything, you can get higher conversion rates just by making it clear that there is very little commitment.

The danger here is that “success” shouldn’t be about getting more opt-ins from visitors with weak commitment and then worrying about the revenues later — because the revenue may never come. The fact is, many of your opt-ins are probably using spambox (throwaway) emails to “try” such offers.

Tip #6: Try Dual-colored Call To Action Buttons

The suggestion here is to try dual-colored and dual-action buttons. In one WhichTestWon.com test, a dual button with Quick View on one side in gray and Order Now on the other in green (see image below) converted 88% lift in order numbers versus a single “Order Now” orange button.

My PPC take: It was refreshing to hear something beyond the tired old suggestion of orange buttons (touted as the best converting button color). Button innovation often works to move the needle. Weak designs often fail to engage a click.

Tip #7: Test Bigger Buttons

The takeaway here is a simple one: The bigger the button, the more it will get clicked. Anne Holland is famous for saying “make your buttons bigger.”

My PPC take: I wholeheartedly agree. We’ve all run a zillion tests and seen this come true time and time again. I’d further suggest increasing button size 50% to 100% and see what it does for your bottom line. If there are increases, rinse and repeat until your find your best conversion rate.

Now go to it! Incorporate the above-mentioned elements/tips to your PPC landing pages for some quick wins in your ROAS. And of course, if you can’t find effective pages on your site to use for your paid search campaigns, don’t be afraid to design completely new landing pages. I’ve seen companies get lift 30-400% lift simply by creating completely new landing pages. Don’t worry so much that they don’t exactly fit your existing site design; worry a lot more that they are using the tried-and-true conversion best practices such as the ones above.

In this article, I’ll cover ways to effectively and systematically incorporate new images into your Facebook advertising. I credit many of the tips in this article from a recent conversation with Jennifer Sheahan from FBadsLAB.

Note: CTRs in Facebook tend to be very low so don’t get discouraged if figures are lower than in other PPC advertising. In fact, a 0.4% to 0.5% CTR is considered a very good CTR in Facebook.

Step 1: Creating Facebook Ads

To start, try testing 7 to 10 very different ads and incorporate images that are known to convert in Facebook. Some of these are: 1) happy women, 2) company logos, 3) head shots, and 4) fruits and vegetables. Within a few days, you’ll likely see one or two ads pull ahead of all the others.

From here, use the best performing ads and come up with variations of the ad or ads that performed best.

For example, if images of women are working for you, use pictures of different types of happy women in your ads to maintain freshness and improve ad CTRs.

Step 2: Testing Facebook Ads

When you’ve found image(s) that work, try making very small adjustments every few days to keep Facebook ads fresh.

Try the following modifications to keep ads fresh:

• A different color background.
• A colored border around the image. Here’s an example of an ad image with a border:

Note the extra image details in the corners of the image as well (I’ll touch more on this below). Not only do borders create differences, but they are very effective in adding visual impact.

Compare the ad with a border above to the ad below with no border:

• Colored bars down the side of images.
• Add small flags or other elements to image corners.

The image below has rounded corners and has incorporated a special effect in all four corners for a notable variation and added visual impact.

• Incorporate calls to action into the image of an ad.

Step 3: Refine Facebook Ad Testing

From here, try the following modifications for further iterations of ads:

1. Different color backgrounds or different color flags in the corners of ads.
2. Different widths of image borders, bars down the side or an image, etc.
3. Different placement of flags. For example, place a red flag in the upper right hand corner of an image. Or place flags on the opposite sides of a square image.

Feel free to chime in with some of your Facebook image testing ideas and successes.

Of course, your mileage may vary. I’ve surveyed current expert opinion on leading-edge trends with Facebook ad performance, and found the work of Jennifer Sheahan from FBadsLAB to be particularly insightful. In fact, I credit many of the following tips to Jen and a recent conversation I had with her.

Before getting started, here are some general Facebook advertising tips:

1.  A sense of “urgency” works well with Facebook ads. Audiences will be more compelled to click if they don’t see your ad often and if they think the ad may not see them again. Translation: do not bid to the hilt in Facebook. Lower your impression share so ads appear less often.

2.  As with advertising on the Google display network, the goal of a Facebook ad is to distract users from other tasks and entice potential visitors to click on ads. Ads with a purpose or a clever hook work better than ads with no purpose. It’s better to tie your ad to a promotion, discount or a report with compelling information than to simply try to drive traffic to a site.

3.  Test many images at once. Experts suggest 7 to 10 images per campaign.

4.  Don’t be discouraged by low conversion rates, especially if you’re used to Google AdWords. Average conversion rates in FB are approximately 0.02%. You’re doing well if you see conversions in the 0.4% to 0.5% range.

In general, the following types of images convert best on Facebook.

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.

Images of woman can tie into almost any product like health nutrition, wellness, etc. Financial institutions like banks could use an image of a happy woman and tie it to the idea of getting freedom from services charges or getting freedom from a mortgage sooner.

Colorful Logos

Why do logos convert at all? Here, the key would seem to be extreme relevance and repetition over time to the most targeted audience possible. Involved in a niche sport like lacrosse? A leading lacrosse equipment maker could actually profit by simply showing you their logo every so often over a period of months or even years.

Recently, experts say logos have been converting better, and that’s likely because advertisers are getting better at implementing such strategies. Those who understand the long term benefit of building brand recall in consumers may be particularly impressed with Facebook’s ability to do this within communities of any size.

Try logos that are colorful and engaging. If your company’s logo is boring or bland, make look colorful by adding a colorful border, background or text. Definitely avoid blue and white as the colors blend too much with Facebook’s colors.

Images with text on them (calls to action) convert better than images alone. In general, ads with a “reason” convert better than ads with no reason. So don’t just tell people about your accounting services but include a reason like: 1) end of tax year special or 2) an online promotion with savings available for 3 days only.

Note: product images do not convert as well as straight up colorful logos.

Headshots

These work well for presenters or a well-known person like the head of a company. In general, happy pictures where people are looking directly at the camera work best.

For example, if advertising an expert speaker, action shots of them talking with expressive hands tend to convert best. Subconsciously, people who view these pictures want to hear what the speaker is saying. Here’s an example:

Close up pictures work best so try not to cram too much into your images. A good idea is to step away from your computer and see if you can still see your image clearly in the 110 x 80 format. If not, re-size, rinse and repeat.

In subsequent articles, I’ll cover best practices related to successful Facebook headlines, ad copy and testing strategies.

In this article, I’ll cover several recent trends highlighted in the report and discuss the implications of these trends on mobile advertising. Wider adoption of smartphones is a key driver in these most recent trends.

These trends include the following:

Smartphones Are More Ingrained In Daily Life

People are using their phones in a number of different places. Take a look at the following examples:

• Home – 93%
• On the go like when commuting, walking, etc. – 87%
• In stores – 77%
• In restaurants – 73%
• Work – 72%

Smartphones Are Used In Similar Ways As Computers

Some of the ways smartphone users are using their mobile devices are to:

• Access search engines – 77%
• Access apps – 68%
• Access videos – 48%

People Are Multitasking While Using Their Smartphones

Take a look at some of the examples of what people are doing while also checking their mobile devices:

• Watching TV – 33%
• Using the Internet – 29%
• Reading a book – 16%
• Reading a newspaper – 22%
• Waiting in a line – 59%
• Socializing – 40%

There are several specific actions people are taking while they’re on their smartphones. Here’s what people are doing while searching on their smartphones:

Action Oriented Searches

Searchers are:

• Social networking
• Visiting sites like search engines, retail stores, etc.

They Look For A Wide Variety Of Information

• Here’s a list of the type of information searchers are seeking:
  • News
  • Food & recipes
  • Dining info
  • Entertainment
  • Shopping

They Are Searching For Local Information

In general, people seeking local information are highly qualified and ready to buy. Of those conducting local searches, they are:

• Contacting an establishment – 77%
• Making a purchase – 44%

As these trends in consumer adoption of mobile increase, it makes greater sense to advertise via the mobile channel.

Here are a few suggestions on how to implement mobile advertising in Google AdWords.

Try Local Extensions

Local extensions show the address, map & phone info. There are two options to set this up:

1. The ad can pull address from Google Places account, or:
2. advertisers can set the geographical area up manually.

The results will dynamically change the location information based on:

• where you are located, or
• the area you are searching for (like Vancouver).

When expanded, the listing will show up to 4 red tags on the map with 4 listings.

You’re not charged for clicks that expand the map info window, but you are charged for clicks from the info window to your website.

Try Phone Extensions

With this feature, ads will display a clickable phone number on a full browser phone.

Advertisers pay the cost of the click when the phone number is clicked (and hopefully a call is made).

Here’s what it looks like:

And Don’t Forget…

Mobile advertising requires a different mindset. Don’t make assumptions. Desktop browser based advertising doesn’t necessarily translate to mobile. Take a unique approach and employ the following tactics:

• Create separate mobile campaigns so you can gear mobile advertising to mobile users.
• Bid high to ensure ads are in top positions. In general, mobile web pages only display 1 to 3 ads at the top of the page.
• Use shorter terms. In general, people will not type very long queries into their phones.
• Write ad copy geared to mobile users.

If you would like to delve even deeper into mobile advertising, read Cindy Krum’s book, Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are.