Facebook can do amazing things for your wedding and event planning business if you are patient, have a reasonable budget, and a strategy behind your Facebook ads approach. Every business is unique, and it’s all about figuring out which ads work for your target audience. There are a few things I want you to keep in mind as you launch your first Facebook ad!

Before we start designing though, spend time researching your audience. Which websites do they visit, and do those brands or businesses have a Facebook page? If so, you could target the audience of that particular brand. Don’t be afraid to test different ways to find the same audiences — that could be through their interests, pages, and so on.

You want it to be on brand for you, the elements in the design, as well as the copy, need to resonate with your audience. You’ll definitely want to consider testing 2-3 different ad designs – then, stop the campaigns of whichever ads aren’t performing well.

Here are nine design ideas for your next Facebook ad:

1) Have A Smiling Face

One of the most important parts of a good Facebook ad – because it’s usually the most obvious – is having high-quality images. If you really want to step it up a notch, include someone’s face in the Facebook ad. Having someone’s face in the ad is going to make it easier for the audience to connect with the ad. It really helps deepen the connection if it’s you or your team, but if that’s not possible, any face is great!

2) Draw Diagonal Lines

If possible, draw attention to the ad text with arrows, or having someone’s eyes or fingers pointed in that direction. These cues help drive the viewer’s eyes right to the text.

3) Use Stark Contrast

Does your brand use bright or bold colors? Consider using one of your bright colors as a solid color background, with a bit of text or a graphic on top of it. The bright colors will stand out in the feed, and the contrasting element will help draw it in. (In general, contrast in design is a great idea!)

4) Put a Button on the Image

When setting up a Facebook ad, there is a place to add a button for people to click over to your website. But, adding a colorful button within the ad design itself is really great for increasing clicks. If it fits with your brand, using a color like orange or red can help boost clicks even more.

5) Utilize the Carousel Feature

You aren’t limited to just one single image for your Facebook ad. You also have the option for using a carousel – like a gallery. With this feature, you can visually connect your images by having a line that flows through each image! This is a great way to have a more visually engaging and interactive ad.

6) Embrace Minimalist Design

The Facebook feed is very cluttered – emojis, videos, images, posts, on and on. Instead of using bright stark contrast like above, you can swing the opposite way and be very minimalist. Use a white background with very few elements in the design.

7) Icons and Illustrations

There are so many images on Facebook between your friends, Facebook groups, and of course, other Facebook ads. You don’t have to use an actual image, you could utilize icons or other illustrations within your ad.

8) Gradients

I hesitate to list gradients as an option, because I don’t want you to go back to the 90’s using rainbow gradients. But, you’ve probably noticed a slight gradient across many different designs out in the world. But, these are not gradients that go from yellow to black. The use of gradients is best used when it’s a subtle change – like red to maroon, or blue to navy, etc.

9) Try Using Video Ads

Facebook ads are great but Facebook video ads are even better! With so many Facebook ads filling our feeds, using video is a better way to stand out and have your ad noticed, and really connect with your audience. You don’t need a big, fancy studio to shoot these video ads, you can do them at home!

Lastly, don’t be afraid to A/B test your designs. This could be something small as just switching out an image or a color, or you could create two completely different ads and test them on different audiences. Either way, you can always stop the lower performing ad, and then push more of your budget to the higher performing ad. If you have any other questions about designing your Facebook ads, I’d love to hear it in the comments below!

This is a guest post by Jessica Freeman from Jess Creatives. Jessica is an award-winning graphic and web designer, and video consultant, helping service-based entrepreneurs create a brand that shines through every level of their business. Outside of designing, she also loves producing for her YouTube channel. Jess lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband, Aaron. Follow her on YouTube and Instagram.

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