Long form or short form facebook ads

Are you wondering how long the text should be for your Facebook ads? Do long form or short form Facebook ads work better?

Short answer, I’m seeing long form text work better for a cold audience. But it can also depend on the type of business and what you are promoting! You have to do your own testing.

In this article I will share when to use long form or short form Facebook ads for better results and give some good examples of each type of Facebook ad.

 

When to use long form or short form Facebook Ads

Long form Facebook ads can act as a “mini-landing page”.  In order to get a conversion, you need someone to first click.  So the entire job of your ad is to get people to take the next step and click on your ad to get over to your site.

Use long form text in your Facebook Ads when:

  • You are targeting a cold audience who may not be familiar with your product or service
  • Your product is a little more complex and needs more background on the benefits to the potential customer or client
  • You are running a Facebook Lead Generation ad and don’t have a landing page where people will learn more about what they are opting into
  • You have tried short form text and aren’t getting good Link Click through Rate (CTR Link Click Through in the Facebook Reports)

Use short form text in your Facebook Ads when:

  • You have an ecommerce product that is easy to understand
  • You have a special offer that is clear (20% off, BOGO etc)
  • You are retargeting an audience that is already familiar with you and understands your product or service
  • The image or video in the ad does most of the explaining
  • You have something that will get enough curiosity up to take the next step to click to your site (not quite the same as clickbait – your landing page will also need to convert well)

Basically, I’m seeing long form text work better for a more “complicated” product or promotion.  If your promotion is easy to understand, then you may not need as much text.

 

Examples of long form and short form Facebook Ads

Here are some good examples of long form and short form Facebook ads to give you some inspiration.

In some cases these are my clients and I know these ads are working well, but others are examples that look good in terms of engagement and/or they have been running a long time which tells me they are working.

Long form ads:

This ad is designed to tell people enough information to get them excited about buying the product before they get to the sales page.

Non-profit today ad

You may need to agitate the problems people may not even know about in an ad.

Scrivener Coach

Short (or short-ish) form ads:

A customer review that answers a potential concern is always a great option for a short form ad and notice that it sparks other reviews in the comments.

Short form ad comforter with review

The video in this ad explains how the product works.

My intent video ad

Special offers retargeted to website visitors are also great for short form ads.

long form or short form facebook ad

A local business where the traffic goes to Messenger to ask any questions.

Good Life Boutique

As always, test what works for you!

And if you aren’t seeing results with the type of ad you are running, it might be time to test something new!

Want more great tips on running Facebook ads? Social Media Marketing World in San Diego is going to have a ton of great sessions on Facebook ads (including mine!)  But if you can’t travel there, you can grab the virtual ticket so you don’t miss anything!

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