Are you having problems with engagement on your Facebook page? Or are you confused if you should be using long-form copy or videos in your Facebook Ad Campaigns?
First things first, we need to explain what do we mean by long-form copy and how do you differentiate it from just any post that you might have.
Long-form copy may seem obvious to some of us marketers but the fact of the matter is, there has still been an ongoing debate on how we classify this for our content. But, for the sake of conversation and purpose, we will classify it as an article that has 1000 words or longer.
For Facebook posts, long-form copy denotes content that has a paragraph or even more. And now that we know what long-form copy means, we can now delve deeper on how important it is in your Facebook Ad campaigns and if it really works.
An analysis was done last 2018 by AdEspresso, and it entailed creating seven kinds of ads with the same creative image used but with different types of copies. We have been so used to copies that are one-liners or copies that have 4 lines with emojis in it, that we are kind of sceptical when the longer ones are introduced to us.
Take note that in this $1000 test that they made, everything is the same for each ad, from the image used, heading, link description and call to action (CTA) button.
Here is the breakdown of what they did in the experiment:
- One-line ad copy Version 1 – Statement
- One-line ad copy Version 2 – Question
- Bulleted statements
- Bulleted statements with emojis
- (1) Paragraph
- (3) Paragraphs
- (6) Paragraphs
Aside from spending for these various ad sets, they also created a poll for their followers to guess on which ads will have the greatest traction with the lowest cost per action (CPA). Almost 50% of the marketers they tested hypothesised wrong as they chose the one-liner ad copy.
Initially, if you haven’t read this article yet, you might have guessed that the shorter ad forms were the clear winners here too. But, low and behold, the first place winner was the one-paragraph ad copy, followed by the three-paragraph copy.
Do you know what’s more amazing about it?
It has the most competitive CPA plus had the most number of leads from all the other ad copies they have tested!
From this experiment that AdEspresso conducted, we can clearly illustrate that the long-form copy of their ad sets was more accepted and embraced by the potential targetted demographics as compared to those ad sets containing just one sentence and emojis.
So for the question, does long-form copy work for Facebook Ad campaigns? A definite YES from us here at BidPixel!
However, don’t just go out there and write a paragraph per paragraph of long-form copy just because we said so. Everything in marketing is about testing it out every single time since Facebook is a forever evolving algorithm.
Always take into consideration that some people just wants to skim through content and not ready everything. With this in mind, your copywriting will come into play. Your long-form copy should still include proper headlines to catch the attention of your audience, subheadings to break off thoughts and other copywriting things.
This is also the same as the videos for your Facebook ad campaigns.
Longer videos really work if and when you can engage your audience in the first few seconds of your clip. We made a blog on the importance of videos for Facebook and Instagram marketing previously and there is absolutely no doubt that it works really well for organic and paid posts. If you want to read it again, you can check it out here.
As to the concept behind the longer video length, it is actually the same as the written captions. There are exceptions to the rule and considerations you will need to follow as the attention span of people are getting shorter and shorter.
According to Facebook’s update on video distribution last May of 2019, they listed down the best practices in circulating video content through their platform and these are the following:
- Originality
Nowadays, homemade and organic videos are getting traction as compared to those who use stock. The reason being is that more and more people crave authenticity and videos that are genuine are so close to home for these types of audiences.
- Viewing Behaviors and Video Attributes
Create longer videos that have value in it and not just a static one with slides. Facebook can actually detect those videos that are just clickbait and those who deliberately make their videos longer but has no value or whatsoever.
So don’t wonder why your videos are not getting enough traction if you practice this type of marketing, that means Facebook is on you.
Again, nobody likes CLICKBAIT.
- Loyalty and Intent
Facebook gauges how they will distribute your video content if a lot of people actively watch your page’s videos or search for it. So how do you promote this?
Create titles and descriptions that are clear enough for people to see right away plus add in relevant tags. This will help your videos to be seen from the search bar above and in the suggested videos.
- Engagement
As we all know, Facebook’s algorithm focuses on engagement. The higher the engagement, the more it gets shown to your audiences’ feeds. How do you do this?
Create and produce videos that spark and promote HEALTHY conversations and feedback, and yes, emphasis on healthy. It has to promote interest without disrespecting any individual or organization. Ask your team to share it as organic shares rank higher in Facebook’s eyes however, you should also be cautious that it does not look spammy at all.
Examples of spammy shares are those from groups that exchange shares and yes Facebook monitors that as well.
To sum everything up, longer content for both captions and videos work really well as long as you are providing value and your intention is to educate and not just to spam.
