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13 Tips For Getting Animation Clients Using Facebook Ads

ben marvazi 2020

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When you’re running a freelance animation business, you have to take advantage of all the ways you can get animation clients both offline and online. One of the most important platforms you can use to promote yourself is Facebook.

Facebook is not just a place to keep up with your friends from college anymore. Now, it’s also a valuable business opportunity. Facebook is the perfect avenue for you to reach your target audience through paid ads.

Using Facebook Advertising is one of the best ways to keep your services top-of-mind for your audience, form connections with them, and eventually, convert them into paying clients.

Now that you know the importance of Facebook advertising, you’re probably asking these questions: Who should I target? What kinds of ads should I create? How can I get more conversions for my ads?

If you aren’t familiar with advertising on Facebook, let this blog post be your guide in gaining your next animation client. We’ve listed 13 best tips to get animation clients using Facebook ads.

Image Header by Will Francis

1) Target a Specific Audience

a woman talking about being specific

GIF by ABC Network via GIPHY

Bigger isn’t always better. Just because your ad reaches a large audience of people does not mean it’s effective.

The reason you make an ad is that you want engagement and/or conversion. Showing your ad to users who aren’t your target audience will just waste your time and money.

Fortunately, with Facebook’s targeting functionality, you can target your ad specifically to users depending on their demographics, location, interests, and more criteria.

This way, you will get more engagement and maximum results from people who are ready to buy your animation services.

2) Make a Compelling Offer

man saying he is persuasive

GIF by Gotham via GIPHY

Great offers sell without looking like they’re selling. You can achieve this by putting out excellent copy that does not look like an ad.  Don’t tell your audience to buy your animation services. Instead, let them feel like they need you.

You can offer free trials or a lead magnet that will grab attention and build trust in your brand. According to Search Engine Journal, a lead magnet is something you offer customers in exchange for their email address and other contact information.

If you want to be successful in getting animation customers online, then you need to have an email list. In order to have an email list, you will need to create an appealing lead magnet. 

Remember: a good lead magnet gives your customers value (“sign up for my newsletter for discounted rates!”), solves their problems, and shows your unique selling proposition.

Just like what Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger says, “Great copy doesn’t seem like an ad, it seems like a favor.”

3) Find the Perfect Image for Your Ad

man talking about a perfect image for your ad

Image via GIPHY

Many people focus on the quality and details of their copy, but forget to pay the same attention to the images they choose for their Facebook ad. 

You should spend just as much or more time on the image you choose for your ad as you do on the copy itself. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to use an original photo of your freelance animation business or service’s work, though.

As long as you choose a relevant image that will quickly catch your audience’s attention and get them to stop scrolling and read your copy, you’re good. Just make sure to check for copyrights!

You want to make sure that your ad is striking and tells a story even by using only less than 20 percent text in your image.

4) Set a Specific Time to Run Your Ad

person in blue denim jacket using macbook pro

Image by Dylan Ferreira via Unsplash

If you’re running your ads all the time, you can end up wasting a lot of cash. Andrew Ethan Zeng, digital marketing manager and entrepreneur, says to make sure you optimize your ads correctly and show them at the right time for the right audience. 

To achieve dayparting, click your market objective and ad set level. Set your budget to a lifetime budget and edit your ad schedule. You can use your own time zone or your viewer’s timezone. Select and unselect each box depending on when you want to run your ad.

To display your ads at the best time, analyze your stats, Google Analytics, or your Facebook Analytics to see what times have the most traffic. If you do this, you will see much better results and maximize your ad budget.

5) Use Video

Facebook’s algorithm prioritizes showing video content in the feed. Using videos on Facebook can nearly double your chance of getting a conversion from your ad.

Videos give you a chance to entertain, show creativity, and connect with your audience by telling a compelling story about you and your animation services. No other medium can do a better job at storytelling than video.

When creating a video, make sure it’s short, simple, intriguing, and has specific calls-to-action. Also, make sure it can be understood even with the sound off.

Some people scroll through their news feeds without headphones, so make sure that the video is captioned or includes something to let the viewer know what’s going on even if they can’t hear the audio.

According to a report from Verizon Media and Publicis Media, in a survey of U.S. consumers, it was found that 92% of people watch videos with the sound off on mobile and 83% watch with the sound off on a computer.

The report recommends that businesses should put subtitles in their advertisements because 80% of consumers are more likely to watch a whole video if it has captions available.

On the other hand, there are also audiences that like watching videos with the audio on, so you should make sure your video’s audio is of good quality.

Even if your animated video or live-action video isn’t as perfect as you want it to be, if your audio is high-quality, your video can still get great results.

Check out, B&H Photo Video Pro Audio suggestions for using the right tools to record your audio for crisp and clear sound.

Make sure to set up a sound booth indoors and record your voice-overs as closely as possible to the microphone, choose the best filming locations, and use professional equipment in editing your video if you can.

6) Create a Facebook Canvas Ad

Everything You Need to Know About Facebook Canvas Ads

Image via ROI4My.com

A Facebook Canvas ad is a full-screen ad experience that makes brands’ products look lively and engaging. This kind of ad removes the hassle of switching to another app just to view the ad.

InstaPage says that this ad style allows brands to tell their product’s stories in an enjoyable, effective, and memorable way. At first, a Canvas ad can be seen as a regular ad, but it can cover the whole mobile screen when clicked.

Facebook users can view videos, photos, GIFS, and calls-to-action buttons by clicking, swiping, scrolling. Canvas ads are very engaging. 53% of users who open a Canvas ad view half of it for about 31 seconds.

7) Use Multiple Ad Formats

Facebook Ads formats

GIF via GPeC 

There are several ways to advertise on Facebook using different ad formats. You can use dynamic ads, sponsored ads, video ads, Messenger ads, carousel ads, collection ads, and lead ads.

All of these ads are effective when used properly and targeted towards the right audience. Try your hand at a few different ad types since not all ads will work the same way for you.

Facebook recommends that you choose your ad format depending on your objectives. However, don’t be afraid to experiment with your ad formats to find the best for your animation business.

8) Use Social Proof as Ads

man who says he will prove himself

GIF by So You Think You Can Dance via GIPHY

Using social proof as an ad is another way to capture an audience and show your worth. Adam Erhart, marketing strategist, entrepreneur, and content creator, says that the principle of social proof is that your audience will probably like what other people like.

This means that you should create an ad and leverage social proof whenever you create a new ad. Do you have awesome client testimonials from agencies, businesses, animation studios, or well-known individuals? Use them in your ad!

You can do this by going to your page’s post and using that post as an ad rather than create a new ad.

9) Focus on Retargeting

process of retargeting Facebook Ads

Image via Microswift

Retargeting campaigns have higher conversion rates and lower cost per clicks (CPCs). Not only does retargeting come at a  low cost, but it is an awesome opportunity for you to re-engage with people who took action on your website but did not buy your animation service.

Facebook advertising will allow you to retarget your ads based on your list of email subscribers, past customers, or people who have interacted with your business.

Remember when retargeting ads to make sure that your message is still relevant to your audience.

10) Make Click-to-Messenger Facebook Ads

sample of click-to-Messenger Facebook Ads

Image via ShopPop

This kind of advertising is one of the most powerful and cost-effective Facebook ads. Messenger Ads give a better ROI compared to traditional ads and come in the form of videos, images, or carousel ads.

According to Wes McDowell, website strategy expert, if you want to make Click-to-Messenger Facebook Ads, make sure you have a scripted and automated message using a chatbot.

With this strategy, the user will immediately arrive at your Messenger ad and receive a greeting. It’s an engaging way to connect with your clients right away, and it’ll get you noticed

If you want to seem genuine and retain your customers, you will want to be prepared to respond to inquiries right away even if you interact with them just via a bot.

If the customers you interacted with via Messenger did not end up purchasing your animation service, you can restart conversations with them through Sponsored Message Remarketing Ads.

You can deliver these messages through Messenger to conversations you had in the last six months. You can also choose to target old conversations or create a new custom audience.

11) Create Lookalike Audiences

how to create Facebook Lookalike Audiences

Image via Light Up Digital

A great way to target the right audience is to create lookalike audiences who are most similar to your existing clients. They are easy to create and implement, which makes them a powerful marketing tool to increase conversion rates.

According to Facebook, when you create a lookalike audience, you choose a source audience from your pixel, mobile app, or followers of your Facebook page.

Facebook identifies the similarities of those audiences (such as demographics and interests) then shows your ad to people who are similar to them.

You can make look-alikes of your high-value customers such as clients who engage and pay more, leads that didn’t end up becoming clients, and more.

You have the choice to select your audience size and specific demographics. When making look alike audiences, keep the audience as similar as you can while controlling your audience size.

12) Install the Facebook Pixel

how to install the Facebook Pixel

Image via Neil Patel

Facebook Pixel is a code you place on your website. With Facebook Pixel installed, you will be able to track the actions people visit on your website, optimize ads, and build audiences for future ads.

You will also be able to encourage customers to purchase your animation services again, discover which devices customers use to see your ads when they see your ads, and much more.

Afterwards, you can quickly adjust your campaigns and maximize your ad budget.

13) Use Facebook Ads Library to Spy on Competitors

Facebook Ads Library website

Facebook has a Page Transparency section on every business page. Wes McDowell says that using Facebook Ad Library gives you a peek into what kinds of ads other animators’ business pages are currently running. 

You can see when the other company’s ads started running. If they are still active, that can be a strong sign of how successful the ads are, giving you an idea of what are the best-performing headlines, images, and copy.

Take note to never, ever directly copy an ad of your competitor animator or animation studio. Just use the ads as a reference to create unique content of your own or think of even better ads.

In Closing

Advertising your animation business on Facebook can be overwhelming, especially if you’re new to this kind of marketing. Creating great Facebook ads is all about knowing your audience and using the features of Facebook Ads Manager to your benefit.

By following all these tips we listed above, you’ll be able to create Facebook ads that will help you get your target audience’s attention and gain more animation customers.

If you’re looking for more information related to animation and running an animation business, make sure you sign up for our masterclass and download our free marketing handbook.

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