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Giving Tuesday is one of the biggest donation days of the year. Once it’s over, don’t let its impact fade away. Sure, you’ve seen a boost in donations off your Giving Tuesday campaign, but you’ve also gotten so much more value you can use to advance your organization’s mission.

Once the Giving Tuesday campaign itself is over, have a follow-up plan that keeps the value growing throughout the next year. Here are four pieces to a successful post-Giving Tuesday plan.

1) Run An Engagement Campaign For People Who Donated On Giving Tuesday

Donating is a strong expression of interest. Run a targeted campaign for the Giving Tuesday donors to get them further engaged with your organization. This is not a campaign asking for more money. Too soon.

A Giving Tuesday donor campaign can start with a special thank you for making the day so special. Share some details about what was achieved that day: how much was donated, where that money is going and whom it will help.

Create some image or emoji-laden social content that announces what a rock star they are for having given to your organization on Giving Tuesday. Then encourage them to share the pre-fabbed social content via their own social media profiles. Instead of “I voted” stickers we get on election day, these are the “I donated…” or “I gave to…” social media updates.

If you have events or volunteer opportunities, you might center your campaign around getting them involved in them. Frame it as not just an opportunity for them to be involved, but for your organization to be able to meet its great donors in person and thank them personally.

2) Build Content About How The Donations Will Be Used, Showing Maximum Impact

Some of this content can be used in your Giving Tuesday donor campaign, as well as other targeted campaigns or general social media content.

Start with an eye-catching infographic that shares interesting tidbits about what you raised on Giving Tuesday and how that translates to the good your nonprofit does. Does your program run a program providing after-school tutoring to students in need? How many more students and tutoring hours will the donations support? Let people see what the money will do.

Will the money be used for building improvements or at a physical location? Take a video and give a tour of where and how the money will create more or enhanced resources for the community. As the improvements get made, post update videos they can share too.

3) Plan How To Re-Engage This Year’s Donors For Other Giving Occasions

Just because you’re not asking your Giving Tuesday donors for another donation right now, doesn’t mean you won’t in the future. You’d be silly not to prep them for a future ask. 

When you think about a donation campaign for this group, it might be worthwhile to segment them further. For example, new donors and repeat donors, by amount of donation, whether they engaged with your engagement campaign, or got involved in other ways with your organization since their Giving Tuesday donation. It makes sense that these different groups would get different messaging.

What you know they all have in common is that they’re motivated by group action and social media events. You might think about building a donation campaign around another meaningful event or even otherwise ordinary social media meme (#WednesdayWisdom, anyone?). An animal rescue group might build something around National Puppy Day (it’s coming up in March). There’s day for everything. Find one that’s relevant to your group.

If you have an annual event that attracts higher dollar donors, put together a prep email campaign for the Giving Tuesday donors that were on the high end. The email campaign can start with content from previous years’ events and build up to the save the date and ask. 

4) Report On Your Giving Tuesday Results So You Know Which Marketing Efforts Worked Best

Run. Analyze. Refine. That’s the mantra for every marketing campaign and it’s no different for Giving Tuesday. Hopefully, you set some campaign goals and identified important metrics pre-campaign. Regardless of outcome, look at each piece of content and point of outreach to see how well it performed. Or who it performed well with and who it didn’t.

What devices did most of your converted traffic come from? Which social media channels were most responsive? Did videos perform better than blog posts? How did the conversion rates on different Giving Tuesday emails vary? 

What can you learn about the new donors each campaign tactic attracted? What are the common demographic or psychographic denominators you can find? 

Do a post-mortem that ends with actionable takeaways you can implement right now and to execute an even better Giving Tuesday campaign next year.

You Don’t Have To Wait ‘Til Next Year

We’re not just talking to you Cubs fans out there. Giving Tuesday might just be an annual campaign, but you can incorporate it into marketing campaigns all year long. From content you can build around its impact on your mission to leveraging the new donor data gathered – Giving Tuesday is truly a gift that keeps on giving.

If you’re anything like me, there’s been a time in your life when you’ve asked, “What the heck is https?”

What’s that extra “s” for? Well, it turns out that the “s” stands for “SSL,” which stands for Secure Sockets Layer — the technology that encrypts your connection to a website, so that hackers can’t intercept any of your data.

The whole concept of https is a pretty interesting topic on its own, and my colleague, Jeffrey Vocell, talks more about it here. But in addition to what it actually means, why is it so important? And why do you need it on your website? aforementioned colleague, we identified five of the more important ones. (Spoiler alert: A lot of them have to do with your search performance, so have a good look at what they mean for you.)

HubSpot Marketing customers: SSL is included free of charge with the Website Add-On, and the number of domains on which you can enable SSL depends on your subscription type. Learn more here.

5 Reasons Why HTTPS Should Be Enabled on Your Website

1) It’s good for search.

Every minute — no, second — Google’s algorithm requires sites to essentially battle it for top search rankings. I love that visual: two websites that could both rank for a user’s query, essentially running toward the finish line of top results. But what happens if there’s a tie? Do the sites battle it out in a “sudden death” round?

Kind of — there is a tiebreaker involved, and it’s https. The way Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes explains it, “If all quality signals are equal for two results, then the one that is on HTTPS would get … or may get … the extra boost that is needed to trump the other result.”

It all goes back to the idea that Google is constantly solving for the user, and makes frequent changes to its algorithm that create a better experience. Which is why our next point makes sense.

2) It’s better for users.

I couldn’t tell you the last time I heard about a hacking incident in which thousands of records were stolen — because they seem to happen so frequently. In fact, such data breaches jumped 29.5% between 2014 and 2015.

But SSL helps to prevent these “man-in-the-middle” attacks — “a form of eavesdropping where communication between two users is monitored and modified by an unauthorized party” — and keeps user information secure.

That makes https especially important if your website accepts credit cards or has a login functionality. With so many of these hacking incidents making headlines, users want to know that your brand is making an effort to protect them from their private information being stolen or compromised.

We could also get into a debate about the ethics of protecting your users from that kind of privacy breach, but you get the point:

• user privacy = important
• https = good for privacy

3) SSL is required for AMP.

A few pieces of vocabulary to break down here:

“AMP” stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. It’s the technology that makes certain pages load almost instantaneously on mobile. So, when you search for something on your mobile device through Google, you might notice that some results have a lightning bolt icon next to it, that means that it’s AMP-ready.

Look at what happens when I search for Doomtree, my favorite hip hop group, on my phone. On the first page of results, one has the lightning bolt icon next to it. And when I click on that result:

… it loads instantaneously.

AMP is going to play a major role in SEO in the coming months — Google is making it a priority for 2017, which implies that AMP-ready pages will have better rankings. But in order for something to be labeled as AMP, it requires SSL.

We’ve covered the importance of optimizing for mobile quite a bit, and preparing for the special attention that will be paid to AMP is now part of that optimization. But in order for webmasters to be as web-friendly as possible, all of the requirements behind AMP must be closely examined — including its https criteria.

4) Google is indexing mobile.

So, that thing we just said about the importance of mobile? It turns out, Google is actually going to start indexing mobile, which means that its “algorithms will eventually primarily use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank pages from that site.”

But in order for a mobile site to be indexable, Google recommends several best practices, one of which is to “start by migrating to a secure site,” especially “if [you] don’t support HTTPS yet.”

And bottom line, says HubSpot SEO Senior Marketing Manager Victor Pan, “HTTPS is preferred over HTTP in the index, with all other things being equal.” So get secure — you’ll be glad you did.

5) “Not secure.”

To elaborate — In January 2017, Chrome 56 will start displaying “not secure” in the browser bar for any http (notice it’s missing the “s”) sites that ask users for login or credit card information.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m about to make an online purchase and see that the site isn’t secure — for example, that the padlock icon in the browser bar is broken — I navigate my business elsewhere. And I’m not alone. In fact, only 3% of online shoppers say they would enter their credit card information on a site without the green padlock.

Imagine if Google starts doing that work for users before they can even get to checkout. If the number is as low as 3% now, before search engines start doing the legwork to label sites as “not secure” before anyone even visits them, you can see how traffic to those sites will suffer a huge blow — as well as its digital sales revenue.

Create a Safe Space

There you have it. If you want your SEO to stay strong — on both desktop and mobile — and you don’t want to lose digital sales revenue, it’s easy to see why https should be enabled on your website.

These are just a few reasons why https is so important. What are yours? Let us know in the comments.

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As an agency leader, do you have a plan for what you’d do if 30-50% of your employees quit?

You might be at risk right now, according to the latest Campaign US survey on agency employee morale.

To summarize from this recent HubSpot article on the growing agency morale problem:

• Nearly half of all agency employees report having “low” or “dangerously low” morale in 2016 — up from one-third in 2015.
• Roughly 30% of agency employees are actively looking for new jobs. (I venture that even more would leave if approached with a strong opportunity.)
• The top three causes of low morale were company leadership (73%), lack of advancement (45%), and dissatisfaction with work (38%).

Now that we know there’s a problem, how do we solve it?

The good news is that the top causes of low morale are primarily within your control — so you can fix them at your agency.

How to Fix Your Agency’s Low Morale Problem

1) Assess your own management and leadership skills.

As Manager Tools notes: “The definition of an Effective Manager is to achieve results while retaining your team members.”

Be honest with yourself — are you getting results and retaining your team? If you’re seeing only one of those (or neither), you probably have gaps as a leader and manager.

According to Glassdoor, a former agency owner spent most of his time at the race track instead of leading his agency. That’s not a good message for employee morale.

You may need to get perspective from someone outside your agency — we often lack perspective on ourselves. You can reach out to a business partner, your romantic partner, a business coach, or a “frenemy” at another agency. But you have to make it safe for them to share honest feedback, or else you’re defeating the purpose.

Be aware that their perspective may hurt at first. In my first 360 review as a manager, current and past colleagues said I was good at getting things done… but not at making it fun for everyone else. That wasn’t fun to hear, but taking it to heart meant I could start improving.

2) Hire people to fill in your gaps as a leader.

Improving your weaknesses only goes so far. I believe managers should focus on maximizing their strengths, and then recruit others to balance out their weaknesses.

If you’re great at sales and big-picture thinking, but you struggle with operations, you’ll probably never become great at operations. And you’re also unlikely to enjoy operations anyway. Instead, hire a great operations person — someone who excels at the things you don’t enjoy.

If you’re great at operations but struggle at people-related nuances, get help. At the very least, seek out insights from someone with better people skills before you roll-out an agency-wide initiative that might make people unhappy.

Reflect for a moment: What are your gaps as an agency leader? How might you ask current and future team members to help you fill those gaps?

3) Help your middle managers upgrade their management skills.

When I speak with front-line employees at agencies, I see a pattern of problems around middle management. Often, the executive leadership team is good at managing people — but the middle managers aren’t always as competent.

Part of the issue is usually the agency’s fault. If you promote people who aren’t ready to manage others, it’s not surprising that your new managers will struggle. Give your middle managers the tools they need to succeed, and be ready to coach them on coaching their employees.

Don’t assume they know what you’ve learned over the years. I share 31 tips for managers in my book Made to Lead, but knowing is only the beginning — people still need to practice management every day.

Find ways to observe your middle managers as they manage. Management is a “learn by doing” profession. You want to provide spot feedback (privately) to help people improve while situations are fresh.

4) Show employees how they fit into your agency’s future.

When I do anonymous Employee Culture Surveys at agencies, I often get feedback that employees feel confident about their agency’s future… but they’re unclear how they fit into that future.

Alleviating employee stress around the future depends on your agency’s headcount and your growth plans. When an agency has 10 people, there’s not much room for promotions — everyone’s doing a bit of everything, and it doesn’t make sense to have a large layer of middle managers. In contrast, a 50-person agency typically has plenty of room for employee advancement.

If you’re currently small and likely will be for the immediate future, be honest about your plans. Some people will choose to leave, but you can turn it into a controlled departure instead of a sudden departure.

If you’re growing, map out the future org chart and team structure. Identify where you’re going, and what the transition roles might look like. Then, speak with employees about the agency’s future, along with each person’s individual professional goals.

5) Commit to improving work/life balance.

Work/life balance was the key factor among high-morale employees in the Campaign US survey. Improving work/life balance won’t fix morale if you’re also a terrible manager, but it’s the next place to look once you’ve started to improve yourself.

How many hours are your employees working? According to my research on agency workloads via Inbound.org, most agency people are working less than 50 hours a week. A significant minority (23%) are working more than 60 hours a week, but that’s not the norm.

Apart from occasional spikes, long workweeks may be a sign that you’re understaffed, that people aren’t billing enough, or that you’re doing a bad job at project management.

Work/life balance is about flexibility, too. Are you focused on results… or expecting butts-in-seats facetime? The workweek can feel longer when employees feel unnecessarily chained to their desk.

6) Send (and act on) employee satisfaction surveys.

If you don’t know how your team is doing, it’s harder to improve. Keep in mind that perception is reality — employee morale is about what employees think and feel, not what you think and feel as an agency leader.

Because I want my team to be happy, I regularly check-in to ask how things are going by sending a “satisfaction check-in.” I ask team members the following five questions to find out how happy they are with their work, and what I can do better as a leader.

1. What’s working?
2. What’s not working?
3. What should I do differently?
4. Do you see any opportunities or gaps in the business that I am (or might be) missing?
5. Anything else you’d like to share?

Based on their answers, I can improve my leadership and management, as well as improve the business overall.

You can conduct simple employee surveys yourself, or you can use an employee engagement tool.

7) Invest in professional development.

Spending cash and time on professional development pays off in two ways. First, it helps employees improve their skills — which means they’re better at helping your agency’s clients. Second, it shows employees you’re investing in their future — whether they stay or go.

The right budget and time allocation will depend on your agency’s lifecycle. But regardless of the amount, I typically see a strong payoff for agencies.

Don’t forget to include management and leadership coaching. Once you equip your team with more skills and experience, it also makes it easier to promote from within — which helps solve the “lack of advancement” morale problem.

8) Conduct (and act on) exit interviews.

Your best efforts won’t keep everyone — and that’s okay. It’s normal to have at least some employee turnover. (You might expect 10-25% annual employee turnover, depending on the size of your agency.)

When someone says they’re leaving, don’t try to convince them to stay — they’ve already made up their mind. But you can use their experience to prevent other good team members from leaving.

Use exit interviews to find what you’re doing wrong, and fix whatever the problem is as well as you can.

It’s important that you act on what you learn. If you tend to take things personally, you should delegate the exit interview process to another member of your leadership team.

Applying These Tactics at Your Agency

If you’ve observed an employee morale problem — or suspect one is festering — you can solve it.

To do this, you need to identify the underlying cause(s) and then take action. The solutions are often free or inexpensive, but they require you to commit to improving as a leader and a manager.

Don’t underestimate the time it will take to fix things — some changes can happen immediately, but others can take months of consistent action, especially when it involves regaining employees’ trust.

Leadership development can feel painful at first, but it pays off with better employee retention and results. Ultimately, you’ll enjoy work more — and you can see a higher payday if you ultimately choose to sell your agency.

What will you change first at your agency to boost employee morale? Let us know in the comments.

It can be hard to stay focused in a busy office. There’s always something going on–meetings, conversations, or donuts to eat in the kitchen. Not to mention your coworkers coming up to you to ask about your job. The nerve people have! Fortunately, you don’t actually have to be available to your coworkers all the time. There are proven ways to keep yourself on task while keeping others away from you at the same time.

You’re not wrong if you think you might be spending a bit too much time on non work related tasks. A study found 89% of employees admit to wasting time at work, and of those, 2% waste 5 hours a day. There’s a chance there’s a guy hanging around your office getting paid to pretend to work.

Before we discuss how to keep yourself on task, you might be wondering what people are doing all day if they aren’t working. The study also uncovered that:

• A married employee was looking at a dating web site and then denied it while it was still up on his computer screen
• An employee was caring for her pet bird that she smuggled into work
• An employee was shaving her legs in the women’s restroom
• An employee was laying under boxes to scare people
• Employees were having a wrestling match
• A sleeping employee claimed he was praying
• An employee was changing clothes in a cubicle
• An employee was printing off a book from the Internet
• An employee was warming her bare feet under the bathroom hand dryer

So, in an effort to protect you from yourself and those around you, here are some ways to stay focused.

1) Put On Headphones

Headphones tell the world, I am too busy for other people’s noise. Become visibly annoyed if anyone requests you remove them. Bonus points if you play them loudly enough that it sounds like your own personal desk concert.

2) Grow Plants

Try creating a forest around you made of various plants, or perhaps grow a hedge. You won’t be able to look out, and no one will be able to look in. Is she or he in the office today? Everyone will wonder, no one will know.

3) Practice Quiet Hours

If you can’t beat ‘em, set strict rules they must follow. Enforce quiet time for a few hours a day to give everyone the chance to listen to Jerry’s heavy breathing. No chips or crunchy snacks allowed. Be very fanatical about it so people know you’re serious.

4) Change Your Environment

Outside influences like air temperature, air quality, smells and colors can affect your focus. Take it upon yourself to make office updates. Purchase air filters, light Pine scented candles (the scent is proven to increase alertness!), and paint the walls around you a productive shade of blue.

In an effort to not cut into your work time, make your renovations at night when everyone else has gone home for the day. What a surprise when they show up in the morning! Don’t worry, your company will surely foot the bill.

5) Use Privacy Accessories

Pick up a computer privacy hoodie. This guarantees no will try to talk to you – not now, not ever!

6) Write a To-Do List

And then throw it out the window! Clients and coworkers will ask you to complete other high priority tasks that they need RIGHT THIS MINUTE PLEASE. This is okay. The point is, for a few moments while writing out your list you will feel in charge of your life.

7) Keep Your Desk Organized

Keep your desk clean and your mind uncluttered. Take a few minutes at the end of each day to clean your desk just so and to put things back where they belong. Inspect each item’s placement carefully. If they are moved the next morning, you know Susan has been messing with your things and she had better stop calling you paranoid.

8) Drink Coffee

Drinking coffee helps you concentrate and keeps you alert. Just be sure not to drink it within the first two hours of waking up, as this is when your body’s natural adrenaline keeps you awake and coffee can interrupt this cycle. Also avoid drinking it before any big meetings or on an empty stomach – you don’t want to be running to the bathroom all meeting, or coming across as a jittery or anxious. Never drink coffee after 1pm, it can keep you from falling asleep at night and cause a vicious cycle of becoming exponentially more tired with every day that passes!

If you really are looking for some ways to stay productive, Hubspot Partner Big Sea put together the tips their team of designers, developers, and marketers uses to get stuff done.

One average, Facebook is home to 1.18 billion daily active users — from CEOs, to students, to companies. And while the community is clearly there, connecting with them from a marketing standpoint isn’t always easy. 

For brands, posting on Facebook alone isn’t enough anymore — especially for ones just starting out. Sure, you can throw money at your efforts to drive people to your Facebook Page and send them to your website, but that only works if you’re smart about it.

One way to do just that is to create optimized Facebook Ads targeted at the right audience. Optimized ads can help you spend your PPC budget wisely and see a positive return on your investment.

So, what does optimized Facebook advertising actually look like? If you’re looking for some great examples, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll quickly go over the three overarching formats for Facebook Ads: right column, desktop News Feed, and mobile News Feed. Then, we’ll show you eight different types of Facebook Ads, each with real-life examples — along with some insights into why that ad is so successful.

But before we get to these examples, let’s discuss the four components of a good Facebook Ad (or any ad, really) regardless of its type …

4 Components of Successful Facebook Ads

1) It’s visual.

Visual content is not only treated more favorably in the Facebook algorithm, but it’s also more likely to be shared and remembered than written content. The lesson for Facebook marketers? No matter what type of ad you create, your image needs to be visually appealing.

Check out this blog post for a detailed guide to image sizes for various ad units on Facebook along with some tips on posting visual content.

2) It’s relevant.

Relevance is critical for success when using Facebook advertising. Remember, you are spending money when someone views or clicks on your ad (depending on the settings you use). If you’re showing ads that aren’t relevant to your target audience, you’re wasting your time and money and will likely not see success with any kind of advertising.

Back in February 2015, Facebook launched a feature in the Facebook advertising platform that rates your ads and gives you a relevance score, similar to Ad Rank in Google AdWords. The more relevant your ad image, ad copy, and destination page is to your audience, the higher your score is — and the more favorably Facebook will treat your ads.

3) It includes an enticing value proposition.

A value proposition tells the reader why they should click on your ad to learn more about your product. How is your product or service different from any other? Why should the viewer click on your ad to see your website?

Your value proposition should be believable. For example, saying you have the greatest sandwiches in the world will not make people come to your business’s Page, but maybe offering 20% off will. Or, perhaps adding social proof will help — something like, “Sandwiches loved by over one million people every year! Come try yours today and get 20% off your order with this coupon.”

4) It has a clear call-to-action.

A beautiful and relevant ad is great, but without a call-to-action (CTA), your viewer might not know what to do next. Add a CTA like “Buy now and save X%,” or “Offer ends soon” and add a sense of urgency to your viewer. Your CTA should encourage people to click on your ad now.

The 3 Primary Formats for Facebook Ads (With Examples)

Format 1: The Right Column Ad

Source: Facebook

This type of ad is the most traditional on Facebook, it appears on the right side of a user’s Facebook News Feed. This is the first type of advertising Facebook had, and it still exists today.

Although ads in the News Feed are likely to get higher engagement metrics due to its native advertising features, right column ads shouldn’t be forgotten. We often see less expensive clicks and conversions when using these ads. In order for a right column ad to be successful, it needs to be relevant, have a value proposition, a good visual, and have a call-to-action. Let’s look at an example below from Winc (formermly known as Club W): 

Here’s what makes this ad great:

• It’s visual. The visual is clear, simple, and appealing to all types of wine-lovers.
• It’s relevant. This came up in my wine-obssesed colleague’s News Feed. Need I say more? Two thumbs up on relevance.
• It includes an enticing value prop. Three bottles for $19? What a steal. They also pull the viewer in with an additional value: a discount on their first order of wine.
• It has a strong call-to-action. The word “get” is strong call-to-action language, and it’s used twice here. A time limit on this offer would have made it even stronger.

Format 2: The Desktop News Feed Ad

Source: Facebook

This type of ad appears directly in a user’s News Feed when they access Facebook on a desktop computer, and it looks more like native advertising. In our experience, these ads have a higher engagement rate than right column ads, but they can also be more expensive. These ads must follow organic Facebook posts best practices and be both engaging and visual.

This is how an ad from Amazon looks in the News Feed on a desktop:

Here’s what makes this ad great:

• It’s visual. Not only is this image larger than the right column ad display, but it also uses warm colors, white space, and directional lines which drew my eye towards the featured product.
• It’s relevant. As a cat mom, this offer is clearly tailored to my consumer needs. 
• It includes an enticing value prop. Amazon has advertised a self-cleaning litter box here, which is of tremendous value for any cat owner. Additionally, it shared the strong customer ratings below an image of the product. (Social proof, anyone?)
• It has a clear call-to-action. Amazon instructs me to click on its ad today, after which point the deal for the litter box will presumably disappear. “Now” is strong CTA language that compels clicks.

Format 3: The Mobile News Feed Ad

Source: Facebook

Like the desktop News Feed ad, this type of ad appears in the user’s mobile News Feed and displays like an organic posts from people and Pages that they follow. 

This is what a mobile News Feed ad for The New York Times looks like:

Here’s what makes this ad great:

• It’s visual. The quirky cartoon drew my eye as I scrolled on my mobile News Feed through lots of text and photography. The nontraditional illustration pulled me in for a closer look at the content.
• It’s relevant. I’m a person in my 20s, and I used to write about health care. This is an article I would definitely be interested in reading, and it helps that the ad appears like a native post promoting an article in my New Feed.
• It includes an enticing value prop. The ad shows me which of my Facebook friends also like, and presumably read, The New York Times. This social proof makes me more likely to click and read the article.
• It has a clear call-to-action. This ad is dedicated to increasing the page’s Likes, and by asking a question in the ad, the call-to-action makes me want to click the article to learn more.

Now that we’ve covered the three main ad formats, let’s dig into a sampling of the wide variety of post types you can use.

8 Types of Facebook Advertising & Some of the Best Facebook Ad Examples

1) The Facebook Video Ad

Video ads appear fairly large in the user’s New Feed and offer more engaging content than static posts. And with 8 billion videos being watched on Facebook every day, it serves as an interesting — and potentially profitable — ad type for marketers to try out. 

Need some inspiration? Check out this example from Key Jewlers below:

Why this works:

• It’s visual. Even though this is a video, I have a general idea of what I will be watching, thanks to the screen capture it started with. Additionally, I can understand the gist of this ad without playing with the sound on, which is important given that 85% of videos on Facebook are now viewed without sound.
• It’s relevant. It’s relevant to me because I was recently scouring jewelry websites, specifically for necklaces like the one in the ad.
• It’s valuable. Kay shows potential customers the value of purchasing with the help of the happy reaction from the woman receiving the gift in the ad. Plus, who doesn’t love dogs?
• It has a solid call-to-action. This ad is set up to drive Page Likes, which is an easy, one-click way for me to get more relevant content served up to me.

How can you create your own video ad? First, understand Facebook video ad requirements including length and video size. We suggest keeping your video as short as possible, even though Facebook allows you to upload a much larger video. Create a video that displays your product or service, and upload directly to the Facebook ads manager by following these instructions. 

2) The Photo Ad

Another type of rich media advertising on Facebook is a post of an image. This is one of the most popular types of ads ever since Facebook began favoring visual content. The optimal size for News Feed photo ads is 1200×628 pixels, otherwise your image will get cropped. Adjust your image based on the target audience’s needs and by what will appeal to them the most.

Here’s an example of a photo ad from NatureBox:

Why this works:

• It’s visual. The image shows you exactly what you’re getting, and it calls out the “free sample” CTA well.
• It’s relevant. Everyone likes to snack. In all seriousness, the person who saw this is a fan of several lifestyle subscription companies, which is what NatureBox is. 
• It’s valuable. This ad is full of value. First, the “free trial” callout is the first thing your eyes go to when looking at the image. Second, it clearly mentions the healthy aspects of the goodies in its product.
• It has a clear call-to-action. Nature Box is asking you to try its free sample. It couldn’t be easier to know your next step.

3) The Multi-Product Ad

Multi-product ads allow advertisers to showcase multiple products within one ad. Viewers can scroll through the images and click on individual links to each product. You can promote multiple of anything, not just products — like different blog posts, ebooks, or webinars. These ads can be created in the Facebook Power Editor.

Here’s an example of a multi-product ad from Shutterfly, along with the additional images that are used in the ad. Each image has a different offer, to appeal to many different demographics in one ad.

Why this works:

• It’s visual. This series of images leands on a consistent color pallette, making it feel both cohesive and on brand. (Having a cute cat doesn’t hurt either.)
• It’s relevant. The person who saw this loves taking photos and creating sentimental gifts. Spot on, right?
• It’s valuable. There is a very clear value for the user, 40% off each of the products being advertised. The code and sale end date are also clear in the ad description. This ad also has an added level of value, it is showing the many different ways people can use Shutterfly, in ways many may not be aware of.
• It has a clear call-to-action. I know I need to use this before February 17th when this deal expires, so I would be encouraged to take action right away.  

4) The Local Ad

Local ads on Facebook only work if your business has a physical location that you are trying to drive real foot traffic to. If you fall into this category, then locally targeted Facebook ads may be a great fit for you, as you can hyper-target on Facebook down to the mile.

If your business has an offer or event going on at your store, set up a few Facebook ads that appear only to people within a short distance of your store. Have these ads appear a few days prior to the event and on mobile devices while the event is happening. You may want to reach some people the day of the event who happen to be in the area and checking their Facebook account on their smartphones.

Take this ad for example from Mizzou Campus Dining:

Why this works:

• It’s visual. This image has college pride, a variety of salty and sweet treats, and a well-known logo to attract hungry college students. 
• It’s relevant. This ad is likely only being shown to students on campus who are in its target audience. It also mentions the sports game that was going on at the time, and plays to the student’s current needs: snacks and Subway sandwiches.
• It’s valuable. Mizzou Market is telling hungry college students that it has everything students need for the big game. 
• It has a clear call-to-action. This ad has the option to show directions, making it extremely easy for a college student on the go to follow the walking directions to this market.

5) The Offer Ad

An offer ad is a newer form of Facebook advertising where a business can promote a discount on a product or service that can be redeemed on Facebook. The benefit of this? It eliminates one step in the buyer’s journey, which ultimately increases sales.

The offer ad has many benefits. First, it drives the user directly to the offer. The user claims it directly on Facebook, removing any added friction of needing to to go to your website for the offer. You also can reach any type of audience that you want, as all the Facebook targeting options are possible.

Finally, you can include all the information needed for the user to decide if they want it or not, including the time period it is usable, the number of people who has already claimed it, and the exact amount the offer is. This will eliminate any unqualified clicks, which cost you money.

Here’s an example of an offer ad Boston Sports Club:

Why this works:

• It’s visual. The featured photo uses bold colors and clear typography to draw my attention to the details of the offer, and the woman exercising gives me an idea of what I could gain from purchasing the offer.
• It’s relevant. I recently moved to Boston and have been searching for gyms in my area online, so this ad is highly relevant to my recent Facebook and search activity.
• It’s valuable. Paying $5 for a monthly gym membership is a great deal. Even though the price may increase in the future, the low price definitely makes me want to click.
• It has a clear call-to-action. The CTA emphasizes that the discount offer is limited and should be claimed quickly using the word “hurry” and telling me when the offer expires.

6) The Event Ad

Event ads promote a specific event. The CTA on these ads usually send users directly to the ticket purchase page, wherever that happens to be hosted.

Using this type of ad will help drive a targeted group of people to attend your event. These will show up in the News Feed of the specific audience you’ve chosen. Events are a big part of most businesses, but getting people to attend even a small event, can be tricky. Promoting your event to a targeted specific audience on Facebook can help drive the right kind of attendees.

A good ad in this format will clearly show the benefit of attending the event: The price, dates, and a clear CTA to purchase a ticket. The events ad below for the Tortuga Music Festival displays the date and time and the bands playing:

Why this works:

• It’s visual. The picture alone is worth a thousand words about how much fun this concert would be. Not only is it on the beach, it was also taken on a gorgeous day and the stage looks amazing. Also, it clearly represents what to expect during the event, and it catches the eye as someone scrolls through their News Feed. (The beautiful ocean water definitely helps.)
• It’s relevant. The person who saw this ad is a fan of Kenny Chesney and has been to his concerts before. They’re also originally from Florida, which is where this event takes place. 
• It’s valuable. Since the image was taken on a beautiful day, it looks like an ideal place to be — especially to those of us viewing it from our office desks. It also clearly tells you the cost of the ticket so you know before you click. (This is also good for the advertiser: By including the price, the ad allows users to self-select based on whether they can afford the ticket. If they can’t afford it, they won’t click through, thus saving the advertiser money on unqualified clicks.)
• It has a clear call-to-action. The CTA is clear: “Buy.” The advertisers also add urgent wording with the title “Time is running out!”, encouraging you to purchase your ticket now before it’s too late.

7) The Retargeting Ad

A retargeting ad promotes an ad to a specific list of previously identified people. Have you ever seen ads follow you across the internet after visiting a certain website? Then you’ve seen a retargeting ad. 

Facebook has the same capability. An advertiser can advertise to a list of leads or customers by uploading a list of email addresses it already has into the Power Editor to make a custom audience. A good retargeting ad acknowledges that the brand knows you’re already interested in its product. (Because, let’s face it … retargeting can be a little creepy.)

Last week, I started shopping around for a bridesmaid dress for an upcoming wedding. Today, this ad appeared in my News Feed:

Why this works:

• It’s visual. The image gives me a good idea of what to expect from the designer’s website, and it definitely helps that the gowns are both unique and stunning. Talk about a showstopper. 
• It’s relevant. The ad called out that I was already shopping for bridesmaid dresses, and what’s more, I had previously looked at dresses on this exact website, so this ad is highly relevant to my search.
• It’s valuable. The variety of dresses in the ad’s image and in the description make this website worth a visit for someone trying to find the perfect gown out of thousands of options.
• It has a clear call-to-action. The CTA is “Shop Now,” which encourages me to click to purchase the beautiful dresses in the ad’s image.

8) The Boosted Post

A boosted post is an organic Facebook post that was originally on the homepage of a company’s Facebook, and that later was boosted with advertising money.

This is different from the above ads because it’s not created in the Facebook Ads Manager. You can include more in the description, as there is no limit to word count on boosted posts like there is in ads. You can also have a link in the copy.

The cons? Boosted posts leave you fewer options for bidding, targeting, and pricing. You also cannot run any types of A/B tests because you’re promoting a post that’s already been creating, not creating one from scratch.

Here’s an example of a boosted post from Bustle, who promoted one of its articles on Facebook:

Why this works:

• It’s visual. Lots of people are familiar with the Amazon Prime logo, but not in neon lights in a window display. It made me do a double-take while scrolling through Facebook.
• It’s relevant. As we’ve already learned from earlier examples, I like shopping on Amazon and also read Bustle, so this article is a combination of those two behaviors.
• It’s valuable. “Brilliant” is a strong adjective to describe products, which makes me curious to learn more about purchasing them.
• It has a clear call-to-action. The ad entices me with information about useful and “brilliant” gadgets I can get delivered to my door within two days, which I’m happy to click to learn more about.

Getting Started

There you have it: A list of all the different types of Facebook posts and a few examples of awesome ones from all different brands. The Facebook Ads Manager platform will walk you through how to set these up with simple, step-by-step instructions — so don’t feel overwhelmed.

Note for HubSpot customers: You can now integrate Facebook Ads reporting into the HubSpot Ads App to make reporting and analyzing your advertising ROI easier. You’ll be able to easily see which Facebook Ads generate leads and increase your ROI without having to analyze the data yourself. You can also use this integration to edit Facebook Ads from directly within your HubSpot portal. Customers can sign up to test this integration here.

Now, stop reading and start creating.

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in June 2012 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.