A successful Facebook Ad is made of 2 components…
- A great design
- Targeted to the right audience
In today’s case study, we’ll focus on the first part.
Recently, AdEspresso and Hubspot analyzed the copy, links, ad type, and calls to action of more than 100,000 Facebook ads created by thousands of companies over the past year.
In today’s social media case study, you’ll learn how to create perfect Facebook ads based on real data on headlines, popular words, numbers and sentiments, and more!
Anatomy of a Typical Facebook Ad Campaign
- Headline – The main title of your Facebook ad that grabs people’s attention. Your headline can be a maximum of 250 characters.
- Text – A short description about the product or website you’re promoting.
- Description – A longer text available in the Facebook News Feed describing more about your product. Maximum of 250 characters.
- Caption – The URL of your domain.
- Call to Action (CTA) – A button showing people where they should click.
- Image – An enticing picture related to your product.
Most Popular Facebook Ad Type = Page Post Link Ad
- The Page Post Link ad is the most popular (74.8%), and is ideal for promoting your external site.
- Video ads, which currently make up 15.1% of ads, can drive high audience engagement.
- Photo ads (8.2%) are good for generating comments and likes, but not good for traffic, and you can’t include a CTA.
- Other Facebook ad types (1.9%) such as Events and Offers are good for highly specific aims, such as promoting a time-sensitive webinar or sale.
Most popular Facebook ad headline length = 4 words
- Median headline length = 5 words long.
- Short headlines keep well within the character limit, using up just 10% of possible space on average.
- The limited space and a short headline forces you to get to the point and make your Facebook Ad easy to understand.
- Short headlines grab attention and make customers click to find more information.
Most Popular Text & Description Length = 15 Words
- Median link description is slightly longer, at 17 words, just 35% of the character limit.
- These limits mean you have to keep all your text tight and to the point.
- Clear text attracts people to the ad and lets them click through to your website to learn more.

Most Popular Words = You, Your, Free, Now and New
- Free: this is the ultimate word for any viewer of an ad. Include it in an ad and it’s almost guaranteed to catch the eye.
- Now: this creates scarcity in the reader’s mind and urges them to action.
- New: using this word is a great way to show you are offering something fresh.
Audiences are naturally drawn to these “conversion words” used. Using these words in Facebook ad campaigns could give you have a natural competitive advantage over all other advertisers.
Most Effective Facebook Ads = Sentiment Neutral
- Sentiment analysis studies the emotional content of text.
- Most non-neutral Facebook ads show a slightly positive tone.
- Positive ads use words such as ‘capable’ (+1), ’top’ (+2), or ’yummy’ (+3) to elicit good emotions in the audience.
- Negative ads can work as well, and ads for news items or charities often emphasize negative emotions.
48.1% of all ads contained a number in the headline, description or text
Most numbers used in high performing Facebook Ad Campaigns were rounded (1, 10, 100, 1,000, etc.).
Examples of numbers could be:
- Percentage (“20% off”)
- Monetary (“$10 discount”)
- Lists (“Top 10”)
- Boasts (“#1”)
- Social proof (“Join 100,000+ people”)
65.7% of ads include their domain URL
More than 60 percent of top performing Facebook Ads use the opportunity to include their domain URL and drive visitors to their website.
Another 12 percent of ads use this as a way to include further text or a tagline. A whopping 23 percent miss out on this opportunity to advertise their domain and brand.
Top CTAs = ‘Learn More’, ‘Shop Now’ and ‘Sign Up’
- All 3 of the top performing CTAs (calls to action) get used significantly more than any other
- Including a call-to-action (CTA) button in your ad makes it easy for a user to click through to your site to learn more about your product
- Your CTA shows your audience exactly where on the ad they should click to get the information.
DOWNLOAD THE FACEBOOK ADS VISUAL GUIDE – IT’S FREE!
The Science of Effective Facebook Ads [VISUAL GUIDE]
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