Facebook ads can be an incredible tool to recruit volunteers, donors and regular givers.

But many small organisations understandably feel overwhelmed by Facebook advertising, especially when it comes to using the ads manager.

There are lots of elements that need to come together for a successful campaign. It’s a bit like trying to bake the perfect cake. Too much or too little of a vital ingredient and you have a big old mess on your hands.

Here’s our recipe to help you create provocative and engaging Facebook ad campaigns.

1. Identify your audience

Targeted adverts are really important. Think about it: you only ever click content on Facebook when it interests you, right?

Knowing who your audience are is a key part of successful Facebook advertising. Think about their age, gender, interests and geographical location. You can target people based on all of these aspects. You can even target by job title.

2. A clear message

Once you’ve identified your audience, it is really important that you work out what it is that you want them to do. You need to tell them in a really clear and concise way.

A strong call to action is really important. What is it that you want your audience to do? Donate to your cause? Sign up to your event? Share your message? Make sure you tell them.

3. A strong image or video

When you’re scrolling through your own newsfeed, you most likely stop on posts that contain really interesting, unusual or eye-catching visuals.

You’re going to need some of these in your Facebook advertising recipe.

Images also help viewers to retain information. When you’re told a piece of information without an image, studies have shown that you’ll only remember 10% of what you heard three days later, but if you’re shown information alongside an image, your brain will retain 65% of what you heard.

4. Don’t be salesy

Let’s be honest. People don’t like being advertised to. They’ll go out of their way to avoid adverts.

If you’re Facebook advertising, you’re going to get a better response if your content doesn’t sound like a stereotypical example. In this example from Save the Children UK, they use a content warning as an incentive to click to watch a video.

Constantly asking people to sign up or donate is going to disengage your audience. Make sure you’re using content that people will want to see, such as case studies, informative videos or graphics, and fundraising ideas that are unusual and unique.

5. Testing

If you launch a Facebook campaign and find immediate success, you are very lucky. Testing is really important. It will help you to optimise your adverts to include a combination of headlines, images and body text that really encourages your audience into action.

Don’t just test your content, make sure you invest some time in testing your audiences, too. British Heart Foundation have invested real time in tweaking their messaging and audiences in order to gain real insight into how best to engage Facebook users.