Create a Facebook Business Page design that sells

Niall O’Loughlin, UK marketing manager at 99designs looks at the design elements of Facebook and provides us with a customer’s perspective on what your small-medium business needs to do to boost its social impact.

An estimated 50 million businesses have a Facebook Business Page and more than half of all online marketers have found a customer via the social media giant. With so much competition, it’s clear that you can’t just throw a Facebook Business Page design together and expect to get the leads and customers you desire.

Cover photo

In the world of Facebook Business Page design, a picture is not so much worth 1,000 words as it is worth 100,000+ likes and thousands of pounds worth of revenue! Your cover photo needs to show us what your business is all about while also drawing our eyes to it. Diesel is clearly trying to convey an image of a fun-loving company for young adults and the photo shows a group of twenty-something’s wearing Diesel clothing and just having fun.

The average customer is drawn to imagery so don’t add too much text to your photo; by all means, give us quick details of a special offer or CTA but be sure to strategically place the text in areas where we are not distracted from the main image.

Profile picture

First and foremost, this image must blend in with your cover photo; we don’t like it when businesses are not consistent in their marketing.

Additionally, your profile picture should stand out on its own whether it is on your company’s newsfeed or in your timeline. For the sake of consistency, try using this picture as your logo image while having the aforementioned cover photo playing off it.

While it is tempting to try and create a feast for our eyes with your profile picture, being too artistic can actually backfire; remember that we see the large image you select as a 32x32px picture in your newsfeed. Therefore, you need a picture that will look as clear on a postage stamp as it would on a billboard. This means simplicity of design where it’s obvious what your Facebook Business Page represents.

We hate blurry photos and will quickly move on to a rival so if your image is blurry once you have uploaded it, try again with a 320x320px image.

Facebook ads

Since Facebook ads can’t have more than 20% text, creativity is a must if you want to pique our interest (make sure you use the Facebook Grid Tool to ensure the above requirement is met). We will see your ad in the right column, on our mobile devices or on your News Feed which means you need a combination of text and imagery that gets our attention and fast!

The trick is to create an ad that is easy to view and click on a Smartphone as on a desktop. This is where marketers really need to earn their corn as ad links can’t be more than 30 characters, the headline can’t be more than 25 characters and the total ad text can’t be more than 90 characters.

The only way to get our attention here is by creating an alluring ad that meets all our needs within a couple of words while also including a CTA. Since you can only use a few words, there must be no fluff and the image used is crucial. To catch our eye, try using colours like red or orange while avoiding blue & white as they will only blend in with Facebook’s design.

Multi-product ads

These are special ads where you use 3-5 images and their links in a single ad. These are difficult ads to pull off but they can also have incredible results when done right. People tend to react better to images of products and the emotions on peoples’ faces as they are great for telling the story of your brand while also showing what your products/services can do for us. Since we get bored easily, be sure to rotate your ads on a regular basis.

Timeline photos

If you want your business to be a success on Facebook, you need a constant stream of images that we want to share with our friends. Remember, Facebook is a social network and there’s nothing we like to do more than share things with our friends as we interact. In order to get us to take action, make sure you have a CTA in the image for us to click on or better yet, add in an interesting quote to get a conversation started. Here is 99designs facebook cover design from last week which promoted La Fete de La Musique across Europe.

The whole point of Facebook is for people to stay in touch with friends. One of the best ways to do this is by talking about a product or service of mutual benefit. Clever companies use this to their advantage and create Facebook Business Pages featuring clickable ads and images so use the above tips to get customers on board. Not only will it increase your Facebook visibility, but it will also take your revenues to the next level.