Take Your Facebook Ads Social Proof to the Next Level

Facebook advertising has quickly become the most effective way to generate leads and increase your business’s potential to grow traffic as well as sales. Since Facebook is the most popular platform to advertise on, the competition in most industries is fierce. Therefore, it is crucial to create ads that stand out amongst the crowd of businesses.

Social proof is a great way to improve the effectiveness of your ads on Facebook. This can be applied to all your advertisements.

Social proof is a great way to get better results from your Facebook advertisements as well as help you decipher which ads work and which don’t. However, for social proof to be effective, it needs to be implemented correctly. This article will uncover the best ways to use social proof and how you can utilize it to get the most out of your Facebook ads.

What is social proof?

Social proof is a phenomenon where people copy the behaviors and opinions of others in a given situation. It is human nature to conform to group behaviors, beliefs, and opinions to be accepted by those around you. This tendency is a result of subtle unconscious influences or social influences.

As a result, we often see businesses posting reviews and ratings that they have received or testimonials on services or products they offer to encourage new users and customers to further explore the business.

For example, if you are looking to buy a pair of shoes, you are most likely going to walk into the shoe shop that has the most people in it because if there are a lot of people, it must mean that they have great shoes, right? Well, the same goes for advertising your services or products on Facebook.

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People are usually drawn to Facebook ads that have a lot of likes, comments, and shares as well as positive testimonials and reviews from previous customers. This positive engagement will encourage users to further explore your business and visit your website. And that is what is so great about social proof.

Why is social proof important?

People are more likely to become your customers when they see that many other people are too. This is known as the bandwagon effect, which explains the tendency of people to acquire certain beliefs, attitudes, or opinions based on whether or not other people feel the same way.

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‍For example, if you are browsing online for a restaurant and you come across one with many positive reviews and high ratings, then you are more likely to go to this restaurant because the crowd has dictated that you will enjoy the restaurant too.

When you are shopping in a store, it is easier for you to determine which products you like better because you can physically compare the different products. However, shopping online is a little bit more challenging. You are relying on the opinions of others as you don’t physically have the product to try for yourself before purchasing.

Therefore, people look for indicators of great customer experience, which is displayed through social proof like testimonials. Depicting great customer service leads to positive social proof, which can result in customer loyalty and an excellent reputation.

See how important social proof is? It can help a customer decide whether or not they make their purchase. Moreover, it encourages customers to leave positive reviews about your products and services, which will allow your business to stand out from the competition.  

Who can benefit from social proof?

Digital marketers will greatly benefit from increasing social proof. But more specifically:

eCommerce businesses

These types of businesses focus on grabbing the attention of people that are actively searching for products and services. Social proof is a great way to do this. When people are searching for these products and services, they are drawn to those with great reviews or testimonials, which is why eCommerce businesses should focus on incorporating positive social proof in their marketing strategies.  

SaaS-companies

SaaS companies focus on gaining leads for subscription-based services. It is often more difficult to market SaaS products or services because they are long-term subscriptions, rather than once-off payments. Therefore, you don't always see the value that SaaS companies bring you immediately.

Unlike brick and mortar stores, SaaS companies should make use of social proof to help customers make decisions as they cant physically compare your products and services. This shows the importance of social proof for SaaS companies when trying to increase purchases.

Marketing agencies

The goal of marketing agencies is to optimize marketing strategies to improve business outcomes. These agencies use marketing strategies to increase businesses' conversion rates, build brand awareness and increase the value that customers see in your business.

In order for marketing agencies to complete these goals, it is beneficial for them to make use of social proof and incorporate it into their marketing strategies. Social proof can allow agencies to increase potential customers for businesses and improve the results of ad campaigns.

How to use social proof in Facebook marketing?

Facebook marketing is a great way to expand your reach, increase brand awareness, attract leads, and possibly convert users into customers. Including social proof in Facebook marketing helps ensure that customers trust your brand and keep them coming back. An easy way to incorporate social proof into your Facebook ads is to use customer testimonials and reviews as well as user-generated content (UGC). The goal of social proof is to show new customers that your brand is loved.

Here is an example of Aphrodite’s jewelry business that incorporated social proof in the form of a customer testimonial. This ad will definitely encourage customers to purchase products because they can see how much other customers love the products.

Here is another example of Nikon using social proof on their Facebook ads to encourage Facebook users to become customers and check out their new product. It’s intriguing, isn’t it?

What kinds of social proof can you include in your Facebook ads?

There are many ways to make use of social proof in your ads. Many businesses have made use of social proof in their ads and it is evident in their Facebook results. Ultimately, you want to use social proof to encourage people to interact with your ads. Here are some of the different types that you can use:

User reviews

Industry experts have researched that “negative reviews can have a significant impact on consumer behavior, making 92% of consumers less likely to use a business”. Therefore, you must be displaying positive reviews. Furthermore, this form of social proof can strengthen your business’s credibility, increase customer engagement, and improve conversion rates.

Here is an example of a review from Raising Empowered Kids. In which the customer has really enjoyed the product and certainly makes you want to purchase the product and see what creative ideas your kids can come up with.

Celebrity endorsements

Celebrity endorsements are one of the most powerful forms of social proof. Celebrities have a huge influence on what customers are going to buy. The term FOMO (fear of missing out) is evident in celebrity endorsements because you don't want to miss out on the trend that they are marketing. Research says that “influencer marketing is 2X faster in acquiring customers than organic searches”.

Here is an example of the soccer player Neymar Jr endorsing Puma’s campaign. This is a great example of social proof that will get you buying these Puma shoes.

Data or statistics

Incorporating numbers and credentials is a form of social proof that validates your business’s services and product. Furthermore, statistics further prove what your ad is promoting and convinces the user that your business is credible.

Here is a Facebook ad by Lifebuoy that has made use of statistics in their Facebook ad. The data provided encourages people to use this range to kill germs and stay protected.

How to keep social proof on all of your Facebook ads?

As you now know, social proof allows your target audience to have trust in what you are selling.  Furthermore, consistent social proof on your ads tells Facebook’s algorithm that your ad is good, which will lower your CPM and will get your ad shown to many more people. Ultimately, this adds value and credibility to your business and makes customers more willing to trust your business.

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‍Every one of your business’s Facebook posts accumulates social proof. What that means is when you create a few ads from the same Facebook post, they all contribute to the social proof of the same post. So, if one ad gets a like, then they all get that like.

A common mistake that Facebook advertisers make is not taking advantage of their high-performing ads when creating new ones. To avoid this, you can duplicate your high-performing ads. When creating new ad sets you can enter the same post ID of your previous high-performing ads. This will allow your original social proof to be evident in your new ads. So, as engagement increases on your original post, it also increases on your new post.

Madgicx’s ad launcher makes the process of keeping social proof on all your Facebook ads very simple. This ad launcher allows you to instantly use your business’s top existing Facebook or Instagram posts when creating new ads so that your accumulated social proof will be evident on all your ads.

How to track social proof

There are several ways to measure and track the impact that social proof has on your business. These metrics include engagement, conversion rate, or sales from UGC.

Engagement

Facebook engagement is any action that a user takes on your Facebook page. The most common indicators of engagement are likes, comments, and shares. Furthermore, engagement is a great way to determine whether your social proof has impacted your business in any way. Increased engagement means that you will have greater organic reach. So, simply put, the greater the engagement, the better your social proof is.

Conversion rate

The conversion rate is the number of times an action was taken on your page. Your business’s conversion ads, that for example encourage purchases, work with your Facebook pixel to allow you to reach users that are most likely to take action on your page or find your page interesting. Conversion rates can show you the percentage of users that integrated with your business's ads that included social proof whilst scrolling through Facebook. For example, a customer read a testimonial that led them to purchase a product. In order to understand whether or not your social proof is bringing you the results, you can compare the CTR of ads that contain social proof with that of ads that do not include it.

Sales from UGC

Keeping track of how many sales came from UGC is a great way to determine whether or not your social proof has a positive impact. Furthermore, it allows you to put a monetary value on your social proof. UGC can be an endorsement from a celebrity, which is an effective way to make use of social proof. Leveraging UGC is one of the fastest-growing ways to acquire new customers. Furthermore, Facebook ads that include UGC generate a higher CTR for online businesses.

Customers are becoming more and more impacted by influencer marketing. It was researched that leveraging influencer collaborations was ranked #1 at being the fastest online customer-acquisition method. Therefore, tracking sales and interaction from UGC is a great way to determine how well your UGC social proof is working.

Conclusion

The more powerful your social proof is, the more engagement you’ll receive from Facebook users. Furthermore, social proof makes a difference when creating Facebook ads. It shows your brand’s credibility and encourages users to become customers.

It might be useful to experiment with different types of social proof to understand what works best for your business. Now it’s your time to shine and take your social proof to the next level to increase your business’s prospects of getting better Facebook results.