Before you work on your ads, research your target audience, their online habits, and what they like. Facebook allows you to be really specific with your targeting – from demographics and location to hobbies and interests and languages that are spoken. You can take advantage of the parameters a few times to find out who will best respond to your ads.

Remember, when you know and understand your audience, you can develop effective ads that are interesting and relevant to them. And you don’t have to target everyone, but just the people most likely to spend with you.

In a space full of posts and advertisements, you only have a few seconds to capture people’s attention. And to do that, you must use eye-catching images and videos that will make them stop and make time for you.

How can your ad/content stand out? Your ads should be:

• Eye catching: Images and videos are given preference by Facebook’s algorithm. You do not need them to be Hollywood productions but you should make sure they are clear, easy to follow, and fun.
• Relevant: You want your content to tell a story about your business. Don’t go off on a tangent about all of these ideas you have. Keep it short and simple. 
• Unique: Try to stick to using your own content and images. Once in a while for an ad it is okay to use a stock image. However, a photo you take of your own staff, students, school, or whatever else gives your content much more of a personal and unique touch.

A clear and concise CTA immediately tells the audience what you want them to know about your offering and the purpose of your message. This helps them take action and make faster decisions. 
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With only 25 characters for your headline and 90 for the description, create a strong CTA that’s on-point and definitive of the next step you want them to take. Whether it’s a simple “Click below to learn more” or “Buy Now and Save 50%,” make sure it’s aligned with your ad copy so as not to mislead or confuse your audience. You can also consider adding incentives — promo codes, limited-time discounts, or first customer prizes – to entice the audience to click and make a purchase.

As we said earlier, you only have a short amount of time to capture users’ attention, so your paid Facebook ads must not confuse or overwhelm them. These should be short and straight to the point – something viewers can comprehend within a few seconds.

Your ads must have a simple headline, a descriptive message, and a clear image that’s consistent with your brand and offerings. Be sure to include your business name, what you’re proposing, its key selling points, and why it’s useful to the audience.

When it comes to creating ads, Facebook wants you to play nice and follow the rules. Facebook created a large list of rules your ad must follow. Incorporating content that does not comply with these rules can result in your ad not being approved.

One of the biggest rules you must follow is your ad must not target a person’s personal attributes. What are personal attributes? Content or messaging that targets a person’s name, age, race, religion, beliefs, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, medical condition (physical or mental health), financial status or membership in a trade union.

How does this affect your advertising? Let’s look at an example. You want to advertise a new class for teenagers. Your ad copy cannot say, “Rosie, does your 13-year-old daughter need to learn self defense?” Instead, stick to simple text that still targets your age group but isn’t so specific. Try something more along the lines of, “Looking for a great self defense class for teens and young adults?”. It doesn’t call someone out specifically or mention what you know about them from your targeting, but it still targets your audience and speaks directly to them.

if you want to make sure you are compliant you can read about their advertising policies here.

Your ads and feed posts should always complement each other. Just because you’re running ads doesn’t mean that you get to skimp on organic posts. When people are interested in your ad and want to learn more, they’ll first look into your Facebook page to know if the business is credible.
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That’s why it’s important to always implement best practices on your Facebook page. Keep your profile complete and accurate and maintain relevant and up-to-date posts. Be sure to engage with your customers and interact with other brands. Doing these will make users feel more secure about your brand and help turn them into potential customers.
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​It’s a fact: Facebook ads are important. When implemented properly, they can help you achieve your business goals – whether it’s reaching a targeted audience, improving brand awareness, growing a consumer base, developing customer loyalty, or boosting sales.

Just mindfully practice these do’s and carefully correct these don’ts, and you’ll gradually see that you’re well on your way to improving your Facebook strategies.
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If you need help with your Facebook campaigns and other social media concerns, CPC NINJA is here to help. Trusted by businesses and agencies worldwide, we’re a one-stop-shop for all social media management needs. Contact us today to start your free consultation!

1.  Develop a Great Martial Arts School Website
A website is the modern equivalent of a business card, and in most cases creates the first impression prospective students have of your dojo. But becoming a recognizable name on the Internet takes more than just finding a place to list your contact info.

Websites today need to be dynamic and varied.  Images, videos, and text combine to communicate what’s special about your school and persuade people to contact you. It should build trust with testimonials and reviews. Of course, it also must be useful for current students, providing class info, schedules, and event updates.

A martial arts school website doesn’t need to be fancy. Simple, functional, and professional are the keys.  Content needs to be concise and clear.


2.  Develop a Solid Reputation
On your website, martial arts school need to have more vital content - such as testimonials videos from happy clients or links to Google reviews so people can view or leave reviews.

It's proactive about presenting positive comments and review ratings.  Consumers today pay attention to reviews, to the point that they expect to see you for a business. A positive review profile does a lot to convince people that you keep your promises. A poor one can ruin your business.

Monitor what’s said about your dojo on review sites like Facebook, Google and Top Rated Local. Actively ask your best students to give you reviews, or use an occasional email to remind them to drop one.


3.  Dominate Search Results
To drive traffic to your website, you’ll want to show up for all martial arts related searches in your area, including searches for specific disciplines like  karate and taekwondo. There are two ways to dominate the search results.

The first is pay-per-click advertising. These ads are run through auction-based systems like Google Adwords. The main advantage here is that you show in the top positions (reserved for paid ads) and that you can control the ad copy and landing page. 

Next, you need to set-up and rank for Google My Business. This is the maps listing and review platform Google uses for geo-targeted searches. It’s a free listing you can optimize with your descriptions and by getting customer reviews.


4.  Social Media Marketing
Social media is a powerful marketing channel many martial arts schools continue to overlook.

Don’t be one of them. Create Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn accounts. Start by using these platforms as ways to share what’s going on at your dojo through images, videos, and stories.

An active social media presence helps you connect with people who prefer particular platforms. Parents may be active on Facebook while kids are on Snapchat. Social media is diverse enough now that the marketing opportunities are varied. You can highlight student success, share techniques via short videos, curate content about fitness and health. Anything of interest or usefulness to your audience is worth it. 

Make sure several members of your staff keep phones handy, ready to snap cool shots and post them on these platforms. Give people a feel of what your classes and training are like. As others share your content, you get more (free) brand exposure. Because many students are kids, parents and friends will gladly share posts that show them in action. 

5.  Use Marketing Software
​I know... You may start feeling a bit overwhelmed by the extent of all this marketing. Yes, it’s so complex. In fact, you may have a little chance of being able to manage it without marketing software and automation.

This includes tools for email marketing as well as CRM software. It’s important today to automate contacts like emailers and keep track of both active and prospective students in a CRM. You should be able to access these systems on your phone.  

You need to be able to track your campaigns and analyze what worked and what did not. This lets you build on your successes and eliminate campaigns that aren’t driving results.

Put these tools and resources to work for your martial arts marketing.  For a minimal investment, you can keep your classes full and become the best-known dojo in your area.

According to Facebook, people gaze five times longer at a video than static content on Facebook and Instagram. So, creating video ads is an effective way to promote your business to the billions of users on Facebook. 

Having a video on a post makes a significant difference on whether you will get engagement or not. Another thing to note is that when running ads, video ads cost less and allow you to track long viewers have watched your content. Thus, giving you the opportunity to determine who has engaged with your content, and allowing you to retarget them with other conversion ads. 

If you have a blueprint like what I’m going to share with you, creating videos is actually much easier than you might think. This type of content not only increases your school’s brand awareness, but will also eventually allow you to convert viewers into members.

What you need:

Think about the pain points of your target audience and create a story for your video ad around those points. Get in the habit of making 60-second videos that hook the viewer in 5 seconds with a problem (5 seconds is the average view time of a Facebook video! You MUST get right to the point!), relate to your prospective customers, provide a solution to their problem, and then invite them to engage with you and your program, which will help them overcome their PROBLEMS!

The trick is to create the video content that inspires them, helps them with a problem they have, and motivates them to want to know more. It really is that simple.

videos will look like this:

Awareness Videos:

3 types of video that introduce you, your school, your program and/or your staff. So maybe those break down into:

1. Who you are and what inspired you to start your school
2. A peek into one of your busy classes showing someone teaching
3. Sharing about your experience and what you’re passionate about when it comes to martial arts

Engagement Videos:

3 types of video that offer valuable tips, advice or tools:

1. How martial arts helps your child build Cconfidence/self esteem
2. How the skills they learn will give them tools when they’re bullied at school
3. How the program helps kids communicate with adults more effectively

Conversion Videos:

3 types of video that invite people to sign up for your trial class, or other program:

1. Talk about a promotion you have going on for a martial arts offer
2. Talk about an event you have coming up and tell them where to RSVP
3. Talk about a free trial and let them know how to sign up

Here’s the structure we suggest you follow for your videos:

Grab Attention immediately - Introduce a problem: get your viewers interested with a bold statement or statistic, do not introduce yourself yet or you’ll waste time, no logos or graphics. 

Insert pain/fear - Introduce fear or pain depending on your subject. 

Solution – talk about how your martial arts school can  help them overcome that challenge. They need to understand that you have the solution.

FINALLY, Call to action – For Ads, you want to have a call to action.  There is definitely a benefit in just creating content of value, but in most cases you will want to make sure to tell your viewers to take action,  whether it’s to “click here for more info” or  “learn more here” you need a clear call to action (CTA) on every video.


The End

With the information in this article, you can create high-performing Facebook video ads. Use them to connect with your audience, promote your products, and have fun with your brand’s personality.

By combining these tactics in different ways, you can build a strategy that’s not only right for your specific programs, but right for your audience and their unique needs.

What are you waiting for? Start your first great Facebook video ads campaign NOW!
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And if you want to make your advertising (on both Facebook, Instagram and Google ads) easier, give CPC NINJA a try!
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