The whole Facebook advertising world can be very confusing.
With a lot of voice saying:
Focus on your audience interest, re-target this demographic, make sure to exclude certain people...good lord, where do you even begin?
According to Facebook, there are 6 million active advertisers on Facebook, with Facebook advertisers increasing their spending up to 50 percent at $11.8 billion by the second quarter of 2018.
This shows that businesses large or small are actively leveraging Facebook ads for the success of their business and this is the cheapest form of advertisement.
But, knowing how to effectively run a Facebook ads can give you a lot of control over your ad and provide a successful Facebook ads campaign.
This guide applies to any kind of business who wants to effectively run Facebook ads. Try to bookmark this page so you can easily access it later as it contains vital information you would need through out your advertising process.
Related: Benefits of Paid Advertisement
How to Successfully Run a Facebook Ads For Your Business
Step 1: Define Your Business Goal
Before you opt in to Facebook Ads Manager to begin running an ad for your business. It's best to define your business goals.
Your business goals are what fosters teamwork and help the business describe what it wants to accomplish. Setting goals is an important part of your business plan.
For example if your business renders services to B2B or B2C. Your business goal might be to reach high paying ticket client who can afford your services and to satisfy their need.
What about a business that sells it products, let's say "Fancy School Bag" to its users, its business goal could be to reach parents whose children are in school and also teenagers who are in college (university) who are not just interested in carrying any kind of backpack but one that's good looking to the eyes.
So whatever your business goal is, it's best to define that business goal before you go running any social media ads, so that you can have an effective and successful social media campaign that generates profitable ROI.
Step 2: Define Your Facebook Campaign Goals
Now that you have defined your business goal(s). The next step is to ask yourself, what do you want your ads to do for a successful Facebook campaign?
What does your Facebook ads campaign aim to achieve? Drive traffic, build awareness, increase conversion? You'll need to choose an objective that would fulfil your business goals.
Facebook offers 11 options split across these key objectives.
Awareness: Objectives that generates interest in your product or service.
Consideration: Objectives that get people to start thinking about your business or look more information about your business.
Conversion: Objectives that encourage people interested in your business to purchase or use your product or service.
These are category of objectives that defines the stages where you ought to place your target audience for a successful ads.
For example, if our goal is to drive traffic to our website using Facebook ads, we would choose the objective "Consideration", under it we would then select the campaign goal which is "Traffic".
Although, some objectives contains sub-categories. For example, when you click on Engagement objective, here's what you'll see next.
There are three different types of engagement campaigns you can choose from depending on your overall goal. If you want more followers, run a page like ad. If you want more likes, comments and shares on your posts, run a post engagement ads. If you want more people to go to an event you're promoting, run an event response ads.
So the way to define your Facebook campaign's primary goal is to know your audience in their purchase journey and choose the goal that helps.
Your audience purchase journey is the stage at which your audience are for your product or services. Your audience should fit into one of those categories
Unfamiliar with your product (Goal: Awareness)
Familiar with your product (Goal: Consideration)
Ready to Act (Goal: Conversion)
Step 3: Research Your Target Audience
With 2.2 billion monthly active users on your Facebook, you can be rest assured that Facebook is still the world's social media heavyweight which means, everyone is on Facebook whether they're a CEO, Marketer, Shopper, high-schooler. So no matter what your ideal audience is, they're on Facebook!
Nevertheless, merely posting on Facebook won't be sufficient to convert users into customers. You have to run Facebook ads, and they have to be successful ads that can generate sales.
But to achieve this, you need to know the right audience to advertise to. What if you are not sure who your target audience is?
Good thing is, Facebook provides a ton of options to customize your audience, including
Location
Age
Gender
Languages
Interests
Behaviours
Connections
Choosing the right audience is essential for a successful Facebook ads campaign. You need laser-focused targeting
For the age and gender category, look at the demographics of your top customers or the people you have email address for and target those age group.
One of the most powerful targeting options available is "Interest", this enables you to advertise to people within your target demographics based on the interests (activity on Facebook, Pages they like, Places they hangout and closely related topics)
So once you have determined your target audience offline and you have chosen an objective on Facebook, the next step is to choose the audience (based on your offline research) you'd like to target with your advert.
One of the most important things to look out for on this page is the audience size gauge.
You want to aim specific, not broad.
Somewhere in the middle of the green section of the dial below is the sweet spot.
So while researching your audience try to be more specific
It's important to have profiled your target audience before you make use of Facebook's targeting option.
Another important way of researching your target audience is Find your Competitors' Customer Interest
Go to a competitor's Facebook Page and look at the people who like it. Click on the profiles and add them into your spreadsheet to find their common interest.
Another way is to
Target a Direct Competitor
Once you have found an angle that make your business unique you can then use that angle to advertise directly to your competitors' customer.
How then can you do this with Facebook's targeting option?
Simply search for your competitors name is the interest box and you can target people who LIKE your competitor on Facebook, or match your other targeting criteria.
Step 4: Set A Reasonable Budget
Facebook is "probably" the most less expensive social media platform to advertise on. So if you want to run a successful Facebook ads, you must set a reasonable budget.
Your budget is the dependent on the following, so when you're up a budget, keep these major factors in mind:
Your Industry: The industry that you're in can affect costs. A craft business targeting hobbyists may have a lower advertising cost than a real estate firm.
Time of Year: When you advertise or run your campaign on Facebook, Facebook has a great impact on your costs. When holiday season comes around, you'll find yourself competing with many more businesses, which will increase your cost.
Objective: Your Facebook campaign objectives matters. An App install often costs more than a post engagement because it requires more buy-in from the user.
Target Location: The location or number of location(s) you plan on targeting also determine your ad spend especially when targeting different countries.
At the beginning of any budget setting session, outline your goals for a specific campaign. Knowing your goal to address will lead you to deciding on an objective and its ad spend.
So when creating your campaign for the first time, set a lower budget cap so you can see how the ad performs. You can then adjust as the campaign runs its course.
Remember, Start Small. Set your daily budget at $5 (Recommended). You want a successful Facebook ads. On Facebook, the average cost per click (CPC) is about $0.35 globally and about $0.28 in the U.S (Source)
Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when thinking about your bid amount on Facebook.
If you try to bid too low, your ads may not get the exposure they need, and you won't reach your goals.
Don't worry about bidding a high amount. You'll still end up paying the lowest amount possible in the auction to get your ads delivered.
So with that, have an healthy budget, one that would enable you to have a successful Facebook ads.
Again, remember your budget can vary wildly on the outline reasons. Small businesses usually have smaller budgets than large corporation. But, this should give you something to aim for when setting your Facebook budget.
Step 5: Design An Eye- Catching Image
Your Facebook ad creatives are among the top ad elements that decide whether your ad campaign succeed.
Why is that so?
It's because Facebook advertising is becoming competitive everyday. Advertisers jump on board to create ads with bespoke creative design that catches the eyes of its target audience when then converts them into buyers.
A potential customer might scroll past your ad without taking a pause to read and view it in details if the image doesn't catch their eye. To prevent such from happening you need to select bright, clean high-quality images for successful Facebook ads. Try to keep the images simple, ideally of yourself or something not boring. Look at this advertisement below, it's such a neat idea for a product. But it has a boring execution, with an image blending in with so many other images we see online.
Also make sure the image contains less than 20% text or else Facebook will show your ad to fewer people. You can also use Facebook ad text tool to check if the ad image contains too much text.
Like stated earlier, be creative, your ads should be able to capture the attention of your audience and it should also be one that's relevant to your business as well as your target audience. Below is an example
Images of people work incredibly well, preferably their faces. You could use images of your team or your customers (with their permission, of course)
If you have a designer on your team, get them to whip up your ad. If you don't have a designer, tools like Canva or Googling "royalty free images" make it incredibly simple to design beautiful looking images in no time.
Don't: Whatever you do, don't use any of Facebook's stock images. Stock images are the best way to ruin a great ads. Don't use low quality images either and definitely avoid stealing images from Google.
Last point about having a creative design is, you can also leverage videos for your Facebook ads. Videos tends to perform better than images because they convey a lot more information than a single image.
Step 6: Create Compelling Ad Text
Once you've created an eye-catching image for your ad, you have to create a supporting ad text.
What is a Facebook ad text to start with, its a form of marketing communication that advertisers use to promote their product or service along with an image or video with the aim of passing the right message to its target audience.
This ad text are text that appears at the top of an ad before the image and are what you use to pass your message based on your tone of voice.
Now the first step is to choose the tone of voice you would use for your Facebook ads. Cooperate or Social.
Try not to always have a cooperate tone of voice for all your campaign ads that you run and plan to run. Be social with your tone of voice or a mix of both.
Developing a voice for your Facebook ads can lead to a better overall experience for your customers and also for you. The payoff can be big.
For example Dave Kerpen, CEO of Likeable Media, has a great way of putting it. "At a cocktail party, you wouldn't walk up to someone and say, 'Hey, I'm Dave. My Stuff is 20 percent off.' What you do is ask questions, tell stories, listen and relate to people"
None of us want to be like Dave, telling everyone about our low prices. Instead, its critical to find that unique voice that's evident for a successful Facebook ads.
Ways to do that is
Your tone for advertisement needs to feel authentic, not forced.
Avoid In-consistence (Apply to your brand in general)
Beware of attempts to be funny! They rarely come off as funny... and they tend to be embarrassing for everyone when they fall flat.
Don't forget context and busy-ness! Your tone shouldn't be so thick that people who are in a rush or on their mobile devices feel burdened by it. Put usability before tone.
To rap things up, the most successful Facebook ads have copy that includes three elements: an attention grabber, a phrase or sentence to add value, and a call to action. The attention grabber is that hook (ad text) that generates interest in your ad. If the first phase or sentence of your copy doesn't spark the reader's interest, they'll stop reading.
Make your ad text engaging.
Step 7: Use Call to Actions
A Call-to-Action (CTA) is a prompt on a website or ad copy that tells the user to take some specified actions.
Marketers have been using similar call to action to drive action for years - even before they were writing them for website and digital ad campaigns.
Including a call-to-action within your Facebook ads is a great way to let the user know what to expect on the other side of the ad. Examples of Call-to-Action you can use or CTA Facebook have provided are:
Shop Now
Learn More
Sign Up
Watch Video
Download
Contact Us
Apply Now
And More!
Before you write your call-to-action, determine the goal you're trying to achieve;
Do you want to increase subscription?
Boost sales?
Move readers to another content?
CTA might not directly increase your clicks or make your ad more pleasing to the eye, but it's a great tactic to improve your conversions and decrease your cost per conversion.
A call to action is often the final instruction to a reader. So make sure to include a clear directive and encourage immediate action with your CTA.
Step 8: Add Social Proof
There are couple of reasons that might put someone off clicking your ad:
Scared of losing money
Worried about making the wrong choice
How can you overcome these challenges?
Use social proof to show the reader why they should care
The 'Text' section of your Facebook ad is a great place to include some social proof around your product or service. For example, you could: mention how many businesses use your product, include a testimonial from a customer, talk about your experience.
The goal with social proof is to alleviate any worries someone may have about your product and give them a reason to buy.
Social proof plays a major role in your customers' purchase decisions. So if every ad you run fails to convince users to buy your product, or you want to improve the effectiveness of your Facebook campaign try add social proof to your Facebook ads.
Step 9: Don't Sound Like an Ad
People don't like been advertised to, especially if they are on social media to connect with their friends and family at that particular time and day, and this is common for most successful Facebook ads that don't sound too much like ads.
The reason why you shouldn't sound too much like an ad is because, on your target audience's timeline a minimum of 5 ads are shown to them by Facebook on a daily basis, which makes it increasingly important to separate your ads from the other ads that your target audience might see.
Your Facebook ads should blend with your target audience's social media feeds of family and friends. How can you do this:
Try not to be saley
Make your ads engaging
Be emotional with your ad - depending on your niche
These factors falls under your "Text Section" and "Call-to-action". Your text should make your audience understand that it benefits them to click on your ad rather than just telling them to. This is why your CTA is very important to clearly direct your audience on the benefit of your ad.
If you are re-targeting a group of your target audience or you are targeting based on your customer purchase journey. You can make your ads persuade with sounding much like an ad.
Related: How to create engaging post
Step 10: Install Conversion Pixel
First, what is a pixel?
A pixel (or a tag) is a short snippet of Java Script (code) that does something on your website. In the context of marketing/advertising pixels, they are often collecting some information about your visitor to a website and their behaviour on the site.
What then is Conversion Pixel?
Conversion Pixel is way to understand if your ads are generating conversion and this is possible by including pixels in your strategy, which makes it possible to understand the actions users are taking on your page.
Conversion is when the user takes a relevant action on an internet channel. The conversion varies according to the goal of each strategy such as:
Filling out a subscription form
Watching a video
Making a Purchase
Clicking on a Call-to-action
With your conversion pixel, you would be able to track your audience based on their purchase journey such as:
People that clicked on your Facebook ads but didn't interact with your landing page or website.
People who visited your service page but didn't contact you.
People who added items to their cart but didn't purchase.
People who purchased your product or service and so much more.
So with Facebook conversion pixel you would be able to monitor your customer journey.
It is therefore important to install your Facebook conversion pixel on your website before running any of your Facebook ads and that should be right now. Because, once you install your conversion pixel, its begins to collect data of how your audience interact with your website and you can target them specifically based on their customer journey for their business.
So how do you create a Facebook pixel? it's simple! Head over to your Facebook Ads Manager, click on the hamburger icon ( ≡ ) in the top left and under Event Manager select "Pixels" on the drop-down list.
Next, click the green button that says "Create a pixel".
Name your pixel, enter your website URL and click Create.
When choosing the pixel's name, keep in mind that with Event Manager, you only get one pixel for each ad account. The name should represent your business, rather than a specific campaign.
Once your pixel code is created for installation. Facebook would provide you with options for installation, you can either manually install the code yourself or email installation to a Developer.
Learn more on how to install conversion pixel and what conversion you should track on Hootsuite Facebook pixel install and it's uses.
Step 11: Retarget Audience
Re-targeting is a form of online targeting advertising (Paid advertisement) that are served to people who already visited your website without contacting or making a purchase. And this is gotten from the data of your Facebook tracking pixel.
Have you ever clicked on a website and then seen ads for that same website the following day? If so, you've been retargeted! It's a very strategic way for a successful Facebook ads.
With retargeting Searchengineland saw a 51% boosted conversion and 50% increase in repeat visitor. This goes to show the effectiveness of retargeting your audience who didn't complete the customer journey for your business.
Retargeting creates a warm audience of people who are already aware of your brand and have interacted with it. You can entice them to purchase a product they almost passed up by running a special sale or promotion. This is very effective as you don't have to start researching for who are more likely to purchase your product or service when you can retarget those who didn't purchase with a much better offer to purchase your product or service.
It may seem creepy, but retargeting ads should make the user aware you know they're interested in the product or service already. Be straight forward and you may be able to turn viable leads into conversion.
Step 12: Create Landing Pages
A landing page is a standalone webpage where a visitor 'lands' when they have clicked on a Facebook Ads or similar advertising platform.
Landing page are used mainly for a specific purpose such as collecting leads, retargeting audience, increase sales order and many more. With landing page it allows you to convert more of your visitors into leads while simultaneously capturing information about who your target audience is.
How does Landing page really work?
Someone views your ads on Facebook, they proceed to click on your ads, such a user is then directed to a landing page which is created specifically for your marketing campaign. And this landing page is different from your homepage.
Why Should You Use a Landing Page Over Homepage or Product/Service Page?
Homepage are designed with a more general purpose in mind, it speaks to your overall brand and its typically loaded with links and navigation to other areas of your site. It's designed to encourage action. Unlike Landing Pages, they are designed for one purpose only.
Because of many links on your homepage, there is a decrease in conversion rate compared to a landing page which goal is to increase conversion.
Consider the example below that shows the WebTrends homepage which contains over 60 links, it's great homepage without doubt, but it's not just not a great landing page.
If we look at another example of WebTrends landing page, it is focused entirely on a single campaign objective. You'll notice that it has only one call-to-action which is perfect.
So creating landing page for your Facebook ads helps to increase conversion rate i.e. lead capture, sales and purchase of your product and service.
Try not to use your homepage as a landing page for your marketing campaign.
Step 13: Apply A/B Split Ads Testing
Getting things right at your first trial usually doesn't come true. That's why running an A/B split testing is essential for a successful Facebook ads.
A/B split testing is when you run several slightly different variations of the same ads to find out what works and what doesn't. The one that gives higher conversions wins!
To begin with your A/B split testing, you need to figure out which element you want to test for. The two most common things to test for are your images and text in your ads. And if you are sending people to a landing page you should also test the following:
Headlines
Sub headlines
Paragraph text
Testimonials
Call to Action text
Call to Action Button
Links
Images
Content near the fold
Social proof
Media mentions
Awards and badges
Once enough people have seen your ads - at least 500 people is a good rule of thumb, you can then begin turning off your ads that have high cost per click with low conversion. Continue this process until you find that ads that's very effective of all the A/B testing.
Remember, A/B testing involves finding the right ads that would convert, so try start with 3-4 images and copies, then create 9-16 ads for those images and copies changing things like your text, call-to-action, audiences and few other, so you can find the ad that perform best.
Keep in mind, ads don't get optimized overnight. You should let your ads run for at least a few days before you begin your optimization process. A/B split testing can be time-consuming but it's worth it in the end!
Step 14: Measure Your ROI
Am sure you have started running your ads with this guide, if you have started. Congrats... but the real thing is profit. So how do you track your ROI and make your money back?
To start, let's do some crazy maths. Here's how i'll do it with advertising TAGETMedia:
Let's say I spend around $3.35 / email per sign up.
Each new customer makes us $515 after refunds. So i do back of the envelope math as follows:
Product profit = $515
Course download cost = $3.35
$515 / $3.35 = 153
So if 1 out of 153 people via new email signup buys TAGETMedia's product then buying ads is profitable.
For your business the numbers might be a little different, but a similar formula will help you work out your ROI.
Related Post: Top Video Marketing Tools
Conclusion
Follow these tips effectively and you'll be well on your way to running successful Facebook ads. If you ready to get started boosting the success of your Facebook Advertising, and other Paid Advertisement then Contact Us today to begin.
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