It’s not brain surgery, but Facebook Advertising does take a specific set of skills and a lot of hands-on-practice to perfect! Here are six key steps that we follow here at Socialfly to ensure we set up a successful Facebook Advertising campaign.
1. Target your Audience – The undeniable benefit of using Facebook Advertising to either drive traffic to your website (Website Ads),or acquire more fans on your Facebook page (Like Ads), is that you can choose the audience you want to serve your ad to extremely specifically. When you set up your campaign in the Facebook Ads Manager, first think about the geographic location(s) you want your ad to be served to. Are you selling a product that you can only ship in the US? Well, you better pick US only. Are you advertising a service that you offer only in the state where you live? Well, you better pick only that state!
The other important audience variables to pinpoint are gender and age. You don’t want to waste your advertising dollars serving your ad to men ages 13-25 if your product is geared towards women ages 35-65.
You get the picture, right? Just be specific!
2. Perfect your “Interest Cloud” – Within the Ads Manager there are so many options to choose from in terms of targeting an audience. If you are new to Facebook Ads, I suggest heading straight to the Interests area. Here you can create an Interest Cloud based around the type of person you think would be interested in your page, product, or brand.
How do you best determine your Interest Cloud? Easy! Think about the other Facebook Pages your target demographic might like or interact with. Think about places they like to shop, hobbies they have, products they like, or publications they read. Type your ideas into the interest area in the ads manager. You’ll be surprised by the array of options that pop up. Be specific, but try to make sure your audience reach (which you can see on the right hand side of the screen in the ads manager) is at least 500,000. This is especially important if you are running a long-term ad. You want to be sure your target demographic is not too small or else you will quickly run out of people to serve your ad to, and your cost will spike.
For those who are ready to get a little more advanced, Facebook allows you to choose other demographics specifications. You can target a certain relationship status, education level, employment industry, income level, political view, etc. Depending on what you are advertising, it may make sense to play around with these areas, but keep in mind that the more specific you get, the more expensive the ad may become. However, an increase in cost should not deter you if you are seeing great conversions from your ads. Do some testing, and see what works best.
3. It is all about the image- The first person to say, “a picture is worth a thousand words!” must have known a thing or two about advertising. When it comes to Facebook ads, sure a nice set of written copy doesn’t hurt, but it is really the photo that gets people to notice the ad and click through to either like your page or visit your website.
When choosing a photo, remember to keep the size specifications for Facebook Ads in mind. Be sure your photo is high resolution and on brand for what you are advertising. Look carefully at the ad preview before pressing purchase, and ask yourself if you would click that photo. If not, choose another one!
The other important thing to keep in mind is that it is always best to test out more than one photo. Pick 5 or 6 that you think might work and let them run for a while with the same ad copy in the same ad set. Facebook will help you in determining which one is best to serve to your audience, and after a week you can pause the images that were not performing well. The ad with the lowest cost is the one for you!
4. Call them to action – Even though the photo is the highlight of the ad, the copy can’t be ignored. When writing an ad, it is usually best to have a very specific message and utilize a call to action button. You can also use your ad to highlight a certain offer or promotion that you are running. Your ad should allow viewers to quickly understand who you are, what the ad is about, and what you are asking them to do. As long as those three things are clear and compelling, and you have targeted the right type of person when you set up your demographics and interests groups, you should get some great interaction!
5. Set a budget – Don’t forget to set your budget! Figure out what you want to spend on your ad, and then space it out over a period of time. Ads take a week or two to settle and perform their best, so you don’t want to spend your whole budget in two days on a Like Ad. For example, if you allocate $1,000 for Like Ads for the month (to acquire new fans on your page), space that money out over the entire month by either spending $30 “per day” OR setting a “lifetime budget” of $1,000 with an end date for when the month is over.
6. “A watched pot never boils” – Early on, I learned that if you stare at your ads for the first few days that they run, it can drive you crazy. The Facebook advertising algorithm calls for users to let ads run for a week or two before stopping the ad and trying something new. So once you place the ad and click that purchase button, leave it alone! Check back in the next day to make sure you have set it up correctly, and then wait 5-7 days to look at it again. After it has run for a few days, you will get a better idea of whether or not you have allocated an appropriate budget, and whether or not you want to keep it running or pause it.
Of course, there is always more to learn about Facebook Advertising, but hopefully these tips helped! If you are looing for some more advice, get in touch! We love helping people learn more about the Facebook Advertising platform!