Almost every social-networking platform has its own fully integrated advertising system, and yet Facebook still reigns supreme in terms of features, insights and audience.
As a local business, that means Facebook is the ideal place to start.
But, be careful! Many businesses end up wasting money and throwing resources down the drain, because they have no strategy or don’t understand how to use it. Make sure that’s not you! All it takes to succeed is a little knowledge of how Facebook advertising works and what some of the best practices are.
Here are our top five tips for creating a perfect Facebook ad campaign:
Facebook’s Audience Insights is one of the best tools you have at your disposal. It essentially allows you to learn about specific audiences before risking your budget on targeting them. It works by mining available Facebook data and showing you exactly who you should target, based on people who already like your page.
Instead of taking a shot in the dark, you now know exactly which users are likely to follow your ad’s call-to-action. It saves a lot of time and money, allowing you to focus on the quality of the ad and avoid wasting time on targeting people who have no interest in what you sell. For example, why waste money on trying to target students when you’re a DIY store trying to sell kitchens!
One of the best features of Facebook’s advertising platform is that you can create separate adverts for different audiences. In other words, you can create two different adverts and deliver them to two completely unique audiences all within the same campaign.
For example, let’s say you’re a retailer that sells kitchen supplies. Maybe you have a really awesome new stainless steel mixing bowl that you’re trying to market to two different groups. Instead of delivering the same ad to everyone, you can create two different ads and deliver them to two distinct types of people. The first ad could be targeted towards professional chefs, whereas the second one may be focused on young affluent couples who like quality, chef-grade kitchen supplies. The two ads will be completely different to appeal to the different audiences, despite the fact that the same item is being pushed.
Very rarely should you connect an ad to your website or product page without first pushing visitors through a landing page. Landing pages allow you to maximize your Facebook advertising efforts as your ad is essentially your trailer and promotes the best bits, your landing page then provides more detail. By sending users through to a landing page, you provide them with exactly what they're looking for and tell them the next action you want them to take (e.g. filling in a form for a quote, giving you a call, signing up for a newsletter, or something else).
Landing pages make sense because Facebook advertising isn’t cheap. You’re going to spend money on your clicks and you want each one to count. Simply sending them to your homepage without any relevant information or clear direction of what they need to do will end in people leaving your site and wasting your money.
You’ll hear people teach entire courses on how to write Facebook ad copy, but for some reason, the same amount of attention isn’t given to the images used in these ads. This is unfortunate, since images and videos lead to 39% more interactions than text on its own.
“You don't have to use a shot of your business, product or service,” says Nicolas Gremion of Free-eBooks.net. “Rather use a (relevant if possible) image that will catch people's eyes and have them read your ad.” Facebook tells you that you can’t use images that contain more than 20% words, so it’s clear that images are designed to grab attention, not display a message. 93% of most popular posts on Facebook contained an image, so make sure you always include one if possible.
Finally, it’s critically important that you set a bid strategy and budget. Otherwise you’ll end up spending way more than you intended. Thankfully, Facebook makes this easy by allowing you to use what’s known as Optimized CPM.
With this tool, you’re essentially giving Facebook the permission to automatically spend your budget evenly based on the constraints and goals you provide. This generally allows you to maximize your budget and avoid overspending. Until you get an idea of how much running ads costs and how to allocate your budget, it’s best to let Facebook take care of this aspect of your campaign.
Creating a brilliant Facebook ad campaign is all about understanding the platform and utilising the features you have at your disposal. While you certainly need to think about the ad itself, you have to start with the platform you’re using. Once you determine who you’re targeting and how much you’re willing to spend, you can then focus on the finer details.
Using these five tips, you should be able to get started and experience some initial success. As always, remember that Facebook is constantly changing its advertising platform, so stay on top of any new developments and apply them accordingly.
For further help with Facebook and to progress your strategy to the next level, download our guide to Winning Your First 500 Facebook Fans.
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