It’s easy to get confused with Facebook advertising. From behavioral targeting to pixel tracking, Facebook offers a bewildering number of targeting options, advertising best practices, and ad formats.
In this article, you’ll learn the five elements of successful Facebook ads. I’ll walk you through each step. These lessons are based on things we’ve learned at Hootsuite running paid social advertising campaigns.
Bonus: Download a free guide that teaches you how to turn Facebook traffic into sales in four simple steps using Hootsuite.
The perfect Facebook ad is clear about the action it wants the prospect to take.
Every campaign or ad format in the world can be boiled down into two types: ads designed to engage your prospect’s attention and ads designed to drive a direct action such as sale, app install, or lead.
In a perfect world, your campaign does both. But in most cases, you’ll either get one or the other. Brand awareness is valuable. It’s a smart strategy that builds your business over the long-term. But too many campaigns try to mash brand awareness and direct response together. Unless you’re a marketing genius, it rarely works.
As such, creative brand awareness campaigns are better served with CTAs related to content consumption such as following your Facebook page, subscribing for more content, or collecting email subscriptions. And direct response ads are better served answering common buying objections than trying to engage or entertain.
An excellent example of a direct response ad comes from the company AppSumo. As you can see below, the ad has one clear goal: get you to immediately buy the product.
The ad doesn’t waste time—it tells what the product is, what the deal includes, and uses a timed offer to give you a compelling reason to buy right away.
Mailchimp is the undisputed champion of brand advertising.
Their genius is that they let brand awareness campaigns simply build the brand. Their Facebook ads never try to get you to watch one of their weirdly brilliant videos AND sign up for a free trial. It’s not that Mailchimp doesn’t do product-specific ads, either. Lots of their ads aim to drive sales or get customers to try a new feature. But they keep these two worlds—brand awareness and direct response—completely separated.
Conversely, an ad that tries to do both is is likely to fall flat. If you have ad copy that speaks to the core value of your product (brand awareness), don’t ask people to buy or sign up right away. Instead, use your CTA to encourage people to take a smaller, more location action such as “watch a video to learn how the product works.”
Decide on one simple action you want people to take. The easiest way is to focus your ad on one section of the purchase funnel. Pick one from Hootsuite’s social media marketing funnel:
The perfect Facebook ad doesn’t randomly combine audience targeting. It uses testing to refine targeting precision over time.
Facebook offers an endless list of audience targeting abilities. It’s easy to get confused. And even easier to just give up, adding random interest and behavior categories and hoping that Facebook will magically match you with customers.
You can save a lot of money and time by being intentional in your audience targeting.
The trick to audience targeting is to improve your insights into what works over time.
Here’s a simple path to start.
Begin with a lookalike audience.
Lookalike audiences are powerful because you can use existing data (such as people who purchased a product from your website) to target similar prospects on Facebook. This gives you a solid platform to start testing and refining your audience targeting.
How do you create a lookalike audience in Facebook? In your favorite Facebook ad tool, follow these steps.
If your goal is to target the most potential lead prospects, you should create lookalike audiences targeting one to two percent of a country’s population, instead of aiming for 10 percent. And for best results, don’t forget to exclude custom audiences of people who have already converted.
If the steps above confused here, here’s an article with more information on how to create a lookalike audience in Facebook.
Later, refine with nuanced targeting.
After you run your first campaign, you can then adjust your audience targeting strategy by adding the tweaks below. Add these one at a time to see if they make an impact. This article from AdEspresso by Hootsuite explains how targeting works in Facebook.
First, choose target location. Then add on interests. Then demographics. Narrow your audience by adding required categories—such as the user must be interested in X and also must like Y or Z.
Experiment with behaviors as well.
Under behaviors you can target specific device owners, people who are having an anniversary within the next two years, for example, or users who have recently made a business purchase.
Another approach is to start by testing broad audiences, and then adding more specifics as you go, getting a more refined and higher converting audience every time.
The perfect Facebook ad doesn’t annoy people with boring benefits or wordy sales pitches. Use a conversational tone and relax on the sales tricks.
At Hootsuite, we’ve found that headlines work best when they’re clear and conversational. This minimizes annoying people with overt advertising in their personal feeds.
Sometimes a good headline is a clever phrase. Other times, it’s a straightforward product benefit. There are no true hacks to writing headlines. And even the old advice that headlines must contain benefits—not features—is as the British say, rubbish.
My recommendation is to follow brands that really have mastered the aesthetic and social codes of Facebook and Instagram. A few personal favorites: Chewy.com, MVMT, and <>. You’ll notice these brands tend to have a much conversational approach to headlines, rather than traditional benefit-focused copy.
As an aside, your headline in a Facebook ad is typically the “text” field in the ad builder, not the “headline” field. Zuck and I see eye-to-eye on many things. But it’s clear that engineers—not copywriters—built Facebook ads.
As you might have noticed in Facebook’s ad builder, the ‘headline’ appears in the third position in the ad under the image. This would make the headline the second thing you read in the ad—so not a headline at all.
If you enter copy in the “text” field, treat this as your headline. It’s the first thing your prospects will see and the “headline” functions more like a subhead for additional information.
The perfect Facebook ad has a clever or creative tension between art and copy.
Amatuer advertisers on Facebook make a predictable mistake. The image and the headline do not have any creative tension. For example, if the headline is “make money in your sleep,” you’ll see a stock image of a person in pajamas, holding handfuls of cash. Or if the headline says “become a social media jedi” you’ll see a social media manager dressed as a jedi.
Here’s a helpful rule for stronger art direction. If the copy is literal, make the visual playful. If the visual is playful, make the copy literal. This creates contrast and interplay between the art and copy.
For example, Slack’s famous campaign has an abstract image. The headline is copy is straightforward, explaining the metaphor. This would be a much different campaign if the image was also straightforward and literal such as a person in an office getting a high-five. It’s the tension between the image and headline that makes the ad interesting.
Another example comes from Zendesk. Imagine how horrible the ad below would be if the image was replaced with a smiling team of support agents.
A literal headline and a literal image that makes for lifeless advertising.
If you need to be visually inspired, you can use AdEspresso’s free ad tool. It lets you spy on competitors and find successful examples of Facebook ads.
If you can’t afford a custom photoshoot, here are 21 free stock photo sites.
The perfect Facebook ad knows that asking people to complete an action always creates buyer anxiety.
Your final step is to write the description for your CTA. This is the News Feed Link Description. Use this space to anticipate common buying objections.
For example, if your CTA is “Download your report” a common objection might the audience questioning the value of the report.
As you can see below, the Dollar Shave Club uses the description area to answer common objections to their subscription package.
So you can add some specific details such as a teaser of the content.
If you’re asking for a direct sale—such as adding a product to a shopping cart—you can mention free shipping or return policies.
We’ve launched a complete (and free) Facebook advertising bootcamp series. Each 30-minute tutorial covers different aspects of building successful Facebook ad campaigns. You’ll learn advanced tactics and targeting best practices from real advertising pros.
Save Your Spot
There's no escaping the fact that Facebook has the audience numbers to make marketers drool:
Advertising revenue for the platform hit $6.239 billion for the second quarter of 2016 - it's taken off in a big way.
And it gets better: Facebook advertising is easy to do, cost-effective, and boasts an average click-through rate of 0.
98% in the U.S. and 1% globally.
While you still need to do your homework, set measurable goals, research your audience, and follow all image and copy best practices for ads in general, the potential is huge.
If you've never tried Facebook ads, it's time you did. Consider this your quickstart guide - your first campaign is six easy steps away.
Let's Get StartedFrom the Advertising on Facebook page, click on "Create an Advert" to jump to the Manager dashboard.
Step 1 - Select a Marketing ObjectiveMeasurable goals and objectives are essential.
Facebook divides objectives into three broad categories:
Awareness - Boost a post, promote your page, reach people near your business, increase brand awareness
Consideration - Send people to your website, get people to install your app, raise attendance at an event, get video reviews, collect leads
Conversion - Increase website conversions, increase app engagement, get people to claim an offer, promote a product catalog
Quick tip: Tie your objective to your campaign goal.
The choice here will determine your available options in the remaining steps.
Make your selection, give the campaign a name, and click continue. You're on your way.
Step 2 - Define Your AudienceThis is where Facebook really shines. The platform is like one giant, ongoing focus group. People voluntarily input their likes, dislikes, background, and more.
Use your buyer personas to create your target - a well-defined audience is key.
Enter in the basics - location (by country, state/province, or city), age range, gender, and language.
Quick tip: When selecting a specific city, be sure to select "People who live in this location". Otherwise, FB includes tourists and recent visitors by default.
Zero in with the detailed targeting field near the bottom. You can go after certain demographics, interests, or behaviors. Start typing, and Facebook will make a few suggestions. Be specific. Who exactly is your ideal target?
You can also exclude people (such as those who've already liked your page), narrow your audience, or set a connection type (by either your Facebook Page, apps, or events).
Upload the email addresses, phone numbers, Facebook IDs, or app user IDs from your existing customers with Custom Audience.
Lookalike Audience lets you target people similar to your existing audience - it's a great opportunity to expand awareness of your brand.
The targeting capabilities are simply amazing. You can reach the right people for any campaign.
Step 3 - Select Your PlacementAds can be placed on Facebook - in the feeds or right-hand column - on Instagram, or on the Audience Network. Note that all options aren't available for every objective.
Automatic Placements is the default. If you've done your homework and know that your target audience just doesn't use Instagram, select "Edit Placements" and exclude that platform.
You can further narrow your targeting by selecting "All device types", "Mobile only", or "Desktop only", as well as either "All mobile devices", "Only Android", or "Only iOS". If you're promoting an iPhone app, for example, you probably don't need it to go out to Android users.
Quick tip: Mobile advertising represented 84% of all Facebook ad revenue, and the platform had 967 million mobile-only users in Q2 2016. Don't exclude them.
Step 4 - How Much and For How LongYou can simply enter a daily minimum or a lifetime budget, and opt to run the campaign continuously or from a concrete start and stop date. Done.
Under Advanced Options, you can get a little more precise:
If you have data, go ahead and tweak, otherwise, it's best to let Facebook do its thing.
Your bid amount is influenced by a lot: your objective, your audience, your budget, length of your campaign, and more.
Quick tip: Your ad quality score (relevance score and CTR) will influence your costs. Optimize to improve it, and your cost-per-click will be lower.
Facebook always gives a suggested bid, but you can adjust that amount. Go too low, however, and you risk losing out to other advertisers vying for the same audience.
Step 5 - Ad FormatYou're given the choice or either Carousel (an ad with 2-10 scrollable images or videos), single image (you can use up to six different ones), single video, or slideshow.
The Carousel format is great if you want to showcase your product line, demonstrate something simple, or tell a story - some studies suggest it generates 10x more traffic than single image ads.
Will it do that for you? Perhaps. But choose the format that best fits your needs.
Step 6 - Get CreativeYour actual ad needs to look good (high quality visuals), be well written (active, persuasive language), and appeal to your chosen target. Do some keyword research to find the words and phrases that most resonate with them.
Consider segmenting your audience so you can create targeted ads that appeal to those smaller groups.
Quick tip: You'll see recommended specs on the right-hand side for images and videos. Follow them.
Upload, select from your Facebook library, or choose a free stock image depending on your chosen format. You can then crop, adjust, and give each a unique headline and link.
Enter the text for your ad, and preview for both the desktop and mobile versions on the right. Make sure it looks stunning.
When you're done, review and place your order. That's it.
Understand your goals, take the time to define your audience as precisely as possible, and rotate ads regularly to avoid ad fatigue.
Keep it fresh and engaging.
Monitor your campaign from Ads Manager. You can check number of reach, results, and average cost per result, among other data points that you select from the "Column" dropdown menu.
Use the "Breakdown" options to see exactly who reacted to your ad, when, where, and on what device.
You can do a lot of cool stuff with Facebook ad reports.
Start small (try a $5/day campaign for a week). A/B test your ads. Monitor, tweak, and refine. Learn as you go. Check out the Facebook Pixel.
Be realistic, methodical, and proactive, and FB Ads will be profitable.
Images via MarketingCharts
Contents
2 Ad group level In this article, we will not only take a detailed look at the process of setting up Facebook ads from the technical side, but also analyze how this knowledge can be applied to create acquisition and retention campaigns. Let's take a look at Facebook Ads Manager first.
Ads Manager is a free tool from Facebook with which you can create and manage ads and measure the effectiveness of their results.
In the advertising account, you can create, view and edit advertising campaigns, ad groups and ads themselves. You can use Ads Manager on both desktop and mobile devices. Please note that not all ad objectives and features are available when creating campaigns on mobile devices.
You can promote posts using the "Promote Post" button below the posts on the business page, but you will have less targeting options if you do so. We recommend launching and maintaining advertising campaigns using the advertising account in the desktop version. nine0003
You can access Facebook Ads Manager using one of 3 methods:
Advertising campaigns can be run from a personal account. Thus, you can create only one advertising account and, accordingly, only one Facebook Pixel.
To create more than one account and more flexible management of all pixels, pages, applications, we recommend using Facebook Business Manager. nine0003
Facebook Business Manager is a tool for managing all Facebook resources and sharing them with other users. In Business Manager, you can manage apps, pages, and ad accounts. You also have the ability to upload product catalogs, create posts, add payment methods, and more. For efficient management of all projects, you can create multiple cabinets.
Find out more: Facebook Business Manager: full overview of features and capabilities
If you are creating an ad on Facebook for the first time, you will also create an ad account.
To create it, you will need to specify its name, the company that will control it, time zone, payment method and currency.
Account currency is the currency used in the ad account for billing. Facebook writes that it regularly adds new payment methods. The Ukrainian hryvnia is not yet available, but the supported currencies are the Russian ruble, euro and US dollar.
Once every 60 days, you can change the currency to pay for ads on Facebook, provided that you do not have a current balance. But when you change the currency, you will have a new advertising account created. In some countries (such as Brazil, Nigeria, and Venezuela), the ad account's company country must match the currency. nine0003
By creating an ad account in Business Manager, you'll have your campaigns, ads, and billing information all in one place. You can also share it with other people so they can manage your ads.
To prevent your advertising account from being blocked by the Facebook administration, it is enough to follow the advertising rules, which you can read here.
Now let's take a closer look at the functionality of the advertising account. nine0003
1. Top navigation bar
Here you will find sections such as "Audiences" and "Analytics", you can set up reporting and set automatic rules, edit settings and much more.
2. Search and filters
The search will help you find the campaigns, groups or ads you need, and the filter will leave those campaigns that you plan to analyze using specific metrics: the names and goals of advertising campaigns, gender and geography of the audience, recent changes etc.
3. Button to create an advertising campaign
With this button you will start the process of creating a new advertising campaign, which we will describe in detail in the next section.
4. Ad account overview
Here you will find general information about your ad account, such as: reach or amount spent on all ads created, a detailed breakdown of the amount you spent on ads in the last 7 days, and any spending limits that you have set for the account. nine0003
5. Overview of advertising campaigns
In this tab, you can create and manage advertising campaigns: duplicate and edit existing campaigns, set up columns, and split the results according to the required metrics.
6. Overview of ad groups
Here you can create new ad groups within an existing campaign, edit, duplicate and view results.
7. Overview of ads
In this tab you can create new ads within an existing group, edit, duplicate ads, view their results. nine0003
8. Columns
Select one of the columns with the metrics you need or customize them yourself.
9. Campaign Breakdown
Here you can break down existing campaigns based on factors such as age, gender or placement.
10. Date Range
With this feature, you can set a specific date range so that advertisements are shown only for a certain period of time. nine0003
11. Campaign results
Here you will see the results of your active and inactive campaigns according to the selected columns.
Reports
Create standard or custom reports, export performance data as Excel or CSV files, and share reports with users who work with your ad account.
You can also filter out those campaigns that you want to pay special attention to. If you need to send them to colleagues or a client, you can create a shortened link. nine0003
As we mentioned in the first section, you can start creating an ad campaign in Ads Manager using the "Create" button.
At the campaign level, you can name the campaign, define the budget, purchase type and select the advertising objective. Let's take a closer look at target selection.
The first step is to select a target. It is chosen according to your tasks - what you want to achieve. Choosing the right target will help you get the most effective results. nine0003
What are the goals?
The target list is subject to change.
If you have a new ad account or use its functionality infrequently, you may have fewer options. With its active use and taking into account many other aspects, you will probably be the first to receive all updates to the advertising account. nine0003
The goal you choose is also your way of optimizing. If you select the "Traffic" goal, the algorithm is optimized for those users who are more likely to click on the site, if "Application Installs" - for those who are more likely to download the application.
A little test of practical understanding: Let's say you've posted a blog post and published it on your business page. You want to promote it to increase the reading of the article.
What advertising goal will you choose? nine0003
If you select Engagement, you will get interactions: ads will be optimized for those who like, share, comment, and make any other interactions. This means that if 9 out of 10 interactions are likes, then with this chosen goal, you will get a lot of likes for the article, but not transitions to the site.
If you want to get readers, then you should stop at the "Traffic" goal. In this case, the algorithm will be optimized for those users who click on the article. nine0003
If you want blog subscribers, for example, then your goal is Conversion. It will allow you to optimize impressions for those who subscribe to your blog. To do this, you need to use Facebook Pixel. About what a pixel is and why you need it, read our article.
⇨ The target is selected for optimization, but it is important to understand what you need to optimize for.
Another situation is also possible - adjacent goals with the same result.
For example, your task is to get leads. These can be collected through goals such as Lead Generation and Conversion. What to choose in this case? Let's simulate:
First, let's look at the cost per conversion:
↳ Lead Generation goal — $1. Goal "Conversion" - $3.
In this case, it is logical to choose the Lead Generation goal.
Next, we proceed to the analysis of the validity of leads:
↳ "Lead generation" - 10%, a valid lead will be $10. The “Conversion” goal is 50%, a valid lead will be $6.
Lead Generation loses in cost per valid lead.
But the analysis does not stop there, if you control the unit economy and end-to-end analytics. nine0003
The average check for valid leads through the Lead Generation objective, for example, may be higher, but CLV lower. Then, if we measure the average check and we have a one-time purchase, then perhaps the goal of "Lead Generation" can be more cost-effective. In any case, measure everything in terms of money.
If you're measuring results by taking into account the total amount of revenue for a customer, then you should stick with the Conversions goal.
⇨ The main point of your campaigns is profitability. Therefore, it is important to test the goals and see the results for different metrics. nine0003
Budget is the amount of money you will spend showing ads to people.
It is also a price control tool.
By setting the budget at the campaign level, the system spends it automatically on the best results among all ad groups within the campaign.
But the best results for the system may not necessarily be the best for you. Let's imagine that you have created several personas, and the results in groups of some persons are more expensive than the results in others. In this case, the system will spend the budget on the group with cheaper results. But after analyzing the groups, you can see that the cheaper groups have much lower CLVs. To manage this, set a budget at the ad group level. nine0003
For example, select the "Conversions" goal at the campaign level and start creating an ad group and give it a name. Next, select the place where you want to drive traffic - website, application, Messenger or WhatsApp. Having determined the required entry point, the system will request clarification. For example, if you select "Website", the system will ask you to select a Pixel with events to track and optimize for conversions.
Next, Facebook suggests creating dynamic creatives or offers. nine0003
You just need to upload images, headlines and other creatives, and the system will automatically create combinations, selecting several components (for example, images, videos, headlines, descriptions, etc.) for a given audience. You can read more about them here.
Offers are discounts that you offer Facebook users to encourage them to make a purchase online and/or offline. When a person sees your offer in the feed, a person can not only like it and leave a comment, but also save it in the Offers tab. Facebook will remind the person of the saved offer up to three times, depending on their personal notification settings. nine0003
Here you define how much you want to spend and set the period for which the ad will be displayed. The budget can be set daily or immediately for the entire duration of the advertising campaign.
If you select "daily budget" your bid can be correlated throughout the week, and if you select "lifetime budget" - throughout the entire period. You can also set an end date for your campaign, which will be disabled automatically.
Next, we move on to choosing the target audience: create a new one or use the saved one.
When you create a new audience, you include or exclude the collected audience lists for retargeting or look-alike audiences.
You can also specify socio-demographic (social) targeting:
When creating multiple ad groups and using detailed targeting in them, audience saturation is possible. This issue can occur if you are targeting with different conditions by including and don't use exclusions.
For example, the same user can simultaneously be included in an interest group and in a group who visited the site. How to prevent the problem of audience attrition in advance, read our article “Audience satiety: How to avoid early and correct it in time”. nine0003
You have the option to include, exclude, or target friends of users who follow your business page or use your mobile app. You can also include or exclude people who checked in to the event.
Placements include 2 categories: device types and platforms.
In device types, you can select desktop and/or phone to select the devices on which ads will be displayed. On the platforms, you define the ad zone (location) where your ad will be shown - on Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network or Messenger. When editing placements, you can select not only certain devices and platforms, but also configure additional settings. nine0003
Platforms and device types can be separated into different ad groups for content customization and testing.
But we recommend combining them for more effective optimization. However, it is important to see how ads will look on all devices beforehand at the ad level.
Next, we move on to choosing the option to optimize ad display. It will help the system understand how to deliver your ad. If you select "Conversions", the algorithm will select the audience that is more likely to make the specified conversion on the website. Delivery options depend on which advertising objective you are using. nine0003
When creating a Facebook ad campaign with the "Conversions" ad objective, you can choose the following types of bids to optimize: your ads with different intensity to all users from your targeting. "Impressions" - with a frequency of up to 4 per day, "Daily reach among unique users" - up to 1 per day.
One of the important steps in setting up an advertising campaign is choosing a bid strategy.
In order for the right audience to see your ad, you must win an auction with other advertisers. In the Facebook auction, the ad with the highest "total value" wins. The total value is not the amount you are willing to pay to display your ads. When determining this indicator, 3 factors are taken into account:
Rate is how much you are willing to spend. It controls the cost per result in case the auction wins and the impression is completed.
There are 2 bid strategies: Low Price and Target Price. Read more about them in our article How to Choose a Facebook Bid Strategy.
This parameter determines how fast your ad will be shown. You can use standard mode or set up accelerated impressions to get results faster. In the second case, your bid will be raised in order to get a higher place in the auction and get more impressions. nine0003
Let's start creating an ad creative.
First you need to choose from which page the advertisement will be shown. If you have specified Instagram as one of the placements, you must also specify the desired account here.
Facebook offers several ad formats to choose from. Choose the appropriate format depending on the purpose of promotion and content.
Upload your own photos or use stock. On the right, you can find the image parameters recommended by the social network for the best selection of pictures. You can create up to 6 ads at the same time. You can find all the recommendations from Facebook on creating creatives in the "Creative Center" section.
All ad settings occur on the left side of the page. On the right is a preview of your creative in different placements.
Next, you fill in the required fields: title, text, link to the site, call to action, etc.
When the ad is ready, click the "Confirm" button and your advertising campaign will be sent for moderation.
It is important to remember that the effectiveness of an advertising campaign is determined by the communication in your creatives - the settings only correlate the cost per result. The target audience makes decisions according to what they see in the advertisement.
We have analyzed the creation and setup of an advertising campaign from A to Z. But how to apply this knowledge correctly and get effective results?
If you have a website or mobile app, before launching an acquisition campaign, start by setting up a retargeting campaign.
For this you need:
Why start with retargeting? While you are setting up an advertising campaign for a cold audience, you will be able to start communicating with existing traffic.
Retention (retargeting campaigns) is a system promotion. And its task is to reach all relevant users/visitors and lead them to the final goal. At the same time, each stage of the funnel needs to be improved by increasing the Conversion Rate. In the case of acquisition campaigns, it is important to test in order to find the most profitable cost for achieving the goal. nine0003
If you are sure that your audience is of high quality, then the percentage of the target audience tends to 100.
In this case, you do not need to worry about the type of delivery and optimization of the advertising campaign. In this case, the goal is to reach everyone. Choose the Reach objective to reach everyone in your sample and get a lower CPM.
If someone has already worked with the sample before you and you are not sure about its quality, then stop at the “Traffic” goal and optimize for clicks to reach only those who are more likely to want to receive your offer. nine0003
If the audience is of poor quality, then select the "Conversions" goal and optimize for conversions. You will lose volume, but at the same time you will not spend money on inappropriate impressions.
To be sure that you have chosen the right goal, we recommend testing and analyzing the results. The selection of an advertising goal for retargeting is the search for the ratio of the optimal price per result to the number of results received.
If you're getting sales for, say, $10 per unit for the "Conversions" ad objective, but your KPI is $15, try switching to the "Traffic" ad objective.
The cost per result will likely fall while still being within the KPIs, but sales volumes may rise as more people see your ad. nine0003
If you don't plan on active promotion, it's definitely worth launching retargeting campaigns. This will help you reach the entire loyal audience and lead the funnel to the result for a penny. Most of the spending is always on acquisition campaigns. If you don't have enough budget, run only retargeting campaigns.
Planning and implementing acquisition advertising campaigns is completely different from retention campaigns. nine0003
The first stage is testing. Persons are created, a number of messages for each of them, a list of target groups, and saved audiences (targeting combinations) are loaded. Additionally, saved audiences are created based on data, and not only on portraits of the target audience (lookalike audiences from the database, lookalike audiences from events, etc.).
When testing is in progress, you need to move on to stabilizing the results and optimizing them.
How to do this, we described in detail in the guide “Optimizing and scaling Facebook advertising campaigns”. nine0003
With the help of this article you will be able to create and set up an advertising campaign without any experience with Facebook Ads Manager. In the process of improving your skills, you will understand how you can manage the settings to get more effective results from communication with the audience.
Important points we would like to recap:
Effective results for you! 🙂
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If you find an error, please highlight the text and press Ctrl+Enter .
Facebook is fast becoming a lucrative space for B2B marketers. 83% of marketers use social media as a marketing tool, and 54% of them use social media for lead generation. nine0003
If you're in B2B but don't target leads on Facebook, you're likely to miss out on a lot of leads. However, the problem with B2B marketing on Facebook is that new tactics appear every day. Marketers are constantly being asked to build a specific funnel, have a specific conversion goal, add images to their ads, and so on.
Many fail to get results because they advertise blindly and try to figure things out along the way. If you target your Facebook leads correctly and plan your ads ahead of time, you should get results. nine0003
We'll show you how to find a B2B audience on Facebook
Website visitors are the perfect start for your Facebook campaigns targeting your audience.
You already know that these visitors are interested in your product because they have been to your site. They just might need a little more persuasion to become customers.
Installing the Facebook pixel is mandatory when planning targeting for site visitors. The Facebook pixel is a piece of code for your website that allows you to measure, optimize, and create audiences for your advertising campaigns. By using Facebook Pixel, you will be able to optimize ads for businesses that have visited your website and make them super-targeted. Without the Facebook pixel, you're playing a guessing game. nine0003
Pixel can be created in two clicks via Facebook Ads Manager. You can then add it to the code of the site you want to track. This way, every time someone visits a page (for example, a page with prices), they will be automatically added to the audience list.
You can set up a Facebook pixel for sales conversion tracking if you want to target ads to people who haven't made a purchase.
Or you can set up your pixel to track website visitors who fail to click on a call to action, such as an eBook download. nine0003
The Facebook pixel provides you with the information you need to optimize your campaigns based on any website action you choose. Just make sure it's up and running before you start using it for your Facebook target audience.
Many companies have difficulty choosing a goal and try to choose it along the way. You can choose objectives that are completely useless for your campaign—for example, a shopping and catalog sales focus is almost completely useless for B2B. When you eliminate useless goals from your campaigns, you start building a conversion funnel based on your targeting. Focus on goals that will attract potential customers. nine0003
Most marketers automatically select the Reach objective. However, this has a serious drawback. Reach campaigns can be a great way to get your message across to potential customers, but can be a waste of time and effort if you don't promote them with remarketing and lots of content.
Video views may also seem like a great goal, but they're not as useful for B2B. Why? Because measuring the value you get from those views is very difficult. nine0003
To get conversions and results from your campaign, your targeting needs to be focused on traffic and lead generation. Then you will see that your targeting really affects your bottom line. Make sure you only use targeting goals - lead generation and conversion - that work in the B2B space.
Facebook targets people based on their personal interests. Setting up a Facebook ad campaign for different buyers will allow you to target your ideal customers. Target a specific position, financial status, and even political affiliation of people. nine0003
Let's say that one of your main clients looks like this: a financial executive who works in a company with 50-99 employees, with business buying behavior. You can target all three of these behaviors with one secret weapon: B2B targeting features.
Simply choose the aspect that suits your client: company, number of employees and position. This will increase the chances of your ad being seen by key decision makers. nine0003
Now you know who is visiting your site and you've built an image around them. You know their age, their position and place of residence.
But what if your customer doesn't even know they need your product. How should you present the advertisement to him? Facebook has taken care of you - you can mirror and target Lookalike Audiences. By targeting a similar audience, Facebook matches potential customers with nearly the same demographics, occupations, and seniority as your current customers. nine0003
As a B2B marketer, you should focus on a few select custom audience options that Facebook gives you:
Customer data targeting will target email addresses and will find potential customers by their personal addresses.
This is a very useful way to set up an audience when you start advertising.
Remember that Facebook pixel you put on your site? It is worth its weight in gold when you are going to "catch up" with visitors. nine0003
We talked about how to find new potential clients. Now don't forget about the potential customers who have already visited your website but weren't able to buy. Good Facebook retargeting can bring them back to your website and conversion page.
We know the best time to email prospects. Now make sure you put the same effort into your Facebook ad targeting. Adjust your budget spending if you know your potential customers are using social media. nine0003
Take what you know from sources like your website analytics and Facebook post traffic and use that information to your advantage. Do your potential customers tend to search for your products and interact with your brand from 9 to 3? Then it makes sense to optimize the budget, spend it in these periods of time and cut it in others.
