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Read full articleIn January 2017, Small Business Trends released the results of a survey of over 2,600 small-business owners, revealing that 62% of them believe Facebook ads are ineffective or missing their target.1 With complaints of little-to-no ROI through sales, these entrepreneurs say they will not use Facebook advertising again.
Considering these stats it’s important to remember, when businesses don't see the results they aim to achieve, it's typically because they haven't done enough testing on their Facebook ad images, copy, or combination of demographic information to target the right audience.
We feel that properly tested and targeted Facebook ads do indeed provide results. Here are the 7 key elements behind sales-driving Facebook ads...
1. Seek to Inspire
Facebook ad copy and images should seek to inspire the viewer. An ad image and headline shouldn’t fail to catch attention in the News Feed, giving viewers no choice but to click on the ad. Images are arguably the most important aspect of an ad, responsible for some 75 to 90% of an ad’s performance.2 At the same time, 59% of people never actually read more than the headline of a Facebook post before sharing or liking it.3
2. Target Smartly
Sales-driving ads aren’t generated by targeting all 20M people on Facebook in the United States. Some marketers believe that the bigger the audience size, the better. More people, more money—makes sense, at least on a surface level. The problem is that if your audience is too large, you’re going to end up wasting money on uninterested leads.
Instead of using broad classifications such as males between the ages of 20-65, make use of Facebook’s intricate audience targeting features. For instance, if you were selling car covers, you could choose to target Facebook users who recently purchased a car (or even a specific type of car). Use niche interests to your advantage, and regularly review your buyer personas to make sure that your audience targeting matches.
As opposed to combining your demographics with every interest and behavior you can think of, set the criteria for only one or two interests and behaviors at a time. Combining too many interests, demographics and behaviors won't tell you what's actually working for you. You’ll end up spending a lot of money on audiences that aren’t a good match for your offer.
3. Choose Optimal Ad Placement
According to Facebook’s most recent earnings report, mobile monthly active users (MAUs) were up 21% year over year from 2015 to 2016. Additionally, mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 84% of advertising revenue for the fourth quarter of 2016, up from approximately 80% of advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2015.4
So what does that mean for advertisers looking to run Facebook ads to drive conversions? Think mobile-first.
Not only do mobile Facebook ads cost less, they typically bring in higher engagement numbers and the click-through rates are higher, resulting in users taking more actions with these types of ads.
4. Understand Marketing Objectives & Optimization for Ad Delivery
Facebook offers different optimization options based on your marketing objectives, each of which will optimize your Facebook ad delivery to users most likely to take the requested action. These marketing objectives can fall under three categories: Awareness, Consideration or Conversion.
Once you select your marketing objective you’ll be able to select Optimization for Ad Delivery as well. There are four options for ad delivery optimization:
- Conversions: Facebook will deliver your ads to people who are most likely to convert. This bidding method is a good place to start as Facebook will optimize the ads for you.
- Link Clicks: Facebook focuses on getting users to click on your ad to follow the link. If your goal is to get a lot of users to your landing page, this could be a good option.
- Impressions: Facebook optimizes your ads with the goal of being seen by as many people as possible. This is a good option for businesses looking to build brand awareness.
- Daily Unique Reach: Facebook will show your ads to people up to once a day. This method is great for retargeting, ensuring that prospects don’t become annoyed by seeing repetitive ads.
5. Measure Conversions
In order to accurately track results, be sure to set up your Facebook pixels for conversion tracking.
Follow these simple steps in order to measure your conversions on Facebook:
- Create a pixel
- Add the Facebook pixel to your website
- Use the pixel for ad optimization
- Measure conversions
From here, you’ll be able to track leads, checkouts, registrations, key page views, and customers adding items to the cart.
6. Monitor Performance
Monitor your ads daily and optimize accordingly in order to drive the most sales through your Facebook ads. Key performance metrics which can be monitored regularly, include:5
- Ad frequency
- Relevance score
- Click-through-rate vs. conversion rate
- Number of leads
- Facebook Ads customer churn
- Ad performance by placement
- Clicks by interests
- Ad engagement rate
In addition to monitoring performance, comment
7. PROCESS COMMENTS IN REAL-TIME
s received from prospects and customers should be monitored daily as well. These comments are where the sales truly happen, and if they’re ignored, conversion opportunities will be missed. However, it's not realistic to read every single comment received on an ad on a daily basis - especially if you're a large brand receiving thousands of comments on one ad and running hundreds of ads regularly.
Try utilizing a technology solution to help you process the comments on your Facebook ads in real-time. BrandBastion can automatically read and remove comments, respond to customer and prospect inquiries, and escalate comments in need of attention 24/7 - all according to brand preference.
Want to learn more about how BrandBastion can help you drive sales through your Facebook ads?
Sources:
https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/01/do-facebook-ads-work.html
https://copyhackers.com/2016/06/writing-facebook-ads/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/06/16/six-in-10-of-you-will-share-this-link-without-reading-it-according-to-a-new-and-depressing-study/?utm_term=.46cfa3375253
https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/2017/facebook-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2016-Results/default.aspx
https://adespresso.com/academy/blog/facebook-ads-cost/
