While just about every social-networking
platform now has its own fully integrated advertising system, Facebook still
reigns supreme in terms of features, insights and audience. As a business,
that means Facebook is the ideal place to start. But unfortunately, just
because Facebook is a great platform for advertising doesn’t mean all brands
use it effectively. Many end up wasting money and throwing resources down the
drain, because they have no strategy or don’t understand how to use it.
Hopefully 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 my five tips for creating a killer
Facebook ad campaign:
1. Mine audience insights.
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 or targeting them. It works by
mining available Facebook data and showing you exactly who your target market
is, 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 through with 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.
2. Create unique ad sets for each
audience.
One of the neatest features of Facebook’s
advertising platform is that you can create separate ad sets for unique
audiences. In other words, you can create two different ads and deliver them to
two completely unique audiences. Or you can create the same exact ad and send
it to two different audiences. Ultimately, the result is better targeting.
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 unique ads and deliver
them to two distinct target markets. The first ad could be targeted towards
professional chefs, whereas the second one may be focused on stay-at-home moms
who like quality chef-grade kitchen supplies. The two ads will be completely
different, despite the fact that the same item is being pushed.
3. Accompany ads with landing
pages.
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 by
educating users before asking them to buy.
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 a basic website or product page
without any clear direction of what they need to do is a waste of money.
4. Use striking imagery
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 visual content is far more influential than textual content.
“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 percent words, so it’s clear that images are designed to grab
attention, not display a message. Take advantage of this valuable real estate within
your ad.
5. Establish a bid strategy and
budget
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 bid for ad space 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 ad space costs and how to
allocate your budget, it’s best to let Facebook take care of this aspect of
your campaign.
Putting it all together
Creating a killer Facebook ad campaign is all
about understanding the platform and utilizing 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.
Written By: Samuel Edwards
Credit: Entrepreneur.com
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