I’ll be upfront here – I love Facebook ads. But there is certainly a science to it, like all digital marketing. Here are a few quick tips so that you stop wasting money on Facebook ads:
- Define your goals. Facebook offers a variety of ad types designed to increase your page likes, capture leads, drive people to your website, or convert on a specific call to action. It’s impossible to be successful (or know that you are not being successful) without clear goals and objectives for your ads.
- Use specific targeting. I usually recommend a simple persona exercise where you define your target audience into 1-3 groups. Think about everything – age, education level, hobbies and group your ideal customers. This does not mean that every customer has to fit into one of your personas, but finding some common ground and speaking to a specific audience will always generate more powerful results.
- Set yourself up for proper tracking. Facebook makes this pretty easy, by allowing you to install what’s called a pixel on your website. By placing the code on your site, the Facebook pixel is triggered once someone takes an action on your website. This allows you to reach that customer again through future Facebook ads and track your results.
- Pick the right image. Images are what will catch your audience’s attention. Images of people work very well. Use something with a pop of color. Think about what emotion you want people to feel, and find an image that matches.
- Pick the right headline. Just like the image, this needs to grab their attention. Humor works well, along with quickly and concisely speaking to the benefits of your product or service.
- Don’t sound like an ad. Yep, that’s right. People want to engage with and do business with companies that are authentic. Talk with them like you are talking to a friend. Share how your product or service can help them.
- Jumping to the sale. Yes, you want your marketing dollars to result in sales, but going for the hard sale immediately turns customers off. Facebook will also penalize you for low-quality content. I often compare marketing to dating – be sure you take the time to let people get to know you before asking for a serious commitment.
- Think about video. Video performs extremely well on Facebook, so give it a try! Just make sure it gets your message across without sound. 85% of Facebook videos are viewed without sound.
- Test, test, test. Utilize A/B testing. Try different ads targeted to different personas. I usually start with about 3 ads, and continue to refine the ad that is performing the least effectively. You can run ads for as little as $1 a day, and can stop them at any time. This makes it very easy to try new things and see how they perform.
- Give them time. While ads can be done with little investment and can be changed or removed at any time, it does take time to see results. If an ad is performing very poorly, go ahead and change it or remove it. But even if you are seeing mediocre results, it may be worth letting it sit for a while and see if results perform over time.
