Facebook Ads are an effective marketing tool for a wide range of businesses, but it can be difficult to tell if they are worth the time and money and its (very) easy to waste both!
In this article, I’ll discuss who facebook ads are for, how they work, why you would use them and what kind of results to expect when running a campaign.
You might not use Facebook ads, you might even have an ad blocker installed. But for the first 3 months this year (2021), Facebook earnt $25m in revenue (that’s a 46% increase on the previous year). So someone is!
I’ve spoken to countless businesses before who have tried Facebook ads with literally zero success!
How come Facebook ads works for some and not others?
Firstly, what does your business do? Who do you help? And how do you help them?
These are fundamental questions and if you aren’t 100% clear (and not everyone is) then no amount of advertising will work.
(Not sure where your business is, I wrote this short guide here that uses Spiral Dynamics to identify where your business is at and what you need to do to take it the next step)
If you don’t have a clear offer and a clear sales process (ie Blue meme or beyond), you’re just throwing your money away.
Second – your cost per acquisition. Without a process, you won’t know what this is.
There is no point in paying $50 for an ad that leads to a customer who spends less than $30 with your company.
Understanding your business metrics like this not only make your business far more valuable, it becomes predictable, allows you to grow & scale easier, and (heaven forbid!) take a holiday while your business continues to function.
Finally, correct targeting. Probably the most revolutionary aspect of Facebook advertising is its ability to target specific types of people.
There are many ways to slice and dice your audience. Some examples are:
- Women over 36 and under 50 who live in a capital city on the east.
- Men who enjoy rugby league but do not like AFL
- People who have previously visited your website
- People who have previously visited your website, clicked the “add to cart” button, but have no gone to the checkout (ie have not paid)
If you’re not targeting correctly and getting the right people on board then it’s unlikely anything will work!
The business of Facebook Ads is not an easy one, but if you follow some basic guidelines, understand your acquisition costs, and target the right people for your offer and set up a clear conversion funnel with clearly defined metrics then success can be yours.
If you’re looking to go beyond what we’ve covered here or want more information on how to use this data in other aspects of digital marketing campaigns or social media management, reach here.
Let me know, which tips did you find most helpful?