Facebook ads aren’t overrated. If anything, they are underrated.
Why? Because when done right with the proper Facebook advertising strategy, they can change your business.
They are already working for small and big businesses in all sectors, so they should work for you too.
Most smart marketers have already understood what Facebook marketing can do.
And many of them are successfully using Facebook ads to generate a positive return on investment and reach more potential customers.
But they aren’t taking a blind risk with these ads.
They have a strong Facebook advertising strategy in place, which is helping them get more clicks, leads, and sales.
Being the world’s biggest social media networking site.
Facebook is constantly working on improving its ad platform, which means, partnering with Facebook for your advertising needs is a safe deal.
You will not lose your money if you take the right approach and spend time understanding their Facebook Ads Manager. Period.
On the flip side, Facebook advertising isn’t as easy it as sounds. There is a definite learning curve.
So if you don’t spend time grasping the ins and outs and carry out testing, you may find it difficult to see results.
There are multiple variables that you need to get right in order to make your Facebook ad campaign successful.
In the following article, we look into some proven tips to help you optimize your Facebook ad strategy so that you can get the best bang for your ad budget.
Regardless of the business, you run or the size of it- whether you’re running a B2B company, service-based.
Or, an e-commerce one, these tips will help you get the needed clarity and poise your campaign for more clicks at a lesser cost.
8 Ways On How To Optimize Your Facebook Advertising Strategy
1. Target for Maximum Returns
The heart and soul of a successful Facebook ad campaign is its targeting.
In order to get the best return on your investment, it’s important that you leverage the maximum potential of the targeting options Facebook offers you.
Or else you’ll end up burning a hole in your wallet.
Upon getting the targeting part right, you’ll be able to reach out to the right people at an optimum cost.
This equals a better conversion rate and a stronger long-term Facebook ad strategy that keeps working.
- Target Your Customers
When running a Facebook ad, you want to have the highest click-through rate so that you’re not losing money on the campaign.
This means you should first try and target people who are most likely to click on your ad: your existing customers.
That’s right, these people have already bought from you, so the chances of them buying again are much higher.
By leveraging the Custom Audiences feature, Facebook lets you upload a list of email addresses or even phone numbers in order to target your ads effectively.
So for example, if you have an email list of 5,000 existing customers, you can upload it directly to Facebook so that they can analyze it find which of them are using Facebook.
Time and again, research and case studies have shown that when done right.
Facebook Custom Audiences can help you get the desired results since you are reaching your existing customers, which are of course your ideal customers too.
Simply because advertising to your existing customers who have already bought from you in the past is a much better deal than showing your ad to people who do not know you.
Relevancy is the name of the game.
- Target Your Fans
Facebook is a great place to connect with the right demographics and get them familiar with your brand by sharing regular updates with them.
The best and the easiest way to do so is by getting more and more people to like your official Facebook page.
This lets you stay in touch with them, and you also get to show them relevant ads if you target them.
Targeting your fans with your ads is a complete no-brainer.
They already know you and the kind of business you run. Chances are that they are even interested in the products or services that you’re offering.
Facebook advertising expert, Jon Loomer, regularly experiments with Facebook ads.
When he optimized his Facebook advertising strategy by targeting his fans, he got a whopping 35X ROI.
These results shouldn’t be surprising given the fact the kind of relationship you share with your existing fans – especially if you have worked to provide real value to them on a regular basis.
These people already trust you and have shown a clear interest in your content, which makes them highly qualified to receive your ads.
So targeting them makes real sense.
2. Leverage Different Ad Types
Social media advertising is growing by leaps and bounds, and there’s no doubt that Facebook is leading the way.
While there are multiple reasons as to why Facebook ads give great real-world results, one of the most obvious ones is the fact that you get variety.
Something that is hard to find on other advertising platforms.
That’s right, as a Facebook advertiser, you are not limited to one type of ad, one ad placement, or one ad format.
It gives you the creative freedom to experiment with various ad types and find out which one drives the most conversions.
According to Sprout Social, video is the best format based on engagement and shares.
However, most users prefer to watch videos without sound. That’s why you have to make sure to put subtitles on the video itself.
Also, because of the fact that videos are time-consuming to create, single image ads will be your best starting point when launching a new campaign.
If one ad type doesn’t work, you’re free to try another one. Experimentation is the key.
Also, what makes Facebook ads truly different and remarkable is that they tie in with your business and marketing goals.
In other words, the results you get with Facebook ads are easier to measure and improve because they’re driven by your goals, such as:
- Generating qualified leads for your business
- Getting downloads for your new app
- Gathering feedback for your product or service
- Running targeted surveys to learn more about your market
- Having people sign up for your webinar
What you are able to do with Facebook ads is only limited by your imagination.
This is why it is so crucial to have a solid Facebook advertising strategy up your sleeve, it just makes your job easier.
Let’s see what all you can do with these Facebook ad examples:
a. Carousel Ads
Facebook ads are no longer static.
With the introduction of Facebook Carousel ads, you can expect to pay a smaller fee for a higher conversion rate or better click-through rate.
These types of ads are not only interactive in nature but are also user-friendly on mobile devices.
Here are some ideas on how Carousel ads can help your Facebook advertising strategy:
- Showcase up to five different products (or different versions of the same product) that your prospects can click to buy or learn more about.
- Give ideas about how your main product can be used in different ways.
- Display logos from five of your current clients or customers using your product or service.
- Show your physical product from different angles.
- Visually tell a story about your product, company, or customers.
With a bit of creativity, your brand can take real advantage of Carousel ads so you can get the right audience to take a desired specific action, drive more traffic to your product pages, and see returns like never before.
b. Video-Based Ads
The only reason you find so much video content on the web today is that video marketing is on the rise.
People these days, your potential new customers included, spend more time watching videos than reading plain text.
It’s how many of them are consuming online content. Visual content is slowly but steadily winning the game.
Facebook users are no different when it comes to the love of video content as they consume more of it with each passing day.
One proof is the continuous increase in video views on Facebook posts.
Yes, video content works on Facebook, even better than image or text-based.
Because people on this social network are now more inclined towards watching and sharing worthy videos they find on their news feed.
This is exactly why you should try video ads on Facebook. You’ll be able to convey your message in a more elaborate manner, with a much better ROI.
Gone are the days when only the big shots could create and launch their own commercials.
With Facebook video ads, you have the opportunity to expose your target audience with your own commercials.
Where you tell them a story, create an emotional connection, and have them take action.
And the best part? They don’t even have to leave Facebook, which means converting them will be a lot easier.
c. Lead Generation Ads
In the earlier days of Facebook advertising, the only way to generate leads was to create your own landing page and send traffic to it.
Nowadays you can run ads where you collect lead information right on Facebook, without having the users leave the social networking site.
The reason why lead ads work better is that they let you funnel in leads without creating a dedicated landing page.
And since user experience is not disrupted in any way, the conversion rate is higher.
Of course, you still need an enticing offer. An offer that gives them exactly what they are looking for.
There are a ton of ways for you to generate leads with these types of ads.
You can have people sign up for your monthly newsletter, your free webinar or have them download a whitepaper/PDF.
How you gather leads also depends on the type of business you run and the marketing goals you want to achieve.
Since building a valid list of qualified leads is essential for any business, Facebook works as a lead generation tool that you can leverage at a cost.
So the next time you want to amplify your content marketing and give away valuable content in exchange for an email address, you should give lead ads a try.
Aside from these three, there are also remarketing ads that you can utilize.
Retargeting and showing your ads to those people who have shown interest in your brand have high chances to convert into new customers.
Again, what type of Facebook ad you use depends on what you want to achieve from your campaign.
It’s always good to try different types of ads to see real-world results with Facebook ads.
As you run a bunch of campaigns with various ad types, you’ll understand what fits in your Facebook advertising strategy.
3. Set Up a Conversion Funnel
One of the biggest reasons to invest in Facebook ads is to ultimately convert relevant Facebook users into customers.
However, this won’t happen right away. Your Facebook ad needs to be leveraged the right way before you can have people buy from you.
The question is, how do you do this?
By setting up a strong sales funnel that you take your prospective customers through.
Creating profitable Facebook campaigns starts with knowing your target audience.
Don’t put them all in the same basket. Rather, see them as “groups of prospects”.
Groups with a different level of interest. Because they are not at the same conversion stage.
A conversion funnel is nothing but a process to connect with your target audience at a point relevant to them.
The kind of relationship you share with your new prospects would obviously be different than what you share with established buyers.
A conversion funnel is all about these relationships and leveraging them in the best possible way.
For instance, people who have already been exposed to your marketing content may be in a better position to buy from you than someone who barely knows your brand.
Both of these people appear in your conversion funnel, but at a different stage.
By having a strong conversion funnel in place, you can take your Facebook advertising strategy to the next level.
Here are some ideas to do so:
- Create and focus on different Facebook audiences, with each ad tailored to a different stage of the funnel.
- Know each funnel stage well and develop offers that are targeted towards prospects at every stage.
- Set campaign goals based on the type of relationship your prospects share with your brand.
Setting up a conversion funnel may seem complicated at first.
But once you start implementing it, you will realize that it’s one of the most powerful ways to achieve higher conversions with your Facebook ad campaign.
4. Focus on the Right Metrics
Marketers can get confusing results with Facebook ads, especially when they focus too much on the wrong type of metrics or not using tools such as Facebook Pixel.
These metrics look good on paper, but they don’t have any real value in the business sense of things, which is why they call them ‘vanity’ metrics.
So if you are uber worried about metrics such as clicks, views, and reach, then you need to rethink your strategy.
These vanity numbers are not completely useless as they show you how you’re progressing further. But that’s about it.
If you want to measure real success and understand if your campaign is actually profitable, then you should think in terms of sales generated.
In the long run, you want these vanity metrics to guide your Facebook advertising strategy, not rule it.
Too much focus on these metrics will hurt your campaign because when you re-run ads based on these numbers, you don’t get a favorable ROI.
This means you’re running a money-losing campaign, not a money-making one.
If you think only in terms of brand awareness, then yes.
Vanity metrics may help you understand how much of it is brand building While increased brand awareness definitely matters, it’s only a part of your overall Facebook marketing strategy.
You shouldn’t give it too much attention, especially when you’re trying to bring in more business.
5. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Testing
Your Facebook advertising strategy may be well laid out and implemented.
And you could have done all the needed homework and also have taken calculated risks while starting a campaign.
But how do you know which ads are complete losers and which ones are the real winners?
How do you find out what’s making some of your ads tick? How do you ensure your campaign is successful in the long run?
The answer to these questions is simple: keep testing your ads.
A/B testing or split testing is an essential part of a profitable Facebook advertising campaign.
It’s a simple method of running different variations of an ad against one another.
Each version of the ad has one variable changed such as the image, copy, CTAs, etc.
The good thing is, Facebook has made your job easier because it analyzes and tells you which of your ads are winning.
If you truly want your Facebook ad campaigns to pay off, you should never stop testing, as many elements in your ad creatives as you can.
Right from your ad copy to the images to your campaign objective.
Test everything, and often.
Yes, getting results with Facebook ads does require you to go through a bit of trial and error.
But in the end, this is the very knowledge that will help you avoid future mistakes.
So as you keep an eye on the ad spend, try to spend a good chunk of it (at least initially) to see how your targeted audience responds, and if a subset of it can be targeted better.
Keep in mind that refining your Facebook advertising strategy from time to time is important.
Because even if you keep testing, some things will simply not work. This is when you go back to the drawing board and take a new, much better approach.
Investing in a campaign before running a test ad first should be a no-no.
Use Facebook’s in-built split testing feature and increase your chances of finding the best ads.
6. Use Facebook Ads in Conjunction with Content Marketing
When you combine relevant and high-quality content with Facebook ads, you can get amazing results.
And since many businesses on Facebook are trying to convert their cold/warm leads into sales, why not use content to nurture your leads?
Sometimes it takes many exposures to the offer before they are ready to convert.
So does it mean that you shouldn’t try to convert after a few tries? Of course not.
When people make a buying decision, it may not always be on impulse.
Most of the time, they got influenced by a number of factors that lead them towards the purchase. It happened gradually over a period of time.
Even if someone isn’t ready to buy your product right away, they may in a few weeks or a few months.
This is when your lead is in a better position to buy from you.
It doesn’t matter if you’re unable to convert your leads in the beginning.
As long as you nurture your leads on a regular basis, you may eventually convert a good percentage of them.
By using Facebook ads to run a lead nurturing campaign powered by relevant content, you increase the chances of converting that lead into a sale.
For instance, if you are an accounting firm, you could produce high-quality and targeted in-depth articles on your niche topic.
And then promote these via Facebook ads.
7. Analyze Your Results
When you’re already running a Facebook advertising campaign, you should carefully analyze the results you’re getting.
You need to keep a regular tab on your campaign and analyze the results to see if there is a problem or if it is performing exceedingly well.
Either way, knowing how (and if) you are progressing is crucial for the long-term success of your campaign.
And yes, while you are looking through the results, try and take part in any conversations happening on your ad.
If someone leaves a comment, try and get back to them with the intention of helping them out or simply answering them to interact.
It’s also worth noting that with the Facebook Analytics tool you can analyze and get a better idea of your website visitors and what kind of action they took.
All in all, analyzing your result is a step that no Facebook advertiser should ignore.
Because you never know where you will find gold.
8. Think Long Term for Your Facebook Advertising Strategy
In order to create a strong Facebook advertising strategy that survives the test of time, you should think long-term.
In other words, the ads that you run should reflect your long-term strategy.
It’s easy to create and run ads without focusing too much on how your audience will perceive you in the long run.
But given that you are running ad campaigns regularly, they will have a perception of you and your brand.
So focus on creating ads that not only help you achieve your marketing goals but also let you connect with your target audience.
These ads are a powerful tool to build a real relationship with your audience and improve your brand image. So why let go of the opportunity?
Ads that give you results today and also help you improve your long-term advertising game are not common.
Because they take more effort to form strategically. But in the end, you will see much better results and higher returns from such ads.
Just because you thought long-term where others looked for instant gratification.
Not sure where to start? Need help optimizing your Facebook advertising strategy? Contact us to see our current social media advertising costs.
