Facebook Advertising
Facebook Advertising tips from a non-Facebook ads guru who has created ads that have converted multiple 6 figures in sales!
Facebook advertising is an area that took me a few years to crack. I have taken courses, listened to podcasts, spent thousands of my own money testing various things in the ads platform to finally find what really works. In the past year alone, I have managed campaigns earning a $500,000+ in sales for a handful of ad accounts including my own.
That number alone shouldn't “wow” you by any means. Why? Well, ad gurus throw big numbers like that around all the time and never tell the whole store of *how much* they spent to make that half a million. The real story behind the sales that I shared is that we achieved an average of 9X return on ad spend.
This is a collective tally for all campaigns across all accounts. Those campaigns consisted of several goals and NOT just purchase which is what the majority of businesses run if they are promoting a product. The actual picture for campaigns with purchase as the goal are actually even better.
In sharing this data, the return on ad spend (ROAS) is a metric I pay close attention. This essentially is the return (sales) that is made on the ad spend (budget). The calculation is: sales divided by budget.
Here's a basic example:
$5 Budget
$25 Sales
5X ROAS
That 5x is a pretty good result by most acquisition standards, but there's always room for improvement. In fact, I average around 9X ROAS and have had individual campaigns that had 20X ROAS. Those always make me giddy for the client!
There are other KPI's that I review each day while managing ad accounts. I make adjustments according to those KPI's. That's how I've been able to achieve higher ROAS averages.
How have I been able to achieve a great return on ad spend?
There are so many pieces to running a profitable campaign. Right now, here are a few tips that are working if you want to take a stab at running your own ads:
WARM TRAFFIC IS EASY
You will hear warm, cold, top of funnel, and all these other terms when you listen to marketers. Warm means someone who already has a connection to your brand. It can be an easy win to run an ad with your email list to get people who like your Facebook page that aren't on your list currently.
SIMILAR BRANDS MAKE SENSE
Think about it, if you like TJ Maxx, you probably also like Home Goods. Both are discount home and fashion retailers. If those brands align with your ideal audience interest then try to target those pages when you run ads. Some pages are not available for targeting, which is where this next tip is important.
SIMILAR INTERESTS ARE THE NEXT BEST THING
If you cannot target the page of TJ Maxx, then what types of things would your audience be interested? Maybe it's thrifting, or couponing, or cleaning? The sky is the limit here and there's likely an interest you can select when creating a campaign!
LOOKALIKE AUDIENCES ARE FACEBOOK'S GIFT
And you don't get many gifts from Facebook so take it and don't ask questions! When you have people who convert on an ad, you can eventually create audiences that are similar to all of those people who signed up or bought from you. The AI knows who wants what better than we do!
FOLLOW THEM IN A NON-CREEPY JOE GOLDBERG WAY
I have to laugh hearing my non-marketer friends talking about how “they” are listening. I'm always like, um, DUH! It is an advantage for us to be able to tell Facebook we want to show certain ads to people who were on certain pages or our sites in general. It's not like we're gonna lock them in a box when we find them or anything.
These are basic tips, but they work well. I feel like most people overcomplicate Facebook ads. I was one of those people a few years ago. It really comes down to knowing who you want to attract. Once you figure that out, then it's a test on the creatives offer and campaign goals.
Targeting the exact demographic for your brand is my specialty! My goal is to get maximum sales for the lowest ad spend possible!
- Grow your email list.
- Gain exposure for your brand.
- Sell more products.
