Given the growing number of social media platforms, marketers today need to understand that each social media platform has its own features and characteristics.
How can each platform be effectively used for a specific purpose? While you can upload a series of photographs on Instagram, or post a short tweet on Twitter, if you want to advertise an offer to attract prospective customers, advertising on Facebook can be very effective.
Facebook comes with sophisticated targeting capabilities making it one of the most effective social media platforms to invest your advertising dollars. However, it is not uncommon for businesses to invest in Facebook ads and not see a tangible return. With so many Facebook advertising options, marketers need to have the right strategy and tactics to achieve success.
Here are 8 things to know before running an ad campaign on Facebook…
- Know your customers: There are now over 2 billion people using Facebook, so obviously, all of them cannot be your customers. If you target everybody, you might not attract anyone – plus you would spend a ton of money very inefficiently! The more specific you are in terms of knowing and reaching out to your core target customers, the better your advertising will perform. So you will want to carefully think through and narrow down who is your core target customer(s) for your ads and offers.
- Identify the goal of your ad/ad campaign: You should know at the outset what you are trying to achieve. Are you planning on creating increased brand awareness? Driving more website traffic? Generating new leads? By knowing your target customers and the goal of your ads, you will be able you to craft the right messaging, resulting in higher conversion rates. Before you start, clearly determine what success looks like for your Facebook ad campaign, otherwise, you will not be able to measure your ad campaign’s effectiveness.
- Create a targeted offer: It is important to identify the different types of clients you already attract and determine which ones you want more of. Then, understand your target customer, and think through what type of offer(s) they are most likely to respond to. Are they price sensitive, quality oriented, frequent travelers, homeowners, parents, and so on? You may want to have different offers, targeted to different customer segments.Ad delivery timing is also important. Make sure you run and promote your ad when your core audience is more likely to be interested (consider seasonality, holidays, when they are active online, which may be during nights and weekends).
- Understand Your Competition: Take a look at what your closest competitors are doing in terms of targeting their advertising and what offers they are promoting. How does your ad(s) compare with the competition? Would you, or more importantly, your target customers, be more attracted to your competitors’ ad/offer or yours?
- Ensure that your ad copy and images stand out: After you’ve determined who you are trying to reach and what you want to offer, make sure your ad copy and images shine. Make sure you read Facebook’s policies before creating your ad copy and visuals. You need to create an ad that stands out to your target audience when compared with your competitors’ ads.
- Have your Landing Page ready: You need to ensure that you have a high-quality Landing Page that converts the traffic directed to it! So it’s important that the prospective customers you drive to your landing page or website get the information that they are looking for quickly and easily. You need to ensure that the landing page or your website content is compelling to your target customers and has the appropriate “Call to Action” that you want them to take – at the appropriate time.These days, your Landing Page and website need to be mobile-ready since over 60% of website traffic is from mobile devices. The bottom line is, your Landing Page is as important as your ads, so have your Landing Page thought through, and ready before you run your ad campaign on Facebook.
- Track, monitor and continuously improve your ads and Landing Page metrics: There are lots of variables involved in making an advertising campaign a success, i.e., your messaging and ad copy, your ad graphics, ad targeting, the effectiveness of your landing page and so on. So it’s rare that you get optimal results the immediately. The key is to continuously monitor, track and improve your ads, your targeting, and your Landing Page performance. Facebook has excellent ad performance measurement and analytics tools.You should also utilize Facebook Audience Insights, which will give a closer look at your page likes, shares, comments, and more.Additionally you can install Facebook’s Pixel Tracking Tool to track user behavior and retarget your prospective customers, once they leave Facebook and go to view content elsewhere on the web.
- Determine what an effective Return-On-Investment (ROI) looks like: As you track the success of your ad using Facebook’s measurement tools, i.e., how many impressions, how much reach, how many clicks and conversions you’re getting, you need to analyze the ad campaign’s ROI and compare its effectiveness to other marketing mechanisms and channels.
Since running a successful ad campaign on Facebook – or pretty much anywhere – is an art as well as a science, digital marketing firms such as IntellaSphere can often help your business run more successful Facebook ad campaigns and achieve superior sales and marketing results for your business.For more information on how you can run an effective ad campaign, contact IntellaSphere
at 425-283-9772 or at info@intellasphere.com.
by Bruce Worrall, Oct-13-2017