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Facebook is a powerful place for businesses to connect with their target audience. While the platform has undergone many changes, the potential for connecting with clients is still high. If you’ve attempted to use Facebook Ads in the past with little success, you likely approached advertising on the platform the wrong way. Since more businesses than ever are using social media to find clients, you need to figure out how to stand out.
Facebook makes purchasing and publishing ads simple, but you’ll need to spend extra time executing the ads for the best results. If you want to increase ROI with Facebook ads, you need to invest time and energy into creating a well-crafted campaign. Check out the tips below to help you optimize your Facebook Ads for maximum effectiveness.
Set Up Your Account Properly
The first thing you should do is review your account. If you’ve already established a Meta Business Account, you’ll want to look closely at your settings and get familiar with your options. In addition to verifying your business account, you’ll want to set up Meta Pixel for your website and install conversion tracking on the back end of your site. This tool will help you analyze traffic to improve your ads and save money over time.
When you set up your account, you will be asked a few questions to personalize your experience. One of the most important questions will be about what goal you are trying to achieve. Before posting ads, determine what you want the customer to do. Facebook will use this to target Facebook users based on their previous behavior. You want to get this right so the appropriate people see your ad.
Consider Your Target Audience
Before submitting your ad, you’ll want to know your target audience. Keeping your audience too broad could mean more eyes on your ads, but it could cost you more with fewer results. Instead, really focus on your ideal customer and narrow your target audience. You may want to create a model customer, including age, interests, shopping habits, education, etc. Adding this information to your ad profile can help your ad reach the people most likely to take action.
Facebook has a few different tools you can use to perfect your target customer. Facebook Ads allows you to create a target audience based on Facebook users who follow your competitors. You can also create your custom audience. You can even use your email lists to create specialized audiences on Facebook.
According to Hawke, “To make a Custom Audience from a customer list, you provide Facebook with information about your existing customers and Facebook matches this information with current Facebook profiles.” Customer information, such as email or phone numbers, is known as identifiers; Facebook uses these to create audiences you want your ads to reach. Using these tools is one thing, but you’ll want to review your ads to see if there are more ways to improve.
Get Creative With Your Budget
Meta makes it easy to set up a budget with different options. You can set a maximum dollar amount per day, per click, per impression, or campaign. Facebook optimizes where and when to show your ads to ensure you don’t exceed your budget. If you’re working on a tight budget, you’ll want to hone your target audience to get the best results.
Consider using the “fast take-off” method. First, set your budget higher than what you plan to spend. A slightly higher budget means Facebook will show your ad more frequently. Once you reach 10,000 impressions, lower your spending back to your original budget. The accelerated method allows you to gather data faster so you can make adjustments to future campaigns.
The Facebook Ad tool allows you to see where your money goes. You can even use the calculator to experiment with your budget and goals to customize your plan. For larger budgets, consider focusing on reach and frequency campaigns.
Utilize A/B Testing for Best Results
One of the most effective ways to ensure you get the best results is to conduct A/B tests. This type of marketing test requires you to run two of the same campaigns that vary slightly. For example, you might change the main image of the ad, the headline, or the call to action between the two ads. Running an A/B test lets you get direct feedback on which element performs better.
Before you begin your test, you’ll want to have a plan. Decide what you’re testing before you run two campaigns. For example, are you looking at tone or type of strategy? Knowing what you’re testing will help you save time and money. Remember that when you’re running an A/B test, you’re duplicating your campaign and your campaign budget, so plan accordingly.
Some common mistakes to avoid with A/B testing are changing too many elements and turning the A/B testing on and off. Both of these errors will result in inaccurate testing and may not give you helpful feedback.
Facebook Ads Are Worth the Investment
Advertising is a learning game. By studying the results of your campaigns and making minor tweaks, you can optimize your Facebook Ads to help grow your audience without breaking the bank.
Did you know that when eCommerce sites make sales from outside links, most of those come from Facebook Ads? In fact, Insider Intelligence reports that 80% of referral shares to e-commerce sites come from Facebook. Instagram has the next highest rate of referrals at only 10%. Optimizing your Facebook Ad strategy can pay off if you take a little time.
