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7 Signs It’s Time To Try Facebook Ads

7 Signs It’s Time To Try Facebook Ads

Do you know the signs that it’s time to try Facebook ads?

"In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create."

- David Ogilvy

In the last 20 years, the internet has made just about everything infinitely easier.

From ordering food to finding a date to seeing a doctor, consumers can access virtually any product or service they desire with unprecedented ease and convenience.

Conversely, the same is true on the business side.

Creating a product or service and offering it up to the right people has never been simpler.

But selling that product or service… that’s a bit more challenging.

As it has become easier and easier to make offers online, the competition has gotten fierce.

For many businesses, social media advertising is a viable solution and could lead to some impressive results (as long as you’re following the right strategy).

But is it for you? Let’s find out.

Following are 7 signs that you should be running ads on Facebook.

#1: It takes your customers more than one visit to make a buying decision

Most businesses fall into this category. People typically won’t make a purchase the very first time they are exposed to a product or brand. This isn’t true in all cases, but consider this… how likely would you be to drop $50,000 on a car you’ve never heard of or seen before?

Sure, that’s a big purchase…

But work your way down. Are you more likely to spend $20,000 on an unknown brand? $5,000? What about just $500?

Even smaller purchases requires a level of trust that is difficult to establish on the first touch.

Facebook Ads makes it easy to keep in touch with people who have visited your page, checked out products, or even who have abandoned their cart.

You may not have turned them into a customer the first time they stumbled across your site, but with a strategic campaign that nurtures and moves them along the customer journey, you’re more likely to turn that prospect into a customer at some point down the line than if they never run into your brand online again.

#2: Customers Can Easily Purchases Online

The less friction between seeing an ad and the customer getting what he or she wants, the better chance they will take action.

For example, it’s easier for most customers to enter their information online once they decide to make a purchase than it is for them to pick up the phone and order via an inbound call center.

Although this isn’t a hard and fast rule (we have clients who run local services who require customers to call or stop by), it helps.

(If you're interested in promoting a local store on Facebook, check out this post for more ideas).

#3 Your Business Is Scalable

If you’re able to service more customers without greatly increasing your costs, you may be a good candidate to try Facebook ads.

That’s because it’s possible to increase your profits while advertising without having to increase costs per goods sold.

For example, if you sell a digital product that won’t run out of stock, and if an influx of customers won’t strain your current team, you can scale your business using advertising and still maintain the same (or greater) profit margin.

#4 You Want To Target a Specific Niche? Try Facebook Ads

Facebook makes it easy to target a very specific avatar. If you know that your ideal customer falls within specific demographics, it only takes a few clicks to find them and show them timely messages.

The better you know your avatar, the better you can target them. Do you want to reach customers in the greater New York area who are between the ages of 25-55? Easy.

Want to target moms living in the U.S. who have children in grade school? You can do that too.

Whoever you want to reach, you can find them on Facebook, giving you a great reason to try Facebook ads

#5 It’s Time To Build An Audience

Facebook advertising is a great way to build an audience. If you are gearing up for a launch, an event, or otherwise want to build up an audience that is familiar with your brand, try Facebook ads; they can work for you.

Besides running ads to drive traffic to a sales page, ads can be used for a number of reasons. Try Facebook ads for building an audience using native video, or sending traffic to content on your website. Or, boost social posts to stay front of mind.

#6 You Have a High Converting Landing Page

If you have a landing page that converts well, why not send over more traffic?

If you try Facebook ads, they can give a quick boost of traffic that would otherwise be difficult to get organically.

If more targeted leads will lead to more customer conversions, you may benefit from paid ads. However, be careful. Simply sending traffic to a page that isn’t converting well won’t do any good.

Check out this article for more tips on optimizing your landing page for ad traffic.

# 7 When the Lifetime Value of A Customer Is Higher Than Advertising Costs- It's Time To Try Facebook ads

When deciding if paid ads will work for you or not, the bottom line is… is this good for business?

To answer that, it’s important to consider the lifetime value of a customer.

Calculate the profit on the initial sale, but also consider future sales.

Because you experience an acquisition cost every time you acquire a new customer, but pay significantly less (or virtually nothing) to sell to the repeat customers, it makes more sense to try Facebook ads when you can continue to sell to that same customer for a long time to come.

If the expected lifetime value is higher than what you’ll pay to turn that prospect into a customer, it’s worth it!

So… are you ready to try Facebook ads? If any of these 7 signs resonated with you, it’s worth taking a look! 


In the meantime, why not find out what the “7 biggest mistakes you’re making with your Facebook Ads are”, and how to fix them:

                       

The Non-Designer’s Guide To Creating High-Converting Facebook Ad Images

Facebook Ad Images

How Important Are Facebook Ad Images?

In advertising, it’s always been vital to grab a prospect’s attention. That’s especially true when advertising on Facebook ad images. The news feed is crowded. Friends, family, co-workers, and advertisers all compete for the scrollers’ attention.

Images are, for the most part, the driving factor behind where a scroller’s attention turns.

According to Consumer Acquisition, images account for 75-90% of an ad’s effectiveness.

Without a compelling Facebook ad image, a Facebook user will scroll right past that cleverly written ad and mouth-watering offer in favor of something more captivating.

Besides stopping a scroller in their tracks, the image can also compel a click, comment, or like.

That’s a lot of pressure for one little ad image!

In a previous article, we touched on the importance of testing Facebook ad images. If you read that post, you’ll know that in our experience, we’ve come to the same conclusion as Consumer Acquisition: small changes in Facebook ad images can lead to a significant difference in CTR and cost per result. 

So, it’s important to get these images right.

This post will guide non-designers through creating ad images that convert. Just like anything else, the more ads you make, the better you’ll get. Use this guide as a starting point for creating better ad images that get noticed and get results.

Step 1: Create the Facebook Ad Image Copy

Because images pull so much attention in the newsfeed, this is a perfect place to highlight your most important text.

When creating the image copy, consider the biggest benefit to the user. Use clear language and avoid vague statements or questions.

Example: “50% Off Teeth Whitening” would likely work better than, “who wants whiter teeth?”

Keep it short and to the point. Although Facebook doesn’t have a rule for how long copy can be, they do have a rule for the percentage of the image that can be covered in text.

Facebook’s recommendation is 20% or less, which doesn’t give a lot of space. The more words used, the smaller that text will need to shrink to fit within the designated area. Instead, keep the text short and sweet so it can stand out and easily be read in the newsfeed.

Step 2: Check the Landing Page for Inspiration

A high CTR is great, but if the viewers don’t convert when they get to the landing page, that CTR doesn’t much matter.

Besides optimizing the landing page, keeping the ad images consistent with the destination page is another way to help improve conversion rates.

Consider matching colors, fonts, and possibly even exact images from the landing page. Now that you’re inspired, it’s time to create!

Gather any elements you’d like to use (logos, headshots, graphics, images), and make sure you have the proper rights for all images you plan on incorporating into the ad.

Step 3: Prepare the Facebook Ad Image

Since this guide is for non-designers, we’re going to focus on creating a design in Canva. This is an exceptionally user-friendly, web-based design platform. No design experience necessary!

If you’re making designs regularly, it’s best to invest in the premium version of Canva. The premium version saves brand colors and logos, supports multiple team members, and opens up access to many more images and design elements than the free version.

Once the Canva account is all set up, upload the design elements that were collected from step 2.

Step 4: Design the Background

Choose a size for your design. Canva offers a preset Facebook Ad image size that is just the right size.

Once you’ve opened that up, start with a background image that represents the ad’s biggest benefit or a color that matches the landing page.

For example, if you’re promising a guide for growing an Instagram following, the background image could be an Instagram account with high engagement, a happy woman at a computer, or a well-curated Instagram feed.

If you’re planning on layering on design elements or image text, add a solid color over part or all of the background image. The solid color can be made transparent if desired by adjusting the transparency setting found in the upper right corner. This will help elements and text shine through.

Tip: Images that convey a positive emotion tend to perform better. Try images of happy or smiling women looking at the camera, or at the text.

Step 5: Add Design Elements

Layer the chosen design elements on the image until you achieve the desired look.

As you move elements across the image, Canva will display a grid to help line up the images.

Aim for symmetry. The design should feel balanced from top to bottom and side to side.

While adding to the design, keep in mind that many people will view this ad on a mobile device, so keep elements large enough to see on a small screen.

If these ads are running to warm audiences, feel free to use more branded elements (images of influencers, logos, etc.). If the ad is running to a cold audience, avoid branded elements.

Remember to add the image copy in a clear and easy-to-read font.

Step 6: Check the Text

Once the image looks the way you want, download the design. It’s time to check that the text is taking up 20% or less of the image.

Not too long ago, Facebook *slightly* loosened up on the 20% rule. Now, they allow images with more text to run, but the reach is lower and cost is higher when text exceeds the limit.

Because of this, we choose to only run ads that meet the 20% requirement (why pay more for less reach)?

To check an image, use Facebook’s Text Overlay Tool. Simply upload the ad images and Facebook will instantly let you know if the text covers too much of the image or not.

If the overlay tool spits back a green check mark, the image is good to go! If a yellow or red icon appears, consider adjusting the image so that the text takes up less space.

Step 7: Test the Facebook Ad Image

Because images can have such a large impact on clicks, engagement, cost, and conversions, we want to make sure we get the most effective images in front of the audience.

That’s why it’s so important to test. We typically test 6 images per message with 3 images going to a cold audience and another 3 images going to a warm audience.

Bonus Tip: If all else fails, Facebook has a wide variety of stock images to choose from. When in the “Ad” level, add your image and select “Stock Photos.” Search for the type of image you want and select your favorite. Images can be cropped after selection.

That’s it! You’re ready to go design your first set (or next set) of Facebook Ad images. 

Take your time to get the image right. The results will be worth it!


In the meantime, why not find out what the “7 biggest mistakes you’re making with your Facebook Ads are”, and how to fix them:

                       

2 Variables To Test For Better Facebook Ad Results

Better Facebook Ad Results

In the world of marketing, testing is king for better Facebook ad results. 

Finding the exact right elements, tweaking for perfection, and coming up with a winning combination is how marketers find what works and what flops.

If you’re not a marketer, the thought of testing might feel a little overwhelming.

Just consider the endless possibilities when testing for better Facebook ad results. 

There’s the image, the text, the headline, the link description, the landing page (not to mention everything on the landing page), the audience, placement, conversion goal, the time of day, the day of the week… the list goes on.

The combinations are endless, but before you throw in the towel, I’m going to share a secret:

At Marigold Marketing Group, we’ve found that testing even two variables leads to significantly better Facebook ad results.

To be fair, we didn’t just guess at which variables to test. We run and test hundreds of ads each week, and that has given us insight into what works best when it comes to things like campaign type, placement, conversion goal, etc.

Basically, we know what typically works best when it comes to better Facebook ad results. Yet, even when following all the best practices, it’s still beneficial to test each ad because there are significant differences when it comes to audiences and images. You’ll never know exactly what the audience will respond to until you test!

Here’s what you need to know about testing images and audiences.

Image

According to Kissmetrics, images can increase a piece of content’s visibility by 94%.

Posts with high quality images get more attention than those with no images or those with poor images.

Through our own testing, we’ve seen that images affect reach and cost per result, even when all other variables remain the same.

Here’s an example:

In the above image, 3 images were delivered to the same audience, with the same copy, the same call to action, the same landing page, and the same placement. In fact, everything was identical. Yet, the cost per lead varied based on the images alone.

Because images have such an impact on whether or not people will even see or engage with an ad, it’s important to test multiple images to see which performs better.

Still… there are an unlimited number of photos, and even more possibilities when it comes to graphic and photo combinations. Obviously, you can’t test them all. Here are some guidelines for getting started.

Images should be 1200x628 pixels, and keep text to under 20%. Although Facebook has changed their text ration rule recently, images with more than 20% text won’t reach the full audience.

To check the percentage of text on an image, Facebook has created a tool. You can find that here.

When it comes to creative, keep the colors, images, and fonts consistent with the landing page in which the ad is driving traffic. Having a drastically different landing page can lead to poor conversions, even if people are clicking through the ad in the news feed.

Finally, images that reflect positive sentiment typically do better than those with negative sentiment.

If you have a designer to create images, great. If not, it’s still possible to create images without using Photoshop or other graphics programs.

Canva is an easy-to-use, free, web-based application that allows users to click and drag to create images.

Or, select a stock image when creating an ad. Facebook allows users to select stock images and use them on ads for free. Just remember, not all images will comply with Facebook’s policy. So, don’t assume that the text meets the 20% rule just because it was found under the Stock Images section.

Now that we have the basic requirements, it’s time to test.

For a conversion campaign, we recommend testing 3-6 images. Let them run for a few days, then come back and make adjustments based on which ones are delivering better Facebook ad results. 

Let’s move to the second variable, audiences.

Audiences For Better Facebook Ad Results

We’ve talked a lot about building an audience, and the benefits of creating a warm Facebook audience before, but this is about testing between those audiences that you’ve created.

For most campaigns, we test 4-5 warm audiences and 5 cold audiences.

By breaking up the audiences, it’s easy to see which group is responding best to the ad. It also will give you control to put more money behind the audiences that are giving you a lower cost per conversion, and reduce spending (or turn off) audiences that aren’t responding as well.

Take a look at the following example:

Notice that even with the same photo (and all other variables being the same), each audience within our cold audience set performed differently with the lowest cost per lead coming in at just $2.75, and the highest being $4.81. That’s quite a difference!

You may also find that certain combinations are performing better than others. For example, maybe the audience made of email list subscribers is responding better to an image that includes your branding or face, but a cold audience isn’t responding well to that same image.

By breaking out your audiences and photos, it’s easy to adjust the ad spend to reflect these differences. If all of the audiences were grouped into one ad set, it wouldn’t be possible to make these adjustments.

Testing doesn’t have to be complicated. If you want to get a lower cost per conversion, but don’t want to run hundreds of variations of the same ad (or don’t have the budget to support such testing), start with just these two variables.

After a few days, jump back into the campaign and make adjustments. The results might pleasantly surprise you!

In the meantime, why not find out what the “7 biggest mistakes you’re making with your Facebook Ads are”, and how to fix them:

                       

3 Ways to Target Your Ideal Audience via Facebook Ads

Target Audience

Welcome to Facebook, a marketer’s paradise for finding your ideal audience!

Facebook has created a space for sharing. Users willingly hand over personal details daily. This includes major life events (babies, weddings, moves, job changes), family and relationship status, location, likes, demographics, and more.

This means there is a wealth of information about Facebook users, and it’s all available for advertisers to use.

Compared to other paid media, Facebook ads comes with a significant advantage: the ability to target your ideal audience and show them hyper-relevant ads.

The key is knowing who to target.

Without utilizing targeting, you might as well slap a billboard up on the highway. You’ll get the same amount of traffic. Neither audience will be qualified.

Mastering targeting means having the ability to reach a more qualified cold audience at any time.

In a previous post, we talked about the importance of creating and nurturing a warm, ideal audience. It’s true, warm audiences typically convert at a lower cost.

But knowing how to target a cold audience means you’re always able to keep your funnel full by turning a cold audience into warm, and warm into red hot buyers.

Today’s post is about creating these cold audiences inside your Facebook Ad account.

We’ll discuss 3 options for building a targeted, cold audience.

Ideal Audience Type 1: Lookalikes

If you’re already in business and you have sold your product or service, creating this first cold audience is easy.

All you’ll need is a list of email addresses for your current and past customers or clients.

An existing buyers list is the hottest list you have (they’ve already bought)! Essentially, we want to “clone” this list and create more people who are willing and able to purchase.

To do this, we need to head into Power Editor.

Jump up to the top menu. You’ll click to reveal a dropdown menu. Inside, find “Audiences.”

There, you’ll see a big blue button prompting you to “Create Audience.”

That button will give you some options for creating different types of ideal audiences. For this step, choose to create a custom audience.

Then, choose Customer File.

Here’s where you can upload your list of buyers. Make sure to name your audience something that makes sense to you so you know which list this is. Choose something like, “Buyers - Jan 2018.”

Now that you have your list of buyers ready to go, it’s time to create the lookalike ideal audience.

Head back into Audiences and select “Create Audience.”

This time, choose to create a lookalike audience.

Here’s what you’ll see.

If you click on “Source,” you’ll see options drop down. Find the audience that you just uploaded and select it.

This will now become the “source” for creating an entire ideal audience of Facebook users who are similar to your buyers.

You can now narrow by location and select the percentage of a population that you’d like to match. We tend to keep it at 1% (where 1% is most similar to your buyers list and 10% is least similar).

Give your ideal audience a name that makes sense to you, something like “Buyers Jan 2018 - Lookalike.”

If you’d like, you can repeat this process with other audiences such as your email list.

Ideal Audience Type 2: The Interest Bundle

When we work with a client, we take into account a few factors:

  1. The geographical area the client serves (don’t target Asia if you only ship to North America, for example).
  2. The client’s avatar (who the client intends to attract).
  3. The client’s actual buyers (who the client actually attracts).

Using these factors, we create a set of rules that Facebook uses to target users who have the highest chance of converting into paying customers.

Before we get started, make sure you’ve created a list of your current and past buyers and named that audience. See above for details if you haven’t done that yet.

Next, head into “Audience Insights.”

Here, you’ll find information on all Facebook users!

It’s also a good place to find out who is connected to your page, and who makes up your saved and custom ideal audiences.

When you jump in, Facebook will immediately ask who you’re interested in learning about. For this case, select, “A Custom Audience.”

The screen will prompt you to add your custom audience. Choose the buyers list (it should be saved already if you’ve uploaded it).

Now, you can see insights into this audience.

Explore a little to find out the age, gender, location, household status, other page likes, the devices they use, and other information.

Some clients are surprised to see who their actual audience is. It isn’t always who a business intends to attract!

Take note on the composition of this ideal audience. This will be the basis of our interest bundle.

*Note: If you don’t have a buyer list to look at, just use the information about who you think your ideal customers are. It’s ok to start here. You can always modify as you collect more data.

Either way, it’s time to grab your notes and head back over to “Audiences.”

Again, select “Create Audience.”

This time, choose “Saved Audience.” Use your notes to create an audience of your choosing. Consider targeting age, gender, location, and other interests that your buyers have in common.

Ideal Audience Type 3: Video Views

If you’ve run ads for any length of time, you may already have a group of people who have seen videos from your page.

This is a great place to pull both warm and cold audiences from.

We consider a “warm” audience a user who has watched a larger percentage of a video, usually 50% - 75%.

However, Facebook also tracks users who’ve only watched 3 or 10 seconds. We consider these cold audiences because they probably haven’t watched enough of the video to know, like, or trust your brand at this point.

Here’s how to create your cold video view audience.

Again, jump into “Audiences,” like before.

Now, when you create a new audience, choose to create a custom audience again.

Choose to create an audience based on engagement, and then select Video as the type of engagement.

Now, you get to choose the videos to add to the list. Whichever videos you choose, Facebook will create an audience of people who watch part of that video. You get to decide how much they need to watch to be added to your cold audience.

Follow the prompts and answer the questions to complete the audience set up.

That’s it! These audiences are all ready to use inside your campaigns.

Now that you have 3 cold audiences to target, you can continue to add people to your funnel and move them closer to a conversion!

In the meantime, why not find out what the “7 biggest mistakes you’re making with your Facebook Ads are”, and how to fix them:

                       
Marigold Marketing Group | Facebook Advertising