Tag Archives for " better Facebook ad results "

Wait… You’re Still Not Posting Videos on Facebook?

Posting videos on facebook

Social media videos, specifically videos on Facebook… it’s all the rage in 2018.

No doubt, you’ve heard marketers sing its praises for years now. So… what’s stopping you from utilizing videos on Facebook as an effective piece of your marketing puzzle?

Maybe you already have a general idea that video is the way to go, but aren’t clear on the how or why…

We’re going to break it down for you in this article as we dive into why posting videos on Facebook for your marketing strategy is a no-brainer and how you can fit it into your current marketing strategy.

And don’t worry, you don’t need to produce a viral video to make a healthy return on your investment. We’re going to show you how to get maximum reach just by using short, authentic videos that speak to your ideal audience.

A few short videos can quickly build trust with your audience, reach a large number of people within a short period of time, and, most importantly, help you convert Facebook users into customers.

The reason this works so well is simple, audiences love video.

Audiences Want Videos on Facebook

It’s no secret that audiences are choosing video more and more as their primary form of content.

Forbes reported more than 500 million people watch video on Facebook every day.

When people watch video, they share. Social users share video up to 1200% more often than they do text posts.

And when that video does get shared, it will have a greater impact on the audience than text-only posts.

That’s because where video really shines is by building relationships with audiences. Unlike text, video provides a rich, multimedia experience that allows your audience to connect at a deep, emotional level.

It’s also easy to increase reach via paid promotion. Videos uploaded as native Facebook content can usually be promoted for less than $.05 per video.

The bottom line: if you want your audience to see your content, try video.

How to Monetize Videos on Facebook

We regularly use video as part of a healthy Facebook marketing ad strategy for our clients. That’s because we’re able to use video as a monetization strategy. It’s all about building up your ideal audience.  

Here’s how…

First, create videos that provide value for your audience. Think short how-tos, tips, or other insights your audience might like.

This Inc. article summarizes how to best use your videos on Facebook to build trust and happy brand advocates, but the key takeaway is to create authentic, on-brand videos.

Next, upload the videos to Facebook. You’ll want these videos uploaded to the platform as native content rather than linking to a video hosted elsewhere.

You can upload the video to your page as a video post, then boost it for extended reach.

Or, you jump right inside Power Editor and create a campaign specifically for your video views.

Create a “Video View” campaign. This will show the videos to your audience inside Facebook.

Then, create the Ad Set.

Quick note on audiences: You can show the videos to a cold audience who hasn’t interacted with you before. This is a great way to introduce your brand to potential future clients.

Or, show the videos to a warm audience who has interacted with your page, joined your email list, watched previous videos, or visited your website. This is a great way to strengthen brand identity, build trust, and educate future customers to move them closer to a sale.

Next, create the ad.

Pro tip: Use the “thumbnail and captions” button to choose an appealing video thumbnail and generate captions (review the captions before publishing, the automatic generator isn’t 100% accurate). Many people watch videos without sound, so captions help drive home your message even if they don’t tap to turn on the sound.

Finally, it’s time to utilize this audience.

After your videos run for a little while, you’ll have built up a warm audience who recognizes and trusts your brand. Because warm audiences are more likely to make a purchase than cold audiences, people who have watched your videos are the perfect people to show offers to.

To do this, you’ll need to create an audience and populate it with people who have watched your videos on Facebook.

This post will help you get your audiences setup: 3 Ways to Target Your Ideal Audience via Facebook Ads

Then, simply create a new campaign.

This time, create a conversion campaign with the goal of driving traffic back to a landing page.  

Choose to show this campaign to people who have watched your video.

Your audience will be much more receptive of the offer after watching those great videos you’ve posted!

There you go, you’re all set to incorporate videos on Facebook into your existing marketing strategy. Shoot a few videos and get started. The sooner you begin to build that warm audience, the sooner you can start moving prospects over to your landing pages!


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:

                       
Marigold Marketing Group | Facebook Advertising