Tag Archives for " Facebook Advertising "

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:

How to Promote A Webinar Using Facebook Ads

Can Facebook advertising help your webinar audience grow?

Many businesses love a webinar as a way to add value, nurture prospects and close sales.

Webinars work well... as long as you can drive traffic to the webinar.

Facebook ads are a great way to get prospects over to the presentation. If done right, ads can be very cost effective, making the webinar a profitable promotion.

However, if done incorrectly, the cost per lead could skyrocket, leading to taking a loss on the webinar.

Let’s dive into Marigold’s proven strategy for promoting these events using Facebook ads.

Phase 1: Build A Webinar Audience

This first step is an often overlooked, but very important step.

We’ve already explained that warm audiences covert at a higher rate and for a lower cost, than cold audiences do.

So, if you market your webinar to a warm audience, you’ll pay less and get more signups than if you market to a cold audience.

Start this phase early. Building a warm audience is an ongoing process. It’s like building an email list, or website traffic… you shouldn’t wait until you have something to sell to get started.

The ads sent out in this phase don’t need a call to action or an “ask.” Instead, lead the readers to blog posts, videos, podcasts, interviews, or just Facebook posts that your audience will enjoy and get value from.

Phase 2: Send Traffic To A Webinar Landing Page

Now that there’s a warm audience in place, it’s time to send out the opt-in offer.

The ads in this phase will drive traffic to the landing page. We’ve found that sticking to the basic ad format (text with one image) works well to entice a click and ultimately get conversions.

Unlike the ads in phase 1, these ads should include a call to action. The goal is to get the prospects over to the landing page and excited to sign up for the training.

Best Practices:

It’s always best to test, but here is what we suggest for best results.

First, always test multiple ad images. Choose images that stand out in the news feed and include text that is easy to read. Select a strong font that can be seen easily on both mobile and desktop.

[Here’s a quick article on how to create high converting images, even if you’re not a designer.]

Next, keep headlines short (4-6 words work well). Headlines should clearly state the benefit that the user will get from signing up.

To appeal to a variety of people, include a link in the body of the text. This way, readers can click on that link, or on the ad image itself.

Keep the call to action clear but friendly. We’ve found the “learn more” button to work well and not sound too demanding or committal.

Phase 3: Send Traffic to Sales Page

Assuming there is an offering at the end of the webinar, you’ll want to continue to drive traffic back to the sales page.

That is the goal of phase 3.

Through targeting, you can choose to show these ads only to those who have attended the webinar, or a wider audience.

Best Practices:

Like phase 2, create an ad with text and one image to drive traffic back to the sales page.

Create a clear call to action. Use images and copy similar to that used in phase 2 with some slight changes so the ads stand out.

Natural urgency (such as “doors closing at midnight” or “offer ends in 48 hours”) helps push those on the fence over the edge.

A large portion of sales typically comes toward the end of the campaign, right before the deadline. Don’t be afraid to create ads that specifically focus on this urgency and run them only at the appropriate time (example, ads that mention ending in 3 days, 2 days, tonight, etc.).

That’s it!

You’re all set to create a warm audience, drive traffic to the webinar registration page, and later to the sales page.

Remember, start building the warm audience early! A large warm pool of prospects will help get your webinar (and any future promotion) off to a great start!

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:

Despite Changes, We’re Still in a “Golden Era” of Facebook Advertising

If you’ve worked with Facebook advertising for any amount of time, you’ll come to know that there is one thing that is always certain: change is inevitable.

Changes come quickly and without warning.

It’s been a couple months since Facebook announced a major change to the algorithm that controls what users see in their feed.

An important component of that announcement was that users would see more posts from family and friends and fewer posts from businesses and brands.

Now that we have a few months of hindsight (and valuable data) to look back on, it’s a good time to reflect on those changes and look forward to what that means for businesses who utilize Facebook advertising.

Before we get started, I want to make something clear. Although some marketers have panicked, I still believe we’re in the Golden Era of Facebook advertising.

That is, there are still abundant opportunities to profit.

Although I believe it is the Golden Era, it is not the Wild West. Facebook advertising is young but it has evolved. In turn, the way advertisers interact with their prospects and customers must also evolve.

However, if you keep these 3 principles in mind, you’ll continue to thrive, despite these or any future algorithmic changes.

Facebook’s Goal Hasn’t Changed

Zuckerberg has been clear on his priorities from the beginning: to give the user a positive experience.

The changes to the newsfeed are consistent with that goal. He’d like to provide the user with more posts from friends and family that they’re likely to engage with and enjoy, and less mindless scrolling through the newsfeed.

What does that mean for businesses?

If you’ve consistently been adding value and have become a brand that your audience enjoys interacting with, your strategy should remain the same.

For brands who only push sales-driven content, they need to make a big change. If the content isn’t enjoyable, it simply won’t be shown.

Again, this isn’t anything new, it’s just more apparent after the early 2018 changes.

Facebook is About Community

“Community is the new brand.” - Ryan Deiss

The type of advertising that many of us have grown up hearing and seeing is much different than the type of advertising that is effective on social media.

Above all else, Facebook is a community. Brands who understand how to build a community are getting great results above those who push only conversion driven content.

Understandably, some business owners are not natural community builders and leaders, or they simply don’t have the time. That’s ok. If you’d like to build community, just ask for help.

Reach out to a super-fan and create a community manager role. If they’re already active on social media and speaking about your brand, it may be a natural fit.

Consider this a long-term strategy. A brand who is just starting to build community may not see results immediately. However, building a community will have long-term positive benefits for just about every business.

There’s Still Room To Stand Out

Facebook advertising is still evolving and this means there is still room to stand out.

New businesses begin advertising on Facebook every day, but many only push content that is sales-driven.

If you provide helpful content instead, you will stand out in the newsfeed among other advertisers.

As an example, in December of 2017, most users of Facebook advertising saw an increase in costs because there was a lot of competition for sales.

Our clients didn’t experience that spike. The reason is that we continued to provide value in a world where everyone else was selling.

Not only did costs remain low, but these clients were now poised for successful launches in early 2018 because they had very warm audiences to sell to.

The key is understanding how to monetize likes, comments, views, Facebook fans, and website visitors.

Final Thoughts

Compared to other advertising media, Facebook is still young. There will be more changes, but there’s no reason to panic.

Continue to remember what Facebook’s top priority is (user experience), and work with them on that priority by building community and adding value. If you continue to do that, your brand will remain strong through these and all future changes.

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

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:

The geographical area the client serves (don’t target Asia if you only ship to North America, for example).
The client’s avatar (who the client intends to attract).
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:

The #1 Facebook Advertising Myth

Running a Facebook advertising campaign is easy.

Running a Facebook advertising campaign that is scalable, makes money, and delivers solid ROI… not so easy.

The public-facing Facebook Platform/Tool/App is “easy” for almost ANYONE to navigate.

It’s clear, it’s straight-forward, and it rarely glitches/goes offline, so most business owners are lured into believing a myth that Facebook advertising is as simple of a push-button solution, as using the Facebook platform is.

So…

Why can’t Facebook advertising be mastered in seven simple steps?

Because every campaign has its own unique attributes and its own variables.

And every target audience has its own unique voice, with its own set of likes and dislikes similar to that of an actual human being.

It would make sense then that no two campaigns perform the same.

Now… this doesn’t mean that best practices don’t exist. They definitely do.

There are common threads you can replicate that may appear in every campaign.

One of them is following a process of testing and optimizing.

Nobody knows for sure how many times Thomas Edison tried to find a filament that worked for his light bulb.

Probably more than a thousand, and Edison wasn’t exactly starting from scratch. Other inventors had already used electricity to create light.

Even after he was granted a patent for a bulb that burned for 13 and half hours, Edison stuck at it, searching for improved performance, and optimizing.

That process led him to discover a carbonized bamboo filament that burned for 1,200 hours.

How To Optimize A Facebook Ad Campaign

Optimization is ONE process we obsess about.

Further, the process of campaign optimization is just one of the tools we use that debunks the myth of “instant” Facebook advertising success.

Even when the first campaign you run is profitable, you can’t possibly know if it’s as profitable as it could be.

You could find a change just like Edison found a filament that would burn for 1,200 hours instead of 13 hours.

What’s the best way to optimize? What accelerates the process?

Study what creative (ad copy & images) and audiences are working…

And here’s the key: Study (and make a note of) what is NOT working…

Both in the Facebook Ads Dashboard, as well as in other media, platforms & even direct mailers.

It’s a timeless tactic… (No SHOCKING secret “revealed” here)…

But one we frequently see businesses/advertisers over-complicate due to the amount of data that is offered to them.

Here at Marigold Marketing Group, a philosophical, core belief we hold about advertising is: “Amplify what is working. Study, improve, and/or eliminate what is not working.”

How do we know what is “working”?

We get deeply familiar with what our clients’ goals are.

Typical goals our clients share: ROAS (Return on ad spend), Conversion Cost, Click Cost, or CPM (Cost per 1000 impressions).

If the audience/creative matches we’ve designed are delivering on (or exceeding) a stated goal, we methodically increase the budget on those ads.

If not, we study which ads may be hidden in a campaign, which are producing results and study/implement our findings into an new “optimized” campaign/ad.

If any ad/campaign is not delivering on a desired goal after testing and optimizing ads/campaigns over a period of several days (sometimes weeks – it depends on the client’s budget), we’ll turn those ads/campaigns off.

Making clear choices feels good. Arriving at these choices takes some work.

Knowing what to do next to optimize a campaign takes time.

Ultimately, that’s why the notion mastering Facebook advertising in seven simple steps is a myth.

What’s not a myth…

Like most other things, with time and effort, mastery is achievable.

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:

Get more tips here.