When investing your dollars into any kind of advertising, you want to make sure you are reaping results that make it worth the cost. Although it may seem Facebook already has too much noise, it remains an effective platform for connecting to your target audience—when done right. Given that Facebook has more than 2.2 billion active daily users, with average time spent ranging from 35 to 58.5 minutes each day (depending on the demographic), advertising on Facebook can be a powerful method for businesses to get discovered by potential customers who would not have found them otherwise. Especially when you consider that Facebook allows you to narrow in on the most relevant audiences through their targeting. For as little as $1 per day, it becomes no surprise that 65 million businesses are already using Facebook Pages, with 4 million advertising on Facebook.
However, many businesses do fail in their Facebook advertising efforts, including 62 percent of small businesses. In some cases, Facebook just isn’t the right platform for particular brands. But, most often, unsuccessful Facebook ads are due to mistakes in how campaigns are executed.
Here are three fundamental ways to guarantee that you not only reach your target audience, but that you get a return on your investment (ROI) when spending your funds on Facebook ads.
1. Perfect Your Targeting
If there’s one area you really can’t afford to slack on, it’s the targeting criteria for Facebook ads. Proper targeting begins with knowing where your audience spends their time and what they give their attention to; a Facebook advertising agency can help you pinpoint your audience. First, when considering Facebook ads, make sure that your audience is, in fact, active on Facebook. For example, older adults may not use Facebook (or the Internet) at all. Also, you may have trouble targeting other B2B marketers on Facebook who are used to—and sick of—seeing advertising all day long.
Once you have their Facebook activity confirmed, you need to learn the unique characteristics about your audience, so you can customize your ads to be most relevant. You’ll be able to target according to location, age, interests, and income, among other criteria. Facebook Ads are only as strong as their targeting, and knowing your audience demographics enables you to reach the right people.
You can choose to target specifically or broadly, each of which have their pros and cons.
With specific targeting, Facebook uses narrow parameters when choosing which people should see your ads. While this reaches a smaller audience, it’s also the most relevant to your target demographic, resulting in better engagement and conversions. For example, a men’s fitness store in San Diego would most benefit from using ads that target only men who live in that area, possibly focusing on a specific age group.
When it comes to broader targeting, you are using more general targeting parameters and relying on Facebook’s delivery system to select the people who will see your content. While you risk appearing in front of unqualified leads, this can be a helpful approach if you are still uncertain about your target audience. It also gives you the opportunity to discover new potential customers you would not have found with specific targeting. For example, a large-scale educational campaign could have mass appeal, potentially making it worthwhile to advertise broadly all across the United States and to every age group.
2. Create Targeted Content
By knowing your audience, you can craft targeted content that speaks directly to who they are and what they care about. The imagery, language, and call-to-action (CTA) in your ads should all appeal to your target audience, specifically. One size will not fit all in this case.
Also, keep the copy short and simple—you’re going to be limited to 90 characters, so say just enough to get your audience wanting to know more, compelling them to click on your ad’s CTA. Save the rest of the information for the landing page, which you should have optimized for conversion.
Giving something to your audience often helps incentivize people to click. To reel in new customers, you need some sort of deal, freebie, or offer incorporated into your ad. Otherwise, trying to get traction from a Facebook ad without a compelling offer can be a waste.
Lastly, videos are a preferred form of media online, so try using video ads to stand out over banner ads. This approach will help get your story—and your brand—in front of the eyes of your target audience and entice them to engage instantly.
3. Test. Iterate. Repeat.
It’s important to think of every advertising campaign as a mini experiment. With each campaign, you gain new insights about your audience and what they do (and don’t) respond to, enabling you to create a more effective campaign in the next round. “Set it and forget it” should never apply to advertising campaigns. You must continually be testing and iterating to optimize your advertising efforts.
To know what’s working, you need to have clear goals. Your goals determine what you should be measuring with your ad campaigns, as well as how you get charged. For example, if your goal is to get web traffic, you will be charged by cost-per-link-click. It is best to have one specific goal per campaign, so you can customize your ad content—and your targeting—to focus on meeting that goal.
Once you’ve identified your goal, you need to test different variations of your ads to learn what works best. The most critical variables you should try experimenting with include the imagery, the copy, the CTA, or the layout. Be sure to change only one variable with each ad. Keep everything else constant, so you would know which variable makes the difference in audience behavior. You should use the same audience targeting for each ad when testing ad efficacy.
Try It!
By giving focus to the right targeting, creating compelling content, and treating your ads as iterative processes, you will set up your campaigns to perform to their potential, guaranteeing that you get the best possible result from the dollars invested.
Jumper Media
Founded in 2016, Jumper Media helps over 3,000 small businesses tell amazing brand stories on social media—all day, every day. Whether that’s building SaaS tools or leading creative campaigns, we stay the course, because a small business today is a big brand in the making, when given the right resources and support.
For more information, please visit https://jumpermedia.co/
