Web technology is a volatile environment, so much so that it’s not uncommon for web-based enterprises to burn out—Myspace, anyone? Although the ever-changing online world is hard to navigate, companies like Google and Amazon do it successfully, every day. It’s hard to imagine these companies ever disappearing, but anything is possible as technology evolves and is pushed to new limits.
For these reasons, it’s hard to know what platforms are worth advertising on. Many companies decide to advertise on the newest platforms, whether that’s Twitter or YouTube, but one platform advertisers are starting to mistakenly overlook is Facebook.
Says Rory Witt of DigiMar, “You’ll have heard that Facebook is the world’s largest social media platform, home to more than a billion users worldwide. But did you know that 936,000,000 of those users check their application multiple times, every single day? On top of all that, Facebook users spend an average of 40 minutes per day on the platform. Significantly more time than any other major social network.”
To help you navigate the complex world of Facebook advertising, this article will provide five insights you can leverage to find success:
1) Audience Insights are your best friend
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Chances are you understand the importance of setting up your audiences properly, but this knowledge isn’t enough to stay relevant today. In addition to creating well-thought-out audience lists, you should also pull data from them to help inform your campaign.
What am I talking about, exactly? Audience insights. After you’ve launched the tool—which can be found in the left-hand menu of Ads Manager—you’ll simply need to choose your audience, define their parameters and save your work (if you so choose). Next, you’ll be able to explore the data audience insights provides: demographics, page likes, location and activity. If your audience is U.S.-based, you’ll also receive household and purchase information.
If you’re not teeming with excitement for the potential this tool provides, you should be! This information is all free and offers a large amount of critical data about your audience. Better yet, it can be used before you advertise to your audience. If you’d like to learn more about a new audience segment, you can use this data to help you determine if the market is viable and how you might cater to it.
2) Reducing, reusing and recycling should not apply
If you’re selling a product or service, you know how many times a user needs to see your ad before they carry out your call-to-action. In general, it takes at least three exposures for a user to enter the purchase cycle, but contrary to what you might think, multiple exposures on Facebook aren’t always effective. In fact, they may actually hurt your campaign.
When a user sees the same advertisement multiple times on Facebook, they are more likely to choose to hide it. If they decide to hide an advertisement, Facebook provides them with feedback options, like “It’s spam” and “I keep seeing this.” Depending on the option they choose, the advertisement’s relevance score can be negatively impacted, which decreases the likelihood that it will be shown first in its given budget category.
3) You need a coherent message
Many envision a large image or video when they think about a Facebook ad, not copy. Although images and videos have a large impact on campaign results, the importance of their lesser-noticed copy cannot be underrated.
Well-crafted copy can move individuals through your entire sales funnel, ultimately providing the information they need to purchase your offering. You can write specifically for your audience—persuading them in one of the most effective way possible.
In order to have the most effective copy, it’s important that you adhere to a few guidelines: first, your copy should go with your visual. The last thing you need is your copy and image to create cognitive dissonance, as this can make the user question what you’re actually advertising.
Next, your wording should clearly explain your goal. Without a clear call-to-action, Facebook users will have no idea how they should continue—making them more likely to abandon your advertisement. Additionally, if you want viewers to stick around, try to lead with numbers. Potential customers want to know how much your product or service costs, and if you’re running a deal, they want to know how much money they’ll save.
Although you might feel that you need to create coherent and effective imagery and copy from the get-go, there are some ways you can run tests before you decide on the advertisement that deserves funding. You can try running two or more ads with different copy, different images, etc. to determine which one will resonate most with your audience.
4) Don’t overlook lead ads
If you’re looking for a powerful way to generate more leads at a reduced cost, look no further than lead ads. If you use this tool, you’ll have the opportunity to have users register their emails, which you can use to connect with them to achieve short- and long-term results. In addition to receiving emails, brands can also use lead ads to receive customer feedback on up to three questions.
In order to unlock the potential of this strategy and diversify your Facebook advertising’s potential, you need to understand how to set them up and how to glean the most information from them.
When you are creating your campaign, ensure that your optimization for ad delivery is set to leads. From here, you can select a duplicate ad or a new ad. You’ll want to add content, questions and a website link that goes with your advertisement. There’s also an option to add a privacy policy and disclaimer section in the form.
Once this is all ready to go, you’ll be poised to receive information from your leads. In general, many companies import this data into a simple spreadsheet, but feeding them into a CRM tool is another option—one that will allow you to manage your leads in a time-effective manner.
5) It’s all about the conversation
Modern advertising should be a conversation—especially on social media. Facebook users aren’t simply interested in reading content—if they were, they’d just sign up for newsletters—they want to engage with the content they see.
Users have the option to engage with the advertising they see on Facebook, so you should manage this engagement as much as you would incoming customer emails. In order to do this, you can use the user comments tool in your ad manager. Through this tool, you can engage with the people viewing your advertisement.
As always, negative experiences should be the first thing you tackle when it comes to your comments. Not only does a quick and clear response help the individual that posted the negative critique, but it’ll show other viewers that you prioritize customer experience and satisfaction.
‘Bueller?’
Today’s internet-driven world is ever-changing, which makes it difficult to navigate. This simple fact is stressful to some, but the top advertising agencies and companies know that addressing the challenges the field presents can lead to opportunity and growth.
If you agree, or if you’re a Facebook advertising savant with more to share, feel free to engage with me; the comments section is up and running for feedback.
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