We can probably all agree that paid Facebook ads can have a great ROI as part of a comprehensive marketing strategy. Have you taken a moment to step back and evaluate your Facebook campaign goals?
Chenell Tull of Conversion Owl Marketing shares some insights on how to get our targeted Facebook ads in front of the perfect customer. In episode 57 of the Money & Media podcast she helps demystify some of these common Facebook ad questions:
- What is Facebook pixel and how important is it for your Facebook ad strategy?
- How do your campaign goals affect your the design of your posts and who you are targeting?
- What is the most underestimated metric in regards to Facebook campaign analytics?
- Does video drive more conversions than static images?
- What are some best practices for split testing your paid ad spend?
Time Stamp
Intro – Chenell Tull – Entrepreneur, website auditor, Facebook ads expert
1:25 Which products/services are best geared toward Facebook ads?
2:25 How to start with Facebook ads
9:00 How to test ads
10:30 Facebook insights – defining terms
13:00 Cost-per-Click
14:45 Tools for Creating Ads
Chenell began her education in Facebook ads 3 years ago when her clients started asking her about using them instead of Google ads. There are certain products and services that work better with Google ads; for example, if you sell a certain type of blanket that people search for, you can grab a piece of the Google traffic by using Google ads. If you write ebooks, sell courses, or monetize through affiliates, you may want to use Facebook ads.
How to Get Started with Facebook Ads
People get really nervous about setting up their first Facebook ad so we are going to go step-by-step through the process and make it so easy, your Grandma could follow it.
The very first thing you need to do is install the Facebook pixel on your website. If you skip this step, you won’t be able to track whether or not you are making income from your Facebook ads. Now maybe you don’t even know what a Facebook pixel is. (Welcome to my world.) Simply put, it’s a short piece of code that you add to the header on your site that allows Facebook to track your visitors and measure the conversions.
Next, you need to set a goal for what you’re hoping to achieve with Facebook ads. This will help you determine what kind of ads you need to use and what type of campaigns to set up. It also helps you to narrow your target audience for the ads. Chenell recommends campaigns that drive traffic to either a monetized website or to your email opt-in.
Narrowing your target for each ad is critical to determine if you have success or not. If you set too wide a target, you won’t have the data you need to determine if your ad was successful. You can run several ads at once with each being directed at a different audience if you can’t be satisfied with running one at a time.
Keywords don’t matter in Facebook ads since they are based on click-throughs but there are some words that will get your ad denied. Facebook doesn’t want you to be too specific in who you’re targeting…crazy, right?…So if you’re targeting dentists in your area, you can’t use the word “dentist in ~your area~” in the ad.
Graphics are another crucial point of any Facebook ad you create because they are what makes somebody stop scrolling and pay attention. While you can’t directly relate great graphics to conversions, they are what cause people to click through and those click-throughs turn into conversions. Pay attention to your graphics.
Testing Ads on Facebook
There are many different ways to test with your ads but let’s define what testing is and why you would do it. Testing is when you run different ads or change an ad to see what works best and gets more clicks.
Chenell reminds us that it’s important to change only one thing at a time when you’re testing. If you have an image in your ad with a pink background, try a yellow background. But use the same image. You could change out the headline but keep the image and background the same.
The reason you want to test is simply that it shows you what is working and so that you can keep learning what your audience wants and give it to them. Give about 48-72 hours to your test at $5-10 per day. That will give you a pretty good idea of what’s working and what’s not.
Facebook Insights – Defining Terms
When using Facebook insights to better understand Facebook ads, these are the essential terms to know.
Page Previews vs. Pageviews
When I click on my own Facebook insights, I see stats for previews and pageviews. What’s the difference? Chenell explains that pageviews are actual click-throughs while previews are those times that someone hovered over your profile pic to see more about your page.
Reach
So if I can see my actual pageviews, what in the world is “reach?” Reach is the people who saw your content in their feed. They may not have clicked through to your actual page so they aren’t a pageview. Reach isn’t something to be worried about as your post may just be further down their feed than they scrolled. Clicks are what you want so don’t stress over this one.
Post Engagement
Okay, somebody saw my post in their feed and got included in my reach. If they hover over my profile pic, they are counted as a preview but if they actually click through to my page, they are now a pageview. So what in the world is “post engagement?” This means the person who clicked through either liked, shared, or commented on your post.
Cost-per-Click
Is there an acceptable threshold or specific numbers for cost-per-click when it comes to Facebook ads?
This one depends on your goals. For example, if you have a product that normally sells for $100, you could spend $5-10 per click and if 10 people click through and one of them buys your product, you’re doing great.
However, if you’re directing people to a blog post that’s monetized with affiliate links, you want to stay between $.05 and $.50 per click. It’s challenging to stay on that lower end, but it is possible. If you’re trying to drive conversions, you may want to increase that by a small amount because not as many people will click through but there’s more money to be made by those who do.
What’s Chenell’s favorite stat that people don’t pay enough attention to? Frequency!
Frequency shows you how many times someone has seen your ad. So if you see that someone has seen your ad 3 times but not clicked through, you may want to consider making some changes to that ad. Chenell also warns that seeing the same ad repeatedly that hasn’t attracted them can give someone a negative feeling toward your brand.
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About Our Host
Joe Saul-Sehy is the co-host of the Stacking Benjamins personal finance podcast and operates the Stacking Benjamins blog.
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