You know how the world of digital marketing is always shifting and changing? What worked like magic last year might not cut it this year. That's why marketers like us need to stay on top of the latest trends and updates in the industry.
Today, I want to talk about something that's at the heart of many businesses' digital marketing strategies: Facebook Ads.
Facebook Ads are a big deal for a lot of businesses and marketers. They're like the go-to tool for reaching people online and promoting your products or services. But here's the thing: I recently came across a video by Adam Erhart that delves into the common mistakes people are making with Facebook Ads in 2024. So, let's dive in and see what we can learn!
Choosing the Right Ad Objective
Now, let's address some outdated advice about selecting the right Facebook ad objective.
When you create a Facebook ad campaign, one of the first choices you make is the campaign objective. You're asked to optimize for awareness, traffic, engagement, leads, app promotion, or sales.
This decision is important because it tells Facebook who you want to target and what action you want them to take. The general rule here is to be straightforward with Facebook. If you want sales, choose the sales objective. If you're after leads, go for the leads objective.
You might think that aiming for brand awareness sounds like a smart move, but here's the reality: Brand awareness isn't necessarily the best objective for your Facebook ads. Facebook itself admits that the brand awareness objective is designed to reach a large audience likely to remember your ad.
But here's the thing: You don't just want people to remember your ad. You want them to take action—whether it's making a purchase, signing up, or engaging with your content.
After all, the main purpose of running ads is to drive sales, cash flow, and revenue. You want a positive return on investment (ROI), not just fleeting brand recognition.
So, when you're setting up your Facebook ad campaign, focus on objectives like sales or leads that directly align with your business goals. This way, you're not just hoping for visibility—you're actively driving meaningful actions that contribute to your bottom line.
Rethinking Cost Per Lead (CPL)
While it's important to keep an eye on how much you're spending to acquire leads (CPL), that number alone doesn't tell the whole story. You also need to look at how much money those leads are actually bringing in (EPL).
Imagine you're running two Facebook ad campaigns:
Campaign A: It costs you $10 to get each lead, but those leads end up bringing in $100 each.
Campaign B: It costs you $5 to get each lead, but these leads aren't resulting in any earnings.
At first glance, Campaign B might seem like the better deal because it's cheaper to acquire leads. But when you look at the bigger picture, Campaign A is actually the winner. Despite the higher cost per lead, each lead from Campaign A is bringing in $100, making it much more profitable in the long run.
So, instead of just focusing on how much you're spending to get leads, make sure to also consider how much those leads are contributing to your bottom line.
Adjusting Your Budget
You've probably heard about those micro-budget ad campaigns that used to work wonders. Well, times have changed. Today, you need to spend smartly.
There was a time not so long ago when you could do a whole lot of damage with Facebook ads with just a little bit of money. But those days are fading fast. Tiny micro ad budgets of $1 or $5 a day are very hard to make work anymore.
So, what's the right budget for your Facebook ad campaign?
Your advertising budget should be based on three key factors: your offer price, your targeting, and your funnel optimization.
Firstly, consider your offer price. Are you selling something for $1, $100, $1000, or more? The higher the price, the more you can usually afford to spend on advertising.
Secondly, think about your targeting. It's a balance between the size of your audience and its relevance to your offer. Larger audiences may be easier to reach and more scalable, but relevance is key to driving conversions.
Lastly, evaluate your funnel. How well-optimized is your sales and lead generation process? Are you guiding potential customers through each stage of the journey, or are you just sending them to your website's homepage and hoping for the best?
It's essential to invest in a well-structured and adequately funded campaign. You want to get the most bang for your buck, so focus your budget where it counts—on reaching the right audience with the right offer and optimizing your funnel for conversions.
Here's how it unfolds:
Your ad is the attention-grabber, designed to get people clicking. But once they're in, you need to keep them moving forward. Enter the funnel—a series of steps to usher people from curiosity to purchase.
Landing Page: This is where visitors land after clicking your ad. Here, you want to capture their interest and encourage them to take action—whether it's signing up or making a purchase.
Email Follow-Up: After they've shown interest, you want to stay on their radar. So, you send them emails with more info, special offers, or reminders about your products or services.
Retargeting Ads: Sometimes people leave without buying anything. Retargeting ads remind them of what they saw and entice them to come back and make a purchase.
Sales Pages: These provide more details about what you're selling and encourage people to make a purchase.
SMS Sequences: Text messages can be another way to engage with potential customers. You can send them exclusive deals or updates to keep them interested.
When all these pieces work together seamlessly, you create a customer journey that drives results. You attract more leads, convert more customers, and increase your sales.
Embrace Advanced Retargeting Strategies
Upgrade your retargeting strategy by focusing on more advanced tactics. The old-school way of relying solely on website actions isn't cutting it anymore, thanks to privacy rules and changes in how tracking works.
Instead, switch gears and pay attention to platforms like Facebook and Instagram. They offer valuable data on how users engage, which you can use to target your ads more effectively.
Forget just tracking website visitors. Facebook now splits retargeting audiences into two groups: regular sources and meta sources.
In the past, we used to rely heavily on customer lists, leads lists, and website visitors for retargeting. But with tracking pixels and cookies losing their punch, it's time for a change.
Shift your focus from the usual sources to platforms like Facebook and Instagram. When you create custom retargeting audiences based on how people interact with your content on these platforms, you'll eventually see better results in tracking and retargeting.
Avoid Lump and Dump Campaigns
Avoid overwhelming yourself with too many different ad sets and campaigns. Keep it simple and focused. Choose a few main targets and concentrate your efforts there. Quality is more important than quantity, especially when you're working with a tight budget.
But don't just toss all your retargeting audiences into one big campaign. It's crucial to set things up properly right from the start.
With it being easy to sign up for a Facebook ads account, more people are giving it a try, hoping to make quick money. While this accessibility is good because it makes advertising easier for newcomers, the downside is that many end up losing money due to a lack of understanding of the basics of running successful ads.
So here's what you should do instead. First, set up your campaign correctly from the start. Choose the right objective and then create 1 to 3 ad sets per campaign, depending on your budget.
Maybe include a couple of ads under each ad set. If you're spending less than $1000 a month on Facebook ads, one campaign with 2 to 3 ad sets is enough.
If you're spending less than $10,000 a month, three campaigns with 2 to 3 ad sets each is usually sufficient. Even if you're spending millions a year, it's usually just a few ad sets that bring in most of the results.
SO, WHERE DO YOU FIND THIS PARTNER?
Well, aren’t we glad you asked! We at DigiCom are obsessive data-driven marketers pulling from multi-disciplinary strategies to unlock scale. We buy media across all platforms and placements and provide creative solutions alongside content creation, and conversion rate optimizations. We pride ourselves on your successes and will stop at nothing to help you grow.
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