7 Tips to Make Facebook Advertising Work for You

facebook-advertising (Photo credit: buba69)

One of the things that we like about Facebook advertising is that Facebook makes it so easy for anyone to jump on board.

One of the things that we don’t like about Facebook advertising is that Facebook makes it so easy for anyone to jump on board.

Just like Google Adwords in the good old days, setting up your ads and spending your money is so easy a child could do it. But much like the child who recently ran up a £1000 bill on his mum’s credit card by playing on the iPad, you could soon find yourself with a sky rocketing spend and not a lot to show for it.

That’s great for Facebook, but not so good for you. Or, indeed, for us; once you’ve done that you’re probably going to write off Facebook Advertising as ‘too expensive’, ‘a waste of money’ and ‘not effective’.

But we know first hand how effective Facebook Advertising can be, because our clients tell us every day of the results they have achieved because of the campiagns we manage for them.

With this in mind here are our top seven tips to make Facebook Advertising work for you.

Split test your ads

As in any advertising, it’s important to test and see what works. One ad may get a whole load of impressions but no clickthroughs, while another may get lots of clickthroughs but no conversions. By spilt testing your ads you can find the right image, the right message and the right price to ensure you get the best from your ads. We’ll be talking more about split testing your Facebook Advertising ads in a future blog post.

Remember, when split testing, the slow approach is the best. Only change one thing at a time on an ad until it performs the best it possibly can. Changing everything at once will leave you wondering what’s actually working, and that’s no good to anyone.

Always use Cost per Impression (CPM) first

It’s tempting to go for cost per click (where you only pay when someone clicks on your ad), as that’s the model we’re used to from Google Adwords. But CPM allows you to test so much more effectively over a wdier reach of people.

By running a CPM campaign first, you can split test your ads and work out which work best, as well as finding out which ads give you the lowest cost per click yet still get a return.

There are people out there who will tell you CPC is the way to go. We don’t agree

Once you’ve tested your ads and can see what works, by all means switch to CPC, when you have a better idea of the budget you’ll need to put in.

Test at different times

Different ads will perform better at different times of the day, and on different days of the week. By testing your ads at different times (you’ll have to do this manually for now as there is no timed feature) you can find out what works best and when.

Refresh your ads regularly

Once you’ve found an ad that works, it’s tempting to stick with it and leave it there forever. Don’t.

Research shows that the average lifespan of a Facebook Ad (before people start ignoring it) is around a week. Have a bank of ads (that you’ve split tested) ready to rotate to keep everything fresh.

Keep your clickees on Facebook (at least at first)

It’s tempting to try and use Facebook Advertising to drive people directly to your website or blog, but Facebook has a loyalty factor for a reason. Facebook users feel safe on there and like to remain in their comfort zone.

Drive them to a tab on your Business Page, where you can deliver your offer, encourage them to like your page (subtly!) or collect their details to add to a mailing list. Only once they are comfortable with you should you send them off Facebook if you want to get the best from them.

Be dramatic!

Advertising on Facebook isn’t like advertising on Google – Facebook users are responding to an ad rather than searching for one, and as such are much more likely to go with their emotions and passion than a need at the time.

While this makes it difficult to know how to target them in some ways, it makes it easier in others – rather than targeting a keyphrase they’ve searched for, make sure your ad excites them, or fixes their ‘pain’, or gives them an incentive to click.

Measure your results

As in all advertising you should be measuring your results. Facebook provides its own tools for this purpose, but also use your Google Analytics to measure what happens to a Facebook visitor once they hit your website. Only then can you measure the true value of your Facebook Advertising.

In conclusion

Facebook Advertising can work well for a lot of businesses, but it does require some work to get it right. Test your ads, go for the emotions, get the best cost per click you can and above all MEASURE the results!

We’re implementing all of the above with our Facebook Advertising Management clients and the results are great!

Use the comments below to tell us of your experiences with Facebook Advertising.

Categorised in: Facebook

This post was written by Nikki