Seven Facebook advertising tips you need to do right now

New york, USA – october 4, 2018: Create ad in facebook page on smartphone screen close up view

When you’re starting an online business, the most important step on the way to seeing sales is establishing the right traffic sources. Running advertisements on social media, Facebook in particular, is a great way to rapidly grow your audience and turn that traffic into sales. However, if you don’t know what to do, it’s also a fast way to throw money away.

1. Use Facebook ads manager

Setup is everything. Many entrepreneurs falsely believe that you can run an effective ad through “boosting” your posts. Most of the time, that’s just a waste of money. This function should only be used as a complement to an effective campaign. Instead, open a free Facebook Ads Manager account and set up the campaign there using the right campaign objective for your goals. 

2. Targeting over creative

When it comes to Facebook Ads, targeting the right audience is more than 80 per cent of the success. Every business has an ideal customer. The key to Facebook success is understanding the interests of this ideal customer and include them into your targeting. But be careful, you don’t want to mix and match too many of them. Try one at a time to see what works best.    

3. The split test method

Whilst I don’t recommend using the split test function inside your Facebook Ads manager, nonetheless, the #1 rule in digital marketing is to split test everything. What does this mean in practical terms? Inside one campaign, you want to set up at least two different ad sets each having at least two different ads or creatives. This way, you’ll be able to pinpoint with crystal clarity what works and what doesn’t.

4. A Simple but irresistible offer

Remember that people are on Facebook to pass the time browsing down their feed catching up on their social life. That’s why you need to create an irresistible offer that your customers will want so much they’ll have no choice but buy, right now. The 101 for an irresistible offer is creating a sense of urgency and scarcity. This way, you’ll give your customers a little push to make their decision now instead of coming back to it later which could often mean never.

5. Turning traffic into sales

You need to make sure that the landing page where you’re driving your Facebook traffic to is set up to convert well. If you have the best traffic, but your website can’t convert it to sales then what’s the point of paying for it?

6. Respect the Facebook algorithm rules

Keep in mind that the Facebook Ads is literally a billion-dollar algorithm that’s working on a live auction basis. The price you’re paying for the audience you’re targeting is determined by popularity and how many other businesses compete for the same real estate inside the Facebook feed. That’s why any changes you make inside a live campaign can sabotage your previous results. So choose carefully.   

7. Evaluate and scale

If you follow the rules of Facebook Ads, you can easily grow your business from zero to multiple six figures in a very short time. However, you want to make sure that you’re in control of your business at all times. Evaluate each campaign at least once a week setting yourself the right metrics to track. To name a few, CTR Link per cent is very important and so is CPM and ROAS.  

Once you get the hang of it, growing your business through Facebook Ads can be extremely rewarding and profitable. But make sure you spend a bit of time learning about insides of how that platform works and how to set it up in the right way. Otherwise, you might be leaving a ton of money on the table.

Silvia Myers, eCommerce Growth Specialist