13 Facebook Ad Hacks I Wish I Had Known Before I Lost Tens of Thousands of Dollars
That Facebook is an effective advertising channel is not in doubt, but many are those that decide to make use of it by throwing money at it. I was one of those people – I thought that I could make it work by simply monetizing my Facebook campaigns, but in the process, I ended up wasting tens of thousands of dollars compared to the value I could have been getting.
In retrospect, even though there is nothing about loss that merits highlighting, the experience catalyzed a learning process that got me on the right track, and the 13 hacks below are the result of that learning process.
Have the right targeting mentality
The key to maximizing returns lies not in targeting people who will be interested in what you have to sell, but those who are most likely to buy. This translates to the targeting of niche fanatics. If you are selling soccer merchandise, for example, you will want to target the hardcore fans, rather than casual fans who only tune into big games.
Use Audience Insights
To achieve the above, make use of the Audience Insights tool. Make a list of interests that hardcore niche enthusiasts are likely to have and research them through the tool. In the ‘Page Likes’ tab, evaluate the affinity scores which will point out whether you are on the right track. Go for a 100x score or higher.
Grow your followership
Invite those who like your posts to like your page/pages. Since there already exists a common ground, most will readily accept. This is important because it is easier to convert your fans than it is to convert cold traffic; just like it is easier to convince a friend to see things your way compared to a stranger
Go for those who have previously engaged with your brand
In the same vein, it is easier to convert those who have previously engaged with your ads. Target this passionate group by creating a custom audience that accommodates those who have engaged with your posts in the last 365 days in the ‘Audiences’ tab.
Video content
For video content, create a custom audience based on people who have engaged with a certain percentage of your previous videos. Anyone who has watched 25% of any of your videos should work. The takeaway here is that the metric for creating a custom audience should match the content you are posting.
Start small
There is great wisdom to starting small. You will have to surmount the learning curve of the niche you choose and only after you do so, will you be able to get the most out of your advertising dollars. By starting small, you will minimize the chances of catastrophic losses in case of a mistake early on.
Leverage Facebook ad reports
Keep a close eye on the effects of even the tiniest optimizations to learn what works best for you. Facebook ad reports will help you do this. Navigate to the Ad Manager and on the sidebar to your left, select ‘Reports.’ Experiment with different breakdown options such as age, gender, conversion device, etc.
Practice data-driven decision making
At the outset, you may have to make choices based on assumptions; but as you advance, try to eliminate this type of decision making. To do this, base your initial decisions loosely on assumptions and experiment continually while evaluating resultant data to narrow down on what works.
Do not throw away the baby with the bathwater
When an ad set is not working, do not turn it off in its entirety. Instead, take advantage of ad breakdown reports to identify non-performing ads. You might find that out of five ads, three are not working, for example. This way, you will save on what you would have lost by giving up on the two performing ads.
The end-of-conversion-funnel optimization tactic
Adopt a down-up approach in ad optimization in relation to your conversion funnel. In other words, start by optimizing the metrics lowest in your conversion funnel. For product sales, these could be the cost per sale and the overall sales; if an engagement campaign, consider cost per engagement. In this manner, you will optimize the metrics with the highest impact.
Beware of ad blindness
When you reuse an ad, your audience will at some point automatically tune out or screen out the ad. The smaller your target audience, the more often you should update your ad. On the frequency tab, track how often an ad is shown to individuals. Once the frequency gets close to 9 – maybe a 6, or a 7 – it is time to shake things up.
Rotate ads
For even better performance, create many ads and then rotate them at a viewing frequency of 3 or 5 per individual. Remember to keep a close eye on ad performance to know which ads work best so that you can reformulate the poorly performing copy.
Influencer marketing
Look for niche-respected influencers and get them to shout-out your brand. Then, retarget these audiences on Facebook. Instagram influencer marketing works best. Influencer marketing is inexpensive if you go for upcoming personalities – they are more than willing to monetize their followership.
One of Facebook’s most significant selling points is that it avails numerous avenues for growth courtesy of its vast user base. Thus, always keep an eye out for insights that can help you capitalize on this resource. To that end, explore bitgale.com and similar sites with illuminating content.