English
Think you’re ready to launch a hugely successful Facebook advertising campaign? Defined your target audience? Identified your dream customer? Ad text sorted? Fantastic imagery and a strong call-to-action? Great, let’s do it!
BUT: before you leap head first into your new campaign, just take a moment to double check that you’re not about to set out on a path which will burn your budget too quickly!
1. Don’t identify a clear target
If you set off with some sort of vague idea, your campaign could be over before it’s even begun. Before setting anything up, make sure you have defined clear targets. What should the campaign achieve? What are your marketing aims? Are you aiming for a particular target group? If you know exactly what you are aiming for, it’s much easier to choose what sort of adverts you need.
The blurrier the aim, the more likely you are to throw your money out the window!
2. Select too broad a target group
Wrong! The more specific, the better! Before launching your campaign, get out and about among your target group. Put time and effort into getting to know them and interacting with them. Find your ideal customer, decide how best to speak to them and produce your adverts accordingly.
It’s really quite simple: put yourself in the customer’s shoes. At the end of the day, you’re a consumer too and you know what you want.
If you’ve not yet thought about your ideal customer or even if your campaign is just for experimentation – then it’s time for some research! Examine your ideal customer closely by asking the following questions:
- To which demographic group do they belong?
- What are their specific interests?
- What are needs in their private/professional lives?
- Who do they work for and in what position?
Carefully targeted campaigns tend to yield a higher ROI (return on investment). The more specific your adverts, the better for you and your brand. These questions also put you one step ahead regarding information gathering, enabling you to target new groups from a position of strength.
Knowing the expectations of target groups who already know you on Facebook will lead to better results. With the help of the Facebook Pixel, you can produce a more refined target audience and, by using conversion tracking, follow what sort of actions people carry out after seeing your adverts. What’s more, Facebook will automatically display your adverts to people who are statistically most likely to react. You can choose:
- People who have visited your website
- People who have visited specific pages on your website
- People who have not visited your site for a while
Or a combination of all three! For example, you could target people who have seen your adverts on Facebook but haven’t yet been converted into customers. You can create specially tailored ads for these users so that they are shown the products they have already considered on your website. Combine this with, say, a reduction or other special offer, and you can significantly increase the chance of converting them.
3. Ignore comments from users
People will always leave comments on your adverts – but if you ignore what your potential customers have to say, you are simply wasting money. React to comments on your ads just as you would to interactions on a social post and use constructive criticism to improve your offering.
Of course, it’s not easy to keep track of numerous different conversations but it’s worth making the effort in terms of your budget. Facebook shows you all user comments – not just on your organic posts but on your Facebook ads too. So you’ve got no excuse for letting comments slip through the cracks!
Especially when it comes to Facebook ads, you will inevitably encounter people who simply don’t like your ads. That’s life.
But nevertheless, don’t delete or hide these comments. Facebook can detect this and will rank your ad negatively as a result. My tip: respond politely – even if the comments are impolite! This at least shows other, more reasonable users that you take their views seriously.
4. Not enough info on your landing page
Obviously, your Facebook offers should target people who you actually reach on Facebook. But Facebook is only half the story because, when you post an ad (or a normal post), you are usually directing people to an external website – probably your landing page! Landing pages are needed to actually display the products you sell – and they must be set up appropriately!
Adverts attract the attention of your target audience – but the landing page is what convinces them to act.
With this in mind, your landing page should at the very least feature the offer mentioned in the advert! The surest way to quickly and reliably burn your budget is to direct your target customers, who you have worked so hard to attract, to a chaotic – or worse, irrelevant – website. Not only will they be unable to convert, but they’ll leave frustrated and with a negative impression.
5. Don’t test your own adverts
If your adverts aren’t having the desired effect, you need to test them. Even the best advertisers in the industry haven’t just fallen on their feet to enjoy instant success; it takes a while! The secret behind most successful Facebook ad campaigns is usually: constant testing.
So before you blow your whole budget on a single Facebook advert, try out a few different variants on a smaller scale to see how your target group reacts. Give yourself a small budget and experiment with different texts, pictures and calls-to-action. Of course, this takes time. But in the end, you’ll know which ads work best and yield the best ROI. Even better, if your tests result in your ads becoming cheaper, you’ll be spending even less money than planned!
Your costs sink while your profit soars.
6. Use poor pictures
Use visual aids with your Facebook ads which complement your aims. Facebook posts which include images are shared more often than those which only consist of text, and Facebook ads are no different. A Facebook ad with a suitable image doesn’t just boost conversion, it also serves to focus users’ attention while scrolling down a page and stands out from busy news feeds.
People are increasingly using Facebook on the go on smartphones, so it’s best to avoid too much text. It doesn’t display correctly on smartphone screens and is difficult to read. Instead, focus on visual aids which attract the user’s attention.
7. Ignore video ads
Video is an influential medium which can be extremely useful for successful Facebook advertising. Video allows you to convey a more personal, more immediate message to your target audience which is much more effective than traditional text-based ads. But of course, when you start dealing in video, you’re up against the usual suspects …
Make sure that your video captures the user’s attention within the first few seconds. 85 per cent of all videos are watched without sound – so make sure your video is silence-suitable. If text is really necessary, or you think it will help put across your message, you can always use subtitles. Facebook can produce English-language subtitles automatically – but make sure you double check before going live. It’s still a computer, after all.
Conclusion
Facebook provides advertisers with numerous tools which make it easier to target specific groups and understand their needs.
Users know that too, so they expect a certain level of professionalism. Make use of the tools that Facebook offers you to present your potential customers with high-quality, tailored advertising which has the desired effect. When your adverts, products and services enable you to solve your target group’s problems, your campaigns will work – so conduct your research thoroughly and don’t waste your budget on vague ideas!
