Guest Blog: Four Foundations for a Successful Facebook Ad Campaign, by That Marketing Girl
That Marketing Girl, Mia
This guest blog is written by the very talented Mia from That Marketing Girl. Make sure to check her out, she’s a FaceBook ads genius! - Maxene
If creating Facebook Ads with ah-mazing results feels *so* unachievable, you’re in the right place! The secret to a successful Facebook Ad campaign is broken down into a few straightforward components. Let’s cut the fluff and get straight into the grit!
Working with the right Objective, Budget and a Funnel
Look, you won’t see sales come through if you’re working with a reach objective or slapping the Boost button - I’m just being honest [you’ll thank me later!!]. If your end goal is to generate sales or leads, think about mapping out your customer journey, translating that into a sales funnel and selecting campaign objectives and budgets for each stage to match. No one will buy from you until they know you, like you and trust you. How are you prospecting a cold audience and generating awareness? How are you increasing consideration in your product/service and overcoming any objections? Finally, what irresistible offer do you have to get your hot traffic across the line?
I like to map out this journey and funnel process on a flow chart. Typically it’ll look something like…
Cold traffic at the top of the funnel -> Warm audience at the middle of the funnel -> Hot audience ready to convert at the bottom of the funnel
At each stage of your funnel, assign an appropriate objective and remember that it will take 50 event triggers for each adset to fully optimise - so make sure you’re spending enough mullah’ at each campaign in order for this to happen! Otherwise, your campaigns won’t learn properly and you’ll be throwing money down the drain!
Defining your Audience
If you can’t define your ideal audience to a T, you simply cannot put together an offer, product or campaign attractive enough to get them into your funnel and converting. It’s as simple as that. The more deeply you know your customer/client, the more you can tailor your creative, copy and targeting options for them. Speak to an individual, not a crowd - you’ll get better chances of connecting and luring them into your funnel.
You’d be surprised how often I see someone selling something for the sake of it - it will 👏 not 👏 convert 👏 Focus on how your audiences pain points and the incredible solution your product/service provides them. Sell the feeling. Sell the solution [hint hint: this is only possible if you *know* your audience inside and out!].
Once you’ve got a clear idea on your audience, some targeting combinations you can build out for your campaign includes:
Interest based - these are audiences built out upon interests, for eg beauty, fashion, makeup, skincare and so on.
Behaviour based - these are audiences built upon behaviours, for eg engaged shoppers.
Custom audiences - these are audiences built upon specific actions that have occurred on your Facebook/Instagram account, customer list or website. For eg, people who added to cart but did not purchase.
Lookalike - ahhh, my favourite! These are audiences that are based off a seed audience and Facebook finds close matches to them. For eg, you could make a lookalike based of people who purchased in the last 90 days.
Copywriting and Creative
Once you’ve mapped out a solid funnel and have a clear idea on your ideal audience, it’s critical you gear your overall messaging and creative towards this person. Perhaps you’re running an awareness campaign at the top of your funnel? If so, make sure your copywriting and overall messaging is introducing your brand to your audience with creative to match. Maybe you’re running a conversion objective at the middle of your funnel to a warm audience, make sure you speak to your audience in a familiar tone - and let your creative do the talking too. You get the gist!
I like to test different variations of copywriting [your main text, headline and description] against different iterations of creative [video, images, carousels and collections] dependent on the different stages of the buyer's journey in the funnel. Make sure your creative fits your placement perfectly too.
What I’m seeing working really well right now across my client Ad accounts is video, live video and Instagram story video clips. This is across the lead generation, eCommerce and coaching space too!
In terms of what’s working in copywriting, it varies client to client. Some of my clients will literally kill it with short form, direct copy bedazzled with a plethora of emoji’s, whereas others convert best with longer-form storytelling content. You won’t get a gauge until you test. Which brings me to my next point…
Test. Then test some more
You will not create a campaign first go and make a million bucks unless you have supernatural [bordering freak of nature] kinda powers. I’m telling you now!!! Don’t be swayed by the guru’s flaunting their million-dollar client accounts with 7 figure revenues. Those numbers have taken:
Years. Literally. Years!!!
Investment with little to no return in the early days. And investment into an incredibly converting funnel, their audience, their product, user experience, SEO, content, trend forecasting, customer experience, branding, website design, automations, you name it.
Patience. A lot of it.
TESTING. T - E - S - T - I - N - G
You will not get a gauge of what’s best performing for your account until you run tests. Do NOT be afraid to invest in it. Not only will it help in seasoning up your pixel [hello retargeting] but you’ll get a gauge on where best to allocate your budget in future endeavours.
When testing, I like to focus on iterations of:
Audiences
Copywriting - headlines, main body text, descriptions, long form, short form, emoji’s and so on.
Creative - photo, video, dynamic product ads and so on.
Landing pages.
Products.
Offers.
Placements.
Let’s wrap it all up
If you’re feeling a lil’ overwhelmed about all of the intricacies involved, just remember that every ad account starts somewhere. For smaller businesses, it can be very overwhelming. That’s why I’ve put together my Facebook Ads Checklist, perfect for making sure you’ve got all of your ducks in a row before you launch that campaign. You can get your hands on it here.
And if you’re still wrapping your head around it all, feel free to have a stalk through my Insta feed and stories where I share what’s working right now and all of my favourite Facebook Ad tips at @that.marketing.girl.mia 📲
Otherwise, if you’d like to get in touch regarding how I can help you run Facebook Ads, holla at me anytime over at www.thatmarketinggirl.com.au and check out our case studies!
Wishing you all the best success in your Facebook Ads! 👋 Mia @ TMG x