For the last couple weeks, I’ve been attending the Facebook Marketing Bootcamp and summarizing their webinars. As I’ve said before, if you’re just getting into Facebook and Social Marketing or need an in-depth refresher – there is some great information in these webinars. While we usually look to “industry experts” for tips, the benefit of this is not only do they give best practices on how to effectively market your business using Facebook pages and their Ads platform, but since they are the creators, they can answer any basic questions people have about the interface itself. If you’re interested, the webinar videos are on demand here!
This particular webinar was similar to the last webinar, but gave a little more detail on optimizing your Facebook Ad campaigns using their insights and reports features.
Here are some summary notes:
1) Optimizing the Creative of your ad
- Try to think about what engages your target audience.
- Adding questions is usually engaging – “Are you up for it?” “Want the best football boots?”
- Keep the body copy of your ad as concise as possible, but try to include as many key selling points as you can. The more fluff or words you use, the less space you’ll have for key selling points..
- Urgency often increases click-through -“Offer ends…”
- Offers/Discounts help – “Free” “Promotional”
- Image – Logos don’t really work unless it’s a well known brand. Use really attractive images.
2) Target and Segment Campaigns Clearly
- Your ads are broken down into campaigns. Make sure to set up campaigns and set them up correctly – segment them by gender, age, geography, etc. Ex. Female, UK, 13-30 yrs old.
- They suggested a maximum of 3 -4 ads per campaign – it makes it easier to dissect data
- Make sure your landing page or custom Facebook landing tabs have relevant info. As they say “maintains the scent”. If you say there’s a free download, that landing page/tab better clearly deliver.
3) Utilize reports
- Facebook ads interface is able to generate detailed reports.
- Every few days, look at all creative and see what works. From there, PAUSE ads that arent working. That way, they dont compete with each other – only the best one is running.
- Look at frequency and reach of the ad.
- Launch new campaigns after people have seen the ads a couple times. Refresh the creative so ads look fresh and people aren’t seeing the same ole ads.
Evaluating Performance
Facebook Ads General Dashboard
You can view the:
- Size of your target audience or “Reach” – unique users that have seen your ads.
- Social Reach – The beauty of this is many people will see that their friends that like an ad. This carries a rapport or “word of mouth” value.
- Look over past couple days, note if you see peaks (Ex. maybe they are clicking more on the weekends, so you want to focus ads at that time).
- You can break it down by ads. Monitor the Click-Through-Rate, Cost-Per-Click, etc.
Responder Demographics Report
Seeing the demographics can be valuable insight, because then you can further segments to further optimize then refocus your budget. Ex. This age group might be working better or this Gender, so you can tailor some ads to those specific demographics.
Facebook Page Insights
- Facebook pages themselves (vs. ads) have great insights built in.
- You can see if your friends are fans or if non friends are fans of your page
- You can monitor your Total Reach.
- A new insight added are “People talking about you.” Basically, this is the # of people who have liked your page, liked a post, posted on your page, shared a link about your brand, etc. It’s a good indicator of how engaging and popular your page is. While you may have x amount of followers, if no one is talking about your page, what’s the point?!
- By viewing these insights you can optimize your page posting strategy!
- See when people are responding best and post at that time
- Gain insights at what types of posts people are responding to and increase those types of posts.
Questions from the Audience
How does system decides how much my ads costs?
This is based on CPC (cost-per-click) or CPM (cost-per-1000 impressions). When a user visits an ad page, an auction takes place with the ads. It takes into account:
- Your bid, so to better your chances, bid slightly above the range. This is not how much you necessarily will pay, but it’s the max and allows you to compete.
- Historical performance of your ad – how well was your ad doing? CTR, etc.
- How are users interacting with your ad? Are they liking them, or hiding them?
Do you have details on optimizing my Facebook page?
- Figure out when you are going to post. Best thing is to have a strategy – preferably a post calendar (to avoid spamming).
- Post engaging items – photos, videos.
- Insights – use it to figure out how many people are engaging and what posts.
Can you give further details on “# talking about this” stat on FB pages?
Anyone who commented on your page, tags your page in comments, likes your posts, etc. It gives you a picture of how many people are interacting with your page (more importantly, engaging).
How often do you suggest we refresh creative?
No hard rule about it. Monitor your ads for a couple days so you can see how its performing. Then you can determine if you want to optimize them – generally 7-10 days. You’ll see impressions declining, reach will decline – so that’s when you refresh.
When should I use “likes and interest” targeting vs “broad” targeting?
Depends on your target. If you want all sports, say you have a sports store, then you use broad. If you want something accurate, like people playing golf – then you use precise interest targeting.
Do you find differences between ads that lead to Facebook or external websites?
Depends, but Facebook objects tend to do better because they allow for social targeting.
Can you explain “Social Reach”?
Your ad reaching friends of friends and shows that their friends like your ad. This is better, as it builds rapport if “friends” like a brand.
How often should I review reports?
Everyday. Check where your impressions are going. For example, if you see some demographics are getting an ad, you may do another ad to focus on another segment of age.
Sponsored Stories vs. Ads?
Ad you control the text and creative. Sponsored stories – something that is within the newsfeed and you can promote that. Say if someone likes the page, or a post on your page that had a great response. Gives posts a boost.
Ads performance has declined, what should I do?
Figure out which ads have declined and do your best to figure out why. Then refresh creative. But it will be normal to see that after awhile, an ad will naturally will become stale and decline.
Is it a good idea to target an ad to only your fans?
It is, you can get them to interact more with your page and posts. You are generating virality. Keep in mind only 5-20% of your fans will see a post. Whereas an ad targeted to them, 100% will see it.