In this day and age if you are not advertising, or building your brand on Facebook you are missing out on probably the biggest online marketplace. Do you remember Borders? Or Blockbuster? Remember how everybody you asked loved them? Where did they go? The answer is that they did not follow the marketplace, and adjust their marketing plan to fit with what was happening today. Nobody wants to shut their doors. Which is why every business MUST be advertising on Facebook.
With more than 2 Billion monthly users it is easy to get in front of your local marketplace. You can target an audience within a distance from your business. For example, let’s say you are a Dentist, you wouldn’t want to show ads to people 15 miles away because it is just too far away. What makes Facebook even more powerful is that you can target by job titles, interests, and behaviors. Let’s say you want to target people for a weight loss seminar. You could target people that have an interest in ‘Jillian Michaels (personal trainer)’. I actually use that one and it works GREAT!
In addition to the 2 Billion monthly users on Facebook, you can also show ads to 500 Million Instagram users (and that is growing). One advertising platform that shows potential customers your ads on two different mediums. Plus, now there is Facebook Messenger, and you can build a bot that will walk a potential customer through a series of questions and then inviting them into your funnel (I will talk about funnels shortly).
Types Of Ads
There are about a dozen different choices to consider when you are choosing to advertise, the most popular are Traffic, Video views, and Conversions. The others are great for certain circumstances, but for the most part, these three will get you going without much trouble.
Traffic
If you are running an ad for the first time, this is where you want to start and where I get the best conversions for an ad that is not a video. Here is what Facebook says: “Send more people to a destination on or off Facebook such as a website, app, or Messenger conversation.”. Basically, you create an ad that sends people to a page that will be used to add them to a funnel, or drive sales if you are an ecommerce store. If I am not using a video, this just about always the ad type that I use for a campaign.
Video views
Pretty obvious that this is used when you have a video. You can choose any of the other types for a video, but this one seems to work the best for me. Here is what Facebook says: “Promote videos that show behind-the-scenes footage, product launches or customer stories to raise awareness about your brand.”. Videos are GREAT for Facebook and is what my business is built around. I will talk about Videos in a little while.
Conversions
This is a very powerful ad type, and I consider it an important tool that is built into Facebook. Here is what Facebook says: “Get people to take valuable actions on your website or app, such as adding payment info or making a purchase. Use the Facebook pixel or app events to track and measure conversions.”. The first step is to send traffic to a website, using the Traffic ad type we talked about earlier. After you get 50 or so people taking action on your website (signing up for an offer or purchasing a product), we can then tell Facebook to target people that are exactly like those people that purchased or bought your offer. Facebook’s algorithm is put to work and does the dirty work of finding the best people that will buy your product or claim your offer. VERY POWERFUL!!!
Pixel
The Power Is in The Pixel! Not sure who coined the phrase but I hear it all the time, and it’s true! The pixel is a bunch of code that you place on your website or landing page, and then Facebook tracks those people and where they visited on website. You can then show those people an ad. For example, let’s say you are a Dentist and someone visited your website page that talks all about teeth whitening. Because you have the Pixel installed, you can show that exact person an ad on Facebook talking about your Teeth Whitening Service. Laser targeting is what I think of.
Video
Video is by far the most important topic on Facebook these days. Facebook even states that they want videos because it results in a better user experience for their users. The best video is 30 seconds, but can be longer if you choose. I usually stick under one minute because then you can use that same video on Instagram easily. Facebook also tells us that a square video is the best format to show up and be able to see the entire screen on a mobile device.
How Do I Create A Video?
There are two ways that I use. The first, and most expensive, would be to hire a videographer for a day and then have them edit and create a top-quality video. This is best, but does not always perform the best.
Another option is to use your iPhone. The quality of a video with iPhone has improved dramatically over the past years. But you must also be conscience of the quality of sound. Either make sure you are close enough to the iPhone, or get an external microphone. To be honest, people on Facebook seem to prefer the iPhone videos because they are real, and you can resonate with your audience.
Why Video?
Simply put, it is the most cost-effective way to ALWAYS be in front of your audience. The person watching your video might not be ready to purchase your product, or claim your offer today, but tomorrow when they need your service you will be top of mind. It doesn’t cost much to advertise videos on Facebook today, therefore you can reach a large audience for a small amount of spend, and in the end get a great ROI!
Funnels
The idea of a funnel is build value to your product or service before asking for the sale or offer. The top of the funnel is large and therefore a large amount of people get added to it. The bottom of the funnel is your perfect audience and these people will most likely purchase or claim your BEST offer or product. The key elements of all pieces of the funnel are to: entertain, inspire, educate, or demonstrate. All funnels must do at least one of those key elements, but more would even be better.
Top Funnel
The objective of the top is awareness and value. Describe a problem and provide a solution. It is important to show creativity or authentic humor. You could do an about me/us video. Why do you provide this service/product? We use the Pixel to capture people that are interested, and then show them a middle funnel that gives them even more value
Middle Funnel
The objective of the middle funnel is attention, credibility, and value. Go deeper into your product or service. Why you? Why your product? Maybe a meet the team or a walk-through. Or sometimes a testimonial works great here. The idea is to establish positioning and add VALUE!
Bottom Funnel
The objective of the bottom funnel is a Call to Action! Yes, we have now given your audience a ton of value, they know all about your product or service, so now we make them an offer, or invitation, or promotion. Tell them why they need to act now.
The entire funnel can be tracked using the pixel, or video views, and then retarget your audience based on their actions. For example, the middle funnel will only be seen by people that either clicked to your website at the top, or watched some of your video. We know they are someone interested if they took action. So now we show another video or ad to those people. The bottom funnel will only be seen by people that took action in the top and middle. We know if someone clicked to your website at the top funnel, and also clicked to your website in the middle funnel, we know that they know all about your product and like you because you gave them a ton of value. Therefore, when you make them an offer they are considered HOT traffic, or HOT buyers ready to take you up on your offer.
As you can see, advertising on Facebook can be powerful if you add the pixel and you create funnels. But that’s not it, you also MUST GIVE VALUE. Give value (top), give more value (middle), AND THEN go for the sale! You will be amazed by the results you get if you follow these simple, yet very effective strategies. Good luck!