Using Facebook Ads Intro
Stop what you are doing right now because you are using Facebook ads wrong! I can’t tell you how many posts on Facebook I see of people complaining that Facebook ads don’t work. Typically, these people have tried to Boost a post for $20 and they don’t see much of a result. This is because that’s not how advertising works. There is a lot more you should consider before you decide to spend money on using facebook ads or any type of paid advertising. Let’s dig in and break down how this all works.
Identifying Your Target Client Profile – Tip 1
The most important thing you should do before you start using Facebook ads to advertise your product or service, is identify your ideal target client. This is assuming you already spent the time making sure what you are selling or offering is actually what people want. The idea here is to fully understand your Best Clients so you can easily find more of them! You don’t want to be that guy/girl that is trying to sell a snowblower to someone that lives in Florida. You would be surprised how many business owners/photographers can’t tell me who their target client is. If I were to ask you that question, you should not tell me your ideal bride is a DIY Bride. That is way too broad! You must narrow down your audience. Your client profile may include DIY type brides but you need to include a ton more info to be able to truly reach them. Here are a few other things to consider when building your client profile.
- Where do they shop?
- Where do they live?
- What is their average household income?
- What do they do for fun?
- Personality Type?
- Age?
- Profession?
- Gender?
- Where do they work?
- What is most important to them?
Understanding Your Ideal Clients Buying Process – Tip 2
After you figure out Who your client is you need to discover their buying process. At what point does your client realize they need you? Once they realize it, what steps did they take that led them to you? (Hint* You should be asking every client how they found you!) The goal here is to have your ad show up right when the potential client discovers they need your particular service or product. See the graphic below for an overview of the typical buyers process. Click it to read a great article that explains it more in depth!
Image is owned by the website it’s linked to.
Finding Your Audience|Forming Your Offer – Tip 3
Now you have put in the work to narrow down your ideal client and you discovered their buying process, it’s time to target those people with your ads. Every successful ad is made up of two components. The Creative Copy/Images/Video and the Targeting. (If you don’t have facebook’s Pixel installed on your website, you will want to do so. Successful Fb advertising depends on it.)
The best way to find your audience is to use your email list. Go through and find your past clients that meet your Ideal Client Profile. Export all of those emails into a csv file. You will then upload that list to fb by creating a new audience in your fb ads manager. From there you can create a LookaLike audience which essentially tells fb that those contacts are your ideal clients. Facebook then goes out to find more potential clients based on that criteria. You will also want to setup custom conversions which allow you to track how your ads are performing. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this article which covers installing your facebook pixel, creating audiences, creating custom conversions, and more.
No Email List?
If you don’t have an email list to draw from you can still use fb ads! When you create a new ad you will be able to choose from a ton of different options from geo-location to age, where they work, what they love, etc. This takes a little time to test which of the interests attract your ideal client. Start with a budget of $1 a day and launch a new ad. See how it does for a few days and then make adjustments. Use different creative copy and images/videos to drive engagement.
Ad Copy | Creating Engagement
What should your ad say? Great question! Great ad copywriters can often charge you $20k+ to write a 4 email sales letter. Some of them even take a percentage of sales generated with the letter they write for you. Why? Sales copy is the staple of your offer. That $20k sales letter can lead to millions in sales for these companies. It can also completely flop! The bottom line is that if you can get inside someone’s head with your offer, you are much more likely to close the sale.
So how do you get inside someone’s head with your offer? The easiest way is to think of the problem you are solving for your client and then build your offer around that. If your ad copy answers the question your client will eventually have before they even think of it, you will draw them in when they see your ad. For instance, Brides have a ton of things to do while planning their wedding, correct? Why not create an ad that offers your bride a great article on why they should have an unplugged ceremony or how to plan their timeline etc?
Your visuals also play a big part in creating engagement. Try showing quick images in a carousel type ad and try a single image at the same time in a separate ad. Then see which performs better for you. Mix in videos as well if you can. Videos have had the biggest conversion rate for us.
Conclusion
We hope that this info is helpful for you all, especially if you are using facebook ads wrong! This is just the first post of many on this subject. This is more of an overview but we will be diving into each subject in this article to expound on them. Let us know your thoughts! Have your tried fb ads? Have you been successful with them?
Read Part 2 of this series called Photographer’s Guide to Facebook Ads.
Thank you! This was great, I have homework to do!
That’s great to hear!
Thanks Easton – I ran three ads close together for the holidays and while I increased the likes on my page, I didn’t book anything from them. I don’t think I took enough time to target but will try the next time using Facebook’s Pixels.
Yes the pixel is key to being able to track how your ads are performing so you can make adjustments.