The simple answer is that if you advertise on Facebook then you probably are. Now don’t get me wrong, Facebook advertising can be really effective if executed correctly. In fact, every one of the last 50 clients we have signed up on monthly digital marketing plans has had some Facebook advertising managed by us, even if just £1 per day.
The difficulty is that most businesses don’t really know how to do it effectively and measure whether it has worked or not.
Common Facebook Advertising mistakes…..
Incorrect Targeting
Ad copy is important (we will come on to that) but even the most effective advert won’t work if the targeting is poor. Targeting is about finding the precise audience that are interested in what you are promoting. It is not about a large audience or the amount of reach you get.
If you sell dog toys and some of the target audience don’t have dogs you are wasting your money. If you are targeting family holidays but the audience don’t have children, then you are wasting your money.
- Great Ad + Wrong audience = Poor response
- Great Ad + Right Audience = Great response
Failure to Measure results
Success on Facebook is not about getting reach, likes or shares. So, you put a post up, promote it and get 5 likes. Great – did that give you a warm and cosy feeling inside? If so, that’s lovely but what did it actually do for your business? Any enquiries, orders etc.?
Virtually every post and promotion we do on Facebook is tagged so we can see the exact performance on Google Analytics. Right down to the individual post or advert. That way we know whether it worked or not and that will change what we do next time.
Poor Ad copy
When you write an advert for Facebook, you need to put yourself in the mind of the person reading it. Chances are when they saw your advert, they were scrolling with their thumb or mouse wheel, looking for something to entertain them. A funny video, a post from a friend. Or maybe they were checking to see how many people had liked their latest selfie.
Your advert needs to grab them instantly as they scroll. Don’t assume that they can be bothered to read what you have to say. They need to be grabbed with short punchy text, and an image that appeals. Otherwise they will just scroll on by
Boosting for too long
Facebook will encourage you to boost a post for more days than 1 or 2, telling you that you will get better results. However, Facebook posts start to lose energy very quickly as recency is one of the factors that determine whether your post is shown or not.
So, when you boost a post for a long duration, you are paying to go against the Facebook algorithm and you will get less return for your money as each day goes by. We recommend not boosting a post for longer than a couple of days.
Missed Opportunities
Many small businesses don’t go further than boosting posts. However, using the Ads Manager properly opens up a whole raft of ad formats and targeting options. You can get to the ads manager by clicking on the link on the left hand side of Facebook (lower down) or click the link to create ads from the small drop-down triangle on the top right.
As well as enhanced demographic targeting, you can target people by whether they have visited your Website before, if they are on your email list, if they viewed a product that didn’t buy it or if they watched over half of a video you posted. There are also enhanced tools for testing, increasing conversions and measuring performance. You can even see a gender and age breakdown of who was interested in a post you boosted.
We use Facebook Advertising to varying degrees as part of our Total Digital Marketing Monthly packages. Usually as part of a wider digital marketing campaign. If you feel we may be able to help your business, we would welcome the opportunity to meet and discuss. Just contact us.
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