Facebook Ads for Advanced Users
When running Facebook ads, you are essentially entering the Facebook Auction & Delivery system where you must bid for each opportunity to have your ad delivered to a potential viewer who is likely to take the expected action of your campaign. There are a few ways to ensure your Facebook ads are maximized for higher delivery and will yield better results.
You must align your campaign with a preferred result and earn the right to have your ad served to the viewer through a combination of bid amount and ad value that assesses the chances of the viewer taking your chosen action. If your campaign is set to find an audience that is interested in finding a new dentist in downtown Calgary and to have them visit your website, Facebook will use viewers’ past data points to find those most likely to find your ad helpful and to return the result your campaign is expecting. If your ad is ranked with the highest Total Value among the audience you are seeking, it will get served more often.
Total Value on Facebook ads is determined by:
Your Bid for the Desired Result x The Likelihood of the Viewer to Take Your Desired Action
+
The Anticipated Interest Level a Viewer Will Have For Your Ad
In order to maximize your campaigns, it’s important to optimize the information and bids you enter when setting up the campaign. Here are some tips to ensure the best results possible:
1. Ensure the Objective you select in Ads Manager matches your desired outcome for the campaign. Are you looking for views, visits, follows or leads?
When setting up your campaign, it’s critical to tell Facebook what your goal is so the algorithm can properly match viewers who are most likely to fulfill the conversion step you are looking for
2. Align your bids with what the desired audience and actions are worth to your business. Adjust your bids based on each audience type and the actual action you are promoting, rather than using the same bid each time. Some conversion types and certain audiences offer a higher lifetime value to your bottom line so you may be willing to pay more for some while setting a lower bid for others. By designing unique bids based on the value of the outcome, you set your campaigns up for optimal ROI
3. Keep your audience selections on the broader side, especially when you are first starting new campaigns and don’t have conversion rates determined yet. The more you narrow your audience, the higher the cost per acquisition will be and it removes the flexibility of the algorithm to find you the right viewers. To get you started, an audience size for around 1-5 million is often optimal depending on the size of your geo target, if you have one.
4. Be careful not to overlap your audiences. If you are running multiple ads, using the same audience type for each will cause you to compete with your own ads and will result in the ad with the lower Total Value becoming under delivered and will reduce conversions, which overall will make the ad less effective and costs higher.
If you notice a low performing ad that has a very similar audience type, try consolidating ad sets and/or using exclusion targeting instead.
5. When you are unsure what to bid, start with the Lowest Cost Option. This allows Facebook to adjust your bid to get as many results as possible and will inform what future bids for that audience type will need to look like. This works best for situations where you are comfortable spending a total budget amount.
6. Take advantage of the algorithms automation features. They are built to minimize the guesswork for you and to maximize results. Facebook wants users to have a great experience and marketers to get great results, so it is always adjusting to ensure these objectives are met – be willing to let it work for you.
Use Automatic Placements to find the right people for your campaign across platforms and the Campaign Budget Optimization tool to find the best opportunities to get the results you are looking for at the best use of your budget dollars
7. Give the Delivery system time to optimize your ad. It takes a minimum of 50 conversions for the Facebook Delivery algorithm to get to know your ad and how best to serve it. It is highly recommended to not make any changes to the ad prior to one week after your ad has reached 50 conversions. Changes confuse and disrupt this process so only make them when absolutely necessary and at the right time
8. If your ad is underperforming, try optimizing at a higher point in the funnel by driving to high traffic pages on your website
9. When in doubt, always take it back to User Experience. Everything Facebook does is meant to improve the user experience and that should always be your focus as well, for various reasons. Keep the conversion pathway clear and simple – make it easy to take the actions your campaigns are promoting. Be specific in your ads and ensure your target audience will find the content relevant and helpful. Optimize your landing pages for mobile by reducing redirects, decreasing rendering time and improving response times with multi-region hosting.
Facebook ads can offer some of the best ROI and results for your campaigns because of the sophistication of their algorithm and ad delivery system. Set your campaign up for success by optimizing your landing pages, giving the system clear intentions and by trusting the system to work for you. Like all marketing options, start broad, collect data and adjust as needed once you have enough results to make informed decisions, ensuring you give it time to work for you.
Now is truly one of the most cost effective times to get in on Facebook advertising. If you have any questions, or are looking for experts to manage your ads for you, Digital Monk is here for you. Call or email today if we can help you get started taking advantage of this enormous opportunity to grow your business!
