Everyone loves a juicy secret. Especially if that secret can benefit you in some way, right?
Well then, you’re gonna love this blog post because it’s filled with secrets that will help you master Facebook ads. Not like a Jedi Master because that takes years of training and several mentors to guide you on a journey.
Thankfully, Facebook ads are not as difficult as learning how to wield a light-saber and face multiple villains…although some would call Facebook villainous.
If you’re ready to learn Facebook ad secrets that will have you crafting killer copy, targeting like a hero, and efficiently spending your ad dollars, then you’re in the right place. Let’s go!
First Up – Do Your Research
Before you jump into writing your first ad, it’s best practice to research what your competitors are doing. Just like rebels infiltrating the empire. A deep dive will give you insight into what’s working, how your potential market is already being targeted, and what offers are already in the marketplace.
Here are Some Competitor Research Tools for Facebook Ads
You don’t have to design your ads alone. You can enlist the aid of your competitors, and get a head start. It’s like having the blueprints to the Death Star. Give yourself an advantage.
What sort of corporate espionage is this? How can it be that your competitors will give up their marketing secrets? Because current and previous Facebook ads for every advertiser are freely available, in the interests of platform transparency. There are a number of tools available to let you sort this massive treasure chest of data.
Facebook Ad Library
While not the most full-featured research tool of the group, Facebook’s Ad Library has the benefit of being free. You can search the ads for specific advertisers and filter by country of origin, impression counts, and platform (Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, and Messenger are all included.)
You can learn a lot by examining your competitor’s headlines, images, ad copy, and landing pages. You’ll get a sense of what sorts of ads work in your industry and which don’t.
Unfortunately, unless you’re searching in the political space, Facebook’s Ad Library limits you to currently running ads. Archived campaigns aren’t included. But again, it’s free, so you get what you don’t pay for. If you’re willing to part with some cash, there are better tools. Afterall, everyone’s weapons system needs an upgrade eventually!
Check out These Spy Tools That Can Help!
AdEspresso
AdEspresso isn’t a research tool per se, but it does offer some research functionality as a part of its service. The platform’s main purpose is to help users design full Facebook ad campaigns and it provides various tools for creating and maintaining them.
Their research tools allow you a bit more depth than Facebook’s, but you’re still limited to currently-running ads. And because the ads are added to the service manually, you won’t find every advertisement available, just a subset. If you’re looking for a holistic campaign manager that allows competitor research, you can’t go wrong with AdEspresso. It’s like your own personal marketing droid! But if all you’re interested in is research tools, you’ll do better with either of the last two entries in this list.
PowerAdSpy
With PowerAdSpy your research will start to feel more like spy games than casual searches. The service gives you access to millions of ads from more than 15 countries. You can sort by placement, performance, and granular keywords from inside the ads. It’s like having access to the library at the Jedi temple, tons of data at your fingertips.
You’ll get access to engagement data that shows you which ads perform well in which categories. You can see precise geo-targeting information for a sense of who your competitors are targeting. You can even sort by CTAs. PowerAdSpy is an excellent research tool! If you are looking for Matrix-level data, you need MagicAdz.
MagicAdz
Along with the features from the other services, MagicAdz lets you search millions of ads, both current and archived, from advertisers in over 50 countries. Get highly detailed information on each ad. Filter by audience type, ad type, and engagement. Search eCommerce and affiliate ads, including cloaked affiliate ads with one click. You can even see ads from the FUTURE, just like Yoda!
Okay, that last one isn’t true. But it might feel like it’s possible with the level of depth you get from the service. Of course, you may not need this much information. It can easily overwhelm the uninitiated. If you’ve never run a Facebook ad, start with Facebook’s free service and grow from there.
Get Details About Your Competitor’s Facebook Ad Targeting
You can take your research a step further using Facebook’s “Why Am I Seeing This Ad?” option. Follow your competitors on Facebook so that their ads appear in your feed. When you see one, click on the three dots icon at the top right of the advertisement and select, “Why am I seeing this ad?”
Facebook will give you a peek behind the curtain, showing you the reasons you were targeted for the ad. It might be because you just visited your competitor’s website, or because you share an interest they’re targeting.
You won’t glean a ton of information per ad, but you’ll slowly build an understanding of your competitor’s targeting choices the more ads you check.
Once you have a thorough understanding of what has come before you, you’re ready to beat them all at their own game.
How to Create the Perfect Facebook Ad
To have the best success with Facebook ads, you need get these five elements right:
- Right Offer
- Appealing Media (Image or Video)
- Persuasive copy (headline and text)
- Proper Targeting
- The Right Budget
It’s like your own blueprint for success.
Choose the Right Offer
Once you’ve selected your target market, you want to create an offer that speaks directly to them. For example, if you’re targeting a wealthier demographic, you don’t need to focus on your product’s affordability. That’s “not the droid you’re looking for”.
On top of this, you want your offer to inspire action. It should make it easy for people to say “yes.” Promising a sale price can work, certainly, but it’s better to find something unique.
“50% off today only!” is a common offer, but it may only be effective if your prospect already knows they want to purchase and is just looking for a deal. Otherwise, you’ll need something else to pique their interest.
You might promise a gift, like an informational PDF. You might also offer a free sample or a free trial. Try to get creative.
Additionally, you want to choose a single call to action. Don’t muddle your message with multiple action points. Choose the most important one and drive everyone toward it.
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Use Appealing Media (Image or Video)
Your image shouldn’t be an afterthought, but instead an integral part of the ad. It should serve to support your offer and your copy. You want something imminently relevant that will catch people’s eyes as they scroll down their feed.
You have one to two seconds at a maximum to get someone’s attention. If your media feels disconnected from your message or feels like a generic stock image, they’ll scroll right on by.
Video is also a great choice, particularly if it auto-plays. Make sure the first five to ten seconds of the presentation encapsulate your entire message. That may be all you get before people make the decision to watch the rest or scroll on.
Write Persuasive Copy
A common mistake people make when writing ad copy is that they focus on features instead of benefits. Features don’t persuade people to act, benefits do. Imagine you were writing ad copy for a convertible. Which is more persuasive?
“The all new X-Wing Red Leader Edition has dual exhaust, leather seats, a premium missile guidance system, added droid safety features, and our patented, Easy-Stow blaster side compartment.”
or
“Aim true every time as you jet down the port side of Imperial cruisers. The all new X-Wing Red Leader Edition is built with freedom in mind. With your blaster safely stowed at your side, your cares can release into the galaxy as you fight for the rebellion.”
While purely fictional, the second paints a picture that connects with people emotionally. It tells them what they’ll get from making a purchase, not a laundry list of features. The features contribute to the overall experience, but it’s the experience people are after. Write copy that connects with your audience.
Facebook Ad Targeting
Facebook’s strength, apart from its massive audience, is its targeting ability. It incorporates the most robust targeting features of any advertising platform, and it’s critical that you take advantage of this.
You might be tempted to try and reach everyone. “Everyone’s a potential customer,” you might say. But this is a mistake. Even if you just targeted U.S. residents, you would be trying to reach 180 million people. Your ad spend wouldn’t go very far.
Instead, think of yourself as a well-aimed blaster, hitting the specific target each time. You’ll want to drill down into the demographic information available to you to target exactly the market that is most likely to be interested in your offering. For example, suppose you’re selling workout equipment. In that case, you might target men and women in the U.S. between the ages of 20 and 40 interested in fitness and have recently visited health-related websites.
To learn about potential audiences, go to https://www.facebook.com/ads/audience-insights. Facebook’s Audience Insight’s tool lets you plug in all sorts of demographic information to learn more about your target market.
When you target correctly, the total pool of prospects shrinks, but the chance that any one of them wants what you’re offering goes up dramatically. This allows you to spend far more efficiently.
Set the Right Budget
You’ve got a winning ad. Your properly targeted offer is strong, it’s accompanied by engaging media, and your copy could persuade a Sith Lord to visit a youngling’s hospital with flowers and balloons. Now don’t blow it by budgeting improperly.
If you set your budget too low, you’re limiting how much you can bid per click. Set it too high and you may deplete your ad spend too quickly.
To get your budget just right, start with your revenue goal. Let’s say your average sale is $200, and you want to generate around $20,000 a month. That means you’ll need 100 sales from your ad each month.
Now consider your typical conversion rate. If 1% of your total clicks convert to sales then you’ll need 10,000 clicks each month to generate 100 sales.
When you set up your campaigns, Facebook will suggest a range for pricing your bids. The more you bid per ad, the more frequently it will be seen, improving your CTR. Figure out the max you can spend for each of the 10,000 clicks you need, then set your bid lower.
If your CTR is too low, increase your bid incrementally. You can also set a max daily and monthly spend to ensure you don’t spend too much.
How Can I Increase the Reach of My Facebook Ads?
First of all, you don’t want to reach everyone on the planet. And if you tell me everyone is your customer, I’m gonna scream louder than a Wookee.
Here’s the thing, this is an auction and you want to reach the right audience. You are competing with other advertisers who also target that person for other interests so keep that in mind.
Now that’s settled, let move forward in time for a moment.
Picture this, your ads are written, your budget is set, and your campaign is running. You’re chillin’ with re-watching the Mandolorian for the third time through and you’ve unplugged because you’re done, right?
Not quite. Once things are running, the work of optimizing your campaign begins. You’re now trying to find the sweet spot your budget can support and tweak your ads for better performance. Generally, you’re looking to have a reach of 400,000 to two million. However, local ad campaigns won’t necessarily get you those numbers so you’ll have to go with what’s available.
Other options:
This one is fairly obvious. If you’re targeting a single square block around your house, your audience will be limited. If you want to increase your reach, start by widening your geotargeting area.
Just be sure that the new areas you’re targeting still host an appreciable population of your target market. If you sell t-shirts that say, “Life’s a Beach”, you probably don’t want to include the desert planet of Tatooine in your campaign.
Include More Interests
If you find your audience is smaller than you’d like, try including other related interests. Imagine your offer is a free workshop on productivity and organization.
In most cases, there are large groups of people that would be interested in your product or service that might fall outside of the box. But not always.
You likely already targeted pages and interests that deal with this. For example, many TV shows deal with how to get organized.
You can find productivity tools and see if those show up in the interest targeting. Or perhaps well-known experts in that industry are available as a target option (i.e. people who like an author of a best-selling book on the subject).
Less Strict Demographic Filtering
If you’re hitting the right locations and interests but still getting a narrower market than you’d like, consider expanding your demographic restrictions. Include men and women, expand your age range, widen from married people to include singles, etc. There’s a wide variety of demographic options available. Extending any one of them will increase your reach.
Increase Budget
The smaller your budget, the faster it runs out when you cast a wider net. As you increase your reach you may find you need to increase your budget. Your ad will appear less frequently when you’re targeting 40,000 people vs. 400,000. The further your ad tendrils extend, the more you’ll need to spend.
How Can You Improve CTR for a Facebook Ad?
What is CTR? I’m so glad you asked. It stands for click-through rate. This simply means how many times your ad gets clicked on vs. how many times it’s seen.
Now we put on our lab coats, get out our clicky pens, and begin the testing phase. You will always be split testing as there is always room for improvement. Although there are winning ads that fall within acceptable cost parameters and if you’re happy with that, you can just keep running that ad until it gets fatigued (a lesson for another day).
Split testing is the best way to improve click-through rate. When you split test, you are only testing one element at a time. For instance, the same ad but with two different images. Or the same ad and two different headlines. If you split test too many things at once, you won’t know which thing increased the CTR.
The target is already separated in your adset level. Budget is not a split test but once you’ve got a winning ad and are seeing a good ROI (return on investment), you can increase the budget to scale up. Although there are other ways to scale as well (a lesson for another day 😊)
To improve your ad’s click-through rate, split test one of the three elements above, A/B test the revised ad’s performance against the original, and keep whichever performs better. Then repeat the testing process with another element.
This split testing allows you to improve your ad incrementally so that you hit the audience you want to and achieve the CTR you need to get ROI. Once you have a winner you can increase your budget and scale-up.
Wouldn’t it be great if it were that easy? It’s not. This article contains everything you need to get started, but it takes time to refine your strategies and learn what works for you and what doesn’t. The important thing is that you now know how to start that process.
Learning more is always a good idea, young Padawan. What are the best strategies for users new to Facebook ads? Schedule a complimentary strategy session with us to find out.
