How to get KILLER ROI from Facebook advertising budget
Facebook advertising has been around for a while now and is undoubtedly the most popular method of social media advertising. Almost 92% of the social media advertisers prefer Facebook to get their message around.
And, why not? Facebook has over 1.4 billion users, which is more than the population of China! If it were a country, the population of Facebook would have been highest in the world.
It proves the might of Facebook and the reachability it offers to the advertisers. But, it also is the evidence of the competition that an advertiser is likely to face on Facebook.
Since almost every social media marketer is advertising on Facebook, what are the possibilities of your advertising being a standout proposition? However, at the same time, it is not to be forgotten that several marketers have been highly successful with their Facebook advertisements.
So what makes them successful and how can you achieve great results?
I have tried to answer this question and based on my knowledge and understanding of Facebook marketing; I am presenting some of the points here. I would appreciate if the other forum members would read them and give inputs so that it will improve our knowledge further.
The first thing to understand is what your objective is when it comes to Facebook advertising.
Unless you know the objective, your Facebook advertising won't yield any positive result for you and the entire exercise will be futile.
For most of the advertisers, the core objective is to increase their Return on Investment (ROI) from Facebook advertisements and ROI is something I am going to focus on in this post.
Any business functions with the goal of generating profits and so is the purpose of any advertising campaign. ROI allows you quantify and measure the performance of an ad campaign.
If you are advertising on Facebook without a specific objective of ROI, you wouldn’t know how to measure the performance of your advertisements. Hence, a keen focus on ROI is the first thing you need to have.
Now, once it’s determined that ROI is our main focus, let’s look at some of the methods that will help with maximising it.
#1. Making your ads interesting
It’s common sense. People are attractive towards interesting advertisements. But, the question is – how to make your advertisements interesting?
On a Facebook page, numerous elements are competing with each other for the attention of the visitors. Whenever users visit their Facebook page, there are several links to the left of their own account, saved pages, friends list, etc. On the right bar, there are several advertisements. And, on their main wall are different posts of their friends or sponsored pages and ads.
So the question is, among this “crowd” of elements, how do you make your advertisement stand out and interesting?
The answer to this question is not in technology but psychology. We are attracted towards visual cues such as images more than words. So, the most important thing in your ad should be an image. Any ad on Facebook would have three elements – a title, a description and an image.
Ensure that your image is the biggest element. Then comes the type of image. Don’t use a generic image. Use something weird or really interesting, but refrain from using offensive photographs or the ones disallowed by Facebook.
Next, is to add an interesting description and a succinct title that clearly states the intent of your advertisement. The image will draw the attention; the title will clearly say what the ad offers and the description will give a snippet of what you wish to communicate.
An interesting ad will draw the attention of the users. And a clear title and description will ensure that only those who are genuinely interested will click on the ads and visit your content.
It acts as a funnel for identifying the potential leads and is one of the main steps towards increasing ROI from your Facebook advertisement.
#2. A flexible budget
Having a flexible budget that you can change every day is a useful way to optimise Facebook advertising. For example, if you’re advertising a nightclub, spend more on weekends rather than weekday advertisements. It will help you use your money wisely and save it, thereby increasing your ROI.
#3. Creating an engaging landing page
We have seen how you can make your advertisements interesting and how you can use your budget efficiently to make ads more visible on the relevant days. But unless your landing page isn’t interesting, your audience will not bother to actually buy your products.
An interesting and informative ad can get you clicks, and an awesome landing page will encourage your visitors to take an action that will increase your sale.
#4. Targeting audience based on their interests
There’s market for everything but not everyone buys everything. Unless you target your audience based on their interests, your Facebook ad campaign will be a futile exercise.
I mean, if you are selling Chicken nuggets and if your ads are displayed to vegetarians, no matter how delicious your chicken is, your ads wouldn’t increase the sales.
Hence, instead of pushing your product, identify your clients based on their interests and pitch them the experience they will derive from your product.
#5. Target your competitors’ audience
It’s also critical to know who your competitors are, what their value propositions are and who their audience is.
This way, you can add some incremental benefits to your products or services and position these benefits to the audience of your competitors through Facebook advertisements. Unless you’re able to differentiate your products from your competitors’, their customers wouldn’t buy from you. Use this differentiator aspect as the pitch for your Facebook advertisements.
These are some of my ideas based on my experiences to help you maximise your ROI from Facebook ads. At the same time, don’t be greedy. If you are a beginner, don’t set unreasonable targets for your ad campaigns. Focus on reaching your breakeven first and then gradually increase your ROI target.
And, why not? Facebook has over 1.4 billion users, which is more than the population of China! If it were a country, the population of Facebook would have been highest in the world.
It proves the might of Facebook and the reachability it offers to the advertisers. But, it also is the evidence of the competition that an advertiser is likely to face on Facebook.
Since almost every social media marketer is advertising on Facebook, what are the possibilities of your advertising being a standout proposition? However, at the same time, it is not to be forgotten that several marketers have been highly successful with their Facebook advertisements.
So what makes them successful and how can you achieve great results?
I have tried to answer this question and based on my knowledge and understanding of Facebook marketing; I am presenting some of the points here. I would appreciate if the other forum members would read them and give inputs so that it will improve our knowledge further.
The first thing to understand is what your objective is when it comes to Facebook advertising.
Unless you know the objective, your Facebook advertising won't yield any positive result for you and the entire exercise will be futile.
For most of the advertisers, the core objective is to increase their Return on Investment (ROI) from Facebook advertisements and ROI is something I am going to focus on in this post.
Any business functions with the goal of generating profits and so is the purpose of any advertising campaign. ROI allows you quantify and measure the performance of an ad campaign.
If you are advertising on Facebook without a specific objective of ROI, you wouldn’t know how to measure the performance of your advertisements. Hence, a keen focus on ROI is the first thing you need to have.
Now, once it’s determined that ROI is our main focus, let’s look at some of the methods that will help with maximising it.
#1. Making your ads interesting
It’s common sense. People are attractive towards interesting advertisements. But, the question is – how to make your advertisements interesting?
On a Facebook page, numerous elements are competing with each other for the attention of the visitors. Whenever users visit their Facebook page, there are several links to the left of their own account, saved pages, friends list, etc. On the right bar, there are several advertisements. And, on their main wall are different posts of their friends or sponsored pages and ads.
So the question is, among this “crowd” of elements, how do you make your advertisement stand out and interesting?
The answer to this question is not in technology but psychology. We are attracted towards visual cues such as images more than words. So, the most important thing in your ad should be an image. Any ad on Facebook would have three elements – a title, a description and an image.
Ensure that your image is the biggest element. Then comes the type of image. Don’t use a generic image. Use something weird or really interesting, but refrain from using offensive photographs or the ones disallowed by Facebook.
Next, is to add an interesting description and a succinct title that clearly states the intent of your advertisement. The image will draw the attention; the title will clearly say what the ad offers and the description will give a snippet of what you wish to communicate.
An interesting ad will draw the attention of the users. And a clear title and description will ensure that only those who are genuinely interested will click on the ads and visit your content.
It acts as a funnel for identifying the potential leads and is one of the main steps towards increasing ROI from your Facebook advertisement.
#2. A flexible budget
Having a flexible budget that you can change every day is a useful way to optimise Facebook advertising. For example, if you’re advertising a nightclub, spend more on weekends rather than weekday advertisements. It will help you use your money wisely and save it, thereby increasing your ROI.
#3. Creating an engaging landing page
We have seen how you can make your advertisements interesting and how you can use your budget efficiently to make ads more visible on the relevant days. But unless your landing page isn’t interesting, your audience will not bother to actually buy your products.
An interesting and informative ad can get you clicks, and an awesome landing page will encourage your visitors to take an action that will increase your sale.
#4. Targeting audience based on their interests
There’s market for everything but not everyone buys everything. Unless you target your audience based on their interests, your Facebook ad campaign will be a futile exercise.
I mean, if you are selling Chicken nuggets and if your ads are displayed to vegetarians, no matter how delicious your chicken is, your ads wouldn’t increase the sales.
Hence, instead of pushing your product, identify your clients based on their interests and pitch them the experience they will derive from your product.
#5. Target your competitors’ audience
It’s also critical to know who your competitors are, what their value propositions are and who their audience is.
This way, you can add some incremental benefits to your products or services and position these benefits to the audience of your competitors through Facebook advertisements. Unless you’re able to differentiate your products from your competitors’, their customers wouldn’t buy from you. Use this differentiator aspect as the pitch for your Facebook advertisements.
These are some of my ideas based on my experiences to help you maximise your ROI from Facebook ads. At the same time, don’t be greedy. If you are a beginner, don’t set unreasonable targets for your ad campaigns. Focus on reaching your breakeven first and then gradually increase your ROI target.