10 Proven Steps to LinkedIn Ads Success in 2023
From sponsored content to Matched Audiences and everything in between, here's what you need to know to create effective LinkedIn Ads in 2023....
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Of all the social media marketing platforms, Facebook offers one of the most powerful advertising solutions for businesses — you can’t argue with the data around Facebook Ads ROI.
But, with so many segments and tools, creating ads can get overwhelming fast.
The Facebook Ads Manager is designed to help you personalize your strategy as much as possible. This can be highly effective if you know what you’re doing — and potentially costly if you don’t.
Need some Facebook Ads help? Let’s go over the basics of how to choose the best solution for your business.
The Facebook Ads Manager
The Facebook Pixel is vital to properly tracking interactions, building audiences, and conversion tracking. That’s why adding in the Pixel is one of the first things to put in place before campaigns launch.
Apple’s iOS update Is changing how data is collected on Facebook. Because of this, you may want to consider using Facebook’s Conversions API in addition to the Pixel for tracking. It requires more development, but you won’t lose as much visibility.
Next, you’ll want to choose a key objective or overall goal for your Facebook advertising efforts to give you a clear direction.
You can’t choose multiple objectives for each ad — and really, you wouldn’t want to. Single calls to action (CTAs) perform best because they provide straightforward direction. Instead, you can create multiple ads for each goal.
So, how do you choose the right objective for your ad campaign? First, decide which stage of the buying cycle you want to target. You can choose from Brand Awareness, Leads, Purchases, and others.
After that, you’ll need to decide which format to use. The objective you choose for your FB Ads dictates which types of media you can use.
Keep in mind that within each campaign, you’ll also set specific audiences.
Once you create a perfect audience segment, you can save it for later. Now, let’s dig into ad types.
A look inside the Facebook Ads platform (Image via Facebook)
Depending on your goals, you could use brand awareness FB ads to:
Awareness campaigns are best suited for targeting audiences at the top of your sales funnel with straightforward content. Use them for demand generation, explaining your values, or reaching new customers within a certain distance.
Need more Facebook Ads help? Let’s talk.
For awareness, you can choose these formats and features:
For awareness ads in particular, it’s a good idea to use high-quality images, infographics, or short video clips to grab attention quickly.
Historically, remarketing campaigns were ideal for people who saw your ad but weren’t ready to purchase your products or services for one reason or another.
Due to that iOS update mentioned above, there have been some changes as to how Facebook ads work on Apple products. These changes include:
Pro tip: For e-commerce retailers, Facebook also recently launched Facebook Shops. This free feature “allows business page admins to create a Facebook or Instagram-based mobile-optimized online store that highlights products or collections of items,” according to HubSpot.
Consideration Facebook ads are best for audience members in the top or middle of the funnel. These folks know your brand exists, but they need some in-depth, high-quality content and a little nurturing.
You’ll want this audience to take some kind of action — like downloading your app, filling out a form, or requesting a consultation — even if they don’t necessarily convert into a customer quite yet.
Facebook lets you choose from several consideration formats and features:
Pro tip: Promote some of your best-performing blog posts, infographics, videos, or other personalized content to engage your target audience during this stage.
You may want to consider using Facebook’s Conversions API in addition to the Pixel for tracking. (Image via Unsplash)
Now it’s time to convert your bottom-of-the-funnel leads into buyers.
You’ve already spent time nurturing these leads and building awareness. These people are likely very familiar with your products and services. And because you nurtured them through each step of the funnel, they ideally know, like, and trust your brand.
By providing these people with unique purchasing opportunities, you create a one-on-one buying experience that can turn them into lifetime customers.
Since these people have likely consumed several pieces of content, you can reward them with special coupons, free shipping, or buy-one-get-one promotions to sweeten the deal.
A little can go a long way — Robert Cialdini’s methods of persuasion show that reciprocity is powerful. For example, a single mint left for customers increased tips for waitstaff by 3%.
Don’t forget to add these customers to your CRM or auto-responder so you can follow up with them after their purchase is completed. This is especially ideal for products that need to be replaced or replenished after a period of time (think: ink cartridges, water filters, and most beauty products).
As mentioned, Facebook Pixel is particularly useful for tracking the ROI of your Facebook strategy through conversions. You can use this with ad types like:
Facebook can also use your inventory to create dynamic ads based on products your followers have already viewed on your website with product catalogs.
Pro tip: Facebook recently changed their policies to no longer allow advertisers to target ads to people under 18 (or older in certain countries) based on age, gender and location. According to Facebook, “previously available targeting options, like those based on interests or on their activity on other apps and websites, will no longer be available to advertisers.”
Facebook Ads Instant Experience (Image via Facebook)
With each objective, Facebook Ads will also ask if you’d like to include an Instant Experience. Instant Experiences allow you to create a fullscreen interactive landing page with rich media like GIFs, products, videos, and more.
Have you heard of Facebook Canvas ads? Instant Experiences replaced them. They feel like you’re visiting a web page, but you’re really just viewing a fullscreen advertisement within the Facebook app.
Instant Experiences are useful because you don’t have to worry about creating accelerated mobile landing pages (AMP) or dealing with slow load times. Your viewers don’t have to leave the Facebook app, and everything loads at lightning speed.
Facebook provides various placement options for you to show an ad to potential customers, as Search Engine Journal points out. Because of this, you want to be strategic about your ad placement. To take full advantage of this option, they recommend customizing by placement and not being too restricting when it comes to placements.
Pro tip: In summer 2021, Facebook extended Facebook Pay off-site to participating third-party websites as well.
The Facebook for Business platform is loaded with features that allow you to personalize your advertising content at every stage of the buying cycle.
It can certainly be confusing if you’re not familiar with the basics, but once you get your hands dirty (metaphorically), you can create an effective strategy in no time.
This post has been updated and was originally published in December 2020.
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