Why is Facebook (Meta) such an effective marketing tool?
We see hundreds of advertisements on Facebook (now known as Meta) every day, whether that be on your feed, through pre-roll advertisements, on Instagram stories, reels or posts… but do you know how effective they are?
I’ve somehow avoided purchasing a product directly through an advertisement on social media, but that is not the case for millions of others. I’m always curious as a marketer, so I often click on them to see what is behind the ad. We all know social media platforms collect data on us, but most people don’t know exactly how much. This article will break down why advertisements seem so personally targeted and can lead to an extremely high conversion rate when appropriately used.
Facebook collects thousands of data points on every consumer.
Facebook collects 52,000 data points on each user. Roughly 100 of which marketers can use to define their audience for creating advertisements. The rest, which Facebook uses to learn which individuals are best to target.
You can specifically target your audience
Decide who you want to target or who most of your customers are. Make it broad and subdivide it into 3 different groups. Then, test each of the audiences as separate ad sets to see which audience(s) works the best.
You can get very specific when defining your target audience so if there is a very important interest your audience likely has for example “Looking for homes” might translate to interested in Real Estate or looking at real estate pages you can ensure it is not missed.
It optimizes your Campaign
Facebook goes through a learning phase to collect information based on your target audience to tailor it to them. It learns who and which data points are best to target. During Facebook's learning phase, you must collect at least 50 impressions, reach, traffic, conversions or whatever the campaign's goal is to exit the learning phase.
When designing a Facebook campaign, your best bet is to decide what goal you have in mind rather than let Facebook decide it for you. Goals include but are not limited to Brand Awareness (impressions and reach), Engagement (likes and video views), Traffic (views to your landing page or site), or Conversions (leads, sales, etc.). Having a goal set is the best way to achieve whatever your objective is for your campaign.
If your audience is small, it is best to use a Brand Awareness or traffic audience when you are testing your audience to get enough information for Facebook to exit the learning phase and quit testing different audience variations. If you don’t hit 50 of your goal, you will be indefinitely stuck in the learning phase. That’s is why it is generally not recommended to test on an audience of fewer than 100,000 people.
Special Ad groups
If your Ad campaign is a part of any of the following categories credit, employment or housing opportunities you will need to follow Facebooks additional regulations when defining your audience to prevent discrimination. If your Ad campaign is a part of social issues, elections or politics you may need to follow Facebooks additional regulations as well “to enable healthy discourse and increase transparency and accountability, among advertisers.”
Facebook tracks conversions
Facebook has a Facebook pixel tracking tool, that can be easily installed on most eCommerce websites like Squarespace, Shopify, or Wix by linking it as a partner website. If you had a web developer design your website, you may need to refer back to them to install it unless they have already given you instructions on how to do it. Depending on your metrics, the pixel can track different actions on your landing page or site. Make sure your last pixel action is your conversion.
Facebook allows you to TEST, TEST, TEST!
Although, even with an objective in mind, Facebook can’t tailor the creative elements (images or videos) or the text you put in front of people …or can they?
One of the main reasons Facebook is such an effective marketing tool is it allows you to test your headlines, text, video and images. You may have to put in the work to design different Ads and come up with copy, but you can then test them against each other using A/B testing methods.
What is A\B testing, you may ask?
A is creative one, B is creative two, and you test the two variations against each other to see what performs best. Facebook allows you to perform an A/B test using their platform easily. You must simply tap the “A/B test” button in the Advanced Ads Manager, then select what you would like to test. I suggest only changing one thing at a time, whether it’s creative or copy and trying as many as you like. Making it an A/B/C/D/etc. Test!
Facebook allows you to place your ads where you want them. Depending on your offering products or services, luxury or not, you can decide if you're going to have them show up on stories, posts, preroll Ads, or carousel ads (where people can purchase directly from them). Designing your Ads to fit into these categories allows your audience not to think twice about how your ad looks.
Now it’s time to launch!
Once you have found the best audience and ad combination, it’s time to launch to your entire audience. First, ensure you carefully check your Ad for any spelling errors you may have missed or grammatical errors. It is your last chance to change them before you hit “PUBLISH,” and your Ad goes live to your entire audience.
“I’ve tested and launched my Ad, but I do not see as many conversions as I would like”
— be patient. It may take 90 days or more to see significant results.
It lets you retarget your best audience
If it has been a few weeks, it may also be time to launch re-targeting ads based on your most responsive audience who has yet to purchase. Retargeting Ads can be a direct call-to-action image, videos, video variations, customer testimonials or product carousels. They are hard-sell ads that give your customer reasons to purchase your product or service. Especially when your product is expensive, it may take a while for your potential customers to exit the consideration phase of the marketing funnel (learn more about the marketing funnel here). They may need a reminder or more convincing to check out your product or landing page and decide to purchase, then a $10 product.
It allows you to create look-a-like audiences
You can use your existing audience email list or the audience you have tested through Facebook to create a look-a-like audience. People who are similar to your audience may also have similar interests so they may also be good prospects to target. You can test an audience that is 1% to 10% different from your current audience and see what works best. Be warned the further you go from your strongest audience the less effective your ads may be.