New Version of Facebook's Ads Manager

As always, Facebook likes to keep us on our toes with updates from user feedback.  We had many customers that complained that they couldn't open the multiple levels of Campaigns, Ad Sets, and Ads.  We also worked with many customers that were confused by the Reports tool and didn't know how to create different types of reports based on the ads running. I sat in on many round tables with programmers where we gave them this feedback from customers.  They took this advice and created the new version of Ads Manager.

Unfortunately, the design is not very intuitive if you are coming from the old ads manager.  This will take some getting used to!  I have a client that has this new version but he is missing links to Power Editor and Audiences.  This is not such a good situation since Power Editor is usually the work-around if your Ads Manager is funky due to an update.

What is your experience with the new Ads Manager?  Do you like it?  Do you have trouble?

Think of the person viewing your ad

Are you creating ads today?  There are some important elements of ad that really help to increase performance:  

• grab attention
• give them a call to action (click, buy, like, follow, etc.)
• and...
  

When you are creating an ad, keep in mind that you need to answer the question "What's in it for me?" Why should I Like your Page or click to your website? 
Even if I am familiar with your product or service, why would I want to subscribe to your newsletter?  I already get a ton of email.  
Why should I follow you on Twitter?  WIIFM!  
Convince people seeing your ad of the value of taking that specific action. 

If you can quickly answer this in your ad copy, you will find better ad performance! And get a better return on your ad dollars!

1 Million Facebook Fans for $1

I keep seeing people out there saying "I can give you 1 MILLION Facebook Likes for $1" or other promises like this.  It makes me sad and it gives marketing consultants a bad name! Usually their suggestions are not...um...exactly in line with the advice we were giving at Facebook on how to use Facebook.  The thing that small business owners need to ask is WHY do I need a million Facebook likes?  I get it. Competitors might have a lot of reach - tons of people see their posts every day!  You want an edge...so what will it hurt to get a little boost to your numbers?

Once you know more about what Likes do and what you can do once you have genuine fans you will have a better understanding of why you don't want to cash in on this promise.  

Genuine fans are important for businesses so you understand what works and doesn't work to turn fans into paying customers!  If a restaurant in Arizona, creates ads targeting people in India just to get cheap Likes they are hurting their data!  Now Facebook's Insights are no longer helpful.  This restaurant can't send out an ad to just existing Fans to remind customers to return.  Everything is thrown off a bit.  Don't try the shortcuts.  It will actually save you money in the long run if you earn genuine fans!

Don't freak out about how many Likes your competitor has!

Your competitor has a ton of Likes and you don't?  Instead, take a look at their Facebook engagement.  What does that mean?  Go to the competitor Facebook Page and see how many Likes, Comments, or Shares they get on average with each post.  

Are there very few Likes or Comments and a really big fan base?  Don't worry!

Is it 10% of their fan base?  Then they are doing something right!  Take a look at the types of posts that your potential customers seem to enjoy.

Hire or delegate wisely!

Did you know that as an advertiser, you are responsible for the ads that consultants create on your behalf?  Same goes for the content on your Facebook Page.   

You shouldn't just get an intern or an Administrative Assistant to create posts for your business without reviewing what goes live.  My suggestion to clients is to have their employees create posts ahead.  This way they are all there for you to review before they go live. If something doesn't sound quite right for your business, you can delete the post before it is ever published.  That is much easier than losing fans because your accounting firm was posting kitten pictures. (This actually happened!)

Shameless self promotion time...Call me!  Even if you aren't ready to hire me to help you on a permanent basis, I can at least teach you the basics so you can do it yourself.  

I want you to be successful!  SO successful that you don't have time for marketing and advertising...then you can call me back and hire me to do it all!

Get Customers in the Door with Facebook Ad Targeting

The first rule of getting people to walk in the door is that they have to know your business exists! 
Are you launching a business that is location based? (Do you need to get customers to walk in the door?) 

When creating an ad, target customers in your local area AND with interests. 
What do your customers have in common? 
What do they read?  What do they watch on TV?  Are there celebrities associated with a similar product or brand?  

What other things would they do or enjoy? 
Are your potential customers a certain age demographic?  Do they have kids at home?  Did they recently move or just buy a house?  Do they intend to buy a Honda Accord?  Yes, you can test these types of targeting too!

Are there similar chain businesses that they may frequent because your business is not open yet?  Target by what people already know.  If your potential customer would visit a chain store or restaurant, where would they go?  For example, is your restaurant more like Applebee's?  Or Morton's Steakhouse?

 

Remember that with ad targeting you are NOT defining your business for the public.  This is invisible!  So if you don't want to be associated with a specific chain - don't worry!  Targeting only helps you serve your ad to someone that has expressed interest in this other company.  

You can target by using well known chains with a similar price point.  Or similar products and services.
Or you can target by well known businesses by image:  upscale retail store with designer fashions vs. affordable fashions that are cutting edge.  

Call me for more specific targeting ideas for your business. The first call is FREE!

Making a List and Checking it Twice

It is that time of year again!  No, I am not one of the people decorating my house with lights while it is still September.  But...in the world of advertising it is time to start getting ready for the holidays!

The cost of advertising will go up for many advertisers in Q4. As we get closer to the holidays some advertisers may see a 4x increase (or more) in the cost of their ads.  

What can an advertiser with a small budget do?  
Make a plan!  Here are 2 basic ideas:

1. What I often recommend to my clients is to test different types of targeting.  If your Targeting group #1 sees a huge increase in cost, you will need to consider what is in your Targeting group #2 and #3, etc.  Often, changes in targeting and trying some different ways to reach your customer can assist with bringing the costs of ads in Q4 down.
2. Make a calendar for actions building to the holiday season.  Will you offer sales or discounts at a certain time?  Will you have special merchandise available for the holidays?  Consider the ad lead time you will need for people to purchase.

Contact me if you would like more ideas or you need a plan specific to your business.

Facebook Ads on Mobile Devices

How much do you use your mobile device for business? Consider your own usage when asking customers to take an action to buy or sign up. How easy is it to complete the "call to action" (buy, sign-up, etc.) you are requesting in your ad?

Try looking at your website from a smartphone and a tablet.  Complete the checkout process (or sign-up process if you are after leads rather than sales).  Was that easy?  Could you find and use the right buttons or drop-down menus?  
Some websites are not yet optimized for mobile.  If that is the case with your website, it may be difficult or time consuming to check-out (or sign up).  Users may give up before they complete the process.  

Even with the best ad ever created on Facebook, people will not check out if your website is broken, slow, or problematic on mobile. 

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Check Facebook's reports to find out what ad placement is giving you the most checkouts or leads.  This will also give you more information about how mobile placements are performing.  

I had a client that suddenly saw a big increase in the cost of checkouts.  It was no longer worth his money to advertise on Facebook but he had good results in the past.  I ran reports for him to find the problem. The cost of mobile checkouts was much higher than desktop checkouts.  When you look at your total costs at the Campaign, Ad Set, or Ad level it is not going to show you the breakdown for ad placement. 

Select the columns for Placement, Checkouts, and Cost Per Checkout (or Cost Per other goal you are tracking).

As you will see from this screenshot, the cost per conversion from the Desktop ads was between $4.27 and $8.18 depending on the ad.  The cost on mobile was more than 7 times higher!  

Are you running reports to find these things?  Please let me know if this post was helpful or if you need any help figuring out how to find your results of cost per placement. 

Facebook Business Manager

Did you try Facebook Business Manager for your Business Pages?

I was so excited about this new tool!  I saw a pre-view of this when I was in Facebook's Menlo Park office in February.  At the time, it looked great!  I looked forward to having it go live so I could really put it to use for all of the ad agencies were in my list of clients. 

Fast forward to now...
I put my Business Page...yes, my own Business Page in Business Manager without testing this first! 
That was not very wise!  So then I have struggled to post and manage my ads since I need to flip back and forth between client accounts in Ads Manager or Power Editor and Business Manager.  Not fun and a big waste of time.  There were changes since I saw it in February.  Or maybe I didn't realize that using Business Manager would take away your ability to manage you Page and ads in the regular Facebook.com.  

Have you learned to love Business Manager?  If not, do you want to get your Page out of there? 
Once you are in, it seems there is no getting out...but there is a work-around: 

1. Create a new business page 
2. Claim the NEW Business Page in Business Manager.
3. Make the new page that you don't want into your "Primary Page" in Business Manager. (more here:https://www.facebook.com/help/462627017200717)
4. Hit the Remove button (hooray! it is now an option!) on the Page you want to Remove from Business Manager and you are back to the old way of posting and page management.
If you want to have access to your Page in both Business Manager and Facebook.com, you will need to make yourself into an "agency" or just give "Advertiser" permissions for the Page.
#BusinessManager #FacebookBusinessManager

When Do I Change My Facebook Ads?

Q:  It looks like my ads ran out of steam.  I've seen this pattern in the past - ads start to run out of steam after about two weeks even though frequency is still reasonable and reach of 174,034 is just a small fraction of the 1,420,000 potential viewers.

The only conclusion I have come up with is that Facebook penalizes ads that don't change over time.... 

Any insights on this? 

A: You are correct in thinking that the algorithm does consider "newness" for posts.  Facebook programmers never admitted to us that this is also the case for ads, but it is what we saw internally when managing ads.  At the same time, we also saw that creating new ads too soon can cause your ads to become more expensive and less effective overall.  It is a matter of finding the sweet spot with the lifespan of each ad.

It is very similar to a stagnant website with few updates.  Google loves links and changes to your site and rewards you with better ranking. Again, new info means the user is more likely to want to see what you are showing them. 

For more tips, call Paisley Media