Believe it or not, Facebook Advertising has been around for a while. I was utilising the paid-ad functions for my business as far back as 2013 when we were spending around £2k a month on promotions to successfully grow a fashion brand audience.
Most people don’t even know Facebook were offering paid ads back then!
For those who don’t know, my first company was a fashion label for women with big boobs which I ran from 2008 as a uni undergrad until exiting in 2015. Around 60% of sales were B2C online and the rest via a wholesale network.
I won’t lie, it was a LOT easier back then. Ads were fairly new, organic reach was still pretty strong and by being a very early adopter of paid ads, we were able to come in like David versus Goliath, thrusting our brand image and product offering into the faces of the customers of our competitors while they were sleeping.
Fast forward five years and most people now know Facebook does Ads, most large and established businesses are actively using them and emerging/sole trader brands are starting to have a dabble too. But so many of them say to me “Facebook Ads don’t work” like, I seriously must hear this (sometimes from well-esteemed marketing specialists no less!) at least twice a week.
They don’t work because you are doing them wrong.
Facebook God bless them, have tried their damn hardest to make Ad creation idiot proof. They know that if every little shop, plumber, dentist, hairdresser…. all spent just a few pounds a month on Ads, across the globe, they would be absolutely bloody rolling in it (more than they already are!)
You may have noticed that Adwords have also tried to offer a simplified version of Adwords in the form of Adword Express, which, I presume was designed to capture the plumbers, dentists and hairdressers who would never be in a position to part with £500 a month PPC management to a specialist.
Have you recently searched online for something like “wedding cake Blackpool” and the top paid results are for a Wedding Venue 322 miles away in Torquay? That’s because some poor bugger has had a bash at doing Adwords themselves, but hasn’t realised his location setting isn’t set properly and is paying out his hard earned for clicks that are entirely irrelevant. He will no doubt be telling his friends that Adwords is a load of rubbish and doesn’t work.
I could write a disseration on why you might be doing Facebook Ads Wrong, but none of us have all day – so here are a few tips that might help.
Why you’re doing Facebook Ads Wrong
#1 You are treating Facebook Ads like Adwords
This is a common mistake. A search engine is just that – a vehicle to search. People are, by and large, searching with intent to buy. All you have to do is work out what they are searching for and then convert them (I make that sound simple, it’s not!) Facebook is a totally different kettle of fish. Not many people are using Facebook with the intent to buy, it is your job to call them to action.
#2 You are setting your Ads to a generic audience
And this is probably because you aren’t aware of what dazzling and downright gob-smacking functionality Facebook Ads actually have. If your Ad Set is limited to gender, age, location and a few interests/behaviours then you are barely scratching the surface of what Facebook Ads will let you target!
#3 Poor Ad Creative
What action are you hoping to prompt? This is half science and half art – you need to appeal to rationality and emotion at the same time. Start with WHY. Why do they use your product/service and then reverse engineer your phrasing so that you speak directly to them. For example, (travel agent) “Learn the secret of how we are able to book a family holiday in the summer hols for under £300 each” makes me want to find out more, does it you?
The trick here is to spark enough curiosity that they click for more. You might then perhaps take them to a blog post, an offer or whatever output you have selected as the most appropriate prompt that will take your prospect further down the sales funnel to conversion.
I hope you have found these tips useful. Please join us in our Facebook Group and take a look at our Courses. You can also have a one to one Zoom mentoring session where you can ask our expert all your Facebook queries and any other small business enquiries.