Monday, August 3, 2015

So you wanna build a Facebook ad? Here are 4 things that you should know!

I wrote this article and found this topic and the information fascinating 
and helpful for anyone who runs facebook ads for their blog/shops...
Check it out and let me know what you think! 


Facebook is quite infamous for their updates. Facebook frequently change everything from user dashboards, adding auto play of videos to scrolling feeds, to ad targeting, and changes to their analytic insights.

In a time where social media feeds resemble collective streams of consciousness of everyone you have ever met, understanding how Facebook approaches advertising on their site is crucial to the success of an ad or company page. Especially since Facebook is reluctant to show more than one ad per 20 stories on a user’s news feed.

1. Use demographics from “insights” data to better target ads
            Before actually going to the “Create Ad” tab, you should know who is already interested in what you have to offer. Gender and age demographics allow you to target ads to those potential clients. The information you can decipher from this collected data includes everything from, “lifestyle”, “relationship status”, “education level”, “careers”, etc. This is all information you can use to determine what kind of advertising would provide a return on your investment. Facebook also provides information on what other products the people who are viewing your ads purchase and what they might be in the market for. Also in this tab you can see how many people redeem promotional codes and how many ads people click on as a baseline for your ads. You can also determine geographical information from this tab, which allows you to target specific areas for products or to promote events.


2. Relevant Score       
            When you better target ads from the start, you have a better chance of reaching your targeted audience with ads that are relevant to those potential customers. Facebook provides a “Relevance Score” to help focus and optimize campaigns to get to your targeted audience. With a well-researched targeted ad campaign, the relevance score is high and Facebook views this ad as favorable and is more likely to promote to audiences that will help you seal the deal with future customers. 

            Also determining what types of posts, whether they are links, photos, or statuses, catch people’s attention. This can also help you organize campaigns with visuals that help generate leads, clicks, and views. This information can help you answer the question, “What gets people clicking, sharing and commenting?” before a campaign is even launched.


3. When your fans are online
         Since social media feeds can scroll on for eons, knowing when your fans are online is imperative for views and potential clicks and costumers. Using Facebook’s “Insights” tab you can view when your fans are online over the span of a week. This allows you to promote content and ads when your fans are most likely to be online and able to interact with them. This is especially important since Facebook has limited how much of your content can be organically seen by fans without “boosting posts”.     



4. Retargeting Ads
        A potential customer browses your site on their mobile device, they consider buying those shoes, they put them in their carts, and abandon their cart. On mobile devices cart abandonment has been reported as high as 97%, and I personally do this all the time. By retargeting those ads with the products that you already know your costumer is interested in on Facebook, you increase the likelihood of a click and a completed purchase. These approaches to online advertising and marketing works for me, more times than I care to admit.


Bonus Bits: Other things to keep in mind!
  • Text to picture guidelines for picture for ads or boosted post images
  • Make sure ads are target to appropriate/legal ages if products promoted have a minimum age (alcohol, etc.)
  • Must have a minimum audience of 1000 to get all the demographic information from fans to protect privacy.
  • Facebook is always changing, keep up!


Sources:


“Showing Relevance Scores for Ads on Facebook”: https://www.facebook.com/business/news/relevance-score

“Facebook Analytics: 3 Killer Metrics To Calculate Using Data From Facebook Insights” by Nan Dawkins: http://marketingland.com/facebook-analytics-3-killer-metrics-to-calculate-using-data-from-facebook-insights-8331

“The New Facebook Insights: What’s New, What’s Awesome and What Sucks” by Jon Loomer: https://www.jonloomer.com/2013/07/09/new-facebook-insights/

“Analysis - Facebook's ad warning sounds a note of caution for Twitter” by Gerry Shih: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/01/net-us-twitter-ipo-facebook-analysis-idUSBRE9A00SF20131101

“Why Pinterest’s New Buyable Pins Are a Win for Online Retailers” by David Rekuc:


Do you run facebook ads?
Even if you don't, did you know these tools are used to market things to you?

I found it fascinating and wanted to share a blog post I wrote that is not an #ootd
=)

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