A Backstage Pass – Part III, Facebook Ads

Over the past few weeks I have been showing you how to use a sweepstakes to get more fans.   This week in Part III, I’m going to show you

How To Grow Customers Using Facebook Advertising

Advertising on Facebook is a great way to reach out and find new customers – it can be cost effective and easy to do.

But advertising on Facebook can also be a waste of time and money if you do it the wrong way.   So over the next few success tips we are going to show you how you can create your own effective Facebook advertising campaign.  We are not going to be able to cover every potential angle on Facebook advertising, but it will give you a really good starting point.

What is Facebook Advertising?

Facebook ads are located on the right hand side of your screen.  You see them all the time. Some are advertising a local business, others advertise a fan page you may like.  Facebook advertising is very different from advertising on Google (it is called adwords on Google).

On Google you create ads that are shown to someone based on what they are searching on (called keywords).  You know they are interested in your ad, because they are on Google looking for something related to the keywords they just searched for.

Facebook is very different.  With Facebook you are advertising to someone based on their demographics – what they like on Facebook, their age, their education, etc.   This is a very important distinction. With Google you know what the person is thinking – so it is easy to create an ad related to what they want.  With Facebook, your ads are put in front of people who are not thinking about you right now – so you have to take a different approach from Google advertising.

I am not saying Facebook advertising is bad – it is just different.  The positive thing about Facebook advertising is you can get your ad in front of lots of potential customers at a lower cost than Google.  Here are the high level steps you need to follow if you want to be successful with Facebook advertising:

Step 1 – Develop an "Avatar" for your target client.

This is the most important step for developing a Facebook ad.  You want your ads to be put in front of the person who is your potential customer.  So you have to know who your potential customer is – you need a "picture" of what they like, how old they are, level of education, etc.   This is how you are going to tell Facebook who to show your ad to.

Most people want to gloss over this step and just run some ads.   Running an ad that is poorly targeted will actually cost your more money and be less effective than running a targeted ad.  You see Facebook has limited ad space on the side of the screen and they want to make money.  If they show your ad to a bunch of people and no one clicks on the ad, you wasted their opportunity to make money.  But if your ad is clicked on by lots of people, Facebook makes more money.

So Facebook will charge you more per click for an ad that does not perform versus one that does perform!  And getting a good ad starts with targeting the right people.

Step 2- Develop an "Offer" that will attract the attention of your target client

Now you know who you want to advertise to, but what do you say that will get them to click on your ad?  You need to tune into the radio station your client’s listen to – WIFM – "What’s In it For Me" .  You want to offer something your target client is interested in, something they want.   Don’t come up with what they "need", focus on what they want!  And for heaven’s sake, don’t use your company’s name in the headline- no one cares!

So what makes a good offer?  You want to offer something of real value, something that your target client would want.  For example, you could offer a $25 coupon, 1/2 off a service, a free massage, a free consultation.  But it has to be something your target client would really want because you can’t even give away stuff that no one wants.

Step 3 – Develop the "ad copy" and pick a good picture

Now comes the fun part – creating your ad.   Your ad will have three major components – the picture, the headline and the ad text.  There is a bit of an art to getting step three right, but here are the key points:

Headline – Something that will grab the attention of your target client.  Books have been written on this subject, but you will have to try several different headlines to see what works.  You can start it with "How To" or you can tie into a current event.  Or it can be your offer "Free 1/2 Hour Massage" or "Free Starbucks Gift Card"…

Picture – A picture that stands out from the rest of the page that will get your target client’s attention.  Studies have shown that a picture of a good looking woman will get more attention than a picture of a man.  I am not being sexist, it’s the simple truth. To show how important you ad’s picture is, last week we ran the exact same ad to the exact same people on the same day.  The only difference was the picture.  The first ad (shown below) featured a woman and it got a click through rate of 0.059% and each click costs us 79 cents.

On the same day we ran the exact same ad with a different picture.  This time we used our logo – the wizard.   This ad got a click through rate of 0.037% and each click costs us $1.27.

So you can see how important the picture is!!

Ad Text – Use words that show the benefit of clicking on the ad to your target client.  Don’t use big words and make sure it is simple and easy to understand. 

Step 4 – Track Results & Change over Time

Facebook ads are not something you can set and forget.  You need to modify your ads and try out different wording and picture changes.   In addition, we have found the effectiveness of any ad goes down after a 5 to 12 days.  When this happens, our click through rate falls and our costs go up – the ad is stale and has to go. Think about it – many of the people who were interested in your ad already clicked on it and the rest of the people are now immune to your ad.

So have several ads that you rotate through.  Change the pictures and headlines around.   See what works best for you.  Facebook advertising is an active "sport", not a set it and forget it activity.

In our next success tip we will share more Facebook advertising tips and tricks with you.  Questions? Comments?  Tell us what your think on our fan page at www.Facebook.com/MySocialWizard!

 

Dedicated to your success.
Greg Pitstick & Bill Brown

 

P.S. We are just about finished with a brand new Facebook Fan page offering for small business owners.  You can see this fan page in action at http://www.facebook.com/autorepairtechnology  This new fan page is taking advantage of lots of new features Facebook released about two weeks ago – it is very cool and it should give you lots of ideas.  Stay tuned for how you can get a fan page like this for your own business!