Facebook Ads

[moo-tique]

Are Facebook Ads the way to go to attract potential customers?
Have they worked for you?

As we have built up quite a good 'Like' base on our own Facebook page, we decided to try a number of Ads to see what worked best, and if they would work at all. We found that we were attracting a steady number of website clicks but only 1/2 sales over a 2 day period.

Any advice?

Dan

 

[PIers Ede]

Facebook remains a superb, cost effective way to get business but is somewhat niche dependent. And it has to be set up very precisely, as do the landing pages at the other end. Can you be more specific about what you're selling and give the URL etc?

 

[ADNattan]

Unless you're selling something mass-market that appeals to impulse buyers, Facebook's pretty useless. At least in my experience.

 

[bharris]

I would also add high margin product to pay for the adds that get clicked on but not ordered.

 

[garyk]

Install a facebook tracking pixel on your site and then you can deliver ads just to those who visited your site.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Any advice?

It could be that facebook avertising doesn't suit your business.

A rule of thumb I came up with is this:

"Imagine this was 1995, how would you sell your product/service?

If you’d sell via shops or the yellow pages, then Adwords is probably the best fit.

On the other hand, if you would have used direct mail and/or telemarketing, Facebook probably suits you."​

Hope this helps,

Steve

PS This was from my May 2015 newsletter, titled "Adventures in Facebook Advertising", in which I shared 13 things I've learned about facebook advertising.

 

[ukbf0001]

You are trying to entice people away from their FaceBook session and on to your site - can be a bit of a struggle as people go to FaceBook not to look at Ads etc - apart from impulse buyers perhaps.

If you could sell your products / service directly from within FaceBook that overcomes one hurdle, you can then write your optimised content in a FaceBook Post (then boost the post to your target audience to engage them) - and if they want to purchase - they wont even have to leave their facebook session.

I use ecwid - takes 5 mins to create / setup - it is FaceBooks #1 ecommerce app - and is ridiculously easy to config etc - here is an example of my mates one - they sell picture mounts - you can see his shop lives in FaceBook , and the cherry on the pie is that you can put that shop anywhere - copy/paste 5 lines of code, into any html page (including wordpress, joomla etc etc) - one shop - many shop windows - hope that helps

 

[Adspice]

There are a few things I'd recommend when using Facebook for driving sales:

• Always use the clicks to website ad format
• Don't simply promote a post from the page, use power editor to build a campaign and create your ad from scratch to specifically suit this campaign
• Don't be lazy with the ad, think of it like any other ad, many people fall in the trap of using an abstract image and focusing on the text, when in reality the image is 10x more important than the text
• Use the 'shop now' call to action button, this helps stop timewasters clicking on your ads
• Targeting is key, as a rule of thumb I'd aim to start with an audience no bigger than 100,000, anything above that is too broad unless you have a huge budget
• Retarget as much as possible, Facebook is great for this. The channel isn't like PPC where you'll drive sales straight away because people on Facebook are not looking to buy. However, it's great for driving consideration and when you use retargeting it can help ensure you're still visible when your visitors have had time to decide to buy.

Hope that helps!

 

[StevePoster]

Are Facebook Ads the way to go to attract potential customers?
Have they worked for you?

In my experience Facebook ads has a low impact and the worst nothing at all in getting potential customers because this platform is not the type of buy and selling of product and services. Try to find other platforms that will suit your type of business and an assembly of targeted users.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

this platform is not the type of buy and selling of product and services.

Surely you can say that about any interruptive form of advertising?

(Including all those that have worked for decades.)

Steve

 

[Gavin Bell]

Facebook is great if you know how to use it properly.

Facebook is best used to build your emailing list. Get people to a landing page, where you're giving something away for free in return for their email address

This is the method we use in our social media agency.

 

[moo-tique]

Facebook is great if you know how to use it properly.

Facebook is best used to build your emailing list. Get people to a landing page, where you're giving something away for free in return for their email address

But then you'll have to get their permission on how you are going to use this information?

 

[Gavin Bell]

They're giving you permission by entering their email address. With Mailchimp etc. it requires the person to double opt in as well

 

[bigsie]

We went to a facebook business workshop/seminar this week, and I was quite enlightened by the impact it can have on your business. Got a few good pointers we are going to try, so worth a try as there is no contract. They are doing a few events around the country, so defo worth a look.

 

[moo-tique]

We went to a facebook business workshop/seminar this week, and I was quite enlightened by the impact it can have on your business. Got a few good pointers we are going to try, so worth a try as there is no contract. They are doing a few events around the country, so defo worth a look.

Who's the organiser? PM the details and i will check them out.

 

[bigsie]

I will try and find the details tomorrow, and post them.

 

[Mayur Mistry]

It actually depends on the nature of your business. If you are B2C company, then Facebook is your best place. For Facebook advertising to be truly effective, you need to become familiar with your target customers' hobbies and interests. That way you will be able to place your advert in the right place so it can grab their attention.

 

[Chelios]

There are a few things I'd recommend when using Facebook for driving sales:

• Always use the clicks to website ad format
• Don't simply promote a post from the page, use power editor to build a campaign and create your ad from scratch to specifically suit this campaign
• Don't be lazy with the ad, think of it like any other ad, many people fall in the trap of using an abstract image and focusing on the text, when in reality the image is 10x more important than the text
• Use the 'shop now' call to action button, this helps stop timewasters clicking on your ads
• Targeting is key, as a rule of thumb I'd aim to start with an audience no bigger than 100,000, anything above that is too broad unless you have a huge budget
• Retarget as much as possible, Facebook is great for this. The channel isn't like PPC where you'll drive sales straight away because people on Facebook are not looking to buy. However, it's great for driving consideration and when you use retargeting it can help ensure you're still visible when your visitors have had time to decide to buy.

Hope that helps!

Excellent post - I would echo these points, even suggesting 100,000 might be a little too large of an audience to begin with.

I am a massive, massive fan of Facebook ads, particularly for eCommerce. The ROI you can achieve if done correctly can be absolutely staggering - I'm currently running one campaign with over 8000% return - and that's without digging into it too deeply.

To the OP, I would definitely recommend keeping it up if you can afford it - looking at your website, you are in very "out there" niche and you'll need to experiment more than others to find the right targeting options for you, but I am confident you can do it.

Good luck,
Dan