An Introduction to Facebook Advertising
I’ve tested every marketing method in the book, but there’s one I keep coming back to every time – Facebook Advertising.
Let’s back up. You’ve done the technical bit. You’ve set up your online store and listed your products. But finding those first few customers is hard.
For me, there’s no faster way to get your products in front of your target audience than Facebook ads.
It makes sense if you think about it.
Facebook has 2 billion users and it knows who they are, how old they are, where they live and what their interests are. Facebook lets you use that information to target people. Let’s say you sell clothes aimed at young adults. Using Facebook adverts, you can target an audience so that only females, aged 16-24 and interested in ‘Fashion’ see your ads.
Pretty smart. So, how does it work?
Understanding the Types of Advertisements on Facebook
Facebook runs a handful of different advertisements, and places them in various locations. Choosing the right one for your product, is KEY.
The Carousel
A cool way to show off multiple products at once. This one sits in the main Facebook feed.
The Marketplace Sidebar
These are smaller advertisements located in Facebook’s sidebar.
Sponsored Page Posts
This style of advertisement looks more natural in the Facebook feed. You can use it to draw attention to your brand (like Sugar and Cotton above) and actively sell products. This one is also the easiest to set up. Simply post a video or text, and hit ‘Boost Post’. You can then set a budget and an audience. Facebook will do the rest.
Offers
Facebook also allow you to create an offer and promote it as an advertisement. Great for new online stores looking to get its first customers through the doors.
Setting Up Your First Simple Facebook Advert
The process all starts at the Facebook Advertisement Manager. Here you’ll choose your objective. Since we’re selling a product, we’ll click ‘Increase conversions on your website’.
Now it’s time to set your audience. Who do you want to see your advert? Start by entering the location, age and gender of your target audience.
Don’t forget the ‘Detailed Targeting’ section where you can get even more specific with interests. Perhaps you want to target people who like extreme sports. Or only target film nerds.
This is where you do that.
Next up, placement. Where do you want your ad to appear? You can let Facebook do the hard work by choosing ‘Automatic Placements’. That will show your advertisements where it thinks they’ll perform best. If you want a bit more control, hit ‘Edit Placements’ to choose where they’ll appear.
Then, set a budget. You can set a daily budget, so you’ll never spend more than you expect on your advertising.
All that’s left to do is choose the text and images or video to promote your products. Make sure it jumps out and catches your audience’s attention. Make it intriguing, unique, and compelling.
Don’t forget to change the ‘Call to Action’ to ‘Shop Now’. This will give customers an extra incentive to click through to your website.
That’s all there is to it! At least, to start with.
This simple process will get your first ad up and running on Facebook, and you’ll start to see customers clicking through to your products. From here, you can get a little more advanced to improve their performance and sell more products.
Facebook Ads Case Study – a 40% Increase in Sales
To see how Facebook ads work in action, let’s take a look at a real life example.
The online store is Market Square Jewelers and they sell antique engagement rings. They spend just $7.50 per day on Facebook ads, and have so far, generated a 40% increase in sales.
When you break down the results, they pay just $0.06 for every click through to their website.
Wow. So, how did they do it?
Carousel Advert Style
As you can see, they chose a carousel advert to display their products. There are many benefits to this type of ad for online stores. First, it allows you to show off more products. Second, it’s interactive. It draws customers to click and scroll through the options.
Great Product Images
The first thing you notice about the ad is the stunning visuals. Their ad jumps out of the screen and catches the person’s attention. Try doing the same thing for your ad. Bright, high contrast images often work well.
Strong, Convincing Copy
After grabbing your attention, the copy has to convince you to click on the product. Market Square does this with a direct question to the customer, “Looking for an antique engagement ring?” They also highlight their 30-year experience, which helps build trust.
Choosing the Right Audience
The folks behind the ad knew that women are the primary researchers when it comes to engagement rings and the biggest purchase influencers. So they targeted the ads to a female audience. They also chose an audience that had previously shown an interest in engagement rings.
The takeaway here is to firmly understand your target customers before you launch your ad. Identify your most-likely buyers and let Facebook’s algorithm do the rest.
Long-Term Campaign
The team continued to run the campaign over a period of nearly a year. With just a small budget every day, the ads kept generating organic reach as well as paid impressions.
Final Thoughts
If you’re just getting started with your online store, it can be frustrating trying to find customers. Facebook ads help cut the corners and tap straight into your perfect audience.
Start experimenting with a small budget to begin with. When you find a strategy that works, ramp it up with a bigger budget. Are you using Facebook ads? I’d love to hear how it’s working out for you. Just leave your story in the comments below.
Bio Author:
Daren Low is the founder of Bitcatcha.com. When he is not reviewing web host, he’s probably busy thinking how to efficiently lose weight without going on a diet. Feel free to pick his brain by connecting with him on Twitter.
