A couple of months ago I created a video on how to Create a Targeted Facebook Ad on a Budget (refer to the video below). I can appreciate that for most of us just starting out, managing our monthly marketing expenses is of vital importance.
Sure we can expect that our expenses will outweigh our income in the beginning, but soon enough the pendulum will need to shift if we are to stay in business – and we do this by being budget conscious.
Although social media can be a great platform to increase brand awareness, build authority online and generate qualified leads —- often times for free — it stands to reason that if we want to expedite our results, then sometimes that will involve additional expenses.
But like I said before (as well as mentioned in the video), bootstrapping our way to business success often takes a bit of research, trial and error, and some creativity. Here are five power tips on using Facebook advertising to leverage your business efforts … that will ultimately save you money. 😉
Learn to Understand!
Unfortunately most entrepreneurs are flying by the seat of their pants trying anything and everything in hopes that something *sticks*. In the process of doing so, much time and money is wasted; they are often left not understanding what went wrong and how to correct the issue.
Most of us were raised and educated on memorization versus understanding/comprehension. This “bad habit” keeps many entrepreneurs repeating the same mistakes over and over. When implementing new strategies, in particular paid services such as Facebook Ads, make it a goal to learn to understand (as much as possible) the process before jumping in. This holds true for just about anything, including free marketing strategies such as SEO.
See SEO Mistakes You Should Avoid
How To Create A Facebook Ad On A Budget
Recap: Stop. Learn. Understand.
Create a Plan
What is your ultimate goal with using Facebook ads? What do you aim to get? More leads? More likes? More engagement?
Having a goal in mind will allow you to structure your ad campaigns with intention and focus. Different goals will require different types of ads. Start with the goal in mind FIRST and then create your ad from there. Taking the time to create a well, thought-out plan will shorten your learning curve and ultimately save you money!
Use the Power Editor!
There are multiple advantages to using the Power Editor (works only on Chrome), but first and foremost it allows you to get super-uber targeted on Facebook. By doing so, this is going to allow you to narrow down your results to the most effective ads – ultimately saving you time and financial resources.
Another advantage is that it allows you to decide where your ad placement shows up – newsfeed, newsfeed sidebar, and/or on mobile – offering additional options not available through the Facebook Ads Manager.
Remember the key here is to get lean and mean in the attempt to find your sweet spot.
Download the Complete Facebook Power Editor Guide here (PDF)
Track and Analyze your Progress
Tracking and analyzing your results with your ads in order to evaluate what your ROI (return on investment) is, is an important step in the process. Yes! It’s a tedious process! But it will give you a wealth of information on how you can adjust your ads for optimal performance.
One way to best analyze your results is by utilizing split testing. Believe me, it sounds scarier than it is. People hear the term ‘split testing’ and they think this is something only tech geeks do … aah … no!
It simply means that you are creating the same ad but targeting to different people, countries, etc. You can easy do this by utilizing the Ads Manager area or by using the Power Editor (discussed above).
For example, you’ve created an ad with intention of getting more Likes. In one ad you target women ages 29-39. Using the same type of ad, you create a second ad that targets women ages 39-49. After analyzing your results, you notice that you’ve received more CTR’s (click-through rates) with women in the 29-39 age range than the 39-49 age range. You are narrowing things down in search for your sweet spot.
So what’s the big deal with CTR? It’s two-fold. The higher your click-through rate the more engagement of course AND the less you’ll get charged . Why is that?
In Facebook’s mind (if it had one) high CTR’s means your ad produces more engagement with its site, thus it rewards those ads with more exposure and lower fees. Facebook WANTS people to engage with those popular ads.
Let’s Get Real!
Finally the last tip I’d like to offer is to understand that Facebook Ads is not going to be the solution to all your problems. Using Facebook ads is just one piece of the pie of your marketing plan. It’s going to take patience to learn what is going to work best for your business. Be clear on your objectives and understand what it can and can’t do for you and your business.
Using Facebook Ads can be a great tool for lead generation as well as to increase Likes and engagement. If you are using it to directly sell your products and services, you may be disappointed with your results.
Two key takeaways:
Facebook is a platform for relationship marketing — the growth of your business will be directly proportional to the growth of your relationships. Secondly, this is a long-term process that should be in line with your long-term goals. Don’t expect overnight success. But if you learn to understand, create a plan, track your results and oh yeah, use the Power Editor, you’ll be sure to see some rockin’ results!
Have you use Facebook Ads yet? What has been your experience with it?
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Babanature
Hello Michele,
I am 100% novice when it comes to facebook advertising because i have not done any advert for my blog. On you post, you really did give some insight worth bookmarking.
I will be running a campaign with facebook by the end of the month and your post will be helpful. thanks
Michele Welch
Hi Babanature,
I’m glad to here that this post can be potentially helpful for you! Best of luck with your endeavor and be sure to report back how it goes. 😉
Jane
Hey Michele, I’d have to bookmark this post (no this is NOT a spam message LOL). Seriously when it comes to anything with Facebook I’m not an expert and advertising – nope. I haven’t either tried it out or even researched to know how good is it.
Now thank you for making my life easier.
Michele Welch
LOL. Jane I wouldn’t put your name and spam in the same sentence. 😉
Good luck. And don’t get discouraged to soon. It’s a process.
Ciao!
Dragos
Hey Michele! You really make Advertising with Facebook a really powerful tool! Thanks for sharing this post that really clears some issues for me. I have tried this service and I like it- as you said it is easy to target what you want, it is also pretty cheap and it gets you results!
Michele Welch
Hi Dragos,
Yes, the key component is in the targeting. This is where you’ll be able to fine tune things and evaluate what’s going to give you the best results within the budget you’ve set.
Best of luck!
yogesh pant
I do agree that the planning is something which is of the vital importance for the optimum usage of the facebook ads. Being real and having a good amount of the desired targetted traffic shall work for sure.
Michele Welch
Right on! You have a good head on your shoulders. 😉
Joe Hart
Hi Michele, Power Editor is simply awesome..I love how it allows you to laser target a particular demography…The tips you provided are very valuable…Bookmarking it right away.
Sarah
The custom audience advertising looks very promising. Thanks for mentioning that one; it’s amazing how versatile the fb ad platform is. I definitely prefer it over Google Adwords now!
well this is great this is going to help to create advertisements for my companies in low budget.
Connor Harley
These are very helpful tips to save money on advertising in Facebook. Advertising doesn’t always have to cost us much. We just have to look for ways on how to effectively do it without having to spend too much.
Eddie Gear
Facebook’s recent promo features or the boost post feature can generate a lot of web traffic for your blog or article or landing page. A few good friends of mine tested this out on a product landing page and the results were excellent from a $5 campaign.
Michele Welch
That’s great to hear Eddie! I’ve had some great results from $5 campaigns as well. 😉
Bee Venom
Hi Michele,
I really am a novice when it comes to Facebook advertisement. I never did advertisement for my blog. However I will bookmark your post. I am going to start Facebook ads in the end of this month. Your post will be really helpful to me.
Christina
Planning is most important thing for anything. I do appreciate these wonderful tips for Facebook advertising. I will keep in my mind these tips. Thanks!
Michele Welch
You’re very welcome Christina. I’m glad you enjoyed it and find it helpful. Best of luck with your campaigns. Please be sure to keep it posted on how it goes!
Samandar Nichari
It was really a nice post of you, It helped me and thanks for such a great favor of you. I downloaded Facebook PDF file and found it so useful. Will you please post about Twitter? As you know that is important for the bloggers to know about it. I will visit you again for twitter instructions.
placing ads on facebook is really a tough job for someone like me, but after reading this post, i must say that i got many useful and important points and the points you make like Create a Plan, Use the Power Editor, Track and Analyze your Progress are really help me out thank you so much… 🙂
Evan
Useful information. Thank you. I don’t know why but I love advertising on Facebook. The new Facebook Ad Platform has me all warm and fuzzy!
Christine
Most people have one to five ads running in each campaign. To get the best results, you should have at least 25 ads running in every campaign. Our optimized campaigns for clients generally have over 500 ads. This gives you the best chance to get the discount Facebook gives to successful ads.
Amar Ilindra
Facebook is doing awesome job with advertisements options. We can promote our business in less cost. The way how we can track our ad is super cool. I promoted couple of my products and got very good results.
Rudd
Thanks for all your videos. I just learned about FB Ads via online coaching few hours ago, and this article would be a good starting point to increase my knowledge on making more cost-effective ads.
Krishna
Wonderful tips I love the way you help simplify what’s out there and what we need to do for the best results. Thanks for posting!!
I just wanted to quickly thank you for the power editor tip!! I am running ads with over 7% CTR now. That is just unheard off 😀
This is an amazing blog-post Many thanks for sharing valuable information. I’ve always been keen in knowing the difference between the ads that feature on the right side and the sponsored posts that appear on the news feed. The fact that many users are active mostly on smart phones and tablets is a great indicator of why sponsored posts on the news feed perform better. Also, my other highlight is the smart usage of targeting custom audience. Learnt a great deal from this post. Looking forward to many more. Can’t wait to try out the power editor now!
Miguel Shands
I really want to thank you for the great info! I tried to use fb ads as a way to sell my product in the past and your right, i WAS dissapointed! I definately want to consider this info and really benefit from fb ads now. thanks again!