Facebook Advertising is tricky, frustrating, confusing, and yet can be incredibly rewarding and even surprise you. I will be the first one to tell you that there are moments when I want to call Facebook Ad techs and give them a piece of my mind, but there are those days when I email clients with the greatest numbers you've ever seen. Fortunately, our campaigns are leaning more towards the latter.
Last week I published an article titled A Guide to the Perfect Facebook Post: High CTR, Low CPC with three important elements to the perfect Facebook Advertisement. Well, I have new numbers for you today, new problems to discuss, and some new tips and advice to offer.
Successful Campaigns - What Did They Have in Common?
At Linwright Design, many of our clients are Gilbert small businesses with limited advertising budgets. In fact, most Facebook Ad budgets don't run over $100. So, it's important to be able to translate those ad dollars into actual clicks and do whatever we can to increase a client's ROI.
I mean, as a small business owner myself I can absolutely understand the importance of making every single penny count, and when you can get advertising down to below the industry standard of $0.70 per click, you have less to stress about.
The most successful campaigns have been short and sweet. I've gone back through some of our most successful ad campaigns and have put together a few tips:
1. Get to the Point - In Facebook Ads that generate the highest click through rate at the lowest cost, the ad text is right to the point. It doesn't leave the audience guessing at what you meant, it doesn't beat around the bush. Text in your ad needs to be right on target and straight to the point. If you want them to Like your page, simply ask. If you want to sell a point, get right to it.
Case Study #1 - Three clinically proven steps to reduce blood pressure - diet, exercise, arginine. This was the text used in an ad campaign that ran at $0.08 per click and had a 9.75% click through rate.
Case Study #2 - If you have a measuring tape & calculator, you know your cost before we even come out! This ran in an Ad that resulted in a 2.6% click through rate at $0.45 per click.
Case Study #3 - No knives. No suction hoses. No scars. Stubborn baby belly? Try CoolSculpting! This ran with an ad that resulted in a 4.5% click through rate at just $0.15 per click.
2. Let the Image Draw Them In - Many social media ad experts will tell you to use images with people, smiling faces, individuals that the audience can connect to. While these are great ideas, the reality is that you have to absolutely know your audience in order to know what kind of image will appeal to them. My best advice, run three separate images under one campaign. After just one day you'll know what images work and which ones don't. Stop the ads that are underperforming.
Case Study #1 - Since this ad was targeting individuals with hypertension and heart problems who were seeking out natural solutions, we chose a photo of some fresh food and veggies.
Case Study #2 - In this ad, we simply utilized our most popular and clean photo from the client's kitchen renovation portfolio. It appealed to exactly who we were targeting, local Gilbert residents looking for a kitchen renovation.
Case Study #3 - And, of course, when promoting a weight loss item the audience wants to see actual results, so we provided a before and after photo.
3. Segment, Segment, Segment - I really can't stress enough how important it is to target your audience. Segment that audience down to the smallest increments. For example, in Case Study #2, we ran an ad that only targeted 38,000 Facebook users, and yet the client ended up with two huge leads, which could potentially result in thousand-dollar kitchen renovations.
Your audience doesn't have to be huge, especially if you're a Gilbert small business, but it does have to be targeted. Consider every single thing that your target audience is interested in, from magazines to tv shows, stores they shop at and music they listen to. Target only your service area as well.
In the last three Facebook ads we've run for clients at Linwright Design, we have achieved numbers that literally blow industry standards for CTR and CPC out of the water. I mean, essentially anything over 1% is unheard of. The highest average click-through rate by industry is in the telecom industry, which receives a 0.91% CTR, but that comes with a very high cost per click of $1.57.
Taking as a whole, according to MarketingCharts.com, the average click through rate in the US is 0.171%, but the average cost per click is around $0.24. Something to think about when moving forward with your next Facebook campaign.
(Facebook / shutterstock)