Social media advertising is money well spent, but only if you’re seeing amazing results. Unfortunately, many eCommerce enterprises lose money with Facebook advertising because they don’t know how to use it properly
There are certain things businesses need to include in their social media campaigns in order to guarantee success. However, many eager brands jump head first into Facebook advertising without considering important campaign elements.
Is your online business guilty of making the following four errors?
1. Selecting All Placement Options
Given that Facebook provides so many options for ad placement across the website, it can be tempting to try all of them without giving it any proper thought. However, you get much more out of using certain strategies over others. Going into it without any proper direction can be harmful to your budget in the long term.
Another typical mistake businesses make is allowing Facebook to do the placement on their behalf. Whilst this saves time and makes it easier by automating the process, it obviously eliminates any control you have over the process.
Similar to how an online retailer has to understand how their customers interact with various search engines, you need to understand how your audience interacts with Facebook for the best possible placement.
- Are the majority of your audience members on desktops or mobile devices?
- Are they scrolling through the newsfeed or using the messenger app?
The answer to these questions lies in a little trial and error as well as your audience data. Test out these various campaigns and see the results to determine best future practice.
2. Ignoring Custom Target Audiences
One of the best Facebook advertising features is the ability to control who views your content. Unfortunately, many businesses either ignore this option or fail to use it to its proper potential.
Facebook provides four methods for commencing the audience segmentation process. One choice is to base your targeting on customer account files that detail your ideal audiences. You can also target audience members who have visited your websites in the past or who have completed a specific action, such as viewing specific content or downloading an app. You can also target users who have engaged with your business’s Facebook content.
The above options are equally valuable if used correctly. To reiterate, online customers can come from across the world. Just like an eCommerce store would require a customised online storefront and direct product placements for varying demographics, you have to segment your Facebook customers based around factors like age, language, location and interests to align with intent.
3. Failing to Select the Right Advertising Type
Given that Facebook provides so many options for advertising, brands often choose their marketing types without much consideration. But selecting one type because it’s easier to create or any other non-strategic logic can limit your marketing strategy’s efficiency.
Customers at varying stages in the buyer’s funnel will react to advertising in different ways. What’s more, certain customers prefer more interactive ads including quizzes, questionnaires and videos, while others would be more interested in seeing a link to a product page for a quick purchase.
Again, your marketing team will have to pay close attention to how certain segments react to this specific targeting. The messages may then require alteration based on that audience’s history. For example, if a consumer has already seen your website and you choose to retarget them, they already know about your brand. Instead of simply sponsoring your brand name, you might want to consider recommending a product that they have viewed or promote a current sale in order to lead them back to your page for a purchase.
4. Not Reviewing Ad Performance Correctly
As you read this post, you may have noticed a simple piece of advice that is imperative to Facebook advertising success: tracking your results.
There is simply no way to determine your Facebook advertising success if you do not collect and analyse data. Fortunately, Facebook makes it fairly simple to track important metrics including click-through rates, reach, ROI and engagement.
Through the ad manager database, your marketing team can see the results of each campaign and measure the performance in terms of brand, audience and sales outcomes. Facebook can also estimate your ad campaign’s results once it has collated certain data, and this can be very effective if your team is attempting to determine a certain promotion’s efficiency.
