How to Drive More Sales and Revenue with Your Facebook Ads
Jane Irene Kelly — August 16, 2019 — August 16, 2019
Facebook has more than 2.3 billion active monthly users, so of course, marketers flock to the service. But what if your Facebook advertising isn’t leading to conversions? What are you getting wrong—or simply not doing well enough?
This checklist can help you optimize your Facebook ad campaigns with the fundamental elements that can help to drive sales success and improve your ROAS on Facebook.
I have researched what my competitors are doing.
Creating a winning strategy for your Facebook ads requires understanding how your competitors are trying to engage users. For insight, go to Facebook’s Ad Library (formerly known as “Info and Ads”). It’s a searchable collection of all ads currently running across Facebook’s apps and services.
You can search the Ad Library by name, topic, and organization. Search results include details on when the ad started running, what copy and images the ad features, and whether multiple versions of the ad exist. You can also view ads targeting users in specific countries (if applicable to the brand’s campaign).
I am building custom audiences for my ads.
You’re not likely to generate meaningful sales from Facebook Ads if you don’t target the right people. So, be sure to take full advantage of Facebook Custom Audiences.
You can use the ad targeting capability to reach out to past customers or other people who have expressed an interest in your business e.g., newsletter subscribers, individuals who have visited your website, or people who have interacted with your mobile app. You can even use offline conversion data, such as in-store purchases and phone orders when building custom audiences. Another targeting option is Engagement Custom Audiences. These audiences are people who have engaged with your content — such as watching a video — on Facebook’s apps and services.
You can also use Custom Audiences to create Lookalike Audiences, so you can target your ads to potential new customers who share similar characteristics with your existing customers. Using Invoca’s call tracking and analytics solution, you can pass rich caller data to Facebook to create seed audiences for building and targeting lookalike audiences.
I know when my target audience is most active on Facebook.
Facebook lets you control what days and times your ads will appear. But that’s useful only if you know when your target audience is most likely to see your ad. Facebook’s Page Insights helps you understand when your audience is most active on the service.
When scheduling an ad, also be sure to consider the ad’s call to action (CTA). If you’re running a click-to-call ad on Facebook with a “Call Now” button, for example, then you’ll want your ad to run during business hours and peak call times. Call tracking data from Invoca can also help you determine the best times to run your click-to-call ads by aligning your ad run times with the times your customers usually call.
I am employing different ad formats (and using video!)
There’s an array of ad format options on Facebook, from slideshow ads that combine multiple images or videos, text and sound, to carousel ads that let you showcase up to 10 images or videos within a single ad, each with its own link.
The combination of formats you use will depend on the story you want to tell. But be sure to include video, if possible. Look at just about any best practices guide for optimizing Facebook ad campaigns and you’ll find that using video is recommended as a top tactic for engaging audiences.
The Facebook Stories ad format is also worth some experimentation, at least. According to research from Facebook and Ipsos, 62% of people who use stories across the Facebook family of apps have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in stories. And 69% of the survey respondents said brands using stories is a great way for people to get to know new products or services.
I am testing ad performance.
Are you testing what’s working well, or not, with your Facebook ad campaigns? You should be. Split testing (or A/B testing) is an important tool for assessing ad campaign performance.
You can use split testing to show two or more versions of an ad to similar audiences to see which one is more effective at driving conversions or meeting other marketing goals you’ve set.
There are three ways to create split tests in Ads Manager, and you can read about them here.
I am tracking attribution.
Tracking attribution is essential if you want to understand whether your Facebook ad campaigns are generating sales. If you’re running a click-to-call campaign, and the goal of your ad is to send people to your website and then to the phone, how can you know if a customer who calls engaged with your Facebook ad first? With an AI-powered call tracking solution like Invoca, you can get full attribution for all click-to-call campaigns on Facebook, as well as Google and Bing call extensions) and determine whether a call from a “Call Now” button led to a sale. Learn more about how to use call tracking data with Facebook ads in this post.
I am retargeting effectively (and using video!)
Not everyone who sees your ad, or even clicks on the CTA or goes to your site and puts a product in their cart, is ready to buy. If you aren’t keeping the flame alive with these potential buyers, then you’re losing sales. Facebook offers several ways for you to remind people that they were, at least for a moment, interested in your product (and what that product was). Upselling and cross-selling products are also retargeting strategies you can use on Facebook.
And yes, here’s that message again about using video. Facebook is the second favorite platform for consuming videos after YouTube, according to research from Sprout Social, a social media management solution provider. So, video really should be part of your advertising campaigns on the service, including your retargeting efforts.
I am not selling too hard.
Lastly, consider your overall approach. If your Facebook ads aren’t driving sales, it might be because you are focusing more on selling than engaging. Think about some of the basic reasons people use Facebook. They want to connect with, and feel connected to, others. They want to be entertained and delighted—even amazed. They want to learn new things and, ideally, be among the first to know about what’s new. So, your advertising needs to meet at least some of those expectations if you want people to pay attention.
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