DIGITAL SOUP

A blog by Barry Flanigan

« Back to blog

How to advertise effectively on Facebook – Ten Tips (from The Wall Blog)

 

With Facebook set to hit 600-million users worldwide and now accounting for almost a quarter of the world’s display ad impressions, 2011 could be the tipping point where most brands start to invest heavily in Facebook advertising.

I’ve come up with what I hope are some helpful insights into the essential dos and don’ts of Facebook advertising. Let me know if you find this useful. 

1. Combine micro and macro

Not only does Facebook offer huge reach for advertisers it also offers unique targeting features. Ads can be targeted by age, gender, location and even by ‘Likes’ and interest information that users have entered into their profiles. What’s more, since most people are connected to their close friends, and often their parents, the profile information tends to be highly accurate.

2. Keep it simple

In some ways Facebook advertising uses similar best practices to paid search. Using simple language in ad text, calls to action, special offers and sending traffic through to relevant landing pages are paid search techniques that work well on Facebook.

3. An opportunity to engage the brand

However, that’s about where the comparison between search and Facebook ends. If you’re expecting Facebook advertising to perform like search then it’s probably time for a re-think. Search is intent focused; people are actively searching for your website, brand, or keywords related to what you sell so they are much further down the purchase path and much more likely to convert. On the other hand, Facebook advertising hits people earlier in the purchase cycle, giving you an effective way to raise awareness and start engaging with your target audience. So it’s more like display advertising in that it won’t deliver the immediate revenues that search drives so effectively. But it will bring you new customers.

4. Don’t aim to get them immediately parting with cash

There are two ways you can use Facebook ads: promote something on Facebook or promote something off Facebook Campaigns that drive users to an external website can work extremely well if execution is good. Thinking about the best time of day to show ads, having good landing pages and measuring softer metrics like the percentage of new visitors and newsletter sign ups can yield better results than just trying to get people to part with cash straight away.

5. Maximise social recommendations

A recent UK Toluna/Econsultancy survey showed that 25% of people have made a purchase via a brand’s Facebook page. This highlights the value of a Facebook page for a brand and where promoting something on Facebook can be very interesting and ultimately beneficial to ecommerce revenue. When you see adverts for a fan page Facebook displays who of your friends also ‘Like’ the page. This ‘social recommendation’ can dramatically improve the ad’s performance.

6. Keep your creative fresh and interactive

When choosing ad creative and images it’s important to test several variations. Asking questions in ad copy has been shown to work better so test different variations of this. Also logo images tend not to work as well as interesting product or generic pictures. Test different combinations and optimise those with the best click through rates. Be aware that your ads are going to potentially get displayed to the same people over and over again. This is why we see click through rates drop off over the course of 5-7 days. So it’s important to refresh the messaging and images regularly.

7. Audience targeting like no other

This is where there’s potentially the most scope for testing and refining. Create different demographic groups based on ‘Likes’ and Interests. You can target competitors’ fans but also try to think laterally. For example, for a recent luxury brand campaign, we achieved strong results from targeting sports fans closely related to the brand such as rowing, rugby, polo and so on.

8. But don’t get too hung up on targeting

However interest/’Like’ targeting can often be too restrictive and it’s easy to get carried away with it. For example 260,000 people in the UK have “travel” as one of their interests. This is a good number and definitely worth testing against if you’re a travel advertiser. But what about the people who don’t have “travel” as one of their interests? Does this mean they don’t like travelling? We often find that widening the targeting by not using interests and focusing on age ranges, locations and genders can be a better way to advertise because you can get a more complete audience. The responder demographic and profile reports in Facebook give you excellent data to help you refine this approach.

9. Tracking identifies the sweet spot

Like any online marketing channel, tracking is crucial. Not just the overall campaign but also down to ad level and demographic group so you can find the sweet spot for your Facebook campaign. Unlike Google Adwords, for example, Facebook doesn’t come with a built-in tracking system so it’s important to use your analytics or, even better, one of the Facebook Ad API tools on the market, such as Upcast, to effectively track your conversions against spend. If you’re promoting something on Facebook then comparing new ‘Likes’ and some of those softer metrics such as active users, comments and post views against ad spend will reveal much about the value of the ad campaign and its ROI.

10. Things move fast in Facebook Land

Facebook has recently launched a new ad format called Sponsored Stories which allows advertisers to turn people’s ‘Likes’, check-ins, status updates and so on into advertisements to their friends. It’s critical to constantly experiment with new formats and ad tactics on Facebook to get the most out of your social ad campaigns and find ever more innovative ways to stay ahead of the competition. Facebook definitely keeps us on our toes.

Grant Muckle is managing director of I Spy Labs

 

Posted March 2, 2011