Lots of advertisers wonder if Facebook advertising really works. Take a look at these numbers: 85% of new WordStream users are already advertising on Facebook; Facebook ads get 22 billion clicks a year, and those ads reach a total of 1.6 billion active monthly users. It’s clear Facebook is an attractive channel for advertisers—that many users can’t be wrong.
In 2016 it’s a must-have channel for any serious online marketer. I mean, just look at all the data on user growth and revenue at Facebook.
Wow, though: Have you looked at all the crazy stuff Facebook offers? It’s information overload and can cause paralysis.
On the plus side, it’s quite simple to boil Facebook ads down to some basics that will help drive great results when implemented properly. Let’s not overcomplicate this one.
So what are some tactics advertisers can focus on to harness the power of Facebook? Let’s take a look at five key things Fashletics, an athletic jewelry company in Miami, Florida, did to drive quality traffic at a low cost per conversion during a six-week holiday campaign.
1: Have Rock-Solid Ad Targeting
Facebook’s targeting capabilities offer a scary amount of information – which is great for advertisers. You can make the case that you can get too granular on any platform, but when you want solid conversion rates at a great cost per conversion, go deep, especially when you’re budget is limited.
Fortunately for Fashletics, Facebook offers a perfect fit for the primary audience: females who are into fitness, primarily CrossFit.
In this instance, Fashletics set targeting as follows:
With these targeting capabilities, Fashletics hit the sweet spot of its market: Women who are into a variety of fitness activities in the U.S. and who, most importantly, would likely be interested in the Fashletics product line.
2: Make Sure Your Visuals Stand Out
This should come as no surprise, but Facebook – like most other contemporary advertising channels – is visually driven. Clean, crisp, eye-catching images stand out and help your brand image. Don’t skimp on this. Invest in professional images that showcase your product(s).
3. Use Copy That Speaks to Your Target Audience Specifically
In the above example, the ad copy speaks the customer’s language. It’s the type of copy (using words like “tough,” “authentic,” and “breaking point”) that gets the target market nodding and saying “yes, that’s me, this is exactly who I am.”
What makes it go even further is that it excludes people by saying it’s not for everyone – it’s for an elite target market that doesn’t want to wear something that could be bought anywhere. Exclusivity sells.
4. Test Your Ads (Seriously, Test Your Ads)
This is no surprise to anyone reading this. We have to test our ads all the time. Yes, it’s kind of a pain, but it reveals so much about your customer. And those “learning moments” carry forward to the rest of your advertising channels.
In Fashletics’ case, two scenarios were created in which the choice was either free shipping or a percentage discount. Without reading ahead, I bet you can guess which one most consumers chose.
Not all that surprisingly, free shipping won by a more than two-to-one ratio. We can infer from this data that people hate doing math, because a 30% off offer would have actually been cheaper than free shipping, but the bottom line is this: people love their free shipping!
5. Use Facebook Remarketing
Without a doubt, if you don’t know how to remarket, figure it out. With Facebook’s remarketing features, you can reach people who visit your website and then go to Facebook. Since these are people who have already shown an interest in your offerings, they’re much more likely than strangers to convert.
In Fashletics’ case, two ad sets ran: one to target people who visited the site in general, and another set to target people who abandoned their shopping cart. This is a very basic approach, for sure, but you can get super-specific with Facebook’s pixel.
As the data below indicates, Fashletics got 141 sales at an astonishing CPC of $0.44, not to mention an additional 137 page Likes, in six weeks.
What really stands out is the success rate with cart abandoners – hey, come back and finish that order you started!
Results of Facebook remarketing campaign
Final Results
Often people ask how much Facebook advertising costs. Given industry averages, Fashletics experienced tremendous success with a fairly modest budget and was able to beat the averages:
Overall Facebook Averages for 2015:
Average Facebook Ad cost per click: $0.27
Average click-through rate: 1.5%
Average Facebook Ad cost per click: $0.21
Average click-through rate: 1.8%
Fashletics Averages for Holiday Campaign:
Results of regular campaign
Overall Totals: Regular + Remarketing
In addition to the final data, we were able to identify some other KPIs (key performance indicators) that helped Fashletics determine the efficacy of Facebook advertising.
Key Performance Indicators:
Cost per conversion: $5.79 – meaning Fashletics paid that amount for each conversion. This is one of the most meaningful metrics because it allows Fashletics to know how much each new customer cost.
Conversion rate: 3.6% – meaning 3.6% of Fashletics’ clicks convert.
Bonus Benefits of a Facebook Ad Campaign
In addition to conversions and additional Likes, during the course of the campaign, Fashletics saw email subscribers increase by approximately 1,000 people. There’s gold in an email list, so in addition to sales and Likes, Fashletics can continue to market directly to its subscribers on a regular basis.
Of course, not every company can emulate these types of results (it’s marketing, folks – nothing is guaranteed!), but the Fashletics story is enough to make any advertiser who’s on the fence about Facebook marketing take notice and give it a shot.