Strategies for Facebook that will save your money.
While Facebook ads are incredibly inexpensive compared to the traditional advertising methods of television, radio, print and outdoor, there is still an expense.
And as a small business – or freelance or entrepreneur – you are probably on a very tight budget when it comes to marketing and advertising – especially if you aren’t completely convinced Facebook ads will work for your business.
With this in mind I have laid out below four low-cost strategies you can adopt to save you money when using Facebook ads.
Facebook Ad Strategy Number 1: Target Those Who Already Know You
The idea here is to target those people who already have a connection with you in some way. Be they fans of your Page, people who are on your email list, or even people who have visited your website.
All of these people have some sort of a connection with you and your business.
So, why target these people first?
Successful digital marketing and, in particular, Facebook advertising relies on building trust.
Very few people on Facebook are actively looking to buy something.
That’s what Google Search and Amazon are for (this is also why you should look at Google AdWords if you want to reach those people actively looking for your products and services).
Because of this you need to build a relationship with people before hitting them with a big BUY NOW! ad (it is social media after all).
And those people who already have a connection with you are already on that journey to trusting you.
Or, in the very least, have shown an interest in you or your business.
It is much easier and cheaper to reach out to these people with ads first, rather than someone who doesn’t know who you are.
And the more expensive your product or service, the more trust that is required.
So, who should you target and in what order?
I generally follow this list:
- Fans*
- Email subscribers
- Website visitors
* Assuming they are quality fans. Many business have a legacy issue here as they have built their fan-base on competitions and short cuts, so the people who like their Page are now largely disinterested. If this is the case for you, I would recommend starting over with a new Page.
Fans
Fans are an obvious target for your ads. As I mentioned above, only focus on these if they are of high quality. If you have a Page full of disinterested Likers then this strategy won’t work so well.
To give a good example of this in action, I had one business owner (who is an active member of my RAD Ads Facebook Group), who targeted her fans for the first time and managed to get 12 names on her wait list, for a total of 22 paintings.
That will translate to around $3300 in sales if everyone follows through – all for just $4.40 in ad spend.
Email Subscribers & Website Visitors
Both of these audiences can be reached via retargeting.
Reaching your email subscribers with Facebook ads is as easy as uploading a list of emails.
Reaching your website visitors with ads while they are on Facebook is slightly more complicated however, as you will need to add some code to your website (called a Facebook Pixel), but once it is there you can track anyone who visits any page on your website from that point forward.
Good for: Anyone who has built up a following already.
Have you tried this strategy yet? Let us know in the comments below.
Facebook Ad Strategy Number 2: “Trickle” Strategy
This basically consists of spending a small amount – usually around $1-$5 – per day on your ads.
The idea here is you can spend a small amount over a longer period of time to achieve some decent results.
I have seen this being used a lot by small businesses and it has worked really well as the outlay is minimal and the returns potentially impressive.
And you can use it for a variety of objectives – increasing page likes, boosting posts, sending people to your website, even increasing conversions.
The great thing about this strategy is you can set it and let it build your business over time.
You will still need to keep an eye on your ads to see how they are performing, and change the ads after a while, but it is an effective way to grow your business.
It would suit targeting non-fans better as fans will soon get sick of seeing your ads.
NOTE: You will need to choose pay per Impression (CPM) for this to work, because there is a minimum of $5 per day spend when using link click (CPC).
BONUS TIP: If you select Daily Unique Reach instead of Link Clicks for your Optimization for Ad Delivery you will reach more people on your target audience (although the downside is you will no longer be telling Facebook to optimize for your objective and your CPM may rise a little).
Good for: those testing the waters with Facebook ads, and those who have very small margins (like some eBook sellers).
Have you tried this strategy yet? Let us know in the comments below.
Facebook Ad Strategy Number 3: Boost Posts that Receive Good Organic Engagement
Sometimes you will post something on Facebook that will see some good organic engagement and reach.
The idea behind this strategy is to capitalise on this by then boosting that post to show even more people.
The great thing about this strategy is it’s simple to apply and you already know the post should work well as it already has worked well organically.
The reason this strategy works has to do with how Facebook decides on which ad to show.
Facebook doesn’t show every ad equally and at the same price. The whole system is an auction, but an auction with a twist – the highest price doesn’t always win.
Facebook wants to show quality ads just as it wants to show quality organic posts, otherwise the average user is going to have a pretty poor experience – which is the last thing Facebook wants.
So, the decision on whether to show an ad or not is in large part decided by the price you are willing to pay (your bid and budget), but also the quality of the ad.
Facebook gives this quality a name: Relevancy.
I won’t go into Relevancy in detail here except to say it is a score Facebook gives each ad out of 10 – the higher the better.
When you boost a post that already has good organic engagement, the ad’s Relevancy score is more than likely going to be 9 or 10 as it will resonate with its target audience (assuming you target a similar audience when you boost it).
This means your ad will get shown more often for a cheaper price.
So you could easily put less money on the boosted post and still reach a lot more people.
Good for: Anyone who posts relevant content to their audience and wants to capitalise on that.
Have you tried this strategy yet? Let us know in the comments below.
Facebook Ad Strategy Number 4: Use Ads to Convert People to Email Subscribers
This is a longer term strategy, and one you need to use in concert with a solid email campaign.
The idea behind this strategy is to move your fans and others on to your email list.
There are three reasons you want to do this:
- You can reach them another way
- You aren’t relying on Facebook so much
- Those on your email generally convert more
In other words, you will be able to reach more people in other ways and will convince them to buy more often.
This, of course, is all predicated on you having a strong email campaign in the first place.
It’s no good getting people to sign up to an email list that you aren’t active with, and then expecting big returns.
BONUS TIP: You can test out Lead Ads.
Lead Ads are ads where people can fill in a form (like an email sign up form) without leaving Facebook. Just choose “Collect leads for your business” when selecting your Objective.
There is some initial setup required before you can use lead ads, but it could be worth doing if allows people to sign up on the spot from within Facebook.
More to it
There is another reason this strategy works: lifetime customer value.
I won’t go in depth in this article about the reasons you should consider Lifetime Customer Value, but it is important when considering your ad spend.
Lifetime customer value is simply a measure of what a customer is worth over their entire lifetime with your business.
To illustrate this concept I will use a simple example.
So, say you spend $10 in ads getting a particular customer to buy something. Now, they may have only bought something that gave you an $8 profit (a loss of $2), but if they sign up to your email list and then receive emails from you over the next two years and end up buying enough to give you $200 worth of profit then that $10 spend on ads doesn’t look so bad as you have made $190 more from them that was spent to gain them.
Keeping this in mind is important, especially if the profit margins on your goods or services are low.
Have you tried this strategy yet? Let us know in the comments below.
Over to you… Have you tried any of these strategies? Do you think you will now?
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