We bet this has happened to you: Your team prepares (what you consider to be) a stellar Facebook ads campaign. You upload it to your ad platform of choice and, once it’s approved, set it to start running ASAP.
Then, you sit down and wait for the ROI to come… but nothing happens. In desperation, you prepare to spend more money to practically force your message down the throats of every member of your target audience. You want the clicks, and you want them now!
If this is you, calm down. Spend that money on a soothing cup of tea instead, and open your ad analytics before doing anything else. You’re more likely to find the culprit here than in your credit card bill. The real secret to winning campaigns doesn’t lie in getting everything right the first try: it’s about continually optimizing each element to ensure you’ll keep getting the ROI you want.
Let’s get real, gone are the days in which a single ad could run for a long time and still get the revenues your brand hoped for. Our audience’s tastes, digital hangouts and channels change quickly; if you want your message to get across, you should stay at least a half step ahead.
The best way to do so isn’t by setting your campaign, forgetting it and waiting for a shower of dollar bills.
Instead, you need to take out your ad toolbox and optimize, optimize, optimize.
In the past few months, we’ve become obsessed with optimizing our ad campaigns for our clients. It’s a bit of extra work but it has taught us a lot as marketers, increased our brand’s sales and helped us embrace our inner scientist. This is also a tactic you can also use for any email sales/engagement campaigns you’re running.
Today, we’ll show you the four most important elements you need to tweak regularly in your Facebook ads campaign. Spending some time on these elements will get you one step closer to your goals and help you grow as an ad creator.
Are you ready for some tweaks? Read on!
1. Your Audience
You can have the ultimate Facebook ad for your brand, one that could become the gold standard for your industry, but if it’s primed for the wrong audience… you’re throwing your efforts down a bottomless pit.
When choosing your audience, not only you should ensure that the copy, images, and landing page are attractive to them, and that you have an offer they can’t refuse, you should also take into consideration the following elements:
- Which demographics gave the best returns in previous campaigns?
- What subgroup of your target audience has delivered the most CTRs?
- Is the audience more active at your campaign’s proposed days/times?
- Should you consider adding (or removing) interests from your desired audience’s traits?
This is why many experts recommend running two or more audience types for each campaign you run. After getting the results of the first few days, you can see which one is more open to your message, and devote your subsequent efforts towards it.
2. Your Copy and Your Image
This dynamic duo are entrusted with the labor of seducing your audience into performing the action you want them to, be it going to a landing page, interacting with a chatbot or signing up for your webinar. If you notice that your campaign is sputtering but your audience setup is perfect, take a closer look at your written copy and its accompanying image.
Even though we’re moving towards a more visual world, copy is still critical to getting the desired conversion. This is why you should look into trying out different texts through A/B testing, to determine whether an aggressive style of writing is more successful than a playful one.
In the digital ad world image matters, especially when you’re only a scroll away from fading into obscurity. If that first choice of ad photo isn’t enticing enough to motivate users to click for more, you need to scrap it. Don’t marry yourself to a single type of picture or video, while, for example, only changing your male model’s shirt color:
Come on
Instead, make sure to test out different types of images: with or without text, a beautiful photoshoot or a cool in-house design, among other variations. Whatever you do, remember to keep your optimization ideas in check by following your chosen media’s guidelines for images and text.
3. Your Running Time
Time is a delicate factor when it comes to an ad campaign, and we must take it into consideration in our optimization efforts. Give a campaign too little time to penetrate, and no one will see your ads. Give it too much, and everyone will get tired of you and ignore any further communication you send.
This is especially crucial when it comes to a campaign that’s tied into a time-sensitive promotion, such as a webinar, a limited offer or a holiday promotion. Every second gone without a click will drown your efforts and you need to act quickly to adapt.
4. Your Money Investment
The final point to consider when optimizing is the amount of money you’re funneling towards your ads. There’s a stubborn myth that the more you spend on your ad campaign, irrespective of anything else, the greater the results. This isn’t true and, in fact, can bring the opposite effect.
Consider this: if you’re maxing out your credit card to guarantee a 1st place visibility spot, but your conversion rates are meager, aren’t you operating this campaign at a loss? If any of the elements that comprise an ad is failing, injecting more money won’t turn around bad results.
(sorry for the tough love!)
Instead, only reach for your wallet as a last resort, after you’ve worked on the previous elements of this post. In our experience, insufficient spending is irrelevant to 99.9% of ad failures.
CONCLUSION:
Ad campaign success doesn’t happen automatically after posting (we wish!). By investing extra time and brain power into making well thought out adaptations, you’ll increase the odds of success, get the metrics you hoped for and learn new tricks to enrich your brand and marketer knowledge.