[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Does this sound familiar?

You decided your business needed to develop its presence on Facebook and tried to run some ad campaigns, only to have it end with no results.

Maybe you were hoping you could get some leads or were hoping people liked your posts and clicked through to your website and bought your product.

Maybe you’ve spent hours scanning the Facebook Business documentation trying to set up the perfect ad campaign, and saw no sales from it.

Trying to dive into the pool of Facebook ads can lead to several headaches and some lost money if you don’t know what you’re doing.

We’ve worked with Facebook ads a lot with our clients and have seen a lot of frustration when it comes to seeing any return-on-investment. These are tons of different types of campaigns and knowing which to invest in is not easy.

So today we want to shed some light on how your business can find success using Facebook ads and go over some of the common mistakes companies make in their Facebook marketing strategy.

Mistake #1 Not targeting the right audience

Choosing an audience doesn’t seem like it would be a hard decision. Facebook gives you lots of options to target people within age groups, gender, and location. But Facebook ads targeting isn’t only about finding an audience. It’s about designing the right one.

You can build a fantastic ad and show it in 100,000 people’s newsfeed, and some might even click on it. But if those people aren’t in your target demographic , you’re not going to get the engagement or conversions you were hoping for.

If you’re just starting out with Facebook ads, you’ll probably want to start by using Facebook’s Core Audience targeting tools.

There are four criterion Facebook provides that you can use to reach the ideal people for your offer.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]

1. Demographics-based targeting

2. Location-based targeting

3. Interests-based targeting

4. Behavior-based targeting

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_single_image image=”6683″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]To make use of Facebook’s extensive targeting options, you need to know who your ideal customer is and build an audience in Facebook around that ideal.

How do you do that? The easiest way is to create a marketing persona of your customers.

What do they do for work? What do they like to do on the weekends? What do they feel strongly about? What are their goals, their challenges, their fears? Be as detailed as you can. Flesh it out first in a Word Document or Excel spreadsheet, then take it to your Ad Set. You’ll be surprised at the interests and behaviors on your list that Facebook can target.

Facebook even lets you target people who like your competitors if they have a large enough following. Find pages that have similar content and offerings to yours, and see if Facebook lets you target them as an interest. For example, if you were selling a new brand of energy drink, you could target people who like Monster and Red Bull.

If you want a Facebook ad to be successful, you need to make sure the right people see it. Your offer has to be seen by the right audience for it to resonate.

Mistake #2 You’re choosing the wrong campaign objective

It’s hard to experience any success if you don’t set a clear goal before you begin any campaign. Every marketing campaign you do should have intent behind it, regardless of size and scope.

One of the most significant problems we’ve seen businesses make with their Facebook Ad campaigns is being too general with their campaign strategy and not committing to a single goal. Facebook, unfortunately, doesn’t help you create goals helpful to your business; instead, that falls on you.

It is essential for businesses to use social media platforms to connect with their audience, however, if you don’t set up your goals right and half-heartedly commit to using Facebook Ads, your efforts aren’t going to give you any results.

A key mistake you may make is not setting the right campaign objective for what you’re trying to achieve. Facebook has three main types of campaign objectives you can choose from, and they all need to be used correctly.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]

Awareness: Objectives for the top of the funnel prospects. The primary purpose is to generate interest in your business.

Consideration: Objectives for the middle of the sales funnel content, and cause people to consider your business as a solution to their problem.

Conversions: Objectives that cause prospects to purchase a product or service from you, considered a bottom of the sales funnel goal.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_single_image image=”6681″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]So whenever you decide you’re going to spend some money promoting any piece of content, you need to take a few steps back and ask yourself what the end goal is. Are you trying to boost a blog you wrote, why? You want people to see the blog, but what are they supposed to do when they look at it?

Boosting content for the sake of it is not going to give you any return-on-investment for the dollars you spend. You have to take time and plan out your ad campaigns accordingly and make sure they have a purpose.

Building up a solid strategy for advertising on Facebook is not a quick thing, but you need to keep your goals in mind whenever you post any piece of content or any doing any paid ad.

Mistake #3 You don’t know how to measure success

What if your ads are successful, and you don’t know it?

Measuring the success of a Facebook ad hinges on the objectives you chose and the metrics that give you insights into how well that objective is being reached.

For example, say you created a Traffic campaign. Sure, you might start by looking at your ad’s click-through-rate, and set a KPI around that. But did you know you can also set up custom conversions on your website using Facebook’s pixel? If you’re trying to sell a product, don’t stop at clicks to a website; and set a KPI that’s meaningful to your business.

Running an ad is only part of the process. You’ll never get far with your Facebook marketing strategy if you don’t know how to measure its effectiveness.

A lot of marketing agencies will guide you through the first step, but you should be wary if they don’t follow through on optimizing based on metrics, reports, and analytics.

What tools can you use to track your campaigns in Facebook? Well, Facebook does have an Ad Manager Portal where you can monitor the click-through-rate, views, and impressions on your ads. But there are some other essential tools you should implement to track your campaigns.

Pixel
A code used on your website from Facebook that lets you track and measure your ads.

Offline measurement
Connecting offline data to Facebook for accurate sales

Offline conversions API
Track offline conversion events to see if customers clicked the ad before converting.

Using these tools can help you calculate a clear return on investment that’s meaningful to your business. Now you can keep testing and break down what works and know exactly where to spend your money on ads.

You can win with Facebook Ads!

Feeling overwhelmed?

It can feel like diving into the deep end of the pool working with Facebook’s ad platform, but whether you work with a professional to help you develop and manage your Facebook strategy, you still need to invest time into using Facebook as an advertising platform.

We’ve had several companies experience success with taking small steps with their Facebook ads and graduating into more complex and financially successful paid media efforts.

If you’re tired of throwing money into Facebook and seeing no return for it, or just are confused on where to start, we can help. Contact us, and we’ll do a free consultation and help you master your Facebook Ads.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]