There are many ways to indirectly make an income on Facebook. But the only measurable way of doing it is through paying to play. Around a fifth of all mobile advertising goes through Facebook. It's true that you don't need to be on every digital channel, but Facebook is one where you absolutely have to be present.
Using the Facebook advertising platform can make your business into a resounding success. But failing to use it correctly can cripple your ROI, and even ensure that you lose money entirely.
This guide is going to show you some of the ways in which you can up your ROI on Facebook.
What You are Promoting?
It may be tempting to boost your posts, but in 2016 there's very little value in doing so. It's true that you may want to use philanthropy in a marketing mix and the only way to reach a large audience is to boost the post, but there's little to no ROI through using this method.
Why?
Because ads are designed to sell something. You aren't selling something that you did because it already happened. You are just telling people what you did. Your ROI is going to be far lower on a boosted post, assuming there's anything to gain at all. Can this feature and move on.
Use the Power Editor
You will notice that the Power Editor is separate from the traditional Ad Manager platform. Always make sure you are using the Power Editor because it offers far more customization options. The Ad Manager is simpler to use, but you are robbing yourself of the potential of many of your ads, as a result.
The Power Editor can take some time to get used to, and you can only use it on Google Chrome, but it's far superior and you won't regret it.
All in the Split Testing
Even the experts acknowledge that no matter how much you know about advertising and your target audience the only way you are going to succeed with ads is through split testing. You should be testing on a huge scale. It's not uncommon to have 10 variations of the same ad running at once, with $5 daily budgets. On each ad you would ever so slightly change an aspect, such as the copy, the headline, or the image.
It can take many weeks to get the perfect ad, so be willing to test and never settle. If an ad starts to flag, be willing to kill it immediately.
What You Post
An ad should ultimately lead somewhere. Make sure you avoid anything that could be construed as clickbait. These are the ads that claim that something amazing is behind the link. Unless there is actually something amazing behind the link, this is only going to hurt your online reputation this year.
Ultimately, trust is everything on social media. If someone keeps seeing your ads, they are going to mark you as spam if you have a reputation for not delivering on your promises.
With every ad you should have a compelling call to action, but under no circumstances should you be using deception to get people from Facebook to your website.
Marketing to Fans and Non-Fans
It's easy to market to your fans on Facebook because you can connect your email newsletter platform, such as Mailchimp, to it. All you have to do is insert your newsletter and it will use the email addresses to create what's known as a lookalike audience. As closely as possible it will resemble the nuances of your list. With larger lists, this can be extremely accurate.
But it only works when you have a few hundred engaged individuals whom also happen to be on Facebook.
Marketing to non-fans is everything else. Generally, if you are trying to sell a high ticket item you are going to have a far greater ROI by marketing exclusively to your fans. For marketing to non-fans, it's usually better to market at a much lower level.
For example, if you want to sell a $200 course you may decide to send these ads to your existing fans on Facebook. For non-fans, you may decide to market signing up to your newsletter list. During the mailing sequence you would market the $200 course. This would give you a far superior ROI.
Conclusion
As you can see, Facebook ads can be extremely effective. They only work if you approach them in the right way, though. How are you going to use Facebook advertising today?
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Using the Facebook advertising platform can make your business into a resounding success. But failing to use it correctly can cripple your ROI, and even ensure that you lose money entirely.
This guide is going to show you some of the ways in which you can up your ROI on Facebook.
What You are Promoting?
It may be tempting to boost your posts, but in 2016 there's very little value in doing so. It's true that you may want to use philanthropy in a marketing mix and the only way to reach a large audience is to boost the post, but there's little to no ROI through using this method.
Why?
Because ads are designed to sell something. You aren't selling something that you did because it already happened. You are just telling people what you did. Your ROI is going to be far lower on a boosted post, assuming there's anything to gain at all. Can this feature and move on.
Use the Power Editor
You will notice that the Power Editor is separate from the traditional Ad Manager platform. Always make sure you are using the Power Editor because it offers far more customization options. The Ad Manager is simpler to use, but you are robbing yourself of the potential of many of your ads, as a result.
The Power Editor can take some time to get used to, and you can only use it on Google Chrome, but it's far superior and you won't regret it.
All in the Split Testing
Even the experts acknowledge that no matter how much you know about advertising and your target audience the only way you are going to succeed with ads is through split testing. You should be testing on a huge scale. It's not uncommon to have 10 variations of the same ad running at once, with $5 daily budgets. On each ad you would ever so slightly change an aspect, such as the copy, the headline, or the image.
It can take many weeks to get the perfect ad, so be willing to test and never settle. If an ad starts to flag, be willing to kill it immediately.
What You Post
An ad should ultimately lead somewhere. Make sure you avoid anything that could be construed as clickbait. These are the ads that claim that something amazing is behind the link. Unless there is actually something amazing behind the link, this is only going to hurt your online reputation this year.
Ultimately, trust is everything on social media. If someone keeps seeing your ads, they are going to mark you as spam if you have a reputation for not delivering on your promises.
With every ad you should have a compelling call to action, but under no circumstances should you be using deception to get people from Facebook to your website.
Marketing to Fans and Non-Fans
It's easy to market to your fans on Facebook because you can connect your email newsletter platform, such as Mailchimp, to it. All you have to do is insert your newsletter and it will use the email addresses to create what's known as a lookalike audience. As closely as possible it will resemble the nuances of your list. With larger lists, this can be extremely accurate.
But it only works when you have a few hundred engaged individuals whom also happen to be on Facebook.
Marketing to non-fans is everything else. Generally, if you are trying to sell a high ticket item you are going to have a far greater ROI by marketing exclusively to your fans. For marketing to non-fans, it's usually better to market at a much lower level.
For example, if you want to sell a $200 course you may decide to send these ads to your existing fans on Facebook. For non-fans, you may decide to market signing up to your newsletter list. During the mailing sequence you would market the $200 course. This would give you a far superior ROI.
Conclusion
As you can see, Facebook ads can be extremely effective. They only work if you approach them in the right way, though. How are you going to use Facebook advertising today?
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