A 10-point Checklist For Starting a Facebook Ads Campaign
03/09/2020 | Share:
Unless you’re investing in SEO or you’re happy with your current website traffic, you’re likely considering digital advertising. Otherwise, how will anyone know you exist? We’ve all heard about Google Ads and how campaigns can help people find what they’re already searching for. But, have you ever considered using Facebook Ads?
Why should I invest in Facebook Ads?
Facebook Ads are particularly effective at targeting people, if done correctly. It’s great for remarketing and reaching new audiences on a platform they use every single day. They don’t even have to actively be searching for products like yours (which is the case with Google Search Ads). Facebook Ads offer a variety of different visual ad formats that e-commerce businesses can use to showcase more products in a single ad.
Before you start a Facebook campaign there are a number of things you need to do. Whether you’re running the campaign yourself or you’re getting an agency to run the ads for you, you need to think about the following 10 points.
1.Establish your objective
What are you trying to achieve with your Facebook Ads campaign? There are so many things you can do with a Facebook Ads campaign so it’s crucial to know from the start what your goal is. In e-commerce this is likely to be sales, but it could also be reach, leads, newsletter signups, remarketing or a mixture. With a Facebook campaign, you can have multiple objectives.
2. Choose which products you want to promote
Which products are you hoping to sell more of as a result of the campaign? Are you going to promote every single product or just your best sellers? The more complex your e-commerce store is, the more complex your campaigns will be.
3. Determine your audience
With a Facebook Ads campaign, you can target very specific niches. Want to target someone who recently married, under 30 and has expats in the family? Facebook can do it! With this powerful targeting at your fingertips, don’t let it go to waste by not targeting the right people. Do some in-depth audience research to work out who your ideal target audiences are.
4. Create an offer
What can you offer to sweeten the deal? By including a special offer in your ads, you’ll increase your chances of achieving your objective. If it’s a sale, why not offer a discount or free delivery? If you’re looking for signups, maybe give something away for free like access to a guide or article.
If you’ve not got anything exclusive as an incentive, think about what you’ve got at your disposal. Whether it’s free repairs, a warranty or free delivery as standard there’s no harm including this as a benefit to doing business with you.
5. Decide on a budget
Establish what your overall budget for this campaign is. How much time or money will you spend on the campaign setup and creative assets? Are you writing the ads yourself, or getting a copywriter to do this for you?
6. Decide on an ads budget and schedule
You also need to think about how much of your budget is going directly to Facebook, and how you’ll do this. Within Facebook Ads, you can choose a daily budget that will last indefinitely until you stop or a campaign lifetime budget, which aims to spend all your budget within an allotted time frame.
7. Organise your creative assets
Will you be going for product shots, or do you want some lifestyle shots too? Perhaps a video will work best? Decide what type of visuals you require for your ads and then go out and make them.
You can get an agency or freelancer to do these for you, or if you prefer the DIY approach, there are plenty of tutorials out there on product photography.
You will also want to create more assets than you need in case the originals don’t resonate with your audience or underperform.
8. Ensure you have a Facebook Pixel
Speak with your web developer about setting up a Facebook Pixel prior to launching a campaign. The Pixel will track visitor and customer data, provide insight and allow you to run remarketing campaigns.
9. Sync with your landing pages
Ensure your landing pages and Facebook ads are in sync with each other. No one wants to see the wrong landing page when they click on your ads. Work out which landing pages your ads and creatives will navigate to. When running a number of ads, things can start to get complicated, so beware.
10. Measure your success
Finally, how will you measure your success? What is an acceptable cost per result to your business? If you’re selling appliances or electronics, a cost of £10 per conversion could very well be a great success. However, if you’re selling socks, it’s clearly not doing too well. Using the objective you established in step 1, know what success looks like so that you can decide whether or not to continue with advertising on Facebook.
