FLORIDA PUBLIC RELATIONS ASSOCIATION: ANNUAL MEETING RECAP PART III
Smart advertisers can spend as little as $5 or $10 a day and still achieve results advertising on Facebook. Protect your advertising budget and generate results faster by avoiding these six common mistakes:
1. Caving into the temptation of “Boost Post.” This function may appear to be an easy way to dip your toe into Facebook advertising, but it’s a major waste of money. You may gain a few new clicks, but this function isn’t designed to help you achieve an actionable end goal.
2. Skipping Over Research. Every ad you run on Facebook or otherwise should be thoroughly tested before investing your precious advertising dollars. Our evidenced-based primer on conducting this type of research will help protect your return on investment (ROI).
3. Focusing on Likes Instead of Results. Likes don’t necessarily translate into sales, mailing list sign ups or other measurable responses. While having a certain amount of likes can add credibility to your Facebook page, your primary goal when advertising on Facebook or across any other platform whether digital or print should be conversions. Facebook allows you to set your conversion goal to ensure your ad appears on the screens of people most likely to take the action you want to elicit.
4. Operating Without a Clear End Goal. Facebook allows you to optimize your campaign so that you can secure the most conversions for the least cost per noted action such as donations, sales or mailing list signups. This is by far the most advantageous way to utilize Facebook. Purchasing Facebook ads to raise awareness or heighten brand recognition is inherently more difficult to measure and therefor not a prudent budget expenditure.
5. Failing to Use Available Technology to its Fullest Advantage. Facebook has a feature called pixil, which is a line of code that can be placed on your website that allows your organization to build custom audiences for marketing purposes. With the pixil in place, Facebook is able to collect the user data of anyone who visits selected pages of your website where this hidden line of code has been placed. With this data, you can run ads targeting an audience who has already shown interest in your organization.
6. Withholding Valuable Audience Data. Advertisers can upload their customers' or donors' email addresses directly into Facebook. Ad costs are typically 50 percent lower when this type of defined, direct targeting is used.
Facebook allows advertisers to take this feature one step further and can create what is called a “lookalike audience,” which scours the platform to find other users who essentially mimic the behaviors and demographics of the email list you've provided, thereby greatly expanding your target audience. Know that Facebook cannot resell any lists you input into the system.
If you’d like more information on creating a Facebook advertising campaign that supports your organization’s conversion goals, please schedule a complimentary consultation.
1. Caving into the temptation of “Boost Post.” This function may appear to be an easy way to dip your toe into Facebook advertising, but it’s a major waste of money. You may gain a few new clicks, but this function isn’t designed to help you achieve an actionable end goal.
2. Skipping Over Research. Every ad you run on Facebook or otherwise should be thoroughly tested before investing your precious advertising dollars. Our evidenced-based primer on conducting this type of research will help protect your return on investment (ROI).
3. Focusing on Likes Instead of Results. Likes don’t necessarily translate into sales, mailing list sign ups or other measurable responses. While having a certain amount of likes can add credibility to your Facebook page, your primary goal when advertising on Facebook or across any other platform whether digital or print should be conversions. Facebook allows you to set your conversion goal to ensure your ad appears on the screens of people most likely to take the action you want to elicit.
4. Operating Without a Clear End Goal. Facebook allows you to optimize your campaign so that you can secure the most conversions for the least cost per noted action such as donations, sales or mailing list signups. This is by far the most advantageous way to utilize Facebook. Purchasing Facebook ads to raise awareness or heighten brand recognition is inherently more difficult to measure and therefor not a prudent budget expenditure.
5. Failing to Use Available Technology to its Fullest Advantage. Facebook has a feature called pixil, which is a line of code that can be placed on your website that allows your organization to build custom audiences for marketing purposes. With the pixil in place, Facebook is able to collect the user data of anyone who visits selected pages of your website where this hidden line of code has been placed. With this data, you can run ads targeting an audience who has already shown interest in your organization.
6. Withholding Valuable Audience Data. Advertisers can upload their customers' or donors' email addresses directly into Facebook. Ad costs are typically 50 percent lower when this type of defined, direct targeting is used.
Facebook allows advertisers to take this feature one step further and can create what is called a “lookalike audience,” which scours the platform to find other users who essentially mimic the behaviors and demographics of the email list you've provided, thereby greatly expanding your target audience. Know that Facebook cannot resell any lists you input into the system.
If you’d like more information on creating a Facebook advertising campaign that supports your organization’s conversion goals, please schedule a complimentary consultation.