While there are many KPI’s to look at in order to analyze and optimize your Facebook Ads campaigns, here’s my go to list of factors which will impact the peformance.
Campaign type
I have seen too many times how marketers tend to waste budget on Facebook Ads and become frustrated for not reaching their goals.
Let’s sort this out by giving examples of the most common objectives and the appropriate campaign types to use in order to reach them.
Likes / Followers
Although it’s not very useful, this is one of the most desired objectives for most brands and influencers.
It helps to gain social proof, in order to be validated by other users. Other than that, a high like / follower count won’t help you very much.
Campaign type: Engagement -> Page Likes
Leads
Leads are potential future customers. You gain a lead once a certain user expresses interest in what you have to offer (i.e. products, services etc.).
A lead is usually comprised of contact information (i.e. name, email, phone number, location, age, sex etc.) or other specifications (i.e. product model, desired location, building surface etc.) depending on what you are selling.
Campaign type: Lead Generation or Messages campaign with a custom Lead Form or Chat Bot implementation.
Visibility / Awareness
This objective includes several types of campaigns, depending on what you are trying to raise awareness about.
Example 1. Perhaps you wrote an interesting article on your blog or added a new line of products on your online store.
You will need to run a Traffic campaign, optimized for Landing Page Views.
Example 2. You made an announcement on your Facebook page and want to make sure all your followers or other target audience find out about it.
You will need to run a Reach campaign or a Video views campaign.
Example 3. You are testing several versions of your new logo or need feedback about color schemes for your website.
You should run an Engagement campaign.
Sales / Subscriptions
This is the goose with the golden eggs of Facebook Ads Campaigns. Wether you are trying to drive sales for your online store or are trying to get as many users to subscribe to your services, you will have to run a Conversions campaign.
Conversions campaigns work well with cheaper products and should always be followed by Remarketing Campaigns (let me know if you would like to learn more about setting up remarketing campaigns).
Custom and lookalike audiences
One of the biggest mistakes marketers usually make when running Facebook Ads Campaigns is improper targeting.
As you may already know, there are 3 main categories of audiences you can create from Facebook Ads Manager.
The most common is an audience created using the different targeting options provided by the ads manager platform (location, gender, age, interests, languages).
Custom
You can also create a custom audience. This is a huge game changer especially when you are aiming for sales or subscriptions.
You could target people who visited your website or certain pages of it, or create a custom audience of users who abandoned at the shopping cart stage of the sales funnel.
For the above mentioned types, you need to have the Facebook Pixel installed on your website (let me know in the comments if you’d like to read more about how to properly install the pixel).
You also have the option to upload a customer file, with relevant data about your customers or target people who used your app.
Using custom audiences is a much more relevant way to gain customers and is a better way to spend your marketing budget.
Lookalike
Depending on your campaign budget you can go pretty fast through your custom audiences. A custom audience usually takes more time to grow (as more people visit your website or use your app).
Here is where lookalike audiences come in handy. Basically a lookalike audience is comprised of similar users to those who exist in your custom audience.
For exemple, let’s say you are looking to expand you newsletter subscribers list. You create a custom audience of the users who complete the subscription process and then create a lookalike audience of similar users which you will target with your newsletter subscription ad.
Ad copy
The Ad Copy is the ad itself which is displayed to users. Of course there are some guidelines which you must follow in order to gain maximum performance.
Here are some of the most common mistakes I’ve seen with ad copies.
Text overlay
The 20% rule still applies. In order to gain maximum efficiency from your ad copy, the photo or video thumbnail used must not have more than 20% of its surface covered by text.
If you are not sure how much is 20%, you can check that here >> text overlay tool
Irrelevant
Use rellevant photos or video for your ad copy. Don’t try to sell everything with pictures of cute cats or pretty ladies.
Relevance score
Not many people check the relevance score. This is a great indicator of how well you manange to match your ad copy with the proper audience and vice versa.
If the relevance score is low you can start adjusting the ad copy or create a new one and compare the results.
Call To Action
I’ve seen countless ads without a single call to action. You should use a custom button (sign up, book now, contact us etc.) and insert a CTA in the ad copy text.
Here is another article I wrote with a few tips about creating a great ad copy.
Budget and bidding strategy
While budget isn’t everything in Facebook Ads, it does impact a great deal on campaign performance.
Testing
How much is enough for testing? Unless you are targeting a very narrow audience (<100), you should set your testing budget to at least $50 to $100.
You can not evaluate a campaign after spending just $5.
Scaling
Use the insights gained from your test campaigns and ad sets to scale the ones which are performing better.
How much should you scale? There isn’t a fixed percentage. It all depends on your expected ROI.
Let’s say you invested $10 / day in Facebook Ads and made a $50 sale, from which $20 is profit. You could easily increase to $50 / day or go as far as $500 / day.
If you are not sure, start by just doubling the initial budget and then evaluate the results again.
Landing Page Experience
Check the relevance score. If your ad copy and targeting is on point and you still get a low relevance score, chances are there’s something wrong with your landing page.
Here is a short checklist of what you should look for:
- SSL certificate is installed
- landing page content is clear and relevant to your ad copy
- CTA buttons are working
- page is mobile friendly
- loading time is under 5 seconds
A good landing page must follow some basic SEO guidelines. I wrote some key points about this here and here.
Feedback is always welcome. Leave a comment and I’ll reply promptly. Good luck!
Marele Diminutiv 