Every Thursday, I host three one-on-one sessions, and the discussion almost always inevitably focuses on one thing: A Facebook ad campaign process that actually works.
What I’m about to outline is a process that I have worked and reworked, tweaked and refined. It’s specifically for advertisers who don’t currently have a large, built-in audience to target for leads and sales.
Let’s get to it…
The Problem
The process I see from far too many advertisers is painfully simple: Target interests and Lookalike Audiences to build leads and sell stuff.
While this simplified process can be successful for a while, it doesn’t lead to long-term success. Your campaign will ultimately run out of gas.
I’ll say it over and over again, but the number one reason that advertisers fail with Facebook ads is targeting. They go straight for the jugular by targeting people who don’t know them to get the lead or sale.
Sure, this can work for a while. Cost per lead and sale will eventually creep up to the point that it is no longer viable. If you want consistent results, you need a better long-term plan.
The Solution
Instead of a simple one-step process (target one audience that doesn’t know you to build leads or sell stuff), it’s a little more complicated than that. It doesn’t need to be a lot more complicated. But I recommend focusing on three objectives at a time — all the time.
1. Build the Audience
Back in the day, most people interpreted this as increasing page likes. Or it could have meant building your email list. But I’m not talking about either one here.
If you don’t have a large, built-in audience, you need to aggressively and efficiently build an audience in volume. We’ll do this by promoting helpful articles (driving traffic and building a Website Custom Audience) and videos (building an Engagement on Facebook Custom Audience).
2. Build Your Leads
The mistake is that most advertisers start here, targeting people who don’t know them. We won’t do that. We’ll target the audiences created in Step 1 to build leads by offering them a related freebie in exchange for an email address.
This could be an ebook, webinar, video series, coupon code, you name it. But it needs to be valuable. And we’ll build these leads by both driving people to a landing page and using Facebook Lead Ads.
3. Sell Stuff
Once again, far too many advertisers start and finish here. While you could certainly target the audience generated from Step 1, you’ll undoubtedly have more success targeting those generated from Step 2.
Now let’s get to the details…
Build the Audience
I recommend two ongoing campaigns with two separate objectives to build your audience. For each objective, target the types of audiences you may have been targeting without this process. They can be Lookalike Audiences or interests. This is top of the funnel type stuff.
But the key here is that you’re not wasting your money on this entire audience trying to get them to opt-in or buy something. Lookalike Audiences and interests aren’t all that accurate. And even if they are, many of those people may not be ready to buy or even provide an email address yet.
This step helps separate those who are potential customers from those who aren’t by providing low barrier, no-strings-attached, helpful content.
1. Build a Website Custom Audience
The objective of this campaign should be Clicks to Website. Within this campaign, promote your most successful blog post. Something that helps people, solves a problem and doesn’t sell anything. Those who would be interested in the solution that this blog post offers need to be your target audience.
Alternatively or concurrently, you can also use a carousel ad to promote multiple blog posts. Again, they need to be helpful. Solve problems that your target audience would have.
