[The following is a guest post from Jamie Turner of 60secondmarketer.com.]
Last week, in a post on this blog called 5 Reasons You Should Use Power Editor to Create Facebook Ads, you learned how Power Editor can help you supercharge your Facebook ad campaignsThe campaign is the foundation of your Facebook ad. This is where you'll set an advertising objective, which defines what you want your ad to achieve. More. The post highlighted the fact that Power Editor helps you create Facebook ads that are more targeted, more relevant and more effective.
One of the best features of Power Editor is that it also allows you to send ads directly to people on their smartphones. That’s right, you can bypass desktop ads and have them sent directly to people’s smartphones.
But before we dive into how to use this feature, let’s take a look at why mobile is such an important channel in the first place:
- Data from SocialCode shows that ads that appear in Facebook’s mobile News Feed get more clicks (0.79%) than ads that appear in desktop News Feeds (0.33%).
- The same data shows that the number of Likes each 1,000 mobile impressions generated was also higher on mobile, averaging 0.62% compared to 0.22% on desktop feed.
- And, according to Mashable, Facebook was able to generate 2.5 times as much revenue from mobile ads than desktop feed ads for the same number of impressions.
Ready to get started with a mobile ad campaign on Facebook?
Facebook has learned that integrating ads directly into a user’s flow of activities works better than banners and pop-up ads.
Even though these native ads may be somewhat controversial, most users don’t object to the system. Below is an example of what I’m talking about. On the left is the native ad for a mobile app and on the right is the landing page encouraging the person who clicked on the Facebook ad to download the mobile app:
According to an article on MIT Technology Review, executives at Facebook knew that the native ad format was a risky venture. But, as you can see from the facts and figures mentioned above, the ads really work.
What’s more, the ads have exploded the myth that mobile ads are too small to make an impact. Facebook’s mobile ads take up a larger part of the screen than ads aimed at desktop users, which is one reason they get so many clicks.
And tests by Facebook found that the insertion of ads reduced comments, likes and other interaction with newsfeed updates by only 2%, which was considered a small decline considering the revenue possibilities.
How to Get Your Ads into Mobile News Feeds
My good acquaintance Amy Porterfield has written a terrific post on Entrepreneur outlining the steps involved in running a Facebook mobile ad. It’s worth taking a look at her article.
In a nutshell, here are the steps she outlined in the post:
- Everything Starts with Power Editor: As of this writing, in order to run Facebook mobile ads, you’ll have to use Power Editor, which is a browser plugin designed to help people with the more advanced aspects of Facebook
- Page Post Ads: When set-up with Power Editor, these ads can appear directly in the news feed and can include photos, offers and more. Using this system, you can reach users via mobile, desktop or both.
- Promoted Posts: These look like the page post ads in the newsfeed, and you can buy them through the promote button in the status update box on your page or use the Power Editor.
- Sponsored Stories: These ads may show up in the news feed under the heading “Pages You May Like.” They’re used to promote activity to your fans’ friends with the intention of attracting like-minded people.
- Mobile App Install Ads: These ads display in the mobile news feed. Use Mobile App Install Ads if your objectiveThe campaign objective is the ultimate goal for your Facebook ad. Your selection will impact options, including optimization and delivery. More is to drive installs of your company’s mobile app. They click directly to your app download page in the iOS iTunes app store or Google Play store.
Action Steps for You
If you’re interested in running a mobile ad campaign on Facebook, here’s what you should do.
- Develop a promotion. Country Outfitter developed a promotion encouraging people to Like and share information about five pairs of boots. Once users Liked their favorite pair, they could register to win them.
- Create a mobile landing page. There’s no point in creating a mobile ad unless you have a mobile landing page to greet people. Don’t send people to a regular landing page. Instead, think mobile first and direct them to a mobile optimized page.
- Run a Page Post, a Promoted Post or a Sponsored Story. Once you’ve done steps 1 and 2, it’s time to choose which kind of ad you’d like to run. There’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all, so pick which kind of ad best suits your needs.
- Test Your Way to Success. Once you’ve run one campaign, keep that campaign as your “control.” From there, you can A/B split testSplit testing (or A/B testing) allows you to test changes in Facebook variables like ad creative, audience, or placement to determine which approach performs best. More a second campaign. If the second campaign gets better results than the first campaign, then the second campaign becomes your control. Your goal is to always try to top the results of your control. By doing so, you’ll be in a constant state of optimizationHow you optimize impacts who sees your Facebook ad. Facebook will show your ad to people most likely to perform your desired action. More, which leads to better and better results.
The Bottom Line on Facebook Mobile Ads
The truth is that most businesses are still a little intimidated by mobile. But you can use that to your advantage — if your competitor is still sitting on the sidelines, then that’s an opportunity to jump in and get a head start.
By the time they’ve figured out how to get started, you’ll have already acquired some of their best customers. And isn’t that the idea?
Jamie Turner is the CEO of 60 Second Communications, a full-service ad agency, and is the Founder of the 60 Second Marketer. He is the co-author of “How to Make Money with Social Media” and “Go Mobile” and is a popular marketing speaker at events, trade shows and corporations around the globe.
