If you stand squarely at the helm of an up-and-coming brand, there’s a good chance you’ve got a Facebook page with a high-quality profile pic, background image and your business’ name on it.
In fact, if you’ve taken the time to create one, there’s an even better chance that your idea of “social selling” has you creating weekly posts that promote your blog content—sound familiar?
Though I likely know little about you, your company or even the industry you’re working in, I bet I’ve got a pretty good idea of the results you’re seeing on a weekly basis—crickets.
Chalk it up to algorithmic updates, crowded newsfeeds or something as simple as yawn-inducing content, Facebook is changing. As such, to gain immediate access to Facebook’s 1.79 billion active monthly users, you’d be wise to make some changes, as well.
Fortunately, there’s already a tried-and-true way to do things on the Internet’s finest social network—Facebook ads. Similar to search engine advertising, instead of aimlessly firing off a handful of posts each week, Facebook ads allow you to track, measure and predict.
The result? Cheaper clicks, highly targeted leads and more sales.
If all of this sounds too good to be true, take it straight from me—it’s not.
Having proven themselves as winning strategies, each of the five Facebook ad hacks below will have you winning more clicks and driving relevant traffic—all this at a shockingly cheap rate.
Kick the aforementioned crickets to the curb—keep reading to see how it’s done:
1) Start With Your Existing Audience
Seeing as how you’re putting your hard-earned dollars behind Facebook ads, why would you start with an unproven audience? To get a campaign going, start first with your existing audience.
Needless to say, when compared with your existing body of brand fans, newer audiences are much less likely to respond to the ads you send their way. You’re looking for comments, shares, tags and clicks—those familiar with your business are most prone to give them to you.
But wait—isn’t part of the point to gain access to new buyers? Of course it is, but by first targeting your existing audience, you gain access to something all ads need—social proof.
Remember those “comments, shares, tags and clicks” of which were previously made mention?
Armed with plenty of them, when it comes time for an ad to reach colder Facebook users, you’ll have the social proof necessary to earn their interest.
More clicks at a cheaper rate—it’s a simple, yet beautiful thing.
2) Split Test Ads to Find What Works Best
I’ve been managing paid Facebook campaigns for a long time.
Still, though my campaigns often see quick success, without engaging in some good, old-fashioned split testing, I know that I’m leaving tons of money on the table for my clients …
Needless to say, this simply isn’t an option.
And yes, I get that split testing takes some real time and effort, but there’s a reason the likes of Neil Patel, Daniel Gilbert and Jeff Bullas are such vocal proponents of it—it works.
If it works for them, it will work for you, too—test this stuff:
- Adjust your Facebook ad’s headline.
- Adjust your Facebook ad’s featured image or video.
- Adjust your Facebook ad’s copy—try both short- and long-form text.
- Adjust your Facebook ad’s style—try both website link and carousel formats.
Once again, I know that split testing is somewhat of a painstaking task, but more than just about any other hack on this list, when done well, it will keep costs low while improving your ads.
3) Retarget Site Visitors with Facebook Lead Ads
Whether it’s a checklist, template, video series or full-blown e-book, lead magnets are a great way to build an email list. That said, using a lead magnet to capture leads can be expensive …
You guessed it—this is where Facebook lead ads come into focus.
Whatever you do, though, don’t start targeting Facebook users at random. Do things the right way, using Facebook’s Custom Audience to your advantage.
No worries—it’s not too complex.
First, install the Facebook Pixel on your website. Having done this, you’ll now be able to create a Website Custom Audience based purely on past site visits—not bad, eh?
Before you get started with all of this, though, please keep in mind that Facebook ads are only as powerful as the relevance of a target audience …
Creating an enticing lead magnet is hard work.
Make it worth your while by ensuring that only those with a genuine interest will see it. Take it from me—it’s hard to make Facebook advertising much more effective than this.
4) Automate Page Likes With Video Retargeting
I’m not big on those prognostication-type blog posts or anything, but I’m about to give you a glimpse of the future right now—in 2017, Facebook video will be bigger than ever before.
I’d be lying if I said I came up with this myself, though ….
Mark Zuckerberg told Buzzfeed that he “wouldn’t be surprised if you fast-forward five years and most of the content that people see on Facebook and are sharing on a day-to-day basis is video.”
And now for those ever-coveted likes …
Improving your Facebook page’s likes isn’t as difficult as it seems—as a direct byproduct of following the other four strategies listed in this post, you’ll see them start to climb.
Consciously improve them, however, by filming a short video that asks your audience to like your Facebook page. It might seem like a cheap tactic, but it works like a champ.
Merely creating the video won’t do much, though. Next, you’ll want to build out a Facebook likes campaign and an ad set that targets only those who’ve visited your site in the past 24 hours.
Also, exclude users who’ve already liked your Facebook page—that’s all there is to it.
Similar to the first hack on my list, the benefits of this technique are two-pronged in their approach. First, your business page will earn more likes via an automated process.
Second, more page likes means a lower cost-per-click (CPC) on the ads you decide to send to your existing audience as part of future campaigns.
With this hack, you can’t lose.
5) Don’t Forget About ‘Facebook Funnel Dripping’
You’ve heard of a “Facebook funnel” right? If not, pay attention …
Similar to a “drip” email marketing campaign, Facebook funnels allow marketers to drip out new ads to past site visitors. And don’t worry—as is the case with each hack, it’s automated.
For example, let’s say that you’ve recently created a series of four blog posts that you’d like to promote to people who’ve visited your site in the past. You’ve given yourself a week to do it.
In this situation, you’d want to create something similar to the following Custom Audiences:
For each of the above groups, create an individual ad set with a quality ad for one of the four blog posts to which you’re looking to drive traffic. From there, “stack” your custom audiences in chronological order.
And here’s the best part …
Doing things this way, you won’t accidentally retarget people who’ve already read your blog content. This means that each ad delivers fresh, exciting content to the right reader.
You Know What Comes Next, Right?
It was American author Mario Puzo who once famously (and irreverently, for that matter) said, “Actions defined a man; words were a fart in the wind.”
Pretty off-color stuff, huh?
Potty humor aside, for the sake of today’s conversation, Puzo’s words mean a great deal. Hacks are great, but without any action, like a “fart in the wind,” they’ll amount to nothing.
You have a business to grow. With roughly 1.2 billion active daily users generating upwards of 4.5 billion likes each and every day, Facebook is the clear-cut place to do it.
So, what’s the holdup? Your next Facebook ad campaign awaits …
