The Efficiency of Facebook Ads

Americans obsess over their chosen forms of social media. Regardless of how technologically inclined most Americans happen to be, it’s a fact that since the economic shutdown caused by COVID-19 more and more people from all walks of life have flocked to the internet in search of work, news, and entertainment. As a result, many entrepreneurs took note of this and made necessary adjustments to their digital marketing campaigns. As crucial as it was to make these accommodations when the market crashed, it’s just as important to consider just how effective Facebook Ads can prove to be in the long run.

According to recent study by eMarketer, only 10% of people who access the internet are NOT annoyed by digital advertising. This statistic is underwhelming to say the least, but understandable. We all know how it feels to swipe through our timeline after work only to be mentally bombarded by one surprisingly irrelevant ad after another. No business owner wants to alienate their would-be customers through the use of excessive and irrelevant ad placements, especially when you only have seconds to capture their attention in the first place.

So how do we fix this? How do we stop alienating our future customers?

Remember Your Audience

It’s easy to forget this once you’ve gotten into the habit of checking and updating your marketing stats and A/B tests. You’re not just dealing with numbers anymore. Your ads are being seen by real people.

Chances are you’ve already turned off plenty of potential customers during the trial and error of first-time ad campaigns, but it’s never too late to earn those customers back! The real trick is remember your audience. Who are they? What do they want? What type of consumers do you wish to attract in the future? This is where you need to begin if you want to start increasing your conversion rates.

Consider how advertising on Facebook is perceived. Think about how your ads fit into the current narrative, and make adjustments in an attempt to leave a more positive impression during future engagements.

Key Elements to Keep in Mind

Now that you have taken a moment to think over some past mistakes, it’s high time to apply what we know. SEO will indeed play a key role in the overall success of your marketing campaign, but ads are a surefire way to get fast results—as long as you use them wisely. Two Trees PPC is quite happy to help you manage this aspect of your business, but we also care about our customers. Here, we will list three key topics that you’ll want to implement right away, especially if you want to have a better chance of standing out against the “noise” of the 2020 timeline feed.

1. Branding
   
   Branding starts with consistency and trust. Before you publish the latest updates to your new Facebook Ad, you’ll need to remember that your primary purpose is to reassure the consumer of three things:
   
   ➢ You can be trusted.
   ➢ You have experience and authority.
   ➢ You can help address their needs.
   
   What will happen when your would-be customer visits your company Facebook page? Will they see a firmly established and regularly updated profile? Or will they see nothing? No other content. If you set up a Facebook Page with a bare bones design, this will send a disappointing message about your brand in general. Is your company logo visible? Did you make sure that it fits correctly in against the design of your cover photo? Are your use of fonts and color scheme consistent? No matter how good your primary website looks, what you really need to focus on is consistency of representation across all mediums.
   
   Once you have made a point to identify the inconsistencies across your various social media platforms, you’ll quickly identify exactly what you need to fix concerning your Facebook page in particular. Are you producing quality content that assures customers of your experience and authority? Have you updated your head shots and promotional photos since New Years? Now is the time to fix this! Lack of consistency is unprofessional. It will make your brand appear untrustworthy and leave the impression that you cannot be trusted.
   
   Trust is critical. If you cannot make a point to update your Facebook page in a manner that reeks of consistency, you are destroying your chances of appearing anything other than unprofessional.
   
   
2. Omnipresence and the Use of Seven Touchpoints
   
   Omnipresence is the idea of showing up everywhere. Though this digital option is one of the biggest reasons people consider marketing on Facebook in the first place, it can also make or break your conversion rates if you don’t make use of it correctly. Many businesses simply wish to “cut through the noise” when they pay for premium level Ad space, but this move is not as effective without the use of Seven Touchpoints. It is a common belief in digital marketing that you need “Seven Touchpoints” before a sale can be made. This includes any time that a customer engages with your ads, shops, and social media profiles. Once you have paid to run your Ads on Facebook, every digital click counts as a Touchpoint, and you will need to be sure that your ad is seen enough times to garner such interactions in the first place. Facebook was designed to help facilitate these touchpoint conversions through the use of Micro-Retargeting.
   
   Start with Facebook. Once you have updated all platforms to reflect your brand consistently, you are ready to publish! Using the built-in Insight statistics, you can easily choose to target people who have already visited your website, engaged with Facebook and Instagram posts, etc. Did they add an item to their shopping cart? Did they view a product, but skip adding it to their cart? Have they perused your catalog? Like your pictures? Read your blogs? All this information is critical to reaching the right audience. Every one of these little engagements count as micro-retargeting, as each option inevitably points the customer toward a potential sale.
   
   
3. The Magic of Micro-Targeting
   
   Micro-retargeting is about reminding everyone that you exist! It is quite possible that one of those hits happens to be a new customer who added an item to their shopping cart, but couldn’t find their credit card in time. People are busy! Perhaps they were merely browsing as they were waiting for their Uber to arrive. Perhaps they found the ad while at lunch and had to clock back in before they could confirm the purchase. There are so many reasons why someone might forget to complete their transaction and, thanks to micro-retargeting, we can use technology to politely nudge them in the right direction.
   
   In the end, micro-targeting is so much more effective than blanket targeting. Which is just flat out annoying, to be frank, and can easily cause would-be customers to block your ads before they even have the opportunity to see what you have to offer them.
   
   Omnipresence is all about building for the road ahead. As a business owner, you want to focus on building your audience. Increasing those “likes,” adding to those mailing lists, and getting those clients and friends to leave reviews praising your services! Once you can build those profiles to cultivate that sort of environment, you will have more time to focus on creating quality content that will appeal to the “new normal” of 2020. You will continue slowly, but surely, expand your audience; and every new touchpoint will encourage those customers to trust you just a little bit more.

Staying Connected

Advertisers have practically no control over how people react to their posts and engage with their friends, but it is absolutely within our power to control the quality of our digital content. Facebook Ads are often used to increase sales and exposure, but it’s also a tool capable of so much more! Facebook Ads, when used correctly, can be used to engage with your audience in a meaningful way. They allow the opportunity to form communities aligned with your values, a place where most Americans have the opportunity to stumble upon your services while in search of something similar.

Facebook Ads give your audience a place to publicly and conveniently support your work, all while offering you a glorious window of opportunity. 2020 has been difficult for everyone. But in an odd twist of fate, it has also created an opportunity for flocks of new people to find you as well. We must do everything we can to be of service to our community, and recreating your brand in a way that projects consistency and trust can help to do just that.