How I use Facebook Ads to scale my small business.
I love Facebook ads. They’re relatively inexpensive (objective-dependent) and are easy to set up. The overall feel of the user experience could be improved but it’s one I’ve become used to.
For any budding entrepreneur, Facebook ads is the default option to develop a brand. But it’s also one that is deeply misunderstood. Online advice tends to focus on budgets that are $100+ a day. For most businesses, mine included, that is too much!
After having spent thousands and thousands of dollars on my new wine business, I wanted to share three ways I’ve used to build my business using Facebook ads.
1) Conversions are too expensive.
When you’re starting out, conversions are far too expensive. Facebook recommends 50 conversions on your website via the ad set in question to benefit from the algorithm’s know-how. The advice across the internet is that conversion ads are the default option. But at increasingly higher costs, this option just doesn’t make sense for small businesses that don’t have thousands of dollars a month to spend on one ad set.
I’ve found a combination of lead generation (to build an email list) and traffic ads to do wonders. Hear me out.
When you’re starting out, your company will not have a brand. No one, outside of your immediate network, will know who you are and what you’re selling. You therefore need to build respect in the market. Traffic and lead generation ads will help you do that.
2) Develop a funnel
Many argue that funnels don’t exist anymore but I beg to differ. In a sales funnel, the top of the funnel will be your target audience and the majority of said public will not have heard of you. You therefore want to bring value to them by either providing a product for free or by educating them on your industry.
For example, when I joined my Mum’s small jewelry business, I started by researching and writing about the stones that she sells. I then translated this information into simple and bite-sized paragraphs that would help the reader understand what they’re buying.
As you go down the funnel, you’ll have a smaller number of people but these leads will know your business and a certain level of trust is established. This is the time you want to provide the hook with which to sell.
3) Test, test, test!
I think anyone who runs FB ads successfully will tell you that the key to success with online advertising is to test. I’ve found this to be crucial in better understanding the type of content my audience is interacting with. It also helps dispel any and all bias that we may have as consumers and digital marketers.
How to test? Start by using this simple rule that I’ve found works:
- 2 ad sets per campaign (similar in population size);
- 3 ads per ad set, with one of each type of ad (video, image and carousel). If possible, use different ad copy, and imagery to give the algorithm enough content to test on the audience.
