Posts Tagged Facebook

I’ve been running ads on Facebook for affiliate products for the past year now. I have found that if set up correctly Facebook can drive high quality, targeted traffic to my sites. Although the CTR (Clicktrough Rate) is really weak compared to Google AdWords (I rarely get a CTR rate higher than 0.5% on Facebook), the clicks are relatively cheap. So over the past year I’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t. I now follow these rules when I run ads on Facebook:

1. Be persistent when submitting ads. Most ads I’ve submitted have been disapproved at least once. Sometimes because I’ve violated Facebook’s terms (they are very strict), sometimes because the people approving the ads are stupid. I’ve had ads disapproved which were identical to previously approved ads, the only difference being the bidding strategy.
2. Create lots of ads, and keep only the ones which perform the best. I would generally create 5 to 10 different ads for the same item I’m advertising, and let them all run for a couple of days. Then once it’s clear what ads are performing the best (highest CTR, lowest CPC), I disable the ads performing poorly.
3. Do not use CPC (Cost per Click) campaigns. It seems the Facebook ad algorithm is heavily optimized towards CPM (Cost per Mil, or cost per thousand impressions). I am unsure why this is, but I get far more impressions and can much easier reach my daily budget if I create CPM ads. It does not cost me more, as the resulting CPC is generally lower than if I set it manually.
4. Ignore the suggested Facebook CPM and CPC bids. I am unable to come near my daily budget if I set the bids to what Facebook suggest. Again, I’m not sure exactly why this happens. The ad costs anyways ends up in the range Facebook suggests.
5. Keep your ads fresh. This is probably the most important tip I can give. Don’t settle for one or two ads and keep them running for months. Keep creating new ads (almost on a weekly basis), and disable the ads which has a declining CTR. I’ve recently tripled the CTR of one of my campaigns, simply by keeping the text the same and changing only the picture. The campaign has been running for more than three months without me changing anything, and the CPC was gradually going up. Now it’s back to what it was when I started the campaign.
6. This is general ad copywriting advice, and it applies to Facebook as well: have a clear call to action! I usually ask a question in the ad’s header, which I answer in the ad text. I clearly state in the ad text that the user must visit my site.

That’s about all there is to advertising with Facebook. The Facebook ad algorithm does seem a little primitive, and does not always perform as expected. Also, tt can be extremely frustrating if Facebook keeps disapproving your ads for no apparent reason. At least they recently added a function to contact the Facebook ads team. The only problem is that they usually take more than a week to get back to you.

Nevertheless, Facebook is an awesome way to advertise. Due to people filling in so much information in their profiles, you can target extremely small niches on the cheap. I personally prefer Facebook to Google Adwords because of this.