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[GUIDE] Facebook Ads Made Simple (That Even Your Mom Can Understand) 2019 Edition

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itfactor

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In other words, if I have overlapping custom or lookalike audiences in the SAME ad set, overlapping shouldn't matter, right?

That's right. In fact, nowadays the targeting algorithm is pretty smart compared to the early days of FB ads, and does a pretty decent job of sorting things out on its own.

Unless my cost is unusually high, I wouldn't try to sort out any overlapping on my own or I may upset Facebook's optimization.
 
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Boychamp

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Re: Audience overlap

Worry about audience overlap only matters when you have multiple ad sets using the same audiences correct?

In other words, if I have overlapping custom or lookalike audiences in the SAME ad set, overlapping shouldn't matter, right?

Correct, it won't matter. Audience overlap matters when they're in separate ad sets because then the ads are technically competing against one another in the auction (if the budget is large and or the audience is small).
 

LiveFree

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I'm still confused on how the retargeting works? Is this something that I have to set up or does Facebook do this automatically? I've noticed that when I visit a website I start to see their ads on facebook and instagram. Is this what you are talking about? Do I need a 3rd party to accomplish this? Thanks!
 

Boychamp

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I'm still confused on how the retargeting works? Is this something that I have to set up or does Facebook do this automatically? I've noticed that when I visit a website I start to see their ads on facebook and instagram. Is this what you are talking about? Do I need a 3rd party to accomplish this? Thanks!

Basically, to retarget, you have to put something called the "Facebook Pixel" into your website. It's a little snippet of code, provided by Facebook, that tracks users and what they're doing on your website.

To get a Pixel, you have to create what's called a "Business Manager" account. It's really simple, you just go to business.facebook.com and sign up. Then navigate to Pixel, grab the code, and put it into your website (there's a little more nuance in it than that, but that's the basic high level overview. You can Google or YouTube exactly how to do it).

Then from there, once the code is installed, Facebook begins tracking users that visit your website, engage with your social media (albeit that you've connected your Business Instagram account), or take actions on your website. To actually retarget, you do what the OP said. You go into a section of the business manager, navigate to "Audiences" and click "Create Custom Audience". Then, you simply choose your parameters of what you want to retarget (if it's an e-com store, you could do people that view products, add to cart but don't purchase, or whatever else). Once that audience has been created, you can navigate over to your "Ads Manager" and create an add and choose to target that audience within that ad. Boom. You are now retargeting.

I didn't go into a lot of the more nitty gritty details, but I hope that makes sense!
 
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LiveFree

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Basically, to retarget, you have to put something called the "Facebook Pixel" into your website. It's a little snippet of code, provided by Facebook, that tracks users and what they're doing on your website.

To get a Pixel, you have to create what's called a "Business Manager" account. It's really simple, you just go to business.facebook.com and sign up. Then navigate to Pixel, grab the code, and put it into your website (there's a little more nuance in it than that, but that's the basic high level overview. You can Google or YouTube exactly how to do it).

Then from there, once the code is installed, Facebook begins tracking users that visit your website, engage with your social media (albeit that you've connected your Business Instagram account), or take actions on your website. To actually retarget, you do what the OP said. You go into a section of the business manager, navigate to "Audiences" and click "Create Custom Audience". Then, you simply choose your parameters of what you want to retarget (if it's an e-com store, you could do people that view products, add to cart but don't purchase, or whatever else). Once that audience has been created, you can navigate over to your "Ads Manager" and create an add and choose to target that audience within that ad. Boom. You are now retargeting.

I didn't go into a lot of the more nitty gritty details, but I hope that makes sense!

Perfect, that makes sense. Thanks for the response!
 

Matt_2190

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Very nice tips, thank you.

I'm setting my first serious Facebook campaign. I did some ads in the past, but nothing serious.

This is how I'm setting it:

1) The brand is a new one, so no reputation. I'm doing some nice clickbaiting ads: of course, they are structured to attract clicks, and therefore traffic, from people who may be interested in the product (not low quality traffic): there isn't the product in the ad, but the problem that the product will solve. The aim is to have low-cost clicks from people who might be interested in what I'm selling. The goal is select target users and have low cost traffic (of high quality!) to my website where the pixel is installed.

2) After one month I will create a lookalike audience: I should have enough users for do it and create an audicence of target leads. For this campaign I'll use an ad where the product is well explained: what it does, the benefits, ecc.

3) The third campaign of retargeting, for users thate have visite the websites and clicked on the product pages (they should be interested in the product).

I hope it will work. It isn't clear if at the step 2) I should stop the first campaign to attract more clicks or not. I didn't find a lot about it on the web. Only a lot of things about tech stuff, not a lot about strategy.
 
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The-J

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That’s why you need to advertise with content that is both entertaining and informative.

Way to gloss over the secret sauce to making millions of dollars on Facebook with only a few lines. This part is where most people F*ck up and is why we do so much testing.

Great guide though: should help new people get started without wasting too much on setups that will never work.
 

CDM

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Remember part 1 when I said to only use Conversions objective for 99% of your campaigns?

Well, the Awareness campaign belongs to the 1% which doesn’t use Conversions.

How much of your overall budget do you recommend using for awareness campaigns?

If you aren't using conversion tracking, how do you measure effectiveness?
 

johnp

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Thanks for sharing.

What are your thoughts on device targeting for a B2B SaaS product? I don't see enough people talking about this. Do you just targeting all devices? Or would you say it's better to target desktop only?

I was running a direct response ad at cold audience. It was driving trials at about a $17 CPA, which seems okay. I ended up pulling back because I wanted to see if I could get my trials to convert. What I think happened was I got a bunch of mobile signups, then many didn't take action because they were on their phone. You can't really use my platform from your phone. So I need to have good follow-up and other systems in place to get them back into the platform.

One thought that I had was to do the following:

1) target ALL devices for the top of the funnel awareness stuff

2) target desktop only for the warm/hot audiences where I'm doing more direct response offers

But who knows, maybe I'm overthinking it.

Curious to hear your thoughts.
 

Edd--19

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View attachment 25190

Hello Fastlane,

I’ve wanted to write a guide on Facebook Ads for some time now.

While there’s already a great PPC guide by @eliquid on this subject, there’s always new stuff to learn and to talk about when it comes to FB ads.

Note that this isn’t going to be a step-by-step guide, but rather a compilation of useful answers to common problems that I faced when I was teaching myself Facebook ads, and what my clients usually ask.

The goal here is to demystify how Facebook ads really work, so I'll try to explain everything as plainly as I can without going into any intricate details. You can ask me any questions here or drop me a PM.

Due to my workload I probably won't be able to update this as frequently as I'd like, but I'll do my best.

Do follow this thread if you wish to see more new updates once they are ready. Hope you'll enjoy reading them as much as I do writing them!

Quick links:

Part 1: The Only Objective You Need (For Most of the Time)
Part 2: The 'No Brainer' Way to Design Your Campaign
Part 3a: All About Audiences - Core Audience
Read it. Loved it. Bumping it.

Great advice for anyone who wants to learn more about Facebook Marketing and still relevant in 2020. Thanks for all the extra tips!
 

Saynow

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thats so helpful
i have no experience with facebook ads
before
thank you for introducing this to us
 

Salossa

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I've heard that Facebook wants to do automated ads that you don't need to set up anything. What do you think about this?
 

Joshua Ardoin

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What a great cheat sheet did you ever create the post on audiences, etc?

Part 2: The No Brainer Way to Design Your Campaign

In Part 1 we talked about using Conversions as the key objective for your business needs, whether it’s for sales or for leads.

But how do you get conversions? How do you turn total strangers into potential buyers?

There’s really only 2 things you need to do when running Facebook ads.

Now if you are familiar with other types of digital marketing, such as content or email marketing, the concept is exactly the same:

  • Generate awareness among prospects
  • Retarget them until they are ready to buy
I use what I call a No-Brainer Framework. Because it’s deceptively simple.

With this method, there is no need to overcomplicate your Facebook ads campaigns with any messy click through funnels or whatever. All you need is these 3 campaigns.
View attachment 25287


Looks easy enough right? Let’s look at all 3 in detail.

Campaign 1: Awareness
Remember part 1 when I said to only use Conversions objective for 99% of your campaigns?

Well, the Awareness campaign belongs to the 1% which doesn’t use Conversions.

This campaign focus solely on reach, which means you're aiming to get as much views or clicks as possible. Whether they buy or sign up with you is not the main goal.

Instead, your goal is to target cold audiences who have zero clue about your business or product. They might not even know you exist.

Since they don’t know you, they have no reason to buy from you. The awareness campaign is to help introduce you to them, and hopefully make them like you.

That’s why you need to advertise with content that is both entertaining and informative.

But what type of content is entertaining and informative?

For generating awareness, I find that using video ads are much more effective than the usual image ads, especially on Instagram.

View attachment 25289

The good thing about Facebook ads is that it allows you to quickly create slideshow videos by uploading up to 3-10 images, complete with music and transitions.

I’ll probably talk more about how I produce videos quickly and cheaply for Facebook or Instagram ads (if anyone here is interested).

But for now let’s get back to the topic.




Campaign 2: Retargeting to Warm Leads
The goal here is to target people who are warm prospects – people who have seen your ad in the Awareness campaign, or those who have visited your website.

By sending these warm leads a direct response offer, you want to drive them towards your website or store and explore, hopefully converting them into customers.

What direct response offers can you send?

There are 2 common types of offer businesses can give:

1. Discounts

View attachment 25288
I find that discounts are easy and highly effective. A simple 20% discount code off is usually good enough to incentivize people to click and check out your website.


2. Freebies
View attachment 25290
If you provide a type of specialized service (like an agency, school or gym) a free consultation or trial session is also just as effective.

But make sure you qualify your leads carefully so you won’t end up wasting your time on free loaders.



Campaign 3: Remarketing to Hot Leads
Now, these are the people who have seen your videos ads, read your blog, or even visited your store and added a couple of items into the cart.

These guys are almost ready to buy.

But for some reason, they are hesitating. You just need to give them a little shove and send them off the edge and become a customer!

There are 2 ways you can design your ads for this campaign:

1. Testimonials from past customers
View attachment 25291

These are great for building trust towards your brand, and assure your hot leads that your offer is legitimate. Social proof is a very powerful thing when it comes to Facebook and Instagram users (just look at all influencers making silly money!)

2. Reminders
Sometimes your hot prospects simply forgot to hit the checkout button due to whatever reason, and an ad reminding them to go back and buy will be enough.

Hell, you can even slap on another 5% discount code to sweeten the deal.
View attachment 25292


So there you have it, the really simple and no brainer way to run Facebook campaigns.

On the surface, it doesn’t look like much.

But combined it with good ad copy and creative, and Facebook’s magic ingredient – it’s laser-like audience targeting algorithm – it’s an almost unfair advantage where anyone can achieve great results.

I’ll probably talk about Facebook’s audience in the next part. So in the meantime, if you’ve got any questions, ask me!
 
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