Best way to target on Facebook ads?

[Scot]

What this thread all boils down to is the age old problem we face as entrepreneurs.

I've spent the past 2 months sitting on my hands waiting for our website to be developed. Inthat time I've listened to every podcast, audio book and article about product launch and advertising I can get. I know the theory inside and out.

But the minute I sit down and try to apply it, I am completely lost.

We learn more by doing than studying. I'll own up to that mistake.

 

[Scot]

My campaign ended last night. Total spent $150 for both ads for 4 days.

We ended up with 479 email sign ups. I need to export the lists to excel and clean them up. I'd say about 10% of the emails are duplicates (people signed up for both).

But this was a great $150 spent. I learned a lot about Facebook advertising. If you look at our engagement graph it goes up every day based on the small tweaks I made.

• Replying to every comment. Telling people to visit the link to be registered and telling people to share the post.
• Checking the demographics of the working ad sets and either changing or ending under performing ad sets.
• Made a deal with a large group for the profession were in to post in their group.

All in all, 1/4 of our views were organic. We got down $0.08 on our best performing ad Sunday and yesterday as well.

What I'm doing next
I'll keep mostif those posts to my progress thread but I'm going to turn these 479 emails into gold. As pointed out before, I'll use the list both as a custom audience but more importantly as a look alike audience.

With almost 500 emails, even a low conversion rate on our pre launch campaign would be huge. We plan on going door to door to sign up businesses, but even a 5% conversion in this list would give us 25 professionals to our network which would be beyond our launch goal.

Thanks for the help and suggestions guys!

Ps. I almost forgot! Our FB page went from 60 likes to over 500!

 

[Mazino]

Well that's extremely frustrating because every fan page I want to target where my professionals hang out can't be targeted.

I really don't want to serve ads to random people.

If you can't find any pages to target, then start by trying to target your ideal customers in the way @katana mentioned. Then, set up a custom audience that tracks people who visit your landing page. Once that custom audience reaches around 100 people in size, you can then setup a lookalike audience based on your custom audience. That lookalike audience would be better than any page targeting anyway.

 

[Scot]

So I started running the campaign Friday. Here's the data from Saturday once the ball really got running.

So here's what I did. We had two tools to give away. I made an post, which was a link post of our landing page. I did a post vs an ad so that all of the ad sets would aggregate to one post. I wanted the most shareability.

I then created a campaign for each post. Then I created 3 ad sets for each campaign with a $5 budget. The ad sets looked something like this:

US only, men and women age 21-55, mechanic interest (again, mechanic is an example, I'm not targeting the auto industry) Manual placement, Facebook only.

US only, men only, 21-55, 2 major tool companies, manual placement, FB only.

US only, men and women, 21-55, mechanic as job title, manual ad placement, FB only.

I watched it all Friday, and shut down the ad sets that did the worse. One was $1.12 CPC and another was a $0.70 CPC with a 1.2% conversion rate.

Targeting the profession job title turned out the best, and now I'm down Sub $0.30. I attribute this to a better relevance score. And the amount of shares.


Here's the best part. We have 150 email addresses from our lead magnet! We're running the ad until Monday, so we're expecting to double that. I'll create a custom audience from those email addresses once we create our indiegogo campaign.


What I learned from this experiment is: create 1 campaign and create multiple ad sets with low budgets. Let them run and see which perform the best. You'll be surprised which do. Turn off the under performers and keep going.

 

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[Scot]

If you can't find any pages to target, then start by trying to target your ideal customers in the way @katana mentioned. Then, set up a custom audience that tracks people who visit your landing page. Once that custom audience reaches around 100 people in size, you can then setup a lookalike audience based on your custom audience. That lookalike audience would be better than any page targeting anyway.

I definitely plan on utilizing look alike audiences and the FB pixel to retarget landing page bounces.

What we are trying to accomplish is a giveaway. We got some top of the line tools our pros use, and are going to do giveaways as lead magnets to build our email list.

Obviously we don't want random people just trying to get free stuff, so I'm trying my hardest to narrow down targeting to the actual pros.

Also, my pros aren't exactly prolific on social media. It's a small profession, where the biggest fan page is ibly 20,000 likes.

Now that I know that only certain pages are "blocked" I went back and did more digging. I have list of about 20 pages, tool brands, events that my pros go to that hopefully advert manager will let me target 50% of. Thanks for the advice guys. Rep+ for everyone

 

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[katana]

Also, my pros aren't exactly prolific on social media. It's a small profession, where the biggest fan page is ibly 20,000 likes.

Would it be possible for you to reach out to the owners of those fan pages directly and pay them to advertise your brand/product/giveaway, skipping FB ads completely?

 

[safff]

Well that's extremely frustrating because every fan page I want to target where my professionals hang out can't be targeted.

I really don't want to serve ads to random people.

Unfortunately it forces you to think laterally. If you can't target specific pages, find out trends between where else they hang out, mutual interests etc. I haven't mastered the targetting yet, far from it.. As for why you can't target certain pages, part of me says to stop poaching which would be bad for facebook - the cynic in me says because random clicks has the scope to make them a lot of money...

 

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[katana]

When I type Mechanic Memes into advert manager, "No results found".

I came across the same issue and, unfortunately, like @safff has mentioned you'll probably have to find out and target some general trends specific to your demographic. I'd target behavior (do they use smartphones vs desktops, OS, browser, CC spenders), geolocation, net worth. I'm a noob though, would like to hear what the experts have to say about this.

 

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

To be honest, I've never even used Reddit, so I have no clue. But I'd venture to guess my target audience doesn't use Reddit either. We're playing with targeting right now and going to mess with the wording and copy to qualify our leads.

Understood. What about Twitter?
Turns out they do targeting to people who follow specific pages.
Will have to test it for effectiveness; but if you wanted to target the pro's, adding a username of a specific trade show for instance may help.

But, again...Need to test it.

(I'm only pestering because we're having the exact same problem. We had to look at our strategy differently and ask "How else can we do this?" lol)

 

[Sanj Modha]

Not every page is an interest on FB. But that's not a problem because you can find a lot more using FB's own tools. Here's how:

1) do a graph search (the top search bar). It's not as amazing as it was due to privacy laws but it's still pretty good. Let's say your 'seed' interest is 'mechanics' - do a search for "pages liked by people who like mechanics". This will show you a list of related interests since most people like more than one page about their passion, right?

2) do a search in Audience Insights (AI) - use 'mechanics' as your seed interest and build up from there. There are a ton of videos that can teach you how on YouTube. Look for tighter demographics so with a niche like this I'd expect to see mostly males above the age of 35. AI will give you all this information on a plate and a lot more related interests too.

Keep digging deep and you'll nail the audience.

 

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[Scot]

I'm trying to create an ad group for our upcoming launch and I'm having some issues setting up my target audience. The goal of our initial lead magnets is to target only the professionals, not the general public. I want to do this by targeting people who like certain pages on facebook i.e. tool manufacturers, pages that they frequent, pages for trade shows they visit.

It was my understanding that I could select a page and my ad would target people who have liked that page. However, when I type in the name of several pages that our target professionals frequent, nothing comes up. Is there something I am missing here?

Lets pretend I am targeting mechanics for example. I look at Mechanic Memes on facebook, almost 200,000 followers. If I was targeting mechanics, I'd love to serve ads to those people. When I type Mechanic Memes into advert manager, "No results found".

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

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[Mazino]

Not all Facebook pages can be targeted by Ads. No one knows the exact reason Facebook allows you to target certain pages and not others. As far as I know, it's largely controlled by an algorithm that looks at things like page size and engagement, but sometimes it seems completely arbitrary.

 

[Scot]

Not all Facebook pages can be targeted by Ads. No one knows the exact reason Facebook allows you to target certain pages and not others. As far as I know, it's largely controlled by an algorithm that looks at things like page size and engagement, but sometimes it seems completely arbitrary.

Well that's extremely frustrating because every fan page I want to target where my professionals hang out can't be targeted.

I really don't want to serve ads to random people.

 

[Scot]

Would it be possible for you to reach out to the owners of those fan pages directly and pay them to advertise your brand/product/giveaway, skipping FB ads completely?

I'll have to check their audience interaction but yeah, that really could work. Thanks for that idea!

 

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[CycleGuy]

I came across the same issue and, unfortunately, like @safff has mentioned you'll probably have to find out and target some general trends specific to your demographic. I'd target behavior (do they use smartphones vs desktops, OS, browser, CC spenders), geolocation, net worth. I'm a noob though, would like to hear what the experts have to say about this.

Finding your audience trends is for sure a good way to target.
Instead of hitting mechanic meme page look to target people who like "horsepower TV" or "power block". FB tends to let you target general interests and sometimes popular meme pages are not on the radar of those interests.
Targeting your audience is a trial and error lesson. Lots of different quality creative then boost to different set audiences until you find the right one that delivers.

Also be careful to not target too narrow of an audience. You will throw money away. If you target a broader mechanic themed audience you can get professionals, shade trees, former professionals, aspiring mechanics, etc.

 

[Scot]

Finding your audience trends is for sure a good way to target.
Instead of hitting mechanic meme page look to target people who like "horsepower TV" or "power block". FB tends to let you target general interests and sometimes popular meme pages are not on the radar of those interests.
Targeting your audience is a trial and error lesson. Lots of different quality creative then boost to different set audiences until you find the right one that delivers.

Also be careful to not target too narrow of an audience. You will throw money away. If you target a broader mechanic themed audience you can get professionals, shade trees, former professionals, aspiring mechanics, etc.

That's a really good point. I have been digging deeper today. I'm going after a lot of educational mediums too. The vocational programs these guys use for their certificates and licenses too.

 

[CycleGuy]

That's a really good point. I have been digging deeper today. I'm going after a lot of educational mediums too. The vocational programs these guys use for their certificates and licenses too.

Good luck man. There is a decent size niche of spenders for sure. I think you're on the right track.

 

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[Scot]

Good luck man. There is a decent size niche of spenders for sure. I think you're on the right track.

Thanks! (I'm not in the mechanic niche btw, that was an example). The good thing about my niche is, even though they're notoriously cheap, they want more money. If we can get them to use our product, we both make more money. ROI will be measured by lifetime value, not by purchase.

 

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

@Scot is there any other social media platform that will allow you to target to specific pages/profiles?

I haven't tested the channel, but Reddit comes to mind.
Subreddits can get VERY specific.
But again I haven't used their advertising platform, I am assuming this is the case under ideal conditions...(Anyone with experience want to chime in?)

If you CAN'T target specific subreddits, than just giving value to the community could help - because that's what it is, a community.
It's harder to blast advertising in people's faces there.
...It's for this reason I've found it's a very good source for organic traffic.

On the other hand, if your audience isn't on Reddit, than it's obviously not a good choice.

 

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[Scot]

@Scot is there any other social media platform that will allow you to target to specific pages/profiles?

I haven't tested the channel, but Reddit comes to mind.
Subreddits can get VERY specific.
But again I haven't used their advertising platform, I am assuming this is the case under ideal conditions...(Anyone with experience want to chime in?)

If you CAN'T target specific subreddits, than just giving value to the community could help - because that's what it is, a community.
It's harder to blast advertising in people's faces there.
...It's for this reason I've found it's a very good source for organic traffic.

On the other hand, if your audience isn't on Reddit, than it's obviously not a good choice.

To be honest, I've never even used Reddit, so I have no clue. But I'd venture to guess my target audience doesn't use Reddit either. We're playing with targeting right now and going to mess with the wording and copy to qualify our leads.

 

[3things]

Have you tried using the FB audience insight tool? Although again you can't just plug in a specific fb page you don't admin, you can change the demo and interests - then look at the 'page likes' tab for similar categories, pages liked etc with an affinity score [higher affinity the better]. Give it a try anyway, it's a pretty useful tool. Once you've got some sort of usable audience discovered, run some traffic, buy some data and learn.

https://www.facebook.com/ads/audience-insights/people

You could also try using the AND targeting operator - so ok, you're not allowed to target specific fans of specific pages [to protect those pages from just having their audience stolen] - but you could use 'must like auto mechanics AND memes' for example.

 

[Nam88]

Good Job Scot.
When you have about 300 hundreds on your custom audience ( view page , or view content) go for lookalike audience.

You're doing a very good job for your first time targeting this niche.

 

[Nam88]

@CycleGuy mind elaborating on this? I keep hearing to go as narrow as possible on the audience. Why do you think this is a bad idea/throwing money away?

It all dipends from interest to interest and from niche to niche in my opinion. The general rule is that if you go with a smaller audience ( so instead of specific interest "fishing" you are choosing a specific type of bait or using audience intersect to combine interests) there is more change to hit passionate/ very related people of the niche that you are targeting. This is partially true, it depends on the size of the niche and also on the affinity of the interest. For example, I have one niche where I always start to target a specific interest of 1.2 mil , from my past experience I know is the best interest to start from and that is converting good so I don't bother to go for a smaller one at the beginning ( I will probably do it later for scaling) . In this way there is more room for scaling as well . I will just avoid completely broad interest. Bear in mind that the smaller is the interest and probably the higher is the CPM ( cost per thousand impression) . The best advise in paid ads I think will be make educated guess but at the end test yourself.

Sorry for the long reply , hope that is useful.

 

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[CycleGuy]

@CycleGuy mind elaborating on this? I keep hearing to go as narrow as possible on the audience. Why do you think this is a bad idea/throwing money away?

I'm a niche regional seller. In my experience you want to target your key demographic and a few large but specific interests. If you target too specific you can eliminate customers who are interested in your product but don't like or follow the very specific model you targeted. Think of trying to sell sports cars. You want to target "sports cars" as an interest and a few brands. If you target "4th gen f bodies" "ls1 camaro" "ls1 firebird" "ls1 corvette" "v8 muscle cars". You can be narrowing your audience to an audience so small you can miss many potential customers who are buyers and fans of sports cars in your region.

Example, I target locally from my posts. I target males in an age range. I target a large interest and a brand within that interest. I generally get excellent results. Using this method my engagement cost is very affordable. Generally $0.01-.10 per engagement. I'm also getting quality engagements that are buyers. Facebook is very big on the "defined" audience, not too broad or too narrow.

It also depends on the product itself. The larger the initial audience the more defined you can go with interests. In December I started marketing homes for a business. This is a very large, broad audience from the start. I can add a lot of interests to narrow it down but the audience still remains defined because of how large it initially was in the beginning.

@Nam88 was spot on saying it depends on the product/niche and initial size of the interest.

I hope this clarifies what you were asking.

 

[Scot]

Looks like solid results, great job on nailing the FB-ads!
Following this thread for sure.

I haven't gotten a chance to drive any ads lately, but there are some great new ad sets like FB message ads that I want to experiment with. I'll post that when I get there!

I'm a niche regional seller. In my experience you want to target your key demographic and a few large but specific interests. If you target too specific you can eliminate customers who are interested in your product but don't like or follow the very specific model you targeted. Think of trying to sell sports cars. You want to target "sports cars" as an interest and a few brands. If you target "4th gen f bodies" "ls1 camaro" "ls1 firebird" "ls1 corvette" "v8 muscle cars". You can be narrowing your audience to an audience so small you can miss many potential customers who are buyers and fans of sports cars in your region.

Example, I target locally from my posts. I target males in an age range. I target a large interest and a brand within that interest. I generally get excellent results. Using this method my engagement cost is very affordable. Generally $0.01-.10 per engagement. I'm also getting quality engagements that are buyers. Facebook is very big on the "defined" audience, not too broad or too narrow.

It also depends on the product itself. The larger the initial audience the more defined you can go with interests. In December I started marketing homes for a business. This is a very large, broad audience from the start. I can add a lot of interests to narrow it down but the audience still remains defined because of how large it initially was in the beginning.

@Nam88 was spot on saying it depends on the product/niche and initial size of the interest.

I hope this clarifies what you were asking.

Great clarification. Thanks.

PM me - can get you some good stuff to master FB Ads.

If you wouldn't mind, I think posting all that here on the thread will help other forum members a lot!

 

[Sanj Modha]

Don't forget to build your audiences too. We hardly use interests now and still make money. Consistently.

 

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[domefs]

I haven't gotten a chance to drive any ads lately, but there are some great new ad sets like FB message ads that I want to experiment with. I'll post that when I get there!



Great clarification. Thanks.



If you wouldn't mind, I think posting all that here on the thread will help other forum members a lot!

I can't, because it is some private material - otherwise I would post it here.

So PM for Details.

 

[Scot]

Ok I lied. Tried 15 additional pages. None of them registered in the search function. I still hate Facebook advert manager. I guess we'll just have to launch and learn.

 

[Scot]

Have you tried using the FB audience insight tool? Although again you can't just plug in a specific fb page you don't admin, you can change the demo and interests - then look at the 'page likes' tab for similar categories, pages liked etc with an affinity score [higher affinity the better]. Give it a try anyway, it's a pretty useful tool. Once you've got some sort of usable audience discovered, run some traffic, buy some data and learn.

https://www.facebook.com/ads/audience-insights/people

You could also try using the AND targeting operator - so ok, you're not allowed to target specific fans of specific pages [to protect those pages from just having their audience stolen] - but you could use 'must like auto mechanics AND memes' for example.

Definitely been using the "and" to narrow down my audience. I'll check out the insight tool.

 

[Scot]

Im trying to upload the screen shot of the campaign... but it's not showing up. Can y'all see it?