Confused with Facebook Bids.

[TheDillon__]

Hi there!

So I realized my biggest sticking point in entrepreneurship is traffic.

The most unhelpful piece of advice is often the one which gets quoted to me the most, neatly summarized as either buy an ad on Google, or get an ad on Facebook.

This vital piece of advice is very rarely, when given, explained beyond the few short words of its recommendation.

I decided to take matters into my own hands while I save up for Andy Black's AdWords Course and jump into teaching myself the art of Facebook advertising with their newly launched program Facebook Blueprint.

_____

That said, I'm having the hardest time understanding this stuff.

Right now I'm in their "Ad Auction and Delivery Overview" section, and they're detailing the formulas used for their bid price.

For CPC: [(CPC Bid) * (eCTR) * 1000] + Ad Relevance Factors
For CPM: (CPM Bid) + Ad Relevance Factors
For Actions / Impressions: (CPA or oCPM Bid) * (eCTR * Conversion Probability) + Ad Relevance Factors

This information isn't quite newbie friendly, and I have no idea what to make of it. How do I use this knowledge to my advantage when building an Ad?

-

Secondly, on pricing, they mention that the price paid is based on the value lost by all other bidders...to avoid undercutting.

What does this mean? How does this effect the price of my ad?

 

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[theag]

There's no need to understand the abstract stuff that FB publishes. Who knows how accurate it is anyway and how much of it is completely made-up BS. IMO if FB needs to improve its quarterly results to keep the stock price inflated, prices for advertisers magically increase.

This video gives a good overview of how optimization works and how to structure campaigns etc (at least in theory. in reality you will bang your head against the wall non-stop if you're running fb at 4+ figure/day budgets):

View: https://vimeo.com/206178189

Open the vimeo link to see the video controls and be able to skip his ramblings at the beginning etc, real content starts around 15min and ends after 60min.

Only watch the first hour though, and dont fall for the pitchfest in the second hour..

 

[TheDillon__]

There's no need to understand the abstract stuff that FB publishes. Who knows how accurate it is anyway and how much of it is completely made-up BS. IMO if FB needs to improve its quarterly results to keep the stock price inflated, prices for advertisers magically increase.

This video gives a good overview of how optimization works and how to structure campaigns etc (at least in theory. in reality you will bang your head against the wall non-stop if you're running fb at 4+ figure/day budgets):

View: https://vimeo.com/206178189

Open the vimeo link to see the video controls and be able to skip his ramblings at the beginning etc, real content starts around 15min and ends after 60min.

Only watch the first hour though, and dont fall for the pitchfest in the second hour..

Definitely making this a priority tonight. Thank you!

 

[kkoasdfawfqwe2]

Hey TheDillon,

I have been working with Facebook ads for the past 2 years.

Affiliate marketing and lead generation has been my main focuses, and I will share with you some simple yet very usable information about Facebook ads in general.

So first of all, I have never ran on CPM basis, as I never had success with it. Remember that Facebook is a huge datamachine, use it to your advantage by working with the click2website campaigns or optimize for conversions.

Regarding your question about the prices. I'm sure, as mentioned by theag, that the prices can go up or down depending on whatever they need of revenue, but there are a few factors that will drastically increase or decrease your price.

As you can see in the CPC formular, 'CTR' is mentioned. This is basically how many people will click through your ad, depending on how many is viewing it. In math: Clicks/Reach*100. Facebook will also show your CTR under the name of 'Performance' with a little graph, I believe.

You will ALWAYS want an as high CTR as possible. Though clickbaiting might seem like a good idea, be careful with this, as this can cause bad 'ad relevance', which I will elaborate below.

The ad relevance score determines whether people like your ads or not. If people report your ad or hide it, the score will drop, but if they engage a lot or click 'I like this ad' from the dropdown menu of the top right corner of the ad, then it will increase.

The ad relevance score can be a number from 1-10, whereas 10 is the best and 1 is the worst.

So in the 2 formulas you might notice the Ad Relevance is mentioned too - and this will also affect the price amongst other things.
An ad relevance can be seen for an ad, by going to your campaign -> Adset -> Ad, and then it will display on the right.

From my personal experience, the CTR (Click through rate) is a much more determing factor when it comes to the price of your clicks, but a very low relevance score in various ads might cause a complete AND permanent ad account closure.

I hope this helped a bit, let me know if you have more questions.

 

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[100k]

Dude, you don't need to understand how a freaking v12 engine is put together and what every single component in the engine does for you to be able to drive the freaking car.

Focus on the bigger picture, i.e how to drive the car.

 

[SimonP99]

Dude, you don't need to understand how a freaking v12 engine is put together and what every single component in the engine does for you to be able to drive the freaking car.

Focus on the bigger picture, i.e how to drive the car.

How is this of any use to the OP.
Either offer some useful advice or tell the guy WHERE to find some useful advice.

I'm sick of seeing apparently successful people on here making vague, cryptic,
statements as if to say "if you can't read between the lines you're a moron".

"Be humble, be grateful, be of service to others that is how you make it."
EASY to say when you've got money.

Just curious how the majority of these people acted
when they had nothing. Were they so humble then?

 

[lewj24]

How is this of any use to the OP.
Either offer some useful advice or tell the guy WHERE to find some useful advice.

I'm sick of seeing apparently successful people on here making vague, cryptic,
statements as if to say "if you can't read between the lines you're a moron".

"Be humble, be grateful, be of service to others that is how you make it."
EASY to say when you've got money.

Just curious how the majority of these people acted
when they had nothing. Were they so humble then?

“There are some things you don’t have to know how it works – only that it works. While some people are studying the roots, others are picking the fruit. It just depends on which end of this you want to get in on." -- Jim Rohn”

Have you ever seen undercover boss? The CEO's do the low level jobs and have no idea what's going on.

 

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[minivanman]

How is this of any use to the OP.
Either offer some useful advice or tell the guy WHERE to find some useful advice.

I'm sick of seeing apparently successful people on here making vague, cryptic,
statements as if to say "if you can't read between the lines you're a moron".

"Be humble, be grateful, be of service to others that is how you make it."
EASY to say when you've got money.

Just curious how the majority of these people acted
when they had nothing. Were they so humble then?

I'm not sure all (most of) the 'successful' people that are actually making the "vague, cryptic, statements" are actually so successful.... for more reasons than one.

 

[hughjasle]

This should be what you need to be concerned with knowing:

• The differences between Campaign Objectives
  • Conversion, traffic, engagement, etc.
• Terms/Lingo
  • CPM - How much you are paying for every 1,000 people who see the ad
  • CPC - How much you are paying per click
  • CPA - How much you are paying for to acquire your customer
  • CTR - "click through rate" ie: if 100 people see your ad and only 10 people click on it, then your CTR is 10%

There is a LOT more you can learn and you will as you go.

I would recommend that you try and run some ads.

1. Create the Facebook page for your business/product and load it up with quality content (fb.c*om/pages/create)
   
2. Create the ad account (fb.c*om/ads/manage)
3. Create a post on your Facebook page promoting your business or product
   
4. "Boost" that post, this will create the ad in your ad account as a Page Post Engagements Campaign
   
5. Watch how it works. See if you can understand the data that comes off it. Play with it a bit, Try and create a new ad using a different campaign objective.

Spend small amounts of money right now. Just get a feel for how FB works. There is a whole world to ads but you need to get a working knowledge before you can start understanding the language anyone who can teach you FB ads speaks.

People say FB is Hard. But hard doesn't mean difficult. It just a measurement of time that lazy people use. Hard = lots of time and dedication to master. Stick it out and you'll master it as well.

 

[Leo Hendrix]

Ok, I've used facebook ads once before for a startup job application.

What I remember was that we focused on utilizing CPC.

I set my own bid, ensure you use the Power Editor feature.

By traffic, what exactly do you mean? Click throughs onto your website/link?

I found that by optimizing my campaigns manually to target the niche I wanted (Desired Action: clicking for likes on the FB page), was the most effective tactic. (100% growth in a week or so)

So if you have set-up your campaign 'properly' than you should be able to hit your desired target and relevant metric (CTR etc)

As hughjasle mentioned above, Boosting the ad will cause your ad to be delivered during peak traffic times for your target market, so that should help.

 

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[CycleGuy]

Personally I've found the better the creative and simpler the ad description the better reach and engagement I get through any FB ad. I primarily boost individual posts of specific niche items.

 

[100k]

How is this of any use to the OP.
Either offer some useful advice or tell the guy WHERE to find some useful advice.

I'm sick of seeing apparently successful people on here making vague, cryptic,
statements as if to say "if you can't read between the lines you're a moron".

"Be humble, be grateful, be of service to others that is how you make it."
EASY to say when you've got money.

Just curious how the majority of these people acted
when they had nothing. Were they so humble then?

I was trying to use an analogy to help him get the message that he is stressing things that don't need to be stressed.

If you want to go from A to B. You do NOT need to know how a car engine functions or how to program android/iphone apps. Just use your phone to get a Uber and you'll get the job done.