The only solution to Facebook ads performance drop that worked for me (it's not TikTok)

[ycee]

The ongoing privacy-related updates by Apple after iOS 14.5 have pretty much killed Facebook ads. This means Facebook’s data and tracking abilities are that much worse.

This is why you see your ROAS is down, CPMs are up, Reach is declining, and conversions are decreasing.
So how do you adapt? By going where the trust is.

Nobody likes to be tracked. It's creepy to get ads about stuff you were searching casually. Your buyers do not trust a Facebook ad anymore.
They trust their brother, sister, friends, acquaintances, experts. This is an evergreen fact and doesn’t “come and go” like Facebook performance.

If you look through all the technicalities and abstract away, there are only three types of marketing channels. Those are

1. Owned
2. Earned
3. Rented

The natural progression of an ideal marketing plan is to move from rented to earned and owned channels.This very natural progression is simply now incentivised for you by the downfall of Facebook ads. Cherry on the cake, there are tools that enable this transition and make getting started with influencers simple.

Influencer marketing is earned media and that’s where your attention should be moving forward. And guess what the ROAS is, on average? 6x! That’s $1 in, $6 out. (I've personally seen 5x so far)

Leveraging creators with influence is the only long-term and robust solution to Facebook ads performance decline.

The solution is not TikTok ads, as your marketing agency may tell you. To win in the long run, I won't go anywhere near interruptive ads. What do you think?

 

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[The WolfPreneur]

Yes, Influencer marketing can be a great way to build your brand and make ton of sales but I don't see it as a complete alternative to Facebook Ads because Influ. marketing itself also has a lot of problems.

We should just need to focus on one of the most fundamental principle of marketing...

"GO AND PUT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE IN THE FRONT OF RIGHT AUDIENCE"

And many times, brand make deal with Influencers who don't have the right audience to sell and cause a loss. There are other great(even better alternatives than Influencer Marketing) is like you can pay the admins of any community(for ex: forum, reddit communities, fb groups) in your niche and get way more traffic that you will get by paying an influencer the same amount.

I'm not saying Influencer Marketing is Worthless, it also do work greatly but when you make deal with influencer having the right audience otherwise it's just a cash-burn.

 

[MitchC]

Can you share some specific tips or your experience with influencer marketing?

I know you said you’ve averaged 5x but it reads to me like you heard that somewhere and haven’t tried it for yourself because this does not line up with the reality of a lot of others experience with influencers marketing.

 

[Onakosa]

Some pretty strong statements there. There's been YOY growth in interest in influencer marketing, and most of the big companies I know are spending more on it. The change though is that they are now mostly interested in smaller micro-influencers (1000 - 5K following). Personally, I don't think the iOS update in any way 'killed' FB ads. I'm still getting lots of enquiries about them. It was a jolt, and the 24 blackout last September didn't help! But there is still no other platform that gives the kind of reach that FB does for a - relatively - low amount of money. iOS was just a warning of things to come. It won't be the last privacy update. We just have to work with them.

 

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[The WolfPreneur]

It was just a marketing tool by companies against Facebook. Facebook ads still work very well. Most people complaining about Facebook Ads not working, just truly don't know how to market something.

 

[Onakosa]

It was just a marketing tool by companies against Facebook. Facebook ads still work very well. Most people complaining about Facebook Ads not working, just truly don't know how to market something.

Agree. A lot of people complaining were relying on e.g. lookalike audiences and didn't know what to do without them. There's a lot to be said for really learning and understanding how advertising works in the first place.

 

[Keeton]

Agree. A lot of people complaining were relying on e.g. lookalike audiences and didn't know what to do without them. There's a lot to be said for really learning and understanding how advertising works in the first place.

I agree, as long as you have the Facebook pixel connected to your store, you're still able to use that data for other campaigns. I think people think Facebook ads don't work anymore because the standards for ads have changed. You used to be able to get away with just using a cheap looking photo ad, but now unless its a great photo ad, most people only interact with video ads. You have to actually put work into your advertisements now. You cant just use a google image and expect to get conversions.

 

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[ycee]

Can you share some specific tips or your experience with influencer marketing?

I know you said you’ve averaged 5x but it reads to me like you heard that somewhere and haven’t tried it for yourself because this does not line up with the reality of a lot of others experience with influencers marketing.

A lot of people don't do it right and fall into the trap of paying per post and not building relationships with creators.

I've seen acquisition cost 4-5x lower than what FB gave for clients. This article claims 11x ROI but I haven't seen those levels yet.

The key is to start with affiliate-only deals and scale it from there. This way you're default profitable in the influencer marketing channel and don't lose money (except COGS and commissions)

Open to answering more specific questions too, let me know.

 

[ycee]

It was just a marketing tool by companies against Facebook. Facebook ads still work very well. Most people complaining about Facebook Ads not working, just truly don't know how to market something.

I've only seen them work for high ticket products as the acquisition costs are high. They still drive results, but saw HUGE performance drops after iOS 14.5 and 15.

Even if you do know how to market something, why wouldn't you market it on a channel that's more profitable?

Unless you have found a way to make FB ads work specifically for your product, in which case, good for you! (let me know any learnings and I'd love to test them myself)

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

My FB ads are working better than ever.

My social "influencer" posts only work when I use a paid strategy with it.

The ads aren't the problem, it's the sales process after the click. Any idiot with a credit card can run traffic to a page. It's what happens ON that page that makes the difference.

FB Lead ads are probably my highest performers right now. And every client I have says they're getting stuff from it, too.

The key to advertising TODAY, I believe, is dog-whistle copy. From cranky ol' Dan Kennedy. He was right yet again.

 

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