April 15, 2024/in Marketing
We are thrilled to welcome social media expert Whitney Barkley from Speakerazzi. In this article and the video embedded below, Whitney shares incredibly valuable content to help you improve your Meta ad campaigns.
It’s important to create a ‘relationship’ with running ads. Just like in the dating world, it may take a few interactions before you know if you want to commit to a social media platform.
When you first start working with ads, there will be a lot of trial and error. It’s important to communicate with your audience to understand their needs and what they like to see in their social feeds.
Whitney encourages you to have patience—if you stay nimble with your ads and learn as you go, you will find success.
There are 7 common mistakes that Whitney sees with beginners’ ad campaigns.
Mistake #1: Incorrect or Missing Facebook Pixel Setup
What is a pixel? It’s a little piece of code that Meta uses to track user actions with the goal of optimizing ads and measuring effectiveness
Here are some common errors regarding the pixel:
o Not installing the Pixel on the website
o Incorrect placement of the Pixel code leading to inaccurate data collection
If you fail to set it up properly, it will interfere with accurately tracing your conversions and measuring the success of your ad performance.
Whitney shared this helpful tool, called Meta Pixel Extension. If you download it and add it to your browser, you can see if pixels are being used on any site you visit.
Instructions to set up the pixel can be found here.
Mistake #2: Misunderstanding Funnels
Ad funnels are a way to move your customers through stages of awareness and interaction with your brand. The goal is to get them to the bottom of your funnel, where they are ready to make a purchase.
Whitney says there are 4 main types of funnels that begin with an ad:
o Tripwire- This type of ad prompts customers to download something lower priced or free to lead them to something more expensive (Free Lead Magnet to a Paid Digital Products)
o Phone- Gain high quality leads to book a call straight from an ad. Your goal is to qualify leads for high ticket services (3k+ or Customized Services) This is good for beginners to build quicker cashflow.
o Webinar-Using a presentation to teach and provide value and to help people get to know you. The idea is to provide a training which leads to a purchase.
o Ecommerce- Converting traffic to paid customers. Optimize your campaign so you can retarget people who engaged with your ad. This can help promote a long-term buying pattern.
Mistake #3: Not understanding your Campaign Objectives
Before you even create an ad campaign, it’s important to align your campaign objectives with your overall business or marketing goals. For example, one of the campaign objectives you can select for a Meta ad is “brand awareness,” which you might choose if you are a new company or moving into a new market.
In the image above, there are three overall goals for a business's marketing: awareness, consideration and conversions. The more specific goals are listed inside the funnel.
As you select a campaign objective, make sure it corresponds to where these new people (who will see your ads) are on their customer journey. If they don’t even know your business yet, it is unlikely that they will be ready to buy. Therefore, it could be a waste of your ad money to create a campaign for them with a “conversions” objective.
For these people, it may be more effective to set the objective as “brand awareness.”
If your ad is going to be shown to people who already know you (previous customers, for example), you should have better results with a “conversions” campaign objective.
Mistake # 4: Inadequate Targeting
In Meta ad-speak, your targets are the people who will see your ad. If you define your target audience too broadly, you could waste your ad spend on uninterested people.
By not targeting properly, you miss the opportunity for engagement with potential customers.
Ignoring audience insights
Meta offers audience insight tools for a deeper understanding of potential customers. Often overlooked insights include interests, behaviors and demographics. Whitney encourages the integration of interest, behavior, and engagement targeting for more nuanced campaigns that should perform better.
Neglecting custom and lookalike audiences
Don’t overlook the power of custom audiences to retarget previous website visitors, app users, or video watchers.
Using “lookalike audiences” can expand reach to new users similar to existing customers. Meta will help you create this lookalike audience.
You must continue to test and optimize your targeting criteria, based on what works and what doesn’t.
Narrowing down your target audience
Here are some ways to go even deeper in identifying your target audience for your ads:
Pain-point: pinpoint the problem your product solves for your ideal customer and how it changes their current situation. (what are their triggers)
Persona: Understand who your customer is, including their likes, habits, and what alternatives they’ve tried. (what are their actions and mindsets?)
Priority: Highlight the urgency of your solution for customers needing immediate results. (why is this a need right now?)
Present Situation: Identify customers’ current life events that make your offer timely and relevant. (what is causing this need right now?)
Premium Qualifier: Focus on targeting customer most likely to buy based on specific behaviors or qualifications. (who will most likely buy?)
Mistake #5: Being impatient with Ads
Whitney often sees these mistakes:
o Expecting Immediate results: Ad performance can take time to optimize and show significant results, requiring patience and observation.
o Halting Campaigns too soon: Avoid stopping campaigns prematurely before they’ve had the chance to gather enough data for meaningful analysis and optimization.
o Underestimating Optimization Period: Understand that Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms need to learn and find the best ways to deliver your ads, typically requiring a few days to weeks.
o Lack of Testing Period Allocation: Allocate a specific time for testing campaigns, usually 2-4 weeks, to accurately measure performance and make informed decisions and make necessary adjustments.
Mistake #6: Choosing Wrong Creatives
It’s important to recognize the critical role of creative elements in ad success and the risk of using visuals or messages that don’t resonate with your target audience.
Whitney suggests that you use insights from top-performing organic content on your channels as a blueprint for ad creatives. These often indicate what resonates best with your audience.
She offers the following tips related to the creative elements and overall look of the ad:
o Tip for creative Selection: Look at your most engaging organic posts as inspiration for ad creatives, leveraging elements that drove high engagement rates.
o Mismatched creative and audience: Ensure ad creatives align with the interests, behaviors, and preferences of the targeted audience for higher relevance and engagement.
o Organic-like Creatives Advantage: Ads that mimic the look and feel of natural social media content, including user-generated content, tend to perform better by blending seamlessly into the audience’s feed, enhancing engagement.
o Testing Multiple creatives: Always test a variety of creative options to find the most effective combination of imagery, video, and text for your target audience.
o Potential Chat GPT Prompt to generate ideas for creatives
“Could you suggest some creative video, photo, or carousel ideas for Facebook ads targeting (specific audience segment)?
I’m looking for something that stands out and resonates with (audience interests, challenges or desires).
Mistake #7: Weak Ad Copy
Whitney says that it’s important to recognize the crucial influence of ad copy on engagement and conversion rates; weak copy can significantly reduce ad effectiveness.
Some additional tips:
o Generic Messaging: Avoid one-size-fits-all messaging; tailor your ad copy to speak directly to the specific interests, needs, and pain points of your target audience.
o Failing to Highlight Benefits: Ensure your copy clearly communicates the unique benefits and value proposition of your product or service, answering the “what’s in it for me?” for your audience.
o Neglecting a clear call to action (CTA): Include a compelling CTA in your ad copy to guide users on what action you want them to take next, whether it’s to learn more, sign up, or make a purchase.
o Not testing copy variations: Test multiple versions of your ad copy to identify which resonates best with your target audience, using metrics to guide your decisions.
o Using ChatGPT for Ad copy ideas: Utilize ChatGPT to generate creative ad copy ideas, helping overcome writer’s block and introducing fresh, persuasive angles to engage your audience.
Please watch the video above for additional tips and valuable information from Whitney.
Content from Whitney Barkley, article written by Jill Morenz, President & CEO at Aviatra Accelerators