How Do I Run Successful Facebook Ads?

How do you find your clients on Facebook using paid traffic?

We all understand the value of using Facebook to find your ideal clients. There are billions of active users on Facebook. The question is how do you find the people looking for what you offer so that you can fill your programs, courses, coaching, or events?

Let’s talk about four things that you really need to do differently to be able to run successful Facebook ads.

When I sat down to write this blog post, I looked at the main mistakes I see experts making all the time when they first start to use Facebook ads.  

My team runs a lot of ads. We have run over a million dollars in Facebook ads promoting our own courses and program launches for our clients.

We have tested a lot of different strategies, and what I’m going to share with you are four key things to focus on that can make a really big difference in the results that you get with your own ads.

Number 1: Are you speaking differently to different audiences?

The number one thing you can do is talk differently to different audiences, so you really stand out.

I see a lot of experts run Facebook ads that are targeted to every person on Facebook. They set up the ad and tell Facebook to show it to practically everyone.

The reality is that your audience is a subset of the billions of people on Facebook. You have to get more specific with your audience and talk differently to different audiences.

For example, if you work with men and women, you would talk differently to men than you would to women. You could have one ad that speaks to men, and one that speaks to women.

Another example: Many of our course creators in our community market their online courses to both individual attendees and also to companies that might buy multiple seats in their course for their employees. You can run two different ads targeting these different audiences. The corporate budget keeper has different pain points than the attendee of the course might have. Your ads should speak differently to these audiences.

Number 2: Focus on “cost per conversion.”

A conversion means that you’ve achieved the goal of your Facebook ad. A successful conversion means that the ad moves a prospect one step closer into becoming your client.

Example conversions might be:

• I want them to sign up for my webinar
• I want them to sign up for my coaching program
• I want them to join my membership site

The conversion is the end goal of your ad. You have to know what you want your audience to do after seeing the ad. Click To Tweet

The cost per conversion is how much it costs you to get that lead to take that action with you.

I had an expert that was sharing with me that she had talked to somebody who runs Facebook ads as a service and this individual said to her, “Look, I can get people to see your ad for ten cents per conversion.”

Is that the conversion she is looking for?

In reality, that’s not her definition of a conversion. In Facebook speak, they call this an “impression.” An impression means people see the ad or view the video. But, it doesn’t mean that they are necessarily closer to giving an email address to the expert to attend a webinar or closer to buying a program or product (which was her goal).

Your true conversion cost is how much it costs to get a prospect to take the action you want them to take. We have to focus on this number to refine our ad strategy.

Number 3: You have to think long term

You have to think about creating experiences for your audience that unfold over time. You build credibility and trust by sharing great content with your audience consistently.

You might share a short and powerful video.

You can then boost that video and get people who like your page to watch the video.

You can then show the people who actually stop and watch your video your next ad for a free webinar, for example. (Facebook tracks the audience that watches your videos so that you can show your ads to people who are truly interested in what you offer).

This requires thinking long term about the experience that your clients move through with you.

You’re sharing free content and they watch that free content.

They consume that free content and you capture that audience.

Then you show your most interested audience the next invitation, either a webinar or your coaching program, using a retargeting ad.

It’s a two-step move, but you’re getting more targeted in your focus. This is how you lower ad costs and get bigger returns.

Thinking long-term means that when you’re putting out free content, you’re also tracking who’s consuming that content so that you can invite them into something deeper with you. That’s really important.

You are putting out free, valuable content so that you can build credibility with your audience and have them see you as the credible expert and guide that you are. When they see your invitation to come do something with you, they’re more likely to recognize you and be ready to take action.

Number 4: Focus on engagement

The fourth focus is a move that can help you figure out what kind of content is really going to work for your audience.  

Focusing on engagement can help you create better content.

“Engagement” on Facebook is defined as interacting with the content you post by liking, sharing, viewing, and commenting.  

Your free social media posts you’re putting on your page can help you see what type of topics, images, and copy appeals to your audience. When you pay attention to this,  you can create more content like this. You can also use what you learn to create better ads.

Where are you getting the shares, the comments, or the views? This engagement is telling you how you can focus your paid advertisements to get better results.

You can learn by watching how your ideal audiences engages with content even if you don’t have an active Facebook Business page.  You can look in communities where your people are hanging out online. Are they on online groups? Are they following the pages of other experts? You can watch competitor pages and notice what people are commenting, sharing, viewing, and liking.

Noticing what your audience engages with is how you begin to build great content. Click To Tweet

Here are the four key things that I’d like you to think about differently when it comes to running Facebook ads:

• Speak differently to different audiences.
• Focus on your end goal by measuring cost per conversion.
• Think long term.
• Pay attention to how your audiences engages with content.  

When you focus on this, you can put out great content, track that content, and know if it’s moving people down that experience journey with you. When you focus on engagement, you can get those clues along the way to know what’s going to work when you’re ready to test that next Facebook ad.

I’d love to hear what your questions are about this! It’s a really big topic, but these are some really common mistakes that can easily be flipped into an approach that’s going to work for you. Share your comments!