How to approach Facebook advertising in 2019
Spoiler alert… creatives, creatives, creatives and other tricks!
1. Broad targeting vs. narrow targeting
Or maybe better; event based audiences vs. Facebook native advertising targeting.
Think about the assets you already have! For instance; what is your product/service? Therefore what type of users are my target users? At Travix, we sell flights, it’s a generic product with no offer differentiation, which shows all the available flight combinations, so users can pick the one that best fits their needs.
You know your customers and users that engaged or showed interest. Take it and leverage custom audiences based on website events.
In Facebook algorithm we trust to find the audience that will perform the best towards your campaign’s objective, however, for flights, usually, native targeting options such as demographics or interests are not relevant. (This, of course, might completely change with other products or services that target to specific segments).
*Note: an algorithm is a machine, that will do exactly what asked. In other words, whether the campaign optimization goal is: traffic or leads, for example, it will deliver exactly this, at it’s cheapest cost without any qualitative components. So, don’t expect transactions out of this.
BONUS: Try using Facebook’s intent targeting features. For travel, these are; broad targeting and trip consideration.
2. Test and learn
It’s a mindset and are also tools. Use these tactics to validate your assumptions and to prove the value of your investments.
- Create a continuous learning environment! When updating ads and creatives, use it as an opportunity to test new headlines, texts, messages, images, CTA… and learn from the results.
- DIY conversion and brand lift studies to answer questions such as, how is my Facebook advertising contributing to my sales or how is my Facebook advertising affecting the brand perception?
3. Cross channel
Performance marketing, is a mix and match game. As customers, our online behavior is not tied to a single touch point, but just the opposite. Our key channels, Google and Facebook can work together instead of competing between each other.
According to Ingnite Visibility, “Search and social are natural complements. It’s where people spend most of their time — 75% of it, to be exact.” nevertheless, “customers who click both social and search ads are 2x more likely to convert than users who click just one”.
“And, a recent Kenshoo study showed that paid search audiences which were already exposed to Facebook advertising generated a 30 percent improvement in return on ad spend and a 7 percent uplift in CTR.” (Lincoln, 2018)
Now, how can you use this information? By connecting audiences both ways (Facebook — Google, and the other way around) by UTMs. When sending traffic from either channel to a landing page with a unique tracking code, a unique audience can be created in the other channel. Check here all the details.
BONUS: Use Search query data to optimize your ad copies. What keywords are being used to search for your service or product? Use them in your ads!
4. Creatives and automation
The truth is that, the only way to stand out among the users friends posts, stories… is by having an appealing creative. Whether advertisers are ready or not, creatives are not just an image, anymore. Creatives nowadays are videos, images, mobile specific, channel specific, format specific… and this trend will continue to grow in 2019. Watch out for the new eCommerce functionalities for Instagram stories such as adding products (links) or redirecting to IGTV.
The fast proliferation of creative types, makes it hard for advertisers to keep up and deliver quality content for each one of them. So, do not worry, you are not alone in this one! Luckily for all, Facebook marketing partners, such as Smartly, already developed image and video templates to automate and scale the creatives production.
BONUS: Connect your product feed for further automation possibilities with Dynamic ads.
