Facebook is still the king in terms of volume as in 2023 it was estimated to have over 3.3 billion active users[1]. This type of potential exposure is hard to ignore and it’s a main reason why Facebook Ads is still such an effective form of PPC marketing.
However, while the potential is there, I still see businesses struggling to tap into it. A major factor for this is a lack of optimisation in their campaigns. I want to change that and make sure that your Meta Ads perform superbly for your business and to that end, I’ve created a guide on how to optimise your Facebook ad campaigns below.
The Basics – Meta Pixel and Google Tag Manager
The Meta Pixel is an important tracker code that is placed on your website to show the effectiveness of your PPC ads. With this installed, you can track the actions that customers take on your site after they have clicked on one of your ads.
It’s imperative that you setup the Meta Pixel on your website before doing anything else. It offers invaluable data that you can then use to refine your Facebook Ad campaigns and improve conversions. If you want help installing Meta Pixel feel free to contact us as we can assist plus give guidance on your Facebook Ad campaigns.
Bidding – Are You Using the Right Bidding Strategy?
Bidding strategies are incredibly important for your Facebook Ads campaigns and there are currently five strategies you can use:
- Big Cap.
- ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) Goal.
- CPR (Cost Per Result).
- Highest Value.
- Highest Volume.
The first point to consider is that manual bidding is generally not advised. These bidding strategies are much easier and can save time and make your ads more effective. They are also great if you have limited data to work with and are just getting started with Facebook Ads.
Choosing the right bidding strategy is also important. Think about your objectives and what you want to achieve from your campaigns – you should then be able to select an appropriate bidding strategy. For example, if you are concentrating on lead generation, a highest volume bidding strategy could be the best option.
Objectives – Are Your Campaigns Optimised for Your Objectives?
Depending on the type of campaign and goal, Facebook then has an optimised ad delivery section that allows you to refine your objectives and make sure your ads are doing what you want.
This section is automated, and Facebook typically has a default option that it sets for each campaign type:
- Traffic: The default is link clicks.
- Engagement: The default is ThruPlay.
- Leads and Sales: The default is conversions.
- Awareness: The default is reach.
In most instances, these defaults are OK, but, I recommend thinking about what you want to achieve and making tweaks if necessary. For example, a better alternative for traffic campaigns than link clicks could be landing page views as people often mis click on ads.
Targeting – Are There any Parallel Interests That Could Work?
Facebook has an excellent targeting feature where you can specify different customer interests that your ads can be aimed at. This includes categories like business, industry, entertainment, family, relationships, fitness, food and drink, hobbies – essentially the stuff we fill out on our Facebook profile.
I often see businesses only using a strict range of interests that perfectly align with their company/product/service. This obviously works, but what can also work is thinking about “parallel” interests that could still attract the right customer.
For example, perhaps you sell gym equipment, and you therefore utilise interests from the fitness and wellness section. A parallel interest could be food and drink – this is because many people who are into fitness also take care of their diet and like to explore healthy food options.
Be creative and think what parallel interests could work – just make sure the link isn’t too tenuous as you could end up wasting ad budget.
Automation – Make Use of Automated Rules to Improve Campaign Management
A major part of Facebook Ads is campaign management and this is something that can be incredibly time consuming. For example, you will most likely have to check ad performance, remove under-performing ads, manage your budget, and alter bidding strategies.
There is a way to make these processes easier – by utilising the automated rules available in Facebook Ads Manager. For example, you can create rules to do the following:
- Specify that an ad campaign pauses when it reaches a specific budget.
- Pause an ad campaign if it doesn’t hit a specific target.
- Alter bidding strategies if an ad hits certain performance milestones.
You can get as in-depth as you want and create a range of custom rules that can make managing your ads easier. It’s important to remember that you have to maintain these rules though.
You still save time and effort though as the rules can be applied to multiple campaigns and you then don’t have to go through each of your ads and make individual changes – Facebook does it for you.
Copy – Make Sure Your Ad Copy Stand Out and be Compelling for Customers
Your Facebook ads are only as good as the copy you use! This takes time to perfect, but there are simple things you can do to improve your ad copy and make them stand out:
- Always include a clear CTA (call to action).
- Show empathy with your customers.
- Identify the issue and how you can solve it.
- Make sure any images are high-quality and relevant.
- Maintain a consistent brand presence across your campaigns.
- Keep your message short and coherent.
- Don’t try to get across multiple messages in one ad.
- Speak directly to your customers with personable language.
- Make sure your images and text complement each other.
- Always mention price where appropriate.
- Create a sense of urgency by including timeframe words.
Facebook actually has a useful cheat sheet for ad copy and I found it especially useful. The key is to make your copy stand out. You could also consider looking at competitor ads to see what they are and aren’t doing and how you could create a USP that they haven’t thought of.
Testing – Don’t Settle for One Ad Version and Use Facebook A/B Testing
The beauty of Facebook Ads is that you can easily test multiple versions of your campaigns to see which one gained the best results. If you want to learn how to optimise your Facebook ads campaigns, therefore, you must take advantage of the Facebook A/B Test.
The Facebook A/B Test allows you to run two ad campaigns simultaneously with different copy and compare the results.
To use the A/B Test function effectively you should look at the elements that make up your ads, and make adjustments for the B version including:
- Images
- CTA
- Keyword usage
- Title
- Description
- Format
- Copy
- Text length
A sound strategy I advise is to make your A ad version the “ideal” campaign – one that you think will get the best results. Your B ad version can then be a variation of this where you try alternative ad copy or images, for example.
It’s vital to wait a week to check the results. You can then compare both versions and see which one performed better. From there, you could refine the ad further and make additional A/B tests, and so on.
Landing – Make Sure Your Landing Pages are Optimised for Your Ads
This tip is not strictly about how to optimise your Facebook ads campaigns, but it will help with conversions and end results.
No matter how optimised your ads are, if the landing page they are directed too is poor quality, you won’t get the desired end results. You have to make sure that your landing page is not only optimised for things like local SEO, but also for your ads. Some simple tips to do this include:
- Make sure the landing page has excellent usability.
- Include clear CTAs that match the stage of the marketing funnel.
- Create content that is compelling and engaging.
- Utilise social proof such as reviews, comments, and testimonials.
- Include multimedia elements such as high-quality visuals and video marketing.
Facebook also has a useful guide on landing page view optimisation which can help. It’s important to give as much attention to your landing pages as the ad campaigns themselves so at to not fall short at the last hurdle.
Format – Are You Using the Different Facebook Ad Formats?
Lastly, I recommend exploring the different Facebook Ad formats and seeing which ones could be appropriate for your business. Facebook offers 8 different ad format including:
- Photo.
- Video.
- Stories.
- Messenger.
- Carousel.
- Slideshow.
- Collection.
- Playables.
Video ad formats are often some of the best-performing, for example due to their visual nature and improved engagement.
Alternatively, if you have an eCommerce store with a varied product range, perhaps a collection ad could be something to try? This ad format allows you to create a collection of products with important info like images, prices, and videos.
Spend time analysing your business, what it does, and what you want to market and compare this info with the Facebook ad formats. You can then start to create more varied campaigns that can capture your customer’s attention in different ways.
Make Your Facebook Ad Campaigns Shine with These Nine Strategies
As you can see, Facebook Ads remains an especially effective type of digital marketing, IF you take the time to optimise your campaigns.
How can you do this? You can start by installing the Meta Pixel, utilising the five automated bidding strategies, and making sure your ad goals and objectives are aligned. After that, look at your ad targeting, consider utilised automated rules, and explore the different Facebook Ad types.
Lastly, make sure that your ad copy shines, and that you are testing and refining multiple iterations using A/B testing to strive for continuous improvement.
How Key Principles Can Help
If you need help with your Facebook Ads, or want to improve your Facebook Ads optimisations, please contact us and we can assist. we have years of experience with both Facebook Ads and would be happy to help!
