Facebook Advertising - Ask Me Anything

[testos111]

I'm a music producer, rapper singer working with several artists. If I want to promote various projects, what is the most efficient way time and cash wise?

Use the brand awareness ad. Facebook will show your ad to people who are not likely to click (no conversions) but they are used at the top of the funnel stage to generate awareness at a very low cost. Big brads like NIke and Adidas use it when they are coming up with a new shoe/product where awareness is more important than conversions.

This may be too specific, but:

We have a connection where we can run a 250 capacity event for under $400 and control the door.
In a city of 80,000, how long and how much money should we spend (along with free music and YouTube) to have a chance at a moderately successful event? (I'd be happy if 50 people showed up to get some word of mouth going. I would expect to eat the fee a few times with free events.)

How much money you should spend depends on lot of factors:

1. How well your ad is running, i.e, what CTR are you getting because your CPC will depend on that. Poor ad = more money spent and vice-versa

2. How good is your targeting. You can get a good CTR and lower CPC but if there are less conversions, that will drive up the costs.

I advertise events on Facebook so one thing I can straight away tell you is that no one on Facebook is browsing to buy a $400 ticket. A better strategy would be to let them register themselves by paying a small deposit amount and the remaining at the venue or later on when the date comes closer.

Give yourself at least 2 weeks of time to advertise this. Something that will be very crucial will be the landing page. Give away as much info as possible about the event.

And 100% have a pixel installed on your website and run a conversion ad so you can know which image/headline/text is performing best for you. Optimization will be everything.

Don;t rely solely on Fb is you're doing it for the first time. Fb ads work great for events but you need to find the winning ad and that can take bit of time since a lot of trial and error is involved.

 

[Aviel]

Im trying to sell T-Shirts on facebook. How would you go about targeting potential buyers.

Do you focus on interests, behaviours or what exactly?

Should I go narrow? Or broad when targeting?

Can I add a behaviour like “engaged shoppers”?

Should I also add interest such as H&M, Zara and such even tho its not related to my niche, but because these are online shoppers that are always keeping up with trends??

What do you think is the best way?

 

[testos111]

Im trying to sell T-Shirts on facebook. How would you go about targeting potential buyers.

Do you focus on interests, behaviours or what exactly?

Should I go narrow? Or broad when targeting?

Can I add a behaviour like “engaged shoppers”?

Should I also add interest such as H&M, Zara and such even tho its not related to my niche, but because these are online shoppers that are always keeping up with trends??

What do you think is the best way?

The problem with selecting behaviors is that usually it reduces the potential size of the audience and a narrow audience always means a higher CPC.

I would suggest keep the audience between 50k - 500k by selecting interested based on what the t-shirt is about. If the t-shirt does not belong to a particular niche, then you'll have to experiment with the targeting.

Use carousel ads so you can display multiple t-shirts in the same ad and link each to the add to cart page of that t-shirt.

Also, as mentioned many times before, if you have people already visiting your website, create an audience out of them and then use retargeting.

T-shirts can be a tricky affair with Fb ads because you're most likely already dealing with low margins and until you find a really well performing ad, you may not make too much money.

 

[godfather dust]

I'm a music producer, rapper singer working with several artists. If I want to promote various projects, what is the most efficient way time and cash wise?

Use the brand awareness ad. Facebook will show your ad to people who are not likely to click (no conversions) but they are used at the top of the funnel stage to generate awareness at a very low cost. Big brads like NIke and Adidas use it when they are coming up with a new shoe/product where awareness is more important than conversions.

This may be too specific, but:

We have a connection where we can run a 250 capacity event for under $400 and control the door.
In a city of 80,000, how long and how much money should we spend (along with free music and YouTube) to have a chance at a moderately successful event? (I'd be happy if 50 people showed up to get some word of mouth going. I would expect to eat the fee a few times with free events.)

How much money you should spend depends on lot of factors:

1. How well your ad is running, i.e, what CTR are you getting because your CPC will depend on that. Poor ad = more money spent and vice-versa

2. How good is your targeting. You can get a good CTR and lower CPC but if there are less conversions, that will drive up the costs.

I advertise events on Facebook so one thing I can straight away tell you is that no one on Facebook is browsing to buy a $400 ticket. A better strategy would be to let them register themselves by paying a small deposit amount and the remaining at the venue or later on when the date comes closer.

Give yourself at least 2 weeks of time to advertise this. Something that will be very crucial will be the landing page. Give away as much info as possible about the event.

And 100% have a pixel installed on your website and run a conversion ad so you can know which image/headline/text is performing best for you. Optimization will be everything.

Don;t rely solely on Fb is you're doing it for the first time. Fb ads work great for events but you need to find the winning ad and that can take bit of time since a lot of trial and error is involved.

My earlier post (and AB, but I don't speak for him) was unhinged.

From a Christian perspective I will continue to be entertained (to a far lesser extent/with much less time and attention invested) as long as Trump and his associates do not hold a place in my heart (then I go Amish with news media.)

From a Christian perspective, the ending is already known - Revelations.

Then on the basis that there is no third temple in sight at this time. No unified European '4th Reich' type collective ready to wage war on other powers.
Not all nations have turned on Israel yet & persecution of Christian's is not wholly widespread.
I'd say we're a few years if not a decade or two off from any apocalyptic events, if at all.

Trump may be a figure being used to rearrange the deck chairs of the Titanic, yet I don't really see him as a sinister figure.
& I'm inclined to dismiss all humans as mere glorified, walking meat-bags.
If you're not God, I won't bow down to ya'!.

You misinterpreted ($400 is OUR price to run a 200-250 capacity event, we might do a few free admission) but not important, everything else is new info, thanks.

 

[BallsDeep]

Can you advise a way to create a new ads account if your previous one is banned? I've tried using a VPN and creating a new facebook profile and credit card, but they never pass the facebook security test.

 

[JohnQPublic]

What about Instagram ads? Any tips on Instagram vs Facebook ads? I'm thinking about starting to target Instagram too.

 

[testos111]

Can you advise a way to create a new ads account if your previous one is banned? I've tried using a VPN and creating a new facebook profile and credit card, but they never pass the facebook security test.

Not sure since I have never been banned. I'll do some research and answer this question.

 

[testos111]

What about Instagram ads? Any tips on Instagram vs Facebook ads? I'm thinking about starting to target Instagram too.

I only use Instagram for brand awareness ads..I used them a couple of times for direct reponse ads where I was looking to sell something. While it did send a lot more traffic to my site than the Facebook ad, the conversions were not that great.

One main issue with Instagram ads is that the copy of the ad is not as elaborate as a Facebook ad meaning that your headline and text don't show up that emphatically, which can be crucial for conversions. Instagram being an image-centric app want your ad to look as much like a normal image as possible.

If you are using Instagram ads, then my suggestion would be to not do it from the Facebook ads dashboard because doing that gives you no flexibility in creating the appearance of the ad. The system just turns the Facebook ad into an Instagram one.

A better way to do it would be to create a post on the Instagram with most of the important text on the image. Then promote that from Instagram itself using the Promote option which comes under every post. It's similar to how Boost Post ad works on a Facebook page.

 

[qwertyuiop]

How much per click are you paying? I'm thinking about traffic arbitrage opportunities using sites I own.

Main question: What kind of services can you promote (dont want to know what you do, just what kinds might work well)? Could you create a web business entirely from Facebook Ads?

 

[Kdog]

I am helping a friend who owns a local brick and mortar business do some FB ads, (I have a bit of knowledge). It's a juice bar that also supplies beverages local private schools and gyms but the main up sell are the 4+ day juice detox cleanses. I have done a few video ads for some brand awareness and for minimal spend I got a couple thousand views, though the thumbnail was a nice woman from the video so it could of purely been that.

My target audience has been people with interests in fitness and health etc, as well as people who like all the major local gym FB pages, and people who like our competitors page. Just throwing around ideas, I might retarget the people who watched the ad with a new campaign with some sort of offer to redeem. In the meantime I also have to get the pixel sorted (the owner messed it up) as retargeting website visitors is important and the website does rank well for the keywords (though they aren't insanely high search volume).

Will keep you guys posted how it goes, and if anyone has any tips to improve my targeting or has worked in this niche, feel free to comment.

 

[testos111]

How much per click are you paying? I'm thinking about traffic arbitrage opportunities using sites I own.

Main question: What kind of services can you promote (dont want to know what you do, just what kinds might work well)? Could you create a web business entirely from Facebook Ads?

My cpc is insanely low these days , Rs.0.81 per click for one of my main ads which is directly tied to a sales page, not even a free gift squeeze page. But this has come after about 1 year of tweaking the image/headline/targeting/audiences related to the ad. Like I mentioned before, using lookalike audiences was the game changer for me. When I had started this ad in 2016, I was paying around Rs.15/click.

Another factor was that I completely redesigned my WordPress website with a much more professional looking theme and that worked wonders for the conversions.

FB works well for industries like travel, entertainment, self-help, photography, digital marketing, e-commerce or anything that has a novelty/fun aspect about it. It doesn't work well for more serious businesses like Finance, Investments, B2B stuff, etc. Though even in thsoe, if you cna find a fun angle to it, it can work. For instance, events and FB work really well so if you can create an event to raise awareness around those type of products, it has a higher chance of working.

Could you create a web business entirely from Facebook Ads?

Absolutely yes. My business solely runs from FB ads. E-mail marketing helps me but currently my list isn't that big. That's the reason I'm shitting bricks every time Facebook are about to make announcement on changing their algorithm. Luckily the last major change only affected organic reach, not ads. It's obviously not the best strategy to rely on one source of traffic, but it has been working for me for the past 5 years so I'm just continuing the same way because deep down I know that even Facebook don't have the balls to change their ad algorithm.

 

[JohnQPublic]

What about Instagram ads? Any tips on Instagram vs Facebook ads? I'm thinking about starting to target Instagram too.

A better way to do it would be to create a post on the Instagram with most of the important text on the image. Then promote that from Instagram itself using the Promote option which comes under every post. It's similar to how Boost Post ad works on a Facebook page.

I like this idea.
Depending on the demographic, Instagram is getting very important. A lot of under 30s are not on FB that much anymore. But if you're going for over 50 FB is the place. I'll have to take a look at the Instagram dashboard and see how the targeting works.
Thanks for the tips.

 

[JohnQPublic]

I am helping a friend who owns a local brick and mortar business do some FB ads, (I have a bit of knowledge). It's a juice bar that also supplies beverages local private schools and gyms but the main up sell are the 4+ day juice detox cleanses. I have done a few video ads for some brand awareness and for minimal spend I got a couple thousand views, though the thumbnail was a nice woman from the video so it could of purely been that.

My target audience has been people with interests in fitness and health etc, as well as people who like all the major local gym FB pages, and people who like our competitors page. Just throwing around ideas, I might retarget the people who watched the ad with a new campaign with some sort of offer to redeem. In the meantime I also have to get the pixel sorted (the owner messed it up) as retargeting website visitors is important and the website does rank well for the keywords (though they aren't insanely high search volume).

Will keep you guys posted how it goes, and if anyone has any tips to improve my targeting or has worked in this niche, feel free to comment.

The great thing about FB is this very precise targeting, but the possibilities get exhausted pretty quickly. One way i've found to increase the target group size is University pages (if you're looking for an educated demographic, which might match for you) and targeted magazines and other vertical media. If you combine that with a geo-area it might work well. You can make different target groups and run an ad for $25 for a day or two and see which ones work for you.

 

[The Good Life]

If one wants to generate leads for an insurance business, assuming your targeting is solid and the ad set is solid, what is the daily minimum budget?

Would it be possible to generate a 3 leads a day at 5 dollars a day, or is this just too low of a budget? If so, how much?

 

[testos111]

If one wants to generate leads for an insurance business, assuming your targeting is solid and the ad set is solid, what is the daily minimum budget?

Would it be possible to generate a 3 leads a day at 5 dollars a day, or is this just too low of a budget? If so, how much?

Of course its possible. In fact that's aiming a bit low for lead generation. 5 dollars a day is good for split testing ads but if you have a winning ad, 20 a day should really be the minimum because your daily budget also has an impact on how many impressions you get initially ( it depends on your bid amount plus your daily budget with the former the more important of the two).

But ultimately the question of daily budget is not really an ad related question. It's a business related question and only you can determine the real answer by determining what the leads are worth to you.

 

[The Good Life]

If one wants to generate leads for an insurance business, assuming your targeting is solid and the ad set is solid, what is the daily minimum budget?

Would it be possible to generate a 3 leads a day at 5 dollars a day, or is this just too low of a budget? If so, how much?

Of course its possible. In fact that's aiming a bit low for lead generation. 5 dollars a day is good for split testing ads but if you have a winning ad, 20 a day should really be the minimum because your daily budget also has an impact on how many impressions you get initially ( it depends on your bid amount plus your daily budget with the former the more important of the two).

But ultimately the question of daily budget is not really an ad related question. It's a business related question and only you can determine the real answer by determining what the leads are worth to you.

I was on another forum talking to some people who claimed to be "experts" and they said that with insurance lead generation the market is so saturated that you are better off not wasting the time and initial money testing your ads and to just buy leads. They were giving me extremely high budgets (around $100 a day minimum) and said that the competition is soo insanely fierce that it's not even worth it. Part of me calls bullshit, but I guess it kind of makes sense.

Also, if one does decide to generate leads through Facebook ads for insurance, do you recommend optimizing for conversions sending them to a landing page to take a specific action, or do you recommend using facebooks built-in lead form?

 

[testos111]

If one wants to generate leads for an insurance business, assuming your targeting is solid and the ad set is solid, what is the daily minimum budget?

Would it be possible to generate a 3 leads a day at 5 dollars a day, or is this just too low of a budget? If so, how much?

Of course its possible. In fact that's aiming a bit low for lead generation. 5 dollars a day is good for split testing ads but if you have a winning ad, 20 a day should really be the minimum because your daily budget also has an impact on how many impressions you get initially ( it depends on your bid amount plus your daily budget with the former the more important of the two).

But ultimately the question of daily budget is not really an ad related question. It's a business related question and only you can determine the real answer by determining what the leads are worth to you.

I was on another forum talking to some people who claimed to be "experts" and they said that with insurance lead generation the market is so saturated that you are better off not wasting the time and initial money testing your ads and to just buy leads. They were giving me extremely high budgets (around $100 a day minimum) and said that the competition is soo insanely fierce that it's not even worth it. Part of me calls bullshit, but I guess it kind of makes sense.

Also, if one does decide to generate leads through Facebook ads for insurance, do you recommend optimizing for conversions sending them to a landing page to take a specific action, or do you recommend using facebooks built-in lead form?

They are right about the competition. Real estate people face a similar problem. You can experiment with lead ads since it shortens the conversion funnel so it can save you on the cost part. But there are a lot of other problems with lead ads like integrating it seamlessly with your e-mail service, creating a compelling copy, etc. So you may get more leads but the conversions (sales) can be low too. But $100 a day definitely seems a lot even for a winning ad because the ultimate value of an ad is only judged by the end goal it serves. And most of that takes place away from the ad and down in a well established funnel. A Facebook ad is just an element at the top of your funnel.

Also I'm not sure how effective it will be because Facebook works better for "non-serious" businesses. Stuff like real estate, insurance and finance is not something that works too well there in my opinion. For quantity maybe but quality wise, the leads may not be worth all the cost.

But if your job is to just generate leads, then lead ads + winning ad copy (high CTR and low CPC) +$100 a day can work.

You can also give the GDN (google display network) a shot. You can create image ads which are similar to FB ads but you can choose what kind of websites they would be shown to. So if you select INsurance as the category, it'll show your lead gen ads to blogs/websites that deal with that topic. And unlike Google Adwords Search based ads, they are very cheap. But I don't have much experience with them. The couple of $100 I put in those did not work for my niche.

 

[Aviel]

I ran a 5 dollar a day ad for a product and these were the metrics after 48 hours:
Impressions - 954
Reach - 892
CPM - $13.72
CTR (All) - 2.41%
CTR (Link Click Through) - 1.68%
Link Clicks - 16
CPC (Cost Per Link Click) - 0.82
Add to Cart - 0
Purchases - 0

WTF! should I continue or kill this ad? I have the price of the product on the ad already

 

[testos111]

I ran a 5 dollar a day ad for a product and these were the metrics after 48 hours:
Impressions - 954
Reach - 892
CPM - $13.72
CTR (All) - 2.41%
CTR (Link Click Through) - 1.68%
Link Clicks - 16
CPC (Cost Per Link Click) - 0.82
Add to Cart - 0
Purchases - 0

WTF! should I continue or kill this ad? I have the price of the product on the ad already

Your ad looks fine. This is a typical example where the advertiser needs to work on improving the landing page. pm your lp link and i can give you a few tips.

 

[Aviel]

Thx, I sent you a PM