FACEBOOK ADVERTISIN G GUI DELI NES€¦ · First create a one slide positioning (OGSM). Check chapter 2 for a template to define: objective, goals, strategies and measures. This has

FACEBOOK ADVERTISING GUIDELINES 

SAMPLE AD STRATEGY  

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 A phased approach to optimal Facebook advertising results  Facebook and Instagram play an important role in today's digital marketing. Not only in B2C environments. Over time we have had the pleasure to work on great results with Facebook Advertising for many B2B companies. Organic reach on pages is decreasing due to Facebook's algorithm that defines who sees what. To reach the best results, we’re following a phased approach when setting up our Facebook ads. This document gives clear insights on how to set up those ads. Here we go!  Use this sample ad strategy to create your own. Take benefit of our yearlong hands-on experience. We'll guide you through the necessary steps.  

Chapters 

1. Before you start: One Slide Positioning 

2. About the phased and layered approach  

3. Campaign design (including examples) 

4. Budget & Audience targeting 

5. Setting up your ads 

6. Measure & Adjust 

7. Tools 

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Chapter 1: One Slide Positioning First create a one slide positioning (OGSM). Check chapter 2 for a template to define: objective, goals, strategies and measures. This has proven to be very helpful in designing an ad strategy. 

EXAMPLE  

Objective  Organise an online seminar on [DATE] with 5 experts in our field and over 50 attendees. 

Goals  A minimum of 50 attendees of middle and higher management in our field  Not exceeding our budget of € 7,500 on ad spend, including € 2,500 spent on agency  Interviews (online) with all 5 experts  Offer a trial trajectory during the seminar  Exposure in at least two relevant (online) magazines relevant to our field of expertise  

Strategies  Deploy a phased target group focussed ad campaign  Define campaign KPI's and metrics to track  Designing an ad blueprint for upcoming similar events 

Measures  Target group definition  Creating audiences to be used in different platforms  Phased approach:  KPI per phase  Weekly multi-disciplinary meeting online discussing campaign insights to optimize the campaign  Weekly create documents to be used in the blueprint: process reports analytics reports 

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 Note Before you start 

● Set up ads in Facebook's Ads management tool.  ● Paid Ads management tools such as Adespresso.com are best to set up multiple Facebook 

and (Instagram ads) campaigns. they make managing, optimizing and adjusting ads easier and faster as those activities are automized. 

● Make sure to setup the Facebook ad pixel correctly and to install it in the head of your website, as well as installing the event codes in the body of pages, so your ads can be properly tracked and analyzed. Plugins like 'Pixelyoursite' are very handy to use in Wordpress websites. Use Google Tag Manager in case you need to install pixels of other platforms too. Also retargeting options will be available. 

 Chapter 2: About the phased and layered approach  Social advertising is like dating: you won’t make an appointment to meet the parents when you first meet. And if you push too hard people will start avoiding you. Facebook advertising works the same way. The chances that prospects will act like we want increases when they have a chance to get acquainted with us and have engaged with our brand first. On average, prospects need to see any form of your media come by 15 times - both offline as online, before they consider engaging with us. A phased tactical approach, according our RACE principle, is the best way forward for success with our advertising campaigns.  Reasons for phased approach: 

● Build trust with our target audience (online) ● Serve content that helps our target audience move through the customer journey ● Get better qualified leads ● Familiarize targets with the brand ● More participants ● Higher engagement ● Brand recognition ● Taking Facebook advertising to a strategic level 

 Phase 1: SEE / KNOW / REACH: Reach, ensuring audiences see you  Phase 2: THINK / LIKE / REACH > ACT: Act, make them think of acting  Phase 3: DO / TRUST / ACT > CONVERT: Convert, let them do the desired action Phase 4: CARE / ENGAGE: Engage, taking care of their trust         

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 RACE strategy:  

  Chapter 3: Campaign design (including examples)  Online campaign success needs dedication: proper planning, a phased approach, accurate tracking and constant adjustment. In order to be able to track accurately, make sure to: 

- install platform pixel codes on your website (tip: use Google Tag Manager) - indicate the important urls and set them as custom conversion goals in Google analytics - check campaign performance on a weekly basis and take necessary measures to improve 

  Example A of the phased approach - short term campaign  Ad Set 1  A) Timeline posts promotions of relevant blog entries & Ads based on those posts Ad Set 2  B1) Ad to create campaign awareness and traffic 

B2) Timeline posts promotions (of relevant posts) Ad Set 3 C) Lead ad and ads to generate leads on website Ad Set 4 D) Ads focused on conversion      

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 Overall AD Planning   

  wk 1  wk 2  wk 3  wk 4  wk 5  wk 6  wk 7  wk 8  wk 9  wk 10 

Ad Set 1  √  √  √  √  √  √  √  √  √  √ 

Ad Set 2 -B1  √  √  √  √  √  √  √  √  √  √ 

Ad Set 2 -B2            √  √  √  √  √ 

Ad Set 3      √  √  √  √  √  √  √  √ 

Ad Set 4                √  √  √ 

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   Example B of the phased approach - short term campaign  

SEE PHASE  Description  Goals  Message  Targeting 

Facebook     

Post promotions of relevant posts 

Increase page followers, Reach 

Product launch announcement, behind the scenes 

Lookalike audiences 

Facebook  

Ads with video  Video views, Reach, Website clicks 

Product launch announcement 

Interest based audience, Lookalike audiences 

THINK PHASE  Description  Goals  Message  Targeting 

Facebook     

Real people, real stories, short video 

Website clicks to specific landing page 

People who tested the product talk about the benefits  

Lookalike Audiences,  

Facebook  

Ads with image, reasons to buy 

Website visitors, video views 

Reasons to buy  Short video of announcement 

Facebook  Lead Generation (optin) 

Optin leads  Signup for a free demo  Retargeting Post/Ad interaction 

DO PHASE  Description  Goals  Message  Targeting 

Facebook  Lead Generation (prospects) 

Leads to follow up with sales reps 

Offer to get started   Retargeting website visitors, Retargeting Optin Leads 

 After designing the plan you're set to create content and launch your ads campaign!   

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Chapter 4: Budget & Audience targeting There’s no one size fits all advice when it comes to ad budget. It depends on your location, the area you operate in, the amount of companies targeting the same audience and on the receptiveness of your targets. Follow the advice given by the various platforms and test, test, test.  4a. Let's dive deeper into the ads budgets What you should spend on your ads depends on several factors: 

- Size of your targeted audience: How many people can you target in your geographic area? 

The bigger the targeted audience, the more budget you will need. 

- Objective: Reaching people may need a higher initial budget, but is relatively cheaper than 

running ads with a lead objective (where you pay per lead). The more specific and better 

targeted your audience is, the more expensive the CPC or lead will be. What helps is to 

address as much as possible to emotions of the target groups, what results in a higher ad 

relevance score. This decreases ads spent. 

- Runtime: The longer a campaign runs, the more budget it needs. Make sure that you actually 

reach the desired audience (see image below). Bare in mind that you need more budget to 

reach the complete audience because you want your ad to appear multiple times.  

 You want to reach as many people within your chosen audience as possible (in this example, 6,800 people). Try to adjust the daily budget or budget for total runtime and see how that affects the potential- and estimated daily reach.  Calculation budget based on runtime Days x daily reach estimate = 5 days x 1200 = 6,000. This means we have to increase the budget to reach all [target group] in this audience only once. 

Ads  appear on average 2-4 times, so you’ll need 12,000 to 24,000 impressions to reach the chosen audience. Adjust 

the  budget to achieve this.  

Notes: ● Sometimes we run short campaigns of 3 days with a 

relatively high budget. Those ads can be very effective as they get pushed harder than other campaign ads because of the higher budget. 

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 ● Avoid ad fatigue! When an ad set is shown more than 4 times to the same person, pause 

and copy this campaign, adjust it (new text/image based on a copy of the original campaign) or create a new one. 

● Audience Definition: Always make sure you’re in the green and the monitor points up (noon - image above). 

 4b. Audiences and targeting Define your target group: be clear on who to target. In your one slide positioning you have already mentioned your target group. Now dive in deeper.  

1. It's smart to prepare client lists (in .csv format) to upload to e.g. Facebook and create lookalike audiences. 

2. Knowing your target group also means you're familiar with their interests. Create a Facebook audience of people with common likes/interests. The ‘See’→ (Reach) phase the targeting is broad. To ensure that you target people with similar interests as your current Facebook fans, take a look at Audience Insights based on your Facebook Page. 

3. Creating lookalike audiences is a smart way to go. Use ‘website traffic audiences’ for retargeting purposes, ‘engagement audiences’ for engagement purposes and 'customer file audiences' to have your targeting on point without having to guess on interests. This way Facebook can find the top 1%, 2% or even 5% of users that ‘look like’ those within your Custom Audience. This is one of the most effective ways of Facebook advertising in terms of retargeting. There are several options to create custom audiences based on Facebook engagement. Engagement with your page, with your videos, with your lead ads, page fans, post engagement… all very valuable to your precise targeting in the phased approach. 

4. Prepare for retargeting: using e.g. the Facebook Pixel Code to create audiences of people who visit your website or even specific pages. 

 Tip: Create an audience of your current clients and/or newsletter subscribers, and use it to exclude them in your campaigns, in case you are aiming to reach new clients.    

Chapter 5: Setting up your ads 

We promised to guide you through the necessary steps. So we won't leave you clueless in setting up the ads! In chapter 2 of this document we showed you two examples. This ads planning we have based on example A. 

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Ad Set 1  Timeline posts promotions of relevant blog entries & ads based on those posts 

Examples 

  Timeline posts picked up with Ads Management tool 

 Ad based on blog entry 

Objectives  Post engagement, awareness, visibility, reach, traffic - pick up a timeline post (or a set of relevant posts), create ads based on the post(s) and start a conversation with your target audience round a subject that is of interest to them. We want to have the right audience engaged so we can present them our messages, knowing they are open for it. 

Runtime  throughout campaign   

Budget indication  Lower daily budget depending on audience size and # posts. 15% 

Targeting  1. Persona interests (segmentation) 2. Lookalike audiences 

Headline (ads)  Value and emotion, making sure they engage and click 

Visual  Both images and videos work. 

Copy  Longer copy, written in AIDA(S) style. Value, emotion, information, CTA. 

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Remarks  Be prepared for interaction: respond, invite to like, engage! 

Ad Set 2 - B1  Ad to create campaign awareness and traffic 

Examples 

Objectives  Link clicks, new page followers, announcing a campaign to gain traffic. Inform them to help make a decision. Trigger and get them to act! 

Runtime  Throughout campaign 

Budget indication  25% (Ad Set 2 B1 + B2) 

Targeting  1. Persona interests  2. Lookalike audiences 

Headline   What do you have to offer? What do you want them to do? 

Visual  Image with clear point of action, or short video (15-30 sec) 

Copy  Medium-length copy, written in AIDA(S) style. Value, emotion, information, CTA. 

CTA button  Learn More / sign up 

Link  link to relevant page with information and possiblity to opt-in, fill out a form, apply or signup 

Remarks  Create different variations as well as multiple ads within the ad sets, presented to smaller audiences. 

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Ad Set 2 - B2  Timeline posts promotions (of relevant posts) 

Examples 

Objectives  You need engagement to have the best chances of success. So pick relevant timeline posts (preferably higher performing) to optimize engagement with your audiences (existing and new). 

Runtime  2nd half of campaign 

Budget indication  25% (Ad Set 2 B1 + B2); shift budget between B1 and B2 depending on page's and ads' current level of engagement 

Targeting  Engagement, Lookalikes of engagement audiences, lookalike of customer file, consider using the lookalike of website visitors 

Visual  Image or shorter video (15-60 sec), even live videos work well 

Copy  Take a look at better performing posts. Rewrite the copy so it's fit for ads: use AIDA(S) and use CTA's. Keep it as simple and on point as possible. 

Remarks  - Try to show the right timeline posts to matching specific audiences or segments of your audiences. This increases chances of virality. 

- See Ad Set 1: create an ad variation of the timeline post 

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Ad Set 3  Lead ad and ads to generate leads on website 

Examples 

Objective  Leads / opt-ins 

Runtime  Week 3 - 10 

Budget indication  40% of budget, but always take a look at what a lead may cost, not only focusing on the cheapest lead cost but on ROI 

Targeting  1. retargeting website visitors 2. lookalike audiences 

Copy  Tell what's necessary to reach goals. Test a shorter and a slightly longer version. In practice we learned when using a video the text needs to be short and with images it can vary. 

CTA button  I. Sign up II. Learn more 

Link  Lead Ad: thank you page (with a special gift) Ad with lead objective: Leadpage 

Remarks  - Test what works: to some brands'/companies' audiences video is great to attract new leads and for others static images work better. 

- When opt-in is your objective, make sure your automation flow is tested and active 

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Ad Set 4  Ads focused on conversion 

Examples 

Objective  The actual sell  

Runtime  Last 3 weeks 

Budget Indication  20% 

Targeting  1. Retargeting leads and specific website visitors on leadpages 2. Lookalike audiences 

Copy  What do you get? Sense of urgency. Uses sales words like: buy now, final call, only x left. 

Visual  Here it's even more important to show what you get. This can be a (short) video or an image. 

Remarks  Keep a close eye on this one. Learn from the insights and the results of short tests. 

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Chapter 6: Measure & Adjust  You should monitor and adjust your ads based on specific results and ads’ objectives, for optimal ad performance. On a weekly basis* measure the performance and track your KPI's. Adjust what is necessary to improve your campaign. When we run campaigns we check the campaigns daily or at least several times a week, in order to deliver the best possible results for our clients.  Once you are running campaigns more often or (even better) running ongoing campaigns we suggest using a reporting tool to see your insights at a glance. A tool we use ourselves is Swydo.  While setting the first steps in measuring and analyzing the data, you'll discover that there are so many metrics to track, so many numbers and data… It could dazzle you!   So, what are smart metrics to track. Let's take look.  Post Promotions (boosted posts) metrics to track Ad campaign engagement: likes, reactions and shares (calculate engagement score) Follower growth (page likes)  Ad campaigns metrics to track Reach Impressions Cost per mille (cost per 1,000 impressions) Link clicks Cost per click Page visitors through Facebook (also on specific website pages / url's) Leads  Cost per lead Conversions Cost per conversion      

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Chapter 7: Tools In the world of digital marketing a lot of tools are available for you to make your life easier. Unfortunately not all tools are as good as they promised. Nevertheless we suggest to research your tools based on your needs and wants. But we wouldn't be Social Marketing Doctors, if we didn't share the tools we use!  Of course: Facebook Ads manager & Business manager - basic but clear to use, needed to create custom conversions and audiences, useful in page insights https://business.facebook.com  

And these are our top 5 tools for creating ads:  AdEspresso - we've tried many tools to manage and optimize Facebook & Instagram Ads campaigns. No tool comes close to this one in terms of user friendliness, optimization and ads creation. www.adespresso.com  Swydo - easy to report the metrics to track on different platforms: see all important insights at a glance! www.swydo.com  Canva - great for creating appealing visuals to use in ad campaigns. Makes it easy for you to design visuals that are nice to look at and are 100% conforming to your brand identity. www.canva.com  Animoto - easily create videos with text overlays that have proven to be effective on social media campaigns. www.animoto.com  Wave.video - slightly more difficult than Animoto, but definitely great to use. Lots of features that help you design great videos, for all platforms and in all formats.  www.wave.video     

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