“Alison, should I run Facebook ads?” and “Alison, can you tell me how to run Facebook ads?”
These are two questions I hear soooooooo often…and for good reason.
Ecommerce and Facebook ads have gone hand in hand for what seems like forever. (Seriously—do you remember a time before Facebook? It’s kind of hard at this point!)
And the thing is, when you do them right, creating and running ads on Facebook can be huge for your ecommerce business. They can help you generate leads, sell products, and increase brand awareness. But when any kind of social media ads are done the wrong way, meaning without good creative and a good strategy, they can cost you thousands—even tens of thousands—of dollars.
And I don’t know about you, but I do NOT like wasting that kind of money.
Nope. Nada. No way.
That’s why I loved getting to sit down with Bryan Bowman again (listen to his last podcast episode here) to talk about all of the ins and outs of Facebook ads. He works with this kind of marketing every day, helping ecommerce business owners hit their goals (whatever those goals can be.)
The Basics of Facebook Ads
Although Bryan can go REALLY deep into this realm, I wanted to know more about the basics…essentially on the Social 101 level. What’s happening now, and what should ecommerce business owners be doing—or not doing.
Now, I really encourage you to listen to the podcast, because the info Bryan shares is so gosh dang good. In the meantime, here are just 3 of the things I learned:
- Use Facebook Ads Manager. As Bryan says, “friends don’t let friends boost posts.” He explained that boosting posts is the most expensive way you can run ads on Facebook, and it’s also one of the least effective. Yes, you might get a message from Facebook that says your post is getting noticed, but that doesn’t mean it’s getting noticed for the right reasons. It’s better to use Facebook Ads Manager, which improves targeting and can provide way, way, WAY better reporting.
- Have a Facebook ads strategy for your ecommerce business. You shouldn’t run any sort of advertising or marketing piece—including a social media ad—unless you know what your goal is. Are you hoping to sell a product? Are you using the social media ads for lead generation? It’s kind of like when you start a journey: you need to have a destination in mind so you can map out a path to get there. It’s the same with running ads on Facebook.
- Know your numbers. How well do you know your product costs and your sales margins? You need to understand what they are prior to marketing your product. Identifying which of your ecommerce products have awesome margins and which ones don’t gives you the information you’ve got to have to determine what (or if) you promote with your Facebook ads. When you’re investing your hard-earned cashola into ads, you don’t want to be doing it based on a guess, right?
When it Comes to Facebook Ads…
… If you don’t know what you want to get out of your ads, whether or not you can make a profit, and how to execute those ads the best way, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.
At least not yet.
Again, you’re definitely going to want to give this episode of my podcast a listen, because there’s a whole heck of a lot more info that you’re gonna want to hear about creating, running, and tracking Facebook ads.
Top Takeaways
- Lead with a proven product and offer.
- Know your numbers – and check your math.
- Decide what your top ad goal is: sales or lead gen?
- Start with warm traffic first then expand out.
- Build a swipe file for creative inspiration.
- Test, track (with UTM's) and iterate.
