Lesson Category: Facebook Ads

What makes FB advertising veterans so successful?

• They know that NO MATTER WHAT…
• Even if they’re “losing money”…
• They’re always buying data that is well worth its cost as long as it’s used correctly
• Regardless of whether you use it to rule something out or you’ve stumbled on a winner you want to expand… it’s still a step forward and money well spent.

Putting together these pieces to launch your own campaign

• Remember: Only spend money you can afford to comfortably not see financial ROI from
• Create a new campaign — set your objective (I strongly recommend conversion events vs. traffic or engagement)
• Create your first ad set ($5 or $10/day each) — compile based on the audience interests and/or demographics you identified with the Audience Insights Tool
• Add at least one creative (headline/text/imagery or video), and you’re off to the races!
  • A note about adding multiple creatives to the same ad set
  • A quick note about “Dynamic Creative” as an alternative to the above
• Repeat for as many campaigns & ad sets you want to create
• Let’s look back at a couple of my accounts for examples

Setting up your ad account structure correctly from day one

• Again, lots of different styles/schools of thought here
• But believe me, you want SOME kind of clear system going into this
• What I’ve settled into over the years:
  • Campaign: Optimization goal (purchase, lead, click, video view, etc.)
  • Ad Set: Audience testing (split based on interests, demographics, etc.)
  • Ads: Testing different messaging/creatives
• Also pay attention to your naming conventions:
  • Campaign: [DATE] || [CONVERSION EVENT]
  • Ad Set: [DATE] || [CONVERSION EVENT] || [AUDIENCE]
  • Ad: [DATE] || [CONVERSION EVENT] || [AUDIENCE] || CREATIVE IDENTIFIER
• Let’s take a look at one of my accounts…

• A live, unscripted demo of the Audience Insights tool
• This will show you what I’m thinking as I’m looking at this data clearer than anything else
• Have a spreadsheet handy to categorize & track as you go

Things to keep in mind when using the Audience Insights Tool

• Think of the pages/interests/occupations/etc. that you see as bars
• If you walked into a bar packed with those people, would they be interested in your offer?
  • If yes… Probably a good fit, but still no guarantees.
  • If no… Spend your money on better “guesses”.
  • If “maybe”… explore “lower hanging fruit” until you run out of it, then give it a shot
• You’re searching for patterns & “pools” of people who most closely align with what you’re offering
• The more variety you have, the better.
• Let’s dig a bit deeper into exactly how to do this…

A lot more straightforward than you probably think…

• Create a pixel within Facebook Business Manager & assign it to an ad account
• WordPress: Copy/paste the whole code Facebook provides in the head section of your website (same place GA & GSC go)
• Shopify: The whole code isn’t necessary, just the ID from within the code
• All of this is REALLY easy to click around and figure out or, WORST case scenario, Google (?)
• So let’s not linger here — we have plenty to cover ahead

• Important Definitions for Facebook Advertising
  • Pixel: A tracking code; the connection from your site(s) to Facebook that allow it to collect data
  • Pixel data: The stored “pool” of data that Facebook uses to improve your campaigns’ results
  • Custom audience: A custom “pool” of people that have taken an action you want to follow or hone in on
    • Most common: Website visitors, leads, adds to cart, purchases, etc.
  • Lookalike audience (LAA): Using a “seed audience” from your custom audiences, Facebook will make a “best guess” to assemble a larger audience based on the seed audience data you’ve provided
  • We’ll talk about custom audiences & LAAs in the advanced training
• Fundamental Concepts Regarding Facebook Pixel Data
  • What it means to “train your pixel”
  • How much data you need for good results from custom audiences
    • As it relates to seed audiences, but also as it relates to retargeting
  • Optimizing for engagement vs. conversion events vs. others
  • Dealing with larger broad audiences vs. smaller niche audiences
  • Accounting for your desired action (such as an impulse t-shirt purchase vs. selling a house) when choosing your ad campaign optimization & target outcomes
• Just like most branches of internet marketing, there are A TON of approaches & strategies
  • Some are more complex, and some are more straightforward
  • You’ll likely see people saying “____ is dead” for basically any strategy
  • Just find something you’re confident will work, and build up from there
    • I’ll be teaching what I believe to be an “evergreen” strategy, since it’s based on age-old sales & marketing psychology:
      • Matching a product to an audience based on their interests, behavior, and demographic data

What’s considered “basic” and what’s considered “advanced”?

• Basic: Every element you need to launch a successful campaign
• Advanced: Scaling “winners” from test campaigns to new heights
• Today we’ll be covering fundamentals, setup, research, and launch
• The advanced training will take it from there
• Without further ado, let’s jump into the basics!

• “Is $5/day really enough?”
  • Technically: Yes.
  • Realistically? Absolutely not.
    • Your daily “progress” will be almost non-existent
    • It will take forever to gather actionable information from tests
    • There will always be at least one (if not MANY) competitors moving faster than you
• So… who should pursue Facebook Ads?
  • Only people who can afford to spend $50 – $100/day minimum without seeing ROI
    • Sometimes it’s cracked within $2K – $5K total
    • Others: Well over $10K
  • Only people who can stomach the loss, keep of sound mind, and truly understand that this is an investment (when done correctly)