Hoppy Easter, everyone!
Full of the holiday spirit (and chocolate!), I’m really egg-cited to share with you some of FlexxDigital’s PPC Easter eggs – what we’re doing in our Facebook ads strategy, and what’s working for us.
A Bit About FlexxDigital
For those of you who are new to our content (welcome!), FlexxDigital is a cost-per-lead lead generation agency.
I’d been doing lead generation for a while, trapped in an eternal and nerve-shattering cycle of cold-calling clients and pitching retainer contracts. When I did bag a high-paying client, I started pinning all my hopes and dreams of a successful agency onto them (over-relying on whales). When my grand plans inevitably fell through, I was left sprawling in the dust. I had to repeat the same cycle again, and again, and again.
To land the kind of clientele I really wanted, I realised I had to offer them exactly what they were looking for: high-quality leads with a great contact rate. That’s when I stopped asking clients for five-figures upfront, and cut out all the extra stuff like fan page design and SEO. Basically, I turned retainer contracts on their heads and started my own model – charging clients per lead.
It was a risk. I was using my own credit card to generate these leads; what if I couldn’t deliver? What if the cost per lead was way higher than I thought? But it was a risk that paid off.
If you want to find out more about this cost per lead model (and loads of Facebook ad strategy secrets), check out my free case study.
Inside, you’ll find out how we:
- Severed ties with retainer contracts once and for all
- Moved away from local businesses
- Started working with national B2C companies
- Land high-ticket clients
- Found the verticals we work in
- Consistently generate leads of the highest quality
… and much more.
But enough about us. Let’s get the eggs rolling with my top 5 Facebook ad strategy tips and tricks.
Ad Easter Egg #1: Go B-R-O-A-D On Those Facebook Audiences
There are thousands of blog posts out there telling you 101 ways to find your ideal Facebook audience.
Don’t get me wrong, I love creating lookalike audiences. Problem is, so many agencies spend forever and a day trying to build the perfect audience, they’re missing out on some prime lead generating opportunities along the way.
I wrote a post a few days ago about relinquishing control. Facebook’s algorithm is so smart now, just give it the basics and you’ll be leaving your ad audiences in safe (bionic) hands.
So, dare to go broad. If your client’s ideal customer is between 20-30, open up your ads to every 20-30-year-old in the UK, US, wherever.
This strategy is more likely to get you “wildcard” leads. Aka, people who wouldn’t usually be interested in your service but were attracted to your ad, or users who wouldn’t usually see the ad, but did because you opened up your targeting options.
These leads can be a little more expensive than those from a restricted audience but, on my recommended Cost Per Lead model, every lead distributed to your client should be priced to give you a profit. If your client is looking for volume, this is an eggcellent way to get the number of leads up!
Oh – and be patient. Give an audience this broad three or four days to get the results you’re looking for. It’s like rolling an egg down a hill – it’ll only pick up momentum.
Ad Easter Egg #2: Setting an Ad Set Budget? Try Setting a Campaign Budget Instead
From September 2019, the way you set your budgets will change. In short, you’ll no longer be able to set your daily or lifetime budget at an ad set level; it will cover the whole of your campaign instead.
According to Facebook’s Ad Help Centre, optimising the distribution of your campaign budget across your ad set means “Facebook automatically and continuously finds the best available opportunities for results across your ad sets and distributes your campaign budget in real time to get those results” (About Campaign Budget Optimization, Facebook.com).
Okay… So How Does Campaign Budget Optimisation Work?
Going directly to Facebook.com/business (I mean, they should know what they’re talking about), let’s take their example.
If you have three ad sets with a budget of $10 each, Facebook will spend $10 on each ad set, no matter how well or poorly those ad sets are performing.
With Campaign Budget Optimisation, Facebook will record how well each of your ad sets is doing. If one is doing better than the others, you can choose to spend more on that ad set to get the best results.
In theory, that means you should get a higher conversion rate if you spend more of the budget on the best performing ad set.
So, Back To Point #2
FlexxDigital have experimented with Campaign Budget Optimisation, and we’ve seen our CPL reduce by as much as 25%.
There’s a whole heap of other benefits that come with CBO too, such as:
- Getting more value from your campaigns. This makes sense. If your budget is going towards your best-performing ad set, you’re going to get a lower cost per lead (like by a whole 25%). The budget optimisation works continuously, so budget distribution can change if one ad set starts pulling ahead of the others.
- Less time spent managing campaigns. Ever wished there were more than 24 hours in a day? CBO shifts your budget between ad sets automatically, meaning you’re spending less time manually transferring your funds.
- Avoid the learning stage wait. CBO won’t trigger the learning phase when automatically distributing budget across ad sets.
- Efficient spending across audiences. CBO will work hard (instead of you!) to find the lowest cost opportunities across ad sets and the markets that they target. Winner!
I know a lot of you Facebook advertisers out there depend on your routines. If you’re not up to speed on CBO just yet, I recommend you make the change now – before Facebook forces you. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Ad Easter Egg #3: Wrap Your Head Around Collection Ads
If single-image ads are the reliable workhorses of the Facebook advertising world, collection ads are the sleek and sexy racehorses.
A Facebook collection ad consists of either a cover image (main image) or video, with four smaller images underneath.
The user can click onto any part of the ad, and they’ll be directed to a full-page version of the image they selected. This will help boost engagement, and get them really excited about the product or service you’re offering.
Some people shy away from using collection ads, thinking they can only advertise “luxury products”, such as clothes and handbags.
But, with a bit of imagination, collection ads can work for your car insurance ads too!
We use collection ads to make a sort of “mini-quiz”. So, we ask our question in the cover image (like, “How Much Are You Paying For Your Car Insurance?”), and give four possible answers underneath ($1000, $1500, etc.).
This is a great way to generate “impulse clicks” from users who usually ignore Facebook ads. Next thing you know, they’ve made the click and entered your sales funnel.
Because these mini-quizzes don’t look like traditional adverts, our click-through rates and relevance scores have been much higher.
Ad Easter Egg #4: Find Your Best Day To Generate Leads
I keep saying this, but it’s such a good way to generate leads for clients who want volume.
FlexxDigital sees a much higher ad-engagement rate on Sundays and Mondays.
Sundays make sense – a lot of clients don’t take leads over the weekends, so PPC agencies switch off their ads. We keep the ads running, collect the leads, and drip-feed them to the client throughout the week.
Mondays also make sense as it’s the first grey day after the weekend. Although there will be more ads in circulation than on a Sunday, more people will be scrolling through social media to avoid working.
In comparison, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays can be more expensive, sometimes by up to 100%. We’re used to the cost per lead fluctuating over the week, so we don’t freak out.
If you’re smart, you’ll find the best days to generate cheaper leads and concentrate your efforts accordingly. Your clients are going to love you for it.
Ad Easter Egg #5: The Creative is Everything
Say this to yourself: “Creative is everything. Creative is everything. Creative is king”. Repeat it like a mantra until you start to believe it. Then take another look at your Facebook ads.
If your ads suck, there’s nothing you can do to save your campaign.
With everything from sun cream to cut-price wedding photography being thrown at Facebook users daily, people have become pretty good at recognising ads… and even better at ignoring them.
Successful advertising on Facebook isn’t so much upping your game as changing the name of the game entirely. You’re in direct competition with heartfelt statuses, funny posts and ultrasounds. Essentially, you need to stand OUT.
So, when you’re writing your ads, or your sales hooks, you need to keep three things in mind:
- Inevitability
- Intrigue
- Promise/Solution
Take the hook PPC Manager, Graham Connolly, wrote for debt advice: “How Mums Are Writing 75% Off Their Debt”.
After clearly defining his audience (mums), Graham tapped into the three key selling points:
- Inevitability: People get into debt an have to pay it back
- Intrigue: How did these mums get so much debt written off?
- Promise/Solution: Read this article, and you can do the same
Sounds deceptively simple? Studies show that the average Facebook advert has 3 seconds to make an impact (AdEspresso). So, the more complicated or “clever” your ads are, the less likely your ideal lead will make that click!
Remember:
- Keep it clear and precise
- Use superlatives
- Work with action words, like “learn”, “get” and “try” that lead to a solution
And That’s All, Yolks
When you’re gorging yourself on chocolate this Easter, keep these tips and tricks in mind. It could mean the rebirth of your Facebook ad strategy!
Like these pointers? Check out my FREE case study on how to make your PPC agency reach 7-figures. Start skyrocketing your profits while everyone else takes the long weekend off!
