Trying to find the perfect ad to run on Facebook? Then read this! We’ve got loads of great tips and techniques to help to drive your ROAS through the roof.
Advertising on Facebook is a numbers game and if you don’t follow the data then you’ll never see the opportunities that are right in front of you. Here are some of our top tips for when you’re testing and optimizing your campaigns.
Spend More
One of the mistakes a lot of affiliates make is that they give up way too early. A lot of affiliates will even kill a campaign and decide that an offer isn’t working if they don’t get a conversion when the ad spend equals the payout. In other words, if they receive $10 per conversion, then they will quit once they spend $10 and don’t see a conversion.
Hoping for instant success like this does not work. There are a lot of factors that determine whether or not a campaign will be profitable, and the offer itself is just one aspect of the campaign. There are loads of other parts of the funnel which all need to work together and to get these working, you need to spend money.
Understand and Plan your Funnel
When it comes to Facebook advertising funnels, the easiest way to tackle them is to ensure that you have a working offer, then make focus on getting really good prelanders. Once you have those, focus on the creatives for your ads.
The reason this method works is based on longevity. If you have an offer that works, then you should be able to use it for a long time without the need to change it. Once you have that in place then you can focus on the middle and upper parts of your funnel.
When it comes to affiliate marketing on Facebook, prelanders are important. They allow you to produce higher quality leads, track performance in more detail and prevent you breaking Facebook’s ‘circumventing systems’ policy due to redirects on offers.
When you first start out with a new offer, use a really simple prelander that doesn’t give the customer any unnecessary barriers. The aim is to get traffic flowing to the offer with as few hurdles as possible while still giving the customer enough information and encouragement to convert.
If you are getting steady traffic to the offer and it’s converting well, then the offer works. If not, then look at where you start to see a decline. If you have a lot of clicks on the prelander, but not conversions, then there may be a problem with the offer. Similarly, if there are very few clicks on the prelander, then it needs to be revised.
It’s essential to track your campaigns at every level to see what’s working and what’s not. Every stage needs to produce an action, and if one of these is not optimised then you won’t get the results you want.
Don’t Kill Campaigns Too Early
Facebook campaigns need time to grow and the algorithm needs time to learn. Therefore, you want to try to forecast your campaigns over time. Set yourself a reasonable budget and then leave your campaigns to run, especially in the testing phase. There could be many factors such as time of day, day of the week, holidays, dates of payment etc that can all have an impact. If you don’t test your campaigns over longer time periods, then you’ll never know if they could have worked or not.
On Facebook, there will be good days and bad, and it’s important to play the long game in order to average your returns in favour of the good days.
Check Your Stats
When running campaigns on Facebook it’s important to dig into the data to find trends. There are a ton of options available and they can all reveal things about what’s working and what’s not. For example, you may have images or ad copies that are costing you money but aren’t bringing you a positive return. The Facebook algorithm isn’t perfect and sometimes it will chase engagement or a low CPC in favour of conversions. If this is the case, then it’s important to be able to spot it and turn off/optimise your ads when needed.
Keep Testing
If you find something that works, don’t get complacent. Campaigns on Facebook do not have particularly long shelf lives and if you start scaling, then be prepared for them to be even shorter. One way to check whether or not you’re reaching the end of your campaigns life is to look at the Frequency. If it starts to reach 2, then the chances are it’s about to run out of steam. (Brand campaigns are different and it’s not a bad thing if people see your ad multiple times, but if you’re running a conversion campaign then it’s a big indicator.)
One way to combat ad fatigue is to constantly test new stuff. If you have a good offer that converts well, then there will be loads of different angles which will work. Remember, no matter how well your current ads work, there will always be an angle out there that performs better. You just have to find it.
Never Assume!
Never try to guess what will work and what won’t. It’s ok to lean towards obvious ideas at the beginning, but in the long run, the only thing that should be guiding you is the data you receive back from your tests. If you follow the data and pinpoint what’s working and what’s not, there’ll be no end to the surprises.
If you want to gain glimpses of things that work in your niche/vertical, then use spy tools and try to find some of the big affiliates in your market. You can then use their ads as inspiration for your own. It’s important to only use them for inspiration though because if something is working well for them, then the chances are that they’ve already got that pipeline tapped.
The Bottom Line
Advertising on Facebook can be incredibly lucrative, but only if you are serious about it. It’s not a guessing game and you have to be willing to invest time and money into finding the winning ingredients. Therefore, make sure you are willing to make the commitment before you start and get to know what the platform has to offer.