Facebook Ads can increase brand awareness about your company and attract new customers. However, do you know how they work and if your specific business could benefit from them? We’re going to break down the Who, What, Where, and Why when it comes to using Facebook Advertising.
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Sarah: All right, good morning! We’re live. Welcome to Marketing Mix! We’ve got a really good topic today. We want to ask you, do you know if your business needs Facebook ads and what the benefits are? Today, we’re going to talk about Facebook ads and the potential that they have to grow your business, but if you do it right. And we’re going to show you how.
Glyna: Good morning!
Sarah: Good morning! It always makes me laugh. You and I just get to chatting and then we’re like, “Well, it’s showtime.”
Glyna: Well, you know we always have my computer to remind us that it’s eight o’clock.
Sarah: That’s right. Good morning.
Glyna: Hello. Yeah, every hour on the hour, it tells me what time it is.
Sarah: It keeps you straight. That’s for sure.
Glyna: At first, I was like, “I hate that,” but now it’s like, I’ll get busy working and it’ll tell me the time. And I’m like, “Oh wait, wait, whatever.” But I guess we should get back to Marketing Mix.
Sarah: Right. Yeah.
Glyna: Well, everybody, welcome to Marketing Mix. We are so happy to have you here today. We love to just mix up all kinds of different segments about digital marketing because we love digital marketing. We make new tips, trends, reviews, Q&A’s, who knows. But today we’re going to talk about Facebook ads.
Sarah: Yes, this is really going to be a good show. It’s going to help a lot of people. But before we get started, make sure that you know, that we go live on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter every single week. And you need to check out our great podcast Marketing and a Mic and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn. And I’m going to do another shameless plug, as we say, make sure that you subscribe to our YouTube channel. Why? Because every single week we are putting out really great and helpful videos, all in the name of digital marketing. All in the name!
Glyna: That’s funny.
Sarah: Oh gosh. And before we get started, which we’re going to get right to, we’ve got a lot of good stuff. I want to remind you all about our Live Scream Giveaway. This is so easy, you guys, to win $100 and it’s just by sharing the love and sharing our Marketing Mix broadcast. And the rules are simple. Share our broadcast. Two shares equal one entry. Tag Fusion One Marketing, so you just tag our page and use the hashtag Marketing Mix. And if you tag friends, you get more entries. So we’re going to make that announcement on Halloween.
Glyna: Yes. It’s so exciting.
Sarah: It is exciting.
Glyna: People get into the spirit of it, I guess you could say. But yeah, we’re really excited about that.
Sarah: Yes. Okay. So let’s dive right in. Today, we’re going to talk about the who, the what, the where, the when, and the what. I said what twice, but we’re going to cover a whole lot of what’s, that will help you answer the question, do I need to use Facebook ads for my business and how could it help? How does it all work? So let’s just dig right in. First of all, what are Facebook ads? I mean, this can be confusing to a lot of people. So Facebook ads, they’re obviously on Facebook and they appear in your newsfeed and they look just like a lot of other posts that you would see, but how you can make the distinguishment is that on the right-hand side or at the bottom or the top, you’ll see the little word sponsored on it. And so that’s a sponsor little word within the post, and that’s when you know that it is a Facebook ad. And you might be wondering, why are you seeing it? Why is it popping up, in particular, that sponsored ad, and we’re going to get right in there.
Glyna: Yes. And they’re also going to be those ads that seem to be following you everywhere. As we’re on the Halloween kick today, those spooky little ads that you’re like, “Okay, how does it know that I want whatever? It’s following me.” So those are also-
Sarah: Yeah. They know that you stopped and looked at it or if you clicked a button, they know. And you’re going to see it again.
Glyna: Yep, exactly. So that’s a whole different subject called retargeting. But how does it work? Okay. Facebook ads, it’s not free. Facebook wants their money to be able to put your products and services on their platform and also be able to send it out to all the people you want to see it. So it’s called a pay-per-click basis. So what that means is you would set up your ads in the ad format and get it all going and send it out to who you want to send it out to. But each time somebody clicks on it, you’re going to get charged a certain amount of money. And that’s all predetermined by Facebook. There are things that you can do to drive that cost down, which again is another topic, but it is a pay-per-click. So you need to know that. And they’ll ask for your credit card. You have to be prepared to set a proper budget because you are going to be paying each time somebody clicks on that.
Sarah: Yes, that’s key. Okay. So how long does it take to work? Now, once you set up all your parameters and you get everything in place of who your target audience is and the demographics and all that good stuff, it’s instant. So it’s going to start working right away. That being said, it takes about a month for you to really see and test what works best. And what we mean by that is that you’re going to put together various different-looking ads. So they’ll all maybe have the same content or maybe little tweaks in the wording or tweaks in the graphics. And it’s really about gauging what the audience is responding to. So you might see that these particular graphics in this ad is performing better. And so it takes a little bit of time to figure out what your audience is responding to.
Glyna: Yeah, that’s exactly right. And we have some early birds this morning, joining us here. Say good morning to LaVon. And we have Maryann joining us this morning.
Sarah: Good morning!
Glyna: Steve Johnson and Michelle Blanton. You guys are up and at it early this morning, but we’re glad that you’re joining us. And one of the biggest questions people ask me is, “How much does it cost? You’re telling me that I have to pay Facebook.” Well, you can set a budget. That’s a good thing. And so that you’re thinking, “I only have this much to spend. When that’s out, then Facebook will stop running the ad.” So there’s really no concern about going over a budget. What we tell people, and again, keeping in mind that that first month is a lot of tweaking, a lot of comparing, we tell them to usually start out about $5 a day to pay Facebook or to put that in your budget, just so that we can test the waters and see what’s going to work. Now, if you run out of your budget early, which is kind of a good thing, because that means people are clicking on the ad or clicking on the information, then we can always add more. But to test the waters, I would say $5 a day. And we watch it very carefully during the whole time that we’re running the ads so that we can keep track of how much money you need in there because you want to make sure that you’re taking advantage, if people are looking at it.
Sarah: Right. That’s exactly right. So why should I use Facebook ads? We’re really going to dig deeper into this piece of it. So why should you use it? Well, for the obvious reason your audience is on Facebook. No matter who your target audience is or what that demographic is, they are going to be on Facebook. And people on Facebook typically have money to spend. It’s just research that shows just because of that nature of that demographic, they tend to be a little bit older, mid-range type of thing. I don’t want to put any-
Glyna: What are you trying to say, Sarah?
Sarah: I always make the joke that you grow into Facebook. Sometimes they start on TikTok, Snapchat, but they phase into Facebook eventually. And Facebook, I mean, it has 1.5 billion users and that’s changing by the minute, by the day. So you just have an extremely large audience to work with. And the beauty of Facebook ads is you can tweak it so much so that you can just hound in on who you are looking to target.
Glyna: Yes. And speaking of hounding, you can target. This is one of the coolest things about Facebook ads, you guys, is that you can target down to a building. I mean, it’s crazy all of the things that you can put in your targeting. You can pick a specific audience. Some of the things that they take into consideration are obviously age, gender. I mean, you can even say you want people that only are in the home services industries. And then you can target, even more, let’s say, I want to target only people who sell heating and air conditioning equipment in the 35242 area. I mean, you can target this down to really specific things just to make sure that you are sending your message to the right people. So it is amazing. And what we’ve been able to do, even one of our clients – they had a building downtown that was full of Alabama Power people, those were going to be their demographic. So we can actually target down to that building and send the messages out to those people. It was just amazing. And it worked. We have another situation that’s really just bizarre. I thought it was going to be bizarre, I didn’t know if it wasn’t even going to work. But we have the UPS franchises. Now we’re not talking about the UPS actually advertising for the stores. This is for the guy who sells the stores. So we’re talking what, I don’t even know how much they cost 200,000, $300,000. So we’re targeting people that want to have their own home business. I mean, not a home business, their own business and be their own boss. So anyway, just talking about the targeting capabilities, they’re just amazing.
Sarah: Oh yeah. I mean, that is. The capabilities are unreal and which launches us into, why would you also use Facebook? Because it’s so affordable. So you have this capability to target with these like just fine-tuning. I mean, you could get your niche and find them. And the average cost is what we had talked about. It’s actually lower than other forms of pay per click. And that can be another show because we talk about Google Ads, AdWords, all that kind of stuff. And that’s a whole other beast, but it is. It’s true, you had talked about budgeting about $5 a day. I mean, it’s incredibly affordable given what kind of a result that you’re looking for, which is you want to find your potential customers. And you can set daily and weekly budgets. And that’s what we talked about is you can just go in there, every single day and fine-tune it and say, “This one’s working a little better,” and instantly make that switch. So you don’t have to have this long waiting period without having to tweak your budget if needed. And if it’s done correctly, which again, that’s why you got to keep your eye on it. You can’t just click it and leave because it is instant. It’s instant turn on and turn off. But you really want to make sure that you’re doing it correctly and following it and making the necessary changes. And by doing that, you can help keep your price down too. So you’re not just running an ad that’s not really going anywhere. We should mention this, all the clients that we work with, they are currently running Facebook ads for less than $1 per click. So less than $1 per click. That’s, to me, a pretty affordable way of advertising.
Glyna: Well, it is. And you made a good point of, you have to make sure that you know what you’re doing because you can’t get that price per click unless you do follow all the rules, do everything that Facebook wants you to do, follow all the best practices and really know how to tweak these things so that they say, “Oh, we really like your ad. We think it’s relevant. And for that, we’re going to help you out by lowering your costs.” So we run into campaigns that we’re taking over that don’t always have the lowest cost. So that is so important and, again, especially in that first month. So I just want to really drive that home. And everybody thinks they can do Facebook ads and you can! It’s very… I mean, you can set it up, but there’s a lot more to it than just throwing an ad up.
Sarah: Right. Which is why it’s good to partner with an agency that is on top of it, that knows the guidelines and the principles and everything that you have to do to make sure that your ad is getting the best bang for its buck.
Glyna: Yeah, you’re exactly right. And you can use it to sell things. But another reason that a lot of companies use it is to build their brand. And we’re doing this for a lot of people. It’s just another way to keep you out in front of the people that you want to see your information. You may not necessarily… I mean, they’re going to buy from you because they’ve seen you over and over and over. And the whole point is to get them thinking of you when they say, “Oh, I need a website. I keep seeing Fusion One everywhere. So I’m going to call them and see if they’ll help me out.” So it can build engagement. It can also be used for what we call a “like campaign”. That is just really strictly to get people to your brand or to your pages and engage them, get them to follow you, create more likes on your page. It’s just, you can use it in so many ways. You can also use it if you have a call-to-action. Again, have a call-to-action to where you’re giving them something of value in return for their information. And that’s a great way to build your email list and just have a marketing list period. And you mentioned the small budget. I think just recently we were able to get a client, I think it was like 18,000 one month, 30,000 people another month. These were just people that came to their page. So it really, really helped their brand.
Sarah: Yes. Yeah, you talk about how it’s just got that true benefit of building that awareness, building your brand, letting people know that you’re out there. And also, this is really great, Facebook ads are highly customizable. What does that mean? We’re currently using a mix of images and different graphics and carousels and videos and lead generation forms to attract more customers. And what’s really neat about that is you can find your target audience, but they all respond differently to different types of media. So some of them, if it’s not a video, they’re not going to pay attention. If it’s not a cool graphic, they’re not going to pay attention. So you have to be able to have that in Facebook, also, to alleviate some of their text regulations-
Glyna: Yay!
Sarah: Which I know Rob is super ecstatic about that because they used to have these text regulations. Oh my gosh, it was like… We’re just glad that that’s a little bit easier now. But again, it’s this ability to customize and put out different ads because then you have the ability to see who responds to what, which is huge. And you had talked about that call-to-action. I think that that’s really important. You always have to have in mind when you’re building these ads, what is in it for the viewer? What is in it? You cannot just sit there and talk about yourself, everything that you offer, you need to, but if they don’t see what am I getting out of it, I mean, it doesn’t really matter to them. You’ve got to keep that in mind when you’re trying to build your brand as it’s not like, lights, lights me, me, me. You’ve got to spin it in a way where they’re interested and want to learn more. So yeah, that’s-
Glyna: I didn’t mean to cut you off.
Sarah: No, no, no.
Glyna: Yeah, it’s a lot different. So when is it a good fit? Let’s think of it this way. I can tell you when it’s not a good fit, as well as when it is. Let’s think of it this way. It’s an impulsive advertisement and it’s almost an intrusive advertisement because we’re on Facebook having a good time, looking at Sarah’s kids because they’re so cute. And all of a sudden we have a pest control company that comes up in an ad and says, “Buy our pest control. Use us for pest control.” Well, do you really care at that moment that there’s a pest control company that you could use? Now, it’s a different situation if you just had a mouse run across your floor and then you’re like, “Oh, I need that pest control company.” But that’s a situation where it wouldn’t work. Another situation, let’s think of it this way. Let’s go back to heating and air. Okay. You can have somebody saying, “I’ve got the greatest air conditioners ever,” but again, I’m over here looking at my friend’s dog that they got, which again, so cute. And I’m having fun on Facebook and I see this air conditioning ad pop up. Unless I need an air conditioner right that second, it really doesn’t make any sense. So again, I hope you get the feeling of there has to be something that catches people’s attention. Like Rob always says, it’s kind of like being at the grocery store and you’re standing in the checkout lane and all the candy’s around you. You didn’t know you wanted that Snickers until you saw it.
Sarah: Yes.
Glyna: It’s like, “Oh, I need to get my Snickers before I leave the grocery store.”
Sarah: Yes.
Glyna: So, that’s the way you have to think about it. It has to be something that people want. It can be impulsive and they want to buy it right on the spur of the moment. I will say about the air conditioning though, we do have a friend of ours who’s running an ad right now to… You have what they call the air scrubbers. In other words, it’s like the filters in your home and all of that that help COVID-19, and to filter out all the germs and things like that. So he’s running ads for that, which is very, very relevant right now. And he’s doing really well. So. That’s the difference. It’s something that he knows people are needing right now.
Sarah: Right. They’re not outright looking for it, but through your targeting capabilities, you’re able to connect with them and they sort of impulsively make the purchase of, “Oh, I could use that. I could use that. I didn’t realize I needed that. Oh, I could use that.” You just use that and that’s the beauty of it is that you can find what their likes are, what their interests are and tailor your ad to that so that even though they’re not out there looking for whatever that service is, because of your targeted capabilities, they think, “Oh, you know what? I do need that right now. I didn’t realize it, but I do.”
Glyna: Well, you make a great point because think about these air conditioners, even their purifiers, that’s working well for him because he’s targeting homeowners. He’s not targeting apartment complexes.
Sarah: Right.
Glyna: That kind of thing. So again, you need to know what you’re doing to make it work well.
Sarah: Right. Right. Yes. So that leads us to who would this work well for?
Glyna: Stole the thunder. But there are lots of people it can work well for.
Sarah: Right. Yes. Well, it’s how you align your product or service as well. So there are tons of industries that this would work well for, but it’s just all about how you position it. Now, certain industries do, do particularly well. And we could talk about those examples here, but say fitness or the wedding industry. I wanted to have you elaborate on this too, I was thinking about the scenario of, let’s say that you’re planning your wedding or you’re in a wedding or you’ve got a wedding coming up or some way shape, or form. Through what your activity is on Facebook, it’s pretty aware that wedding, or maybe say a new parent or a new baby coming along, something like that. By knowing what your activity is and the interest that you’re looking for, you can say, if you’re a wedding photographer or if you’re in the wedding industry, you can target right to them so that they’re scrolling along and thinking, “I need a photographer. Oh, well, this photographer just appeared.” So, maybe I’m not at that right moment looking for, say a photographer, but because they know through my activity, through the targeting, they’re going to position that ad right in front of me. So I’m like, “Wow, I could use a photographer.” Click.
Glyna: Yeah. You make a good point because we talked about targeting and I think I really was concentrating more on people’s ages and demographics and that kind of thing. But what you like is another way of targeting. That’s a huge way that we target people. It’s things that they have in common with what you’re selling. Because again, it is that impulsive buy.
Sarah: Yeah. Or product or services, I mean, we have a lot of home service industries that some of them just do extremely well by the way that we position that ad to make them look at like, “Oh, I’m kind of needing this,” and it just, ad popped up strategically. And boom, there you go.
Glyna: Yeah. You have to be strategic. And again, doing this before and knowing what to do is very helpful as far as that goes. So it works for a lot of companies and there’s a lot that it wouldn’t work for. So you just have to think along those lines. So what do you advertise? That’s a good question. It’s maybe not so much what you advertise, but who does well when we position the ads correctly. Well, they’re going to be people that we have a strong call-to-action, number one. You’ve got to be giving them something that makes it worth their while to click on the ad. So it has to be very, again, relevant. We keep using that word, but it has to be relevant, but it has to be eye-catching, too. People are scrolling and especially on the phone, they’re really scrolling. So it has to be something that’s going to make them want to stop and interrupt, again, it’s an interruption, impulsive interruption, make them look at the ad. You have to be very visual like Sarah mentioned. Right now, the cool thing is you can do some video, mix it in with the still images, and compare and see what does better. A strong image can go a long way to attract people. And again, as Sarah mentioned, we used to be holed-in to the fact that we couldn’t have more than 20% of the text on an ad, which was very, very limiting. I mean, you couldn’t put any words on the image. It was just crazy. So now you can do that and catch people’s attention even more. So, that’s basically what you have to think of. It has to be a powerful message and interesting enough to get people, to stop looking at their friend’s stuff and look at that ad.
Sarah: Right. Right. This is why that call-to-action is key because you want the click-through. That’s really important. You want the conversion, the engagement, all of that is very, very important. Okay. Well, that’s it. And we’ve covered a lot of ground, so we’re just going to wrap it up here, but I want to also mention, we have our Biz Talk every Friday and aligned with Biz Talk, we have this really cool thing coming up called, Are You Smarter Than a Marketer? So, do you think you are? Because we want to compete! We are putting together a Fusion One team versus some of our former Biz Talk guests on Thursday, October 22nd, at 5:00 PM. It’s going to be live. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be trivia fun facts. Really, you’re just going to see, are you smarter than the Fusion One team. More details to follow up, but the winner gets $50.
Glyna: Woo-hoo!
Sarah: I know.
Glyna: And if I’m not mistaken, I think that Steve Johnson has taken the challenge. I think he’s going to be one of our… Oh, I wasn’t supposed to tell, was I?
Sarah: Oops!
Glyna: And all of the guests are going to be secret! You will not know. They’re going to be a surprise.
Sarah: Oh goodness. All right. So as always, if you would like any information on Facebook ads, how it could benefit your business, we would love to have a conversation with you about how we could help you put that together. Call Glyna or contact us online at fusiononemarketing.com/contact-us. We would be glad to help you for sure.
Glyna: Yeah. Hit me up. We always love talking to you and brainstorming. That’s probably the most fun part of our job. So we’d love to help. So don’t forget to tune in this Friday. Sarah mentioned BizTalk at eight o’clock. Our special guests will be Keith Sides from The UPS Store who actually did our cups for us.
Sarah: Yay.
Glyna: So we definitely have to give him kudos when he gets on. I hope you all have a good day and we’ll see you then.
Sarah: All right. Bye.
Glyna: Bye.