How to Win at Facebook Advertising with a Small Budget

October 10, 2018

Advertising, Analytics, Digital Marketing, ecommerce, Facebook, machine learning, Magnificent Marketing, online advertising, social media, Targeted Ads

The dominant force in social media has had its ups and downs in recent times, but even with speculation of a decline in numbers, Facebook is still a fantastic marketing tool – no matter what your business is.

In this article, we’ll look at how the big changes on Facebook impact modern marketing. More importantly, we’ll show you how to get the most of advertising on Facebook.

Facebook in 2018: The Fall and Evolution

When CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced his platform was going to switch focus from media consumption back to connecting with friends and family, almost every marketer on the planet felt their hearts drop into their gut.

With competition intensifying, these big changes to the algorithm were the last thing small businesses needed. In the aftermath of the changes, organic reach was declared dead, or very close to it.

The result?

If you want to reach your audience on Facebook now, you need to pony up the cash.
Sure, they claim they want people’s feeds to all about friends and family, but that didn’t send companies for the exit doors.

If anything, it just incited them to react by forking out more for advertising on Facebook. A suspicious mind might suspect that was Zuckerberg’s plan.

And could you blame him?

In the wake of the Cambridge data scandal, and with younger demographics jumping ship to YouTube and Snapchat, there were whispers about the inevitable demise of Facebook.
But alas, it is alive and kicking.

Studies indicate that overall ad spending on Facebook has grown 40% since 2017.
It’s not going anywhere. Especially now that marketers have discovered the benefits of advertising on Facebook.

The Value of Facebook Marketing for Your Business

You may worry that spending a lot on Facebook ads is just money down the drain. With 2 billion members, it doesn’t matter that a few are leaving – it’s still incredibly congested on the platform.

But here’s another truth:

Ecommerce is growing so fast that global sales are expected to double soon, going from $2.3 trillion in 2017 to $4.88 trillion by 2021.

Facebook marketing is one of the best tools for start-ups and businesses on a budget, because it offers a global stage to present your brand. Using ads to target specific segments of your audience with tweaks to the demographics, location settings or their interests is a real game-changer.

Azriel Ratz is the CEO of Ratz Pack Media. He has perfected the strategy of creating ads that maximize your marketing spend. When it boils down to the return on investment (ROI), Azriel can generate about five times as much as the advertising costs with his ad campaigns. He believes that anyone can do this with the right optimization.

4 Optimization Hacks to Turbocharge Your Facebook Ads Success

For many people who are marketing on Facebook, they simply churn out low-quality content until something sticks, or until they quit.

With these tips, you can set up Facebook ads to ensure you reach your audience, and have a better shot of converting them into loyal customers.

1. Define your Goals

Without goals, how will you know when you succeed?

Conversions are a key metric for any business, and so one of your main goals should be to generate more leads. Clearly outline the goals of your advertising campaign before you start. That way you can tailor the campaign for a laser-focus on achieving your goal.

2. Target Qualified Leads

You have a choice:

You could publish a vague, catch-all ad that is of mild interest to various groups, or you could target one very specific subset of your wider audience.

The first idea will fail because it’s hard to appeal to everyone, especially when it comes to making a sale.
It’s best to target the people who are ready to buy now.

One of the great things about modern marketing is that machine learning makes it easier to learn about our audiences, and segment them according to their position in the buyer’s journey.

By setting up different ad campaigns, you can target various groups with tailored content. Check the results, then hone your focus to the group that is most likely to make a purchase.

3. Minor Tweaks can make a Big Impact

Azriel insists that you don’t need completely original content in every ad. Here is his strategy for working smarter, instead of working harder:

Create three lines of copy - A, B, C.
Duplicate the ad set.
Switch the text position to get several versions. For example, ABC on one ad, ACB on the second, and BAC on the third. This results in six versions across the two ad sets.
Next, add visual content. Just choose four images or videos. With all permutations, you can get 24 versions of your ad.
By repeating steps 1-4 with just minor tweaks to the sentence copy and new images, you can quickly get 48 different ads.
Test your ads out to find out which ad gives the best ROI.

Sure, they’re similar ads but these little changes are all you need for successful A/B testing.

4. Key Analytics Worth Tracking

With so much data to watch, it can be a little confusing to manage Facebook ads at first. Facebook will charge you based on how many impressions your ads get.

If the impression cost is high, that’s bad. Either your ads aren’t relevant for the audience you’re targeting, or else you’re running the wrong ad.

Check out the ad set level to find ads with high impression costs. If they’re all high, then your ads need an overhaul. If only some have high costs, then you’re not targeting the right audience.

Facebook Advertising Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive

It’s true that companies really need to spend on Facebook ads to reach their audience now. However, that doesn’t mean you need a huge budget.

Azriel believes that it’s possible to get success from a budget as small as $5 a day. Even small start-ups can build a big brand on Facebook nowadays, so long as they are clever with their ad campaigns.

By optimizing the copy and working smarter, they can generate a great ROI on a small budget. It takes a little trial and error, but the rewards are certainly worth having a go.

David Reimherr

David brings 20 years of sales, marketing, strategy & branding experience to the table. He is the founder of Magnificent Marketing which specializes in content marketing, video marketing & social media advertising (e-commerce, lead-gen, strategic content distribution) and is a lover of marketing, dogs and life!