At any given time I’m managing nearly two dozen Facebook advertising campaigns for my clients. They’re selling everything from classic cars to cat litter to life coaching programs to WordPress plugins.
There are two important things I’ve learned about Facebook advertising I’d like to share with you. If you don’t realize these two things you could draw erroneous conclusions and waste serious money on your Facebook advertising.
#1 Keep An Open Mind
Avoid making sweeping generalities about what works or what doesn’t. Here are a couple statements I’ve heard people make (usually clients who’ve taken classes from supposed experts).
- “I hear mobile is the only way to go when running Facebook ads today.”
- “Images without words work better than images with words.”
Here’s the deal, you can’t make sweeping generalities like that. You can’t even make those types of generalities about all of one client’s campaigns. Every ad is different and you should keep your mind open about what is going to work or not.
I have one client for whom we’ve discovered Mobile and Instagram is the only way to go for one of their campaigns. For another client’s campaign we discovered Mobile Newsfeed was costing them $1.97/click verses Mobile Audience Network which was only costing them $.21/click.
Still others do better with desktop only. Keep your mind open to the possibilities and don’t carry assumptions from one ad campaign to the next.
As for those images, test, test, test. I’ve had some campaigns work better with images containing text and other campaigns do better with images only.
#2 Don’t Jump to Conclusions without Sufficient Data
I’ve had clients dig into their stats after a couple days and make quick conclusions about what is working and what’s not.
A client who is running a $5/day test might say something like, “People ages 35-44 are giving me the cheapest results on the ads we uploaded two days ago. Let’s turn everything off but ages 35-44.”
I’ve done what the client asked only to discover that price per conversion skyrocketed or action on the ad came to a crawl when we made a hasty decision.
Same goes for images. You might run several images against each other for a few days and make an assumption that one image is going to give you the best cost per conversion only to discover that the more it runs, the more the price goes up.
If you hastily deactivate other ads, you may need to turn them back on. When you do, you might discover another ad gets better results than the one you chose hastily.
What If You’re On a Limited Facebook Advertising Budget?
When I have a client with a limited budget who would like to test several images or ads, I realize we can’t test them all at the same time. They need to be tested in small groups to discover which ones are going to do best. You also have to give them enough time to collect enough data.
Important Note: Sometimes Facebook chooses a “winning ad” and gives it more exposure. Bear in mind that Facebook is self-serving. They sometimes pick ads that make FACEBOOK the most money. Pay close attention to the stats. You may need to turn off Facebook’s “winner” and force one of your other ads to run so you can get the best bang for your buck.
Remember Your College Stats Class
Bottom line, good ol’ college statistics is helpful when you’re managing Facebook ads. Remember the larger the sampling size, the more accurate the data. Numbers may not lie, but if you don’t have enough numbers, you can make serious errors in judgement.
Approach Facebook advertising with the curiosity of a child and the wisdom of a statistician.
If you’d like to discuss your Facebook Ad Management campaign, I offer a free 20-minute strategy session here.
About Marnie Pehrson Kuhns
Marnie Pehrson Kuhns is a Certified SimplyAlign Practitioner™ who uses music and creativity to mentor you past barriers, fears and doubts to discover, create, align with, and deliver your soul’s song (the mission, message or purpose you are on this earth to live). Marnie is a best-selling author with 31 fiction and nonfiction titles. If you'd like Marnie and her husband Dave to work with you personally on Your Great Reinvention, get a FREE 20-minute strategy session with Marnie here.
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