6 Steps to Use Facebook Ads to Grow Your Film/Video Business

We all use Facebook. Well, most of us. And we’ve all seen the sheer force of numbers and viral appeal of the Facebook platform.

But did you know that the Facebook Ads platform is one of the most powerful and cost-effective ways of finding clients for your video production company?

Rather than explain the intricacies of Facebook ads myself, I found an expert that knows them inside out.

That’s why today, I’m pleased to present a special guest article by Marko Digital, a successful online marketing consultant who specializes in Facebook ads.

This is the ultimate Facebook ads guide! Take it away, Marko!

Introduction To Facebook Ads

If you’re running a service business, here’s a great way to grow it and get a 5-15x return using Facebook Ads.

FACT: You can put your ad in front of 10,000 people that need whatever you’re selling for about $100-$200.

Facebook allows you to laser target people, to the extent that you can target cat-loving single moms who listen to Coldplay and play volleyball in their free time.

Whatever (almost) your market is, you can laser-target them on Facebook and put your message in front of them.

The problem is, advertising on Facebook is a bit different than on other platforms.

Unlike on Google AdWords, where you can directly sell your stuff, people on Facebook are not that ready and eager to buy right away, and you need to nurture them a bit more.

But while you’re going to pay $5-100/click on AdWords , if you’re paying more than $3/click on Facebook, you’re doing something wrong.

This allows for much higher returns on ad spend.

There are some ridiculous examples. My buddy once got something like $55,000 in sales with $150-200 spent on a campaign. Now that was 95% luck, as his client was a roofing company, and there was a huge storm in the area so leads closed fast.

Don’t expect this kind of result to be the norm.

But, in my (strongly biased) opinion, Facebook is the best way to get new business. When done right.

I hear a lot of “But Facebook ads don’t work for my business” statements. 99% of the time, there’s somebody who’s doing the exact same thing that you are doing and is absolutely killing it with Facebook ads.

Why most of the people fail with FB usually falls in one of these 3 categories (or all 3 at once):

1. They don’t understand what goes into a successful Facebook campaign.

2. They quit too early.

3. They hire the wrong person/company.

All these problems can be avoided by educating yourself first. Even if you don’t fall into the service business category, read this post as it will help you understand how advertising on Facebook works in general.

What I’m going to show you is a specific process for getting new business for service-type businesses, that’s working right now.

These types of campaigns, when optimized, generally bring in 3x-20x ROI (Ed note: Return On Investment).

I know this is a huge range, but the rule of thumb is, the bigger your ticket is, the ROI will be bigger.

So if you’re selling a $5000 service, your ROI will be bigger than somebody who’s selling a $500 service. It will also depend on how good you are in sales (or your salespeople), because the sale usually happens on the phone, or in person.

This is by no means a magic pill. It takes hard work, but I’m about to make it a lot easier for you, and if you apply it, your business is going to be very thankful.

I’d not advise you to get into paid traffic if you don’t have at least $2k-3k/month to put aside to invest.

Paid traffic is awesome and brings fast results (unlike SEO, which is Search Engine Optimization), but you need to spend money first for testing and finding what works. If you’re on a tight budget and can’t afford to lose some money, you could get yourself in trouble.

Here’s Some Proof

Going to include more proof at the end, but here’s a quick screenshot of this process in action to whet the appetite.

507 local leads in 1 day:

Let’s get into it.

Examples Of Businesses This Works Great For:

• Auto Repair
• Home improvement/Remodeling
• Security Systems
• Roofing
• Fencing
• Venue rental
• Commercial cleaning
• Most B2B stuff (not if you’re dealing with large businesses though)
• All kinds of insurance (Kind of)
• Mortgage Brokers
• Loan Officers
• Wedding (Limousines, Photography, Videography, Venues, Florists)
• Cosmetic surgery
• Wellness (Spa)
• Chiropractors
• Hair salons (Higher end)
• Personal training (higher end)
• Fitness (Higher end)
• Dental
• HVAC
• Credit repair
• And, of course, any kind of film/video production company.

Businesses That This Exact Strategy Does Not Work For:

• Restaurants, Coffee shops, Bars, Clubs, etc.
• E-commerce
• Low margin businesses where you make less than $100/sale
• Affiliate marketing

Starting Out With Facebook Ads

The first thing to understand is that with Facebook ads (and with any online / offline marketing channel), the actual ad mechanics are just 10-20% of what goes into a successful campaign.

By mechanics, I mean the actual ad setup, bidding, all the little clicks you need to do in Facebook ads manager.

(I’m not going to describe the little clicks and steps you need to take in Ads Manager / Power Editor here. You can easily find that on YouTube and some of it in the links I provide at the bottom of the post.)

In fact, here’s a good video that you should check out when you come to the nitty-gritty of setting everything up:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=3hApmzYWPV4

What really makes the most impact is the actual psychology behind it, and what happens after someone clicks on your ad. That’s the difference between a losing campaign and a 20x ROI campaign.

The second thing to understand is the context of Facebook:

1. Facebook is a content platform. This means that people are there to consume, create and share content.

2. Facebook is a social platform. This means that people are there to interact, communicate with and enjoy their friends and family.

Meaning that if you crack the code, your ads will be successful, and you’ll get free traffic and endorsement.

Here’s a good example of that:

This was a really successful ad that went somewhat viral (credit repair niche). Most of the comments are people inquiring and tagging other people.

That means, FREE traffic.

Free traffic = free money.

If you treat Facebook for what it is (content+social), Facebook will treat you well right back.

Here’s How The Method Works In Short (simplified):

So how this works in practice is (oversimplified):

1. Targeted people (potential customers) are going to see your ads in their news feed.

2. They are going to click and read an educational/promotional article that you created.

3. Some of those people will be interested in your service and will give you your info in exchange for a “hook” right away.

4. You’re going to use Retargeting to send people who read your article to your Lead Capture page where they will turn into leads.

5. You will follow up with the leads and a good percentage of them will become your clients/customers.

The moving parts of this method are:

• Offer / hook.
• Lead Capture page.
• An educational article related to your service.
• Facebook ads.

Step 1: Do The Research And Dial In On Your Ideal Customer

If you don’t have a deep understanding of your audiences problems, desires, and needs, you can’t make this work.

I consistently see people failing with Facebook and saying that it doesn’t work. It works, but you have to understand your audience / ideal customer first.

This is where a lot of people fail or skip this step altogether. Before creating a successful marketing campaign on any channel, you have to know how your customer thinks, breathes, and acts.

Use websites like Google, Quantcast, and Facebook’s Audience Insights. Here the things you should know before even starting to execute a marketing campaign:

• Age.
• Gender.
• Relationship status.
• Kids / no kids.
• Net worth.
• Home value.
• Renters / Owners.
• Interests.
• Income.
• Why do they need your service?
• When do they need your service?
• Their fears and desires.
• When do they use the internet?
• Do they access the internet via desktop or mobile?
• What kind of words they use when describing the problem your service solves.
• What do they hate about your and similiar services and how could you get them rid of that?

This is crucial. The research will help you with targeting your customers, crafting the actual messaging, and coming up with a converting offer.

Step 2: Come Up With 3 Different Hooks / Magnets For Attracting Leads

Now that you have the actual knowledge on who is going to buy, you need to come up with an angle of approach. An actual “hook” that’s going to make them leave their data / inquire about your services.

This is the most important part of your strategy. You can make amazing ads have the best targeting and service in the world, but if your hook does not make them bite, you will fail.

The job of the hook is to get people to leave their information and express their interest in exchange for something.

The job of the hook is not to sell the service (just yet).

The hook can be either direct or indirect. If you’re using a direct hook, you’re usually going to spend more per lead, but the transition to sale will be more direct as well.

Since we have such a variety of businesses here, there’s no hard rule but here are some examples that I found work as a hook:

Direct:

• Free estimate.
• $XXX discount.
• Straight up pushing the sale ( eg. Looking for a new roof? Get it done by professionals, submit your info and we’ll call you back.)

Indirect:

• Free part of the service.
• Free consultation.
• Lower-end service for free (if you have a range of services).

Industry-specific Examples To Get Your Creativity Flowing:

• Free teeth checkup.
• 15 minutes consultation on improving your credit score.
• $50 Hairstylist discount.

Be creative here.

If you have a hair salon, you can offer a lower-end service for free, to get them through the door and then upsell.

For niches like Home Remodeling, Loans, HVAC, Roofing a more direct approach will usually do. Get an estimate or a discount. You’ll also have a more direct path to a sale.

But test everything, it will make a difference between paying $20 or $200 for a lead.

Step 3: Create 3 Lead Capture Pages, One For Each Hook

The Lead Capture page is a page that you’re going to send your traffic (Facebook clicks) to.

A lot of business owners make the mistake of sending people to their home page. You should never do that, as the homepage usually has too many distractions, and is not designed (usually) to convert visitors to leads.

Here’s an example of a great looking lead capture page:

It’s clean, it has a clear purpose and the next step, it’s benefit-driven.

Here’s a perfect example of what a lead capture page shouldn’t look like:

It looks like it’s from 1995, it’s ugly, there’s no social proof, there’s no clear direction, everything.

The only goal of the lead capture page is to turn visitors into leads, aka make them leave their information in exchange for your “hook”(free estimate, discount, etc.)

Since you have three different hooks, you will need three separate lead capture pages.

The design can be practically the same, but you will use different copy (text) and / or images to match different hooks.

Luckily, you don’t have to pay $100s or $1000s for each. You can easily create one yourself using Clickfunnels or Leadpages.

Here’s what your Lead Capture page has to have for maximum conversion:

1. Powerful Benefits Based Headline

The headline should clearly and specifically tell visitors what’s in it for them, nothing more. Don’t talk about yourself, talk about what’s in it for them.

Bad headline: Top #1 Dentist in Canada (You can use this as a social proof/subheadline though).

Good headline: Get a Professional $250 Teeth Checkup for Free

2. Form For Data Submission (phone, Email, Name, Etc)

These are the blank fields where visitors enter their contact and other info. Don’t ask for more than you need! Every extra step will lower the conversion rate.

Caveat: I had a few situations where my clients told me that the leads were not qualified enough. In that case, add a few extra qualifying questions to the form.

[Ed. note: Here’s an example of mine on Filmmaking Lifestyle. I made this with Leadpages. Click it!]

3. Clear And Visible Call To Action Button

A Call to Action (CTA) button and headline needs to be the two most visible things on your lead capture page. The first things the visitors need to notice are:

• What will they get, and
• 2. What to do next.

A Call to Action button should specifically state what to do next. People need to be instructed (you’d be amazed by the extent of this).

P.S. I just started testing a first-person button with one of my clients. It seems to work great. Instead of “Click here to get XXX” test “Yes, I want XXX”.

4. Contact Number

Some people just prefer to use the phone. Don’t let them drop off, sogive them that option. Put it in the upper right corner or beneath the call to action button.

If you don’t, you’re going to lose sales. A few months ago I forgot to put a number on a client’s lead capture page. After fixing the mistake, we got an increase of $1000-$2000 in extra sales from the calls each month, while the adspend stayed the same.

5. Urgency / Scarcity

The less there is of something, the more valuable it is. Many more people will take you up on your hook / offer if it’s limited. You can limit it by:

• time, and
• quantity.

6. Social Proof (testimonials And The Likes)

This is yet another of the 6 principles of influence, and it will drastically improve your conversions.

People trust products and services other people use and find helpful, that’s hardwired into our brain (Social Feedback).

Add a couple of testimonials under your form and the Call to Action button. You can also add a sub-headline that says something like, “Trusted by 4,483 happy customers.” Works like a charm.

Make it mobile optimized. A lot of the traffic will come from mobile.

Clickfunnels does this for you automatically.

Put a Facebook Pixel on your Lead Capture page and on your Thank you page (the simple page that says Thank You, after visitors submit their info). You’ll need this for tracking conversions. You can find instructions on Youtube:

Step 4. Create An Educational Article Directly Related To Your Offer/service

Since we know that people on Facebook love content, that’s exactly what we’re going to give them (at first).

For this, you’re going to need a promotional / educational article that is directly related to your service.

The goal of the article is to educate people, position your company as the authority on the subject, and bring people closer to the desired outcome — the sale.

It serves as the first “bridge” between the sale. We’re also going to use an article as a tool for improving your targeting (more on that in the ads section).

Here are a few formats that work well for the article:

1. How to get xxx (positive result your customers want).

2. How to avoid/solve xxx (problem your potential customers have).

3. How Jane Doe (your customer) got xxx (positive result).

4. How Jane Doe (your customer) solved xxx (problem).

5. Top 5 Benefits of solving xxx (problem your customers have).

6. How solving problem xxx improves your life.

7. How achieving xxx result improves your life.

8. Number #1 thing to avoid to avoid when hiring xxx (service provider).

Think about what your potential customers would be interested in reading. Actual examples (“case studies” (3 and 4)) are usually best because they are actually testimonials in disguise, and you demonstrate how you already helped someone.

Get creative with the headlines — think mild clickbait.

The more specific you are about the problems being solved and for whom, the better the results you’ll get.

If you can make it fun, even better. If you’re not good with this, just hire a writer to do it for you. Even better, hire a direct response copywriter. He’ll know exactly what to do.

When you write the article, add a soft call to action linking to your lead capture page at the bottom of your article.

We need to get people from reading content, to take some kind of action. A small percentage of people will be ready to take you up on your hook right away. Most of them won’t, but we will use retargeting to show ads to them and convert them later.

Add a Facebook Pixel from your account to this page.

Step 5. Create Kick-ass Ads And Show Them To The Right People

And only now you can proceed to the actual ad creation.

The goal of your ad is to get people’s attention and make qualified people click.

The job of the ad is not to sell your service, the goal of the ad is to sell the click.

There are 3 elements that make an ad successful:

1. Targeting

There are 4 general “categories” you can target: Interests, demographics, behaviors, and location. I know a lot of people struggle with targeting, but if you understand your customers it’s really not that hard.

Here’s a look inside Facebook’s Audience Insights tool that you can use to help you with your targeting:

Now I’m going to make targeting much easier for you and make it better at the same time.

Facebook spent, and spends, millions of dollars on developing their algorithm. And you’re going to leverage it using Lookalike Audiences.

Lookalike Audiences are audiences of people that are similar (based on the massive amounts of data Facebook has about you and everybody else), to your customers/leads.

Here’s what to do:

1. If you have a customer list (phone numbers or emails, upload it to Facebook and create a Lookalike Audience off of that.

2. If you don’t have a customer list, use Facebook’s basic targeting (based on your customer profile) to send 250-500 clicks to your pixeled educational article, and create a Lookalike Audience from those people (who clicked on your ad and read the article).

If your article is directly related to you offer, that will be people who are laser targeted.

(This takes a couple of clicks in ads manager, you can find it on Google/Youtube):

Based on this, you will get a big targeted list of people that are potential customers for your business. You can not do this better than Facebook’s own algorithm (unless you’re an expert).

If you’re a location-based business, you’ll need to narrow it down by your location. Pretty common sense.

Now, if you want to get all ninja (not necessary), you can target even more, by narrowing down your Lookalike Audience by an interest/behavior/demographics.

For example, you can use your Lookalike Audience as a base for targeting, but say only show ads to people that are in your Lookalike Audience and are homeowners.

2. Copy (ad And Headline Text)

This will vary based on the type of ads and your business, but here are some directions:

• Check your grammar — make sure it’s perfect.
• Make it benefit based, instead of feature based.
• Try starting your ads with questions.
• Specifically address your potential customer.
• Try to use language your customers use when describing your service / their problems.
• Explicitly instruct customer to click.
• Check out Facebook Ad Guidelines to know what words you can use (so you don’t get your account banned).
• Make sure the copy (wording, etc.) is consistent with pages where you send traffic to.

Before creating ads, go to AdEspresso’s ad library. You can find great examples there from almost all industries that will help you craft your ads.

3. Images

Images are super important, if the image sucks, people will just scroll over your ad without noticing it.

Now, the thing about images is that you can’t know what works before you test it. So with any campaign you start, start with testing 5 images.

Make sure your images are related to your service and consistent with your landing page. Images that are in contrast with Facebook’s colours usually work better.

Using smiling people (especially women) helps (if it’s related to your service).

Stay away from obvious stock photos.

You’ll need a set of ads — one to send people to your article, and one to send people who saw the article to your lead capture page.

Write at least 2 different copy variations, and pick 5 images for each set.

You will place your ads in the news feed, where all the attention is. Both mobile newsfeed and desktop newsfeed:

Ads 1: Sending People To Your Article

The first batch of ads should be optimized for Website Clicks. Shown here:

You’ll chose that in Ads Manager when creating the campaign.

Instead of “Conversion,” pick “Website Clicks.” That means that Facebook will show your ads to people that are most likely to click.

Ads 2: Sending People To Your Lead Capture Page

This batch of ads should be optimized for Website Conversions using the FB pixel. Conversion will mean that somebody has seen your Thank You page, meaning that they submitted their info. For this campaign, you will only target people who have read your article.

After the campaign spends $50-$200, check what ads are preforming the best and turn off the other ones.

When increasing budgets, don’t increase for more than 15-20% per day. It will mess up your click and lead costs.

From time to time, you will need to switch up your ad copy and images, because people get tired of seeing the same thing over and over again.

In your ad stats, you can see the frequency. That’s a number that shows how many times on average your ad was shown to the same person.

Track that and don’t let it go over 5-10.

Some metrics you can keep an eye on:

• Click trough rate (CTR).
• Cost per 1000 views (CPM).
• Cost per click.
• Cost per conversion.
• Frequency (how many times your ad has been shown to the same person on average).

While these will be a good indicator on which ads are preforming –the only important metric in the end is are you making more money than you’re spending.

Step 6. Follow-up And Close ($$$)

Now that people are reading your article and converting into qualified leads, it’s time for you to follow up and close!

Depending on whether you used a direct or indirect hook, and what you used as a hook, this process will be different for everyone. But you need to follow-up and make the sale/upsell happen.

One really important thing here: The longer you wait to contact the lead, the colder it becomes. Money loves speed.

Here’s a super cool trick to massively help you with this.

Using ex texting (or similar services), you can set up Automatic SMS messages.

What you want to do is make the software, every time a lead is submitted, sends a message saying (depending on your hook / context).

Eg: “Hey, thanks for showing your interest in XXX. When is the best time to call you / do whatever the hook was? YourNameYourCompany”

Make it personal, people want to communicate with people, not computers.

I hope you enjoyed it, now read it again and go create some ads!

(I’m a Facebook advertising & Lead gen consultant – definitely check out my AMA on r/marketing)

Tools That Make Things Easier:

Clickfunnels — for fast creation of landing/lead capture pages and even blog posts.
Leadpages — for creating landing pages and opt-in boxes.
Qwaya — for advanced ad optimization/scheduling.
Canva — kickass tool for simple creation of ad images.
LeadQuizzes — awesome tool for creating quizzes.
CallRail — for tracking calls so you know which of your ads work.
ez texting — automatic text messaging.

Other Resources

Web Copy That Sells
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
On Facebook Ads
Top Facebook Ads Blogger

Here are some examples of what happens when you follow the process and put in the work:

507 local leads in 1 day:

13,000 leads in the financial niche:

$4450 in Revenue for $165 in Ad Spend (26x ROI):

7700 leads for $2.70/lead:

3500+ New Email Contacts in 30 days

The Mistakes I See The Most With Fb Ads

The following is a post from Reddit user europeentrepreneur, which fits with what we’ve been talking about here.

1. Business With No Clear Value Proposition

A lot of businesses try to start with Facebook ads but forget to actually build a sound business, with a great value proposition.

Before you put any money on Facebook ads, make sure what you are selling is appealing to your prospective customers.

Sales are usually a good indicator that there is actual demand for your product / service.

Facebook ads are just a way to create additional demand for your product and reach a wider audience through creative means but they will not correct the foundations of your business.

2. Not Understanding The Context Of Facebook

This is the second big one: When you go to Facebook you go there to relax. I like to take the tube in the morning and look at my Facebook feed to relax before meeting with clients. I certainly do not go there to buy anything.

I go on Facebook because I see interesting content from my friends and family and get entertained.

This is a key aspect of Facebook: Facebook generates relevant and engaging content to you so you keep coming back on the platform and see ads.

If we compare Facebook to Adwords, FB ads are about creating demand whereas Adwords is about supplying existing demand.

The good thing is that Facebook ads are generally cheaper than Adwords as a result. Adwords already knows that people are looking for your products and capitalize on that.

This thus mean that you have to create various ads to create and capture efficiently that demand. More on that below.

3. Not Getting The Targeting Right

Targeting is another big mistake I see with FB ads. A lot of people blindly use interest targeting and hope it will drive conversions.

In all honesty, I do not 100% trust interest targeting and consider it like looking for a needle in a haystack. While I do sometimes use it, I mostly use custom audiences.

(For example: email subscribers, previous customers, people who watched a large part of a video I posted, people who visited my website recently, or even people who messaged my page on Messenger or interacted with my page).

I then usually proceed with polishing that audience by excluding people depending on the objective I have in mind and double down with lookalikes. I sometimes also start with interest targeting but that is never my first choice.

Targeting the right customers also means your ads get cheaper and that you get a higher ROI as a result, since Facebook only needs to show the ad to a few people.

It is a win win for you and Facebook.

You’ll get cheaper conversions and Facebook will have to show your ad to less people, which will make your ads cheaper as a result.

4. No Clear Strategy About What You Are Actually Trying To Achieve

The magic of Facebook is that you can actually create a ton of different ads with different end goals.

You can create video ads, you can create like ads, retargeting ads, messenger ads, and more.

Each ad format usually performs best with a clear goal in mind.

For example, I like to use video ads to create awareness, create lead ads for contests, and retargeting ads to engage with people who already know the brand or existing customers to upsell them.

This means that you need to have a clear strategy in mind when creating your ads. There is no one size fits all but customers are at different parts of your funnel.

Usually there are three stages:

• 1) Customers who do not know about you
• 2) Customers who know about you but haven’t bought
• 3) Customers who have already bought from you / are power users of your product.

Knowing that, you can create different campaigns so that you move those customers down the funnel.

5. Going Too Quickly To Stop An Ad / Not Putting Enough Budget In Place

Facebook ads take time. When you start a campaign, Facebook will take a few days to show your ads to people and will optimize it to serve it to the most relevant audience, so that they get cheaper for you.

You also need to set up an appropriate budget so that you reach an audience wide enough for Facebook to properly optimize your ad.

6. Broken Website Or No Clear Landing Page

Make sure your website makes sense to users, that the navigation works well and that you have a clear call to action.

You can also use a landing page service to make sure your users’ precious attention is directed towards a precise action (for example: Newsletter sign up, clear add to basket form, etc.)

How To Actually Get Started With Facebook Ads

Let’s look at how to get started with Facebook ads in practice.

1. Learn Facebook Ads With Facebook’s Own Blueprint Course

This is a major resource since it is developed by Facebook itself. Go through the whole course, take notes and Google what parts do not seem clear for you.

2. Learn About Copywriting And Ad Design

In my experience, Facebook ads work well with highly visual content and little text.

Start with creating a highly visual image (for example people’s faces, or close-ups of your product).

You do not need to be a designer to do that and keep it simple. Your image / visuals matter the most and the text section is usually there to confirm for the user what you are trying to convey with your image. So focus first on your design and then write your copy as step #2.

A good way to learn copywriting is to write a bit every day and to read a lot. Write as if you would talk to someone in front of you, even if it is just a random subject.

3. Learn About Psychology And Generic Advertising

Mastering the Facebook ads platform is probably only 20% of the job and is only a technical aspect.

The other 80% actually comes from you and your ability to create strategies that speak to your audience.

My advice here is to look at what other businesses are doing. Learn about psychology / motivation and read a few generic books on advertising.

The key here is to develop soft skills and empathy / emotional intelligence so that your ads matters to your audience.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=c0N1Y8Z5zJs

4. Understand The Metrics And Kpi’s You Need To Be Tracking

Your first step is to install the Facebook pixel so you can actually track the results of your ads. Secondly, you need to be tracking various KPI’s (CTR, Frequency, …) to make sure your campaigns make sense and are profitable for you.

Some of the most relevant metrics are the following:

• a. Your CTR (i.e: Number of clicks divided by number of impressions)
• b. Your Frequency (i.e: How many times your ads are shown to people)
• c. Reach: Number of unique people your ad reached.
• d. Relevance score: Numbers of actual and expected positive and negative feedbacks – it will impact the performance and costs of your ads.
• e. Your primary action metric: Whether it is video views, sales, website registrations, it is the most important metric you need to track in the end to have a positive ROI.

5. Practice!

You do not need a ton of money to practice with Facebook ads. If you are running a local business or highly niche business it will even be cheaper.

Practice for a few weeks / months until you are confident and never stop learning and trying new things since even the best advertisers have to change their strategies as users get fatigued / the platform is ever-evolving.

My Cheat Sheet To Make Facebook Ads Work

I am a big believer in processes / systems and being organised as a whole. I therefore try to see patterns to make ads work and here is what I usually do when creating a new campaign:

1. I Identify At What Stage The Business Is / What Are Its Primary Objectives

Is the business fairly new and needs more people to know about it? Does the business need to upsell existing customer and make them loyal advocates for the brand?

My first step would try to understand what the business is trying to do.

2. I Set Up A List Of Medium To Long Term Objectives

I usually set up campaigns that automatically pause when someone jumps in another part of the purchase lifecycle. My purchase lifecycle is as follow:

• a) Person does not know about my product / company – I will create engaging content that make the person more aware of what the product / service is about.
• b) Prospect: visited the site / interacted with content – I will set up a campaign that seeks to sell things to that prospect or continue to engage with that prospect depending on how high the intent is. It is also at this stage that I will exclude people that are not interested in my product / service.
• c) Existing customer: knows about the service / product – I will set up a campaign that seeks to make that customer an advocate for my brand and to buy even more products.

My ultimate advice for this one is : Understand vision. It is a big key in advertising and basically, people have to envision in their mind what your product / service is about.

To give you an example: If you can clearly picture the benefits in your mind of what the ad is trying to make you do, your brain will create motivation which will make you go to the next step. If there is no motivation, there is no action and there is no purchase / registrations as a result.

Your end goal when creating Facebook ads is ultimately to motivate people to take action, by instilling vision.

So how to motivate people to click on your ad?

• 1. Grab attention with a promise (for example use a great visual that speaks to your user)
• 2. Create a vision by supplying your image with copy that reasonates / identifies with the user (for example: Imagine staying at this 5 stars resort with your loved one) which supplies a nice picture of a cottage on the beach.

3. I Fire Up The Campaigns (usually For 1 Or 2 Weeks) And Tweak Them Over The Time

The key here is to test everything. I constantly research the audiences, tweak the copy, and split test ads.

4. Measure Kpi’s And Increase Spend If Necessary

I use a few ad management tools and look closely at KPI’s / automatically stop campaigns or double down on campaigns that are performing well.

Facebook Ads – Next Steps

This was only an introduction but there are more useful tools that Facebook recently opened to the public.

For example reach and frequency buying (you can create campaigns with a reach objective for example).

My advice is to follow the announcements on the blog of Facebook and Google on strategies.

I hope you’ve found this article on Facebook ads really helpful. Does this make sense and can you see how it’s applicable to growing your video production company?

If we can help with any questions, feel free to drop questions, comments or ideas in the comments section below.

And we’d be delighted if you’d share this article with your friends and colleagues using the share buttons just below here. Thanks!