The Facebook ads campaign objective can be confusing
What should you choose if you want to generate more leads into your business… faster? And, that has a low CPC and CPA?
I posed this question last week to a Facebook Marketing Expert (yes, from Facebook corporate).
The answer was very specific and immediate. (In her defense we didn’t spend a lot of time on this … these conversations should be based on goals and overall business objectives).
This is a screenshot of the “Auction” options as of September 2017.
Clients and prospects ask me this question too – so I thought it was appropriate to share my own findings and Facebook strategy on this.
Awareness, Consideration or Conversion Objective?
The marketing rep from Facebook clearly stated:
“Start with Awareness->Brand Awareness and then build the brand visibility for a few days, maybe a week. Then, look at the numbers – and switch to a more “conversion-centric” objective, by (re)targeting those that engaged with the post”
This is what most call a “like campaign” – and then remarket to those people who interacted/engaged with your page or post.
I didn’t agree.
I’ve learned over the years that companies like Google, Facebook train their reps to push a certain corporate agenda, and it depends on the time of year, and whatever is going on at the company.
She did say that this was a “push to reach out to small to medium size businesses, and to see how Facebook could help, learn more”, etc.
You ultimately need to test these things yourself. Do your research, analyze, but please test.
As you’ll see, I like to start with a conversion based campaign, and to get traffic and leads in quickly … while seasoning the pixel. As pixel data accrues, Facebook will know better what you want – and what to optimize for.
So…
In my latest Facebook Live Stream – I cover findings from my own work, and what recommendations I’d have for your business. (It’s a fun video too – and I play a little guitar, as impromptu as I can..)
To preframe this video content, “marketing objectives” with Facebook Ads is set by either an auction, or a reach & frequency model.
Customer Path & Funnels
In any marketing initiative online, you should consider the customer journey. More specifically, this centers around the marketing and sales funnels.
Terms we use here are:
TOF = top of funnel
MOF = middle of funnel
BOF = bottom of funnel
For example, ‘website clicks’ is considered more of a TOF approach, versus ‘conversions’, which is more focused on the BOF.
This discussion includes strategies for presenting messages, content and call to action (engagement objects) within these reference points:
Traditional Funnel Stages
A) Awareness – they have not heard of you before
B) Consideration – they’ve seen you before, and becoming more interested
C) Conversion – taking action on specific option that gets you a lead or revenue
D) Lifetime value – this is an internal map to your business. It’s smart to begin here: what is the lifetime value of your customer or client?
“A customer journey map is a very simple idea: a diagram that illustrates the steps your customer(s) go through in engaging with your company, whether it be a product, an online experience, retail experience, or a service, or any combination.”
A Caveat
Big brands fall into a different category. They operate with big budgets and large teams. For example, you’ll often see a contention between the branding team and the direct response facebook advertising team.
Big brands have millions of dollars to spend, and running an Awareness campaign with a video for example … to generate lift and hundreds of thousands of video views is considered a good objective for them. For example, PPE (Page Post Engagement) assets with professional videos that are commented on, shared, liked – is a major positive objective in those cases.
What is the “best” campaign for a company? “Lift”, “Traffic”, “Video Views” or “Conversions”? A combination? What are the stages of your funnel? What’s working now, what’s not working? Are you in a retail space with an e-commerce site and hundreds of products? Should you consider DPA’s? (Dynamic Product Ads)? Should you change the Facebook pixel script and update with custom events during the checkout pages, etc?
In Conclusion
Begin with a conversion based campaign, start small – and move forward from there. Continue to test. A combination of an awareness campaign that is always running in the background + conversion campaign should serve you well.
The ultimate goal is to serve your customers or clients with the highest quality – and they will love you for it. And so will Facebook – which means lower click costs, better click through rates – and higher conversions – as you continue to optimize, tweak and tune your ads campaigns.
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Entrepreneur Magazine says Jon Rognerud is one of the most sought-after Digital Marketing Experts. His clients extend from high-end brands and middle-tier businesses in both B2B and B2C. His SEO website optimization book, "The Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Website" from Entrepreneur Press is in bookstores now.