Epic Ad Group FACEBOOK ADS Archives

How to Adjust to Facebook’s Major Changes

January 25, 2018

On Friday, January 12th, Mark Zuckerberg made the following announcement:

“As we roll this out, you’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media. And the public content you see more will be held to the same standard – it should encourage meaningful interactions between people.”

In this article, we are going to help you break down what this means, and how to adjust your business Facebook posts accordingly.

1.) Why We Think this Update is Positive

Yes, this is a major change, but the motive is good. Facebook has made the observation that user’s news feeds are becoming too bogged down with posts from businesses and news publishers, and it’s crowding out more meaningful connections with your actual friends. Would you agree?

Facebook understands this change may mean people spend less time on Facebook now, but they are looking for quality over quantity and we applaud their effort!

2.) How this Update will Affect the Facebook Feed

Based on experts that we follow, it is obvious that posts from businesses and brand pages will almost completely go away from the news feed. Before overreacting, ask yourself, has reach and engagement with your posts gone down significantly? Based on our analytics, we have reason to believe these changes have actually been taking place over the last 6 months or so.

So, which posts do you see performing well? That brings us to our next point.

3.) How to Adjust to Facebook’s News Feed Changes

Based on our client’s analytics, we see posts that are interesting and engaging are the ones that skyrocket in reach. Posts that are performing poorly? Those offering a basic discount, wishing you happy holidays, or sharing a quote graphic.

Take for example the results from a recent post for one of our clients that offered free services to those affected by the Montecito mudslides, compared to a “fun fact” posted the day before.

The post about “services for those affected by the mudslides” had 650% more reach and 9000% more shares than the “fun fact”.

What can we learn from this?

Facebook is rewarding posts that offer viewers value.
Facebook is rewarding posts that are engaging.
Facebook is rewarding posts that are related to the community.

How can you adjust your posts?

Post less often. Posting several times a day, or even every day, when you have nothing of real value to share, will put you on a fast track to no getting no eyes on your posts.
Stop thinking of Facebook as a platform to broadcast your business, and instead look at it as a platform for sharing something meaningful. Post with the motive to give more than you take.
Ask yourself if what you are about to post is worthy of conversation. Long comments are going to be rewarded above anything else moving forward. *BUT* here is a major insider tip for you! Do not ask your viewers to “post, like, share or tag”. They should be motivated to do so organically. We have an inside track to a private group where Facebook Vice President of News Feed, Adam Mosseri, posted that Facebook will be scanning for that language (aka click bait) and penalizing posts accordingly.

4.) How Does this Affect Facebook Ads

We think the effect is very positive for Facebook Ads! Ideally, this news feed change will mean people will want to go back to spending more time on Facebook. Their time on the platform will be more meaningful because their feeds will be full of posts and conversations from their friends and not click bait from businesses. What an amazing platform to advertise your business and target people that are the perfect customer!

Want to set up an effective and strategic Facebook Ad campaign? Contact us today – online@epicadgroup.com

How to Create Facebook Ads that Work (and what we can all learn from Oprah.)

November 24, 2017

How to Create Facebooks Ads that Work

Digital Marketing experts estimate the average human is exposed to between 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements each day. With all of that noise, potential customers do not have the bandwidth to stop and view every ad they come across. Facebook users will decide in a split second if your ad is worthy of their time. So how can you create eye-catching ads that will stop your potential customer in their tracks? Here are four points to consider everytime you create a Facebook Ad.

1.) Simplicity is key.

Facebook is a platform that gives its audience control. The user decides when scrolling through their feed what they want to view and engage with. So, when creating a Facebook Ad remember how much time you have to capture the attention of your viewer – literally seconds (if you’re lucky). In order to be successful, your message needs to be simple and clear. How do you decide what to say? You must first know who your person is, and who you are.

2.) Know who your person is.

An age-old but timeless principle. Many businesses make the mistake of trying to cater to a target audience that is too broad. They end up with a vague message targeted towards a vague audience because they are scared of alienating potential customers. Instead, narrow the demographic of your target customer. Doing so will lay a solid foundation for creating a clear message.

Oprah is a supreme example of knowing your person. Her daytime talk show successfully captured the hearts of millions of viewers for more than 25 years. Who was her target audience? A fictional character described as the “token suburban woman” named Suzie. Oprah’s team constantly compared show ideas against this imaginary person. When discussing possible content, the team always came back to, “What would Suzie think?” Suzie was given an age, race, education, income, marital status, religion, political views, interests, etc. Oprah believes this was the key to creating content that reached viewers on such an emotional level. Don’t be afraid to narrow your target audience. If you establish this from the start, your message will stay consistent, and you will reach the hearts of customers that have the potential of becoming raging advocates of your brand. Remember the famous “You get a car” scene?

3.) Know who you are.

Now that you know who you want to help, it is imperative to understand who you are. Having a business identity crisis? Answer these questions to help you gain clarity. What services or products do you offer? What problems do you solve? What sets you apart from your competitors? What is your company’s voice? Fun, serious, playful, professional? What is your mission statement? Customers are more likely to be interested in your message if they trust you. How do you build trust? By conveying a clear and consistent message. Facebook ads with a look and message that is constantly changing, or worse, is inconsistent within a single ad (mixed fonts, color palettes or an unclear message) tells the audience you don’t know who you are. Take the time to establish your identity as a company and use that foundation to guide the content of your ads

4.) Know your goal.

With your person and your company identity in mind, it’s time to build your ad! So what do you want? Here are some potential goals to consider… Build brand awareness Capture email addresses Take viewers to your website Advertise an upcoming event Advertise an upcoming webinar Advertise a product or service Knowing your goal will help you build a clear path by creating a purpose-driven Facebook Ad, and onto the final action, you hope your customer will take. See the ad objectively through your customer’s eyes and ask yourself if you are creating an ad that is worthy of their precious time. After you’ve established these four pillars of success, you are ready to build your Ad!

With Facebook Ads, you have seven areas that allow for customization.

Text – This appears above the image
Image
Title
Link Description
Call to Action Button
Audience – Decide the potential viewing audience based on age, gender, location, and interests.

Here are hundreds of examples to help you jump-start the process! https://adespresso.com/ads-examples/

Still stuck? We have successfully created, tested and refined successful Facebook ads for dozens of small and medium-sized businesses. Let’s get together and brainstorm how your business can reach the right audience with the right message and get the results you want. Contact us today!

The Facebook Pixel

November 16, 2016

Facebook’s Pixel is a little different from the pixels you might be thinking about. Facebook’s Pixel is a little piece of code that you “inject” or put on your website (specifically in the “header” of your website) in order for Facebook to measure, optimize and build audiences for your ad campaigns. With a Pixel you open up your Facebook advertising experience to deeper analytics, so that marketing agencies (like us!), can optimize your Facebook advertising campaigns and track your goals. Here’s a list of what Pixels can do for you:

Cross Device Conversions

What devices are your customers using? Being able to understand where your audience is and what devices they are using can provide rich information for both you and your marketing agency to understand where to optimize and push advertising content throughout Facebook’s various platforms.

Encourage Action

Using a Pixel can provide better accuracy to optimize the delivery of your ad content and ensure that your ads are noticed so that your customers can take the appropriate action – such as buying your product or filling out a contact form on your website.

Understand Your Audience

A Pixel can help you to understand and build audiences in your Facebook manager to accurately retarget your ads to encourage them to take action on your website. Additionally, a Pixel can expand your current audience by trying to target advertising to new audiences with similar interests and demographics. With that said, a Pixel can help you to generate deeper insight information on your audience(s) so that you and your marketing partner can get the most out of the advertising platform. Once you understand your audience, you can create a custom lookalike audience that will help to expand territory, and find potential customers of similar interests to your current customers.

Hey, Come Back!

After understanding and creating your own custom audience, Facebook’s Pixel can provide you with the tools to properly retarget the customers that visited your website, but did not complete your desired goal. Through Facebook’s powerful retargeting algorithm and your input on what you’d like your audience to be, Facebook can help bring those visitors back to your website to complete a purchase or filling out a contact form.

Your Ads Are Dynamic

Facebook can use the information your Pixel provides to be able to create even more relevant ads based on the products people visited your website for.

Ready to Get Started?

We made a short video to get you started with Facebook’s Pixel.

Is this thing working?

To ensure your Pixel is working you can download the Facebook Pixel Helper on Facebook’s website here.

Note: The Facebook Pixel Helper will only run on Google Chrome for desktop. You can install Google’s browser by clicking here.

Once downloaded, navigate to your website and click on the Pixel Helper Icon near your Chrome Web Address Bar. There will be a popup that will then tell you if the information is loading accurately.

Having issues?

Reach out to your marketing agency, *ahem*, to help you decipher the information you see, or if there needs to be a correction on your website code’s header. Facebook also has an excellent FAQ that can be found by clicking here.

How To: Set Up a Facebook Ad Manager Account

August 9, 2016

If you’re brand new to Facebook Advertising, the ropes can be a little tricky to manuever. Luckily for you we’re here to help! The way Facebook is currently set up, is to begin an Ad Manager account for you as you create and place orders for ads.
But if you are not going to be the one setting up and managing your Facebook Advertising campaigns (if say your agency, Epic Ad Group will be the ones doing this) it doesn’t make sense for you to go through the process of creating a mock Facebook Ad just to start your Ad Manager account.

You could say, why not have my agency set up my Facebook Ad campaign under their private account? However, this isn’t ideal because it makes your Agency (Epic) the personal owner of the account, which would could cause access issues if there comes a time when your agency is no longer associated with the account.

Consequently, it is ideal to set up your new Facebook Ad Manager account under YOUR Facebook account. We are going to show you how to do this, even if you don’t already have a Facebook Ad Manager set up.

STEP 1: Skip having to create a mock ad just to activate a Facebook Ad Manager account.

Log into Facebook through this URL: https://www.facebook.com/ads/manage/settings.php

You’ll come to a screen that looks like this:

Step Two – In this screen, scroll down to Ad Account Roles & select Add User.

Use the email address associated with your Facebook account to add your agency, and make sure you allow email searches (at least place your settings that way for the day you set up).

After you enter your agency’s email, make sure you select the Ad Account Advertiser as their role, so that they have full access to creating and managing your Facebook Advertising campaigns.

After you click “Submit” – they should receive a Notification from Facebook letting them know that they’ve been given access to your Ad Manager account (#Win).

But – The process doesn’t end here! Once you have added them to your Ad Manager account, you’ll need to enter your credit card information, so the ads can be billed once running.

Step Three – To add payment information. Select Billing from the Account Settings screen.

Your will arrive at a screen that looks like this.

From here, you should select Payment Methods and select the method you wish to use for payments.

And then enter your payment information, hitting Submit to confirm. And you now have a fully set up Facebook Ad Manager account under your name/account and your agency has full permission to manage the ads.

Conclusion

Setting up your Facebook Ad Manager account under your ownership is the optimal way to establish yourself with Facebook advertising. It will be YOUR account, YOU can establish who can (and can’t) manage it, and you’ll keep ownership of it no matter who comes and goes with regards to managing your Facebook ad campaign.

What You Need to Know About Video Advertising on Social Media Platforms

May 18, 2016

Ad varieties on Facebook and Instagram have been relatively stagnant since the social media giants became large advertising platforms for businesses and publishers years ago. Most ads feature a single photo with an accompanying message that users scroll through or view for just long enough to understand that they are looking at an advertisement – only to keep scrolling through their feeds. Now a known practice, regular advertisements lack the appeal that keeps consumers interested. This conventional advertising style is now being replaced by interactive video ads that allows consumers to move their mouse over a promo to access information about a brand in a new and exciting way. Facebook and Instagram are some of the first social media platforms to embrace the video format as they seek to help companies refresh their advertising strategies.

The new format has been tested by several companies, all of which saw incredible results through massive growths in view counts and clicks on their ads. These ads work particularly well on mobile devices, as the interactive features are much more effective through a touch screen. Apps like Snapchat have helped advertisers utilize video in a more effective way by making content fit better into the native user experience.

Companies such as Birchbox have seen significant increases in brand recognition and ad recall amongst consumers since employing social media video advertising in order to successfully interest users in their products. “Instagram has been an incredibly effective engagement-driver among our current customers, so we wanted to leverage the platform in a creative way to reach new audiences as well. This video series was fun, friendly and cheerful – authentically showcasing what Birchbox is all about – and we saw a significant lift in brand awareness as a result”, said Rachel Jo Silver, Director of Social Marketing at Birchbox.

Revolutionary interactive advertisements promise to engage more consumers than passive advertisements, which have conditioned social media users to recognize and ignore the presented information. Video ads captivate users through eye-catching content, capitalizing on genuine interest and creating a much more natural experience for advertising. The new approach holds great potential for all platforms as they seek to revive advertisement efficiency and interest.

Facebook rolls out Relevance Score for Ads

March 5, 2015

Common sense will tell you that the more relevant an ad is to a consumer, the better that ad will perform. It would also make sense that a more relevant ad will provide a better user experience. Google Adwords used this logic when they implemented “quality scores” in 2007 and Facebook did the same last month by introducing “relevance scores” for ads. Similar to quality scores, an ad with a higher relevancy score is more likely to be served than other ads targeting the same audience. As a result you will pay less to reach your audience.

How the score works: Once your ad has been served more than 500 times it will receive a daily relevance score from 1-10 with ten being highly relevant. Facebook will calculate your ads relevance score based on positive and negative feedback they expect from the people seeing it. Your relevance score will be calculated differently depending on your objective (e.g. clicks to website or video views).

Positive Feedback is defined as the number of times Facebook expects people to take a desired action, depending on your objective, such as liking or sharing your ad, or visiting your website.

Negative Feedback is defined as the number of times Facebook expects people to hide your ad or indicate a negative experience such as choosing not to see anymore ads from you.

How can you improve your ads relevance score?

Be more specific with your targeting – The beauty of Facebook is the ability to target very specific customer attributes. Tighter targeting will result in better performance and a better relevancy score.
Refresh your ad – Over time, even an ad with a positive relevance score will become less relevant as the same audience sees it over and over again.
ABT (Always Be Testing) – Test different ad copy, different pictures and find out what resonates with your audience. Remember better performance means better relevancy scores.

Avoid offensive content – If you’re putting up offensive pictures to get attention and a click, this will lead to a poor user experience and a lower relevancy score.

Relevance scores are just one of the many metrics that will show that an ad is working. And the metrics you use to judge the success of your campaign can be different depending on your goals. For example, relevance scores have a much smaller impact on cost and delivery in brand awareness campaigns, since those ads are optimized for reaching people rather than driving a specific action.

The goal of this update as with most Facebook ad updates is to provide a better user experience with better ads. If you’d like to improve your relevance scores and your overall social media campaigns, request a free assessment from our team.

Category: FACEBOOK ADS

How to Create Facebooks Ads that Work