How your business goals affect the Facebook ads you should be using

Did you know that there are many types of Facebook ads, and each type is specific to your business goals? You need the right strategy before you type in your credit card or you could be throwing your money away!

If you’re new to Facebook ads or any other type of PPC advertising, you may be a little bit baffled when you first take a look. You may have decided that PPC ads are a good choice for your business, but you’ll need to firm up what you want to achieve before you hit the go button, or you could be throwing money down the drain. We’re sharing the different goals you might have for your business and how to translate these into effective advertising campaigns. Feeling lost at any point? No problem. Click here to book a virtual coffee meeting with Lynn to talk about your options.

The Goal: Get more sales

This is what most business owners imagine PPC ads are all about, but it’s just one of the many ways you can use Facebook ads for your business. We are jumping into this one first as this is likely what you think your goal is, but don’t be surprised if you change your mind after you have read some of the alternatives. Sales isn’t a very specific goal and is most useful for those who need to increase revenue in any way possible.

If your goal is to get more sales, the first thing to consider is how your sales process works. Do you sell items at a fixed price? Do you need to give prospective buyers a quote first? Do you have limited availability for a service?

If you don’t need to talk to customers first, likely because you sell a fixed-price product, how are you selling your items? Are you online only, brick-and-mortar, or a hybrid of the two?

If you are selling offline only, your Facebook ads need to be focused on brand awareness. Set this up as your objective and send people to your website to familiarize themselves with your business. If you are selling online or hybrid selling, set up your campaign as Advantage+ shopping or Advantage+ catalogue to optimize for conversions and website traffic.

The Goal: Get new customers

Sometimes, it’s not about sales specifically, but about bringing new customers into your business. Introducing new customers is different from retaining customers and creating repeat sales.

By and large, you can follow the steps for more sales, but if you need to speak to people before they purchase, the most effective way to introduce them to your business is to send them to a quote form, appointment booker, or something else that represents the next stage in your sales funnel.

Your PPC ads objective is leads. This may mean integrating with other systems, or it may be as simple as encouraging people to send a private message. The key is that they need to open up communication with your sales team.

The Goal: Get existing customers to buy more

It is usually much simpler to encourage existing customers to purchase from you than it is to introduce new customers to your business. Your existing customers (provided they had a good experience) have already decided you are worth their hard-earned money, so your marketing message can be slightly different.

If you don’t need to talk to your customers, you can send them where they need to be, but if you do, it’s worth considering a stripped-back protocol. If you have existing information from them, such as their address and square footage if you provide a home service, you can create a simplified process, reducing the sludge and increasing conversions.

The Goal: Connect with customers

Customer engagement has become a key metric for online small business owners, and it is a valid goal for your campaign! Whether this is to boost engagement on posts, encourage messages or get them to sign up for a newsletter, it may feel a little strange to be spending ad money on something that doesn’t directly bring in money to your business, but nurturing your existing customers is often a surprisingly fruitful way to boost your revenue.

Your objective will be engagement and it can come in many forms from competitions to text messages. Be creative and enjoy building a community for your business.

The Goal: Get the word out about your business

Whether you are a new business or looking to expand, you may well find yourself wanting to get your name out there. Sure, you could do this through a sales-push campaign, but you can ease people in gently with a different focus.

You can do this in two ways:

• Awareness, optimized for reach will give you a simple cost-per-person formula to introduce people to your brand.
• Awareness, optimized for recall lift is a metric that marketing professionals use to determine the number of people who remember the content of an ad vs those who saw it.

Often, spreading the word can be aligned with other goals, such as engagement. For example, you might run a PPC campaign for a lead magnet or a free webinar. The offer of something free grabs the attention of potential new customers, yet by reacting to it, they are engaging with you as a brand. If you have an effective sales funnel, this should then lead to not only increased awareness and engagement but also sales!

Need a hand with Facebook Ads?

Facebook Ads continue to be an effective way to reach people, whatever your business goal is, but there are many variables to consider before you hit the button. Jumping in without a solid strategy can mean spending your hard-earned dollars without effectively targeting what you wanted to, so it’s best to consider the options and optimize your campaign first.

If you’re new to PPC ads and need a hand, click here to book a free virtual coffee and let’s chat strategy. Whether you are trying to sell tickets, up your newsletter subscribers, or just spread the word, we can make it happen.

Cyber PR Army Solutions Inc. Digital Marketing Made Easy.