Hi you guys.
So as you know, I like to talk about Facebook Ads. I also run dozens of ad campaigns for clients per week. I don't share all the results of the campaigns I do, but I like to pick and choose a couple of them and brag about them.
Why do I show my work? Because I keep seeing restaurants advertising on billboards, on huge radio buys and *gasp* cable TV ads. And that makes me want to cry. Not really, but it does make me cringe at how much money is wasted. I'm not saying these other methods don't work, but they are 10x less effective than a good ol' targeted digital campaign.
So here are a couple notes from me today on Facebook ads:
- Get your creative right. This means spend a few minutes to set up the photo that you're trying to take. If you want an ad to pop, it needs to be a pretty picture that someone will want to see, interact with, eat, etc.
- Be a hipster copywriter. This includes not being so sales-y in your copy. People can smell an ad pitch. Just show the product and don't waste people's time with trying too hard to sell them on the product. For example, notice the difference between the following copy. "Come and sit on our patio!!!" or... "Hey, it sure is pretty on our patio." Maybe I'll need to make another post/manifesto on this. People can sniff out an ad so fast, so you need to lay off the sales talk and just let the post speak for itself.
- Use your best performing posts as ads. This is more for people with limited budgets, but what I usually do is post 2-3 different types of posts per day for a client and boost the ones who get the best performance. Don't think too much into this.
- Use the Voltron List. What's the Voltron List? I wrote about it and how you can create one here. Basically, create a list of low hanging fruit, which is people who've engaged with you, your email contacts and people who visit your physical website. It's FREE MONEY. So go do it.
- Video over photos. Video ads get 5-10x more engagement than photos. I don't know why this is. I guess I don't care, but the numbers don't lie. If given the option, use video, even if it's only a couple seconds long. Boomerang posts tend to get lots of engagement, so start with those and then graduate to longer form videos.
I'm sure I have more thoughts, but I got busy, so I'll share those for another post.
Go spend your pennies on ads, or spend your thousands on billboards. I don't really care what you do with your hard earned money, people. Just know that some methods are better than others.