How to start Facebook Ads

[Dan_Haynes]

So I have failed with a couple stores of mine and I believe that it is due to not knowing what direction to go in with Facebook ads. I am very familiar with Facebook ads and how it works and how to do things. The only thing I need help with is choosing what direction to go in and a path to follow in order to start getting sales. For a few of my stores, I just tried to spend a ton of money on random audiences and build a lookalike audience first and realized that did not work. For this site (manhabitat.com) I am trying to decide what kind of steps do I go in first: do I use all my products with a common audience to see which products do well then once I find a winner narrow down the audience to a better one or do I pick a random product that I might think will do well and test a bunch of different audiences. I also want to know what is your guys' setups with retargeting since I know retargeting is huge. 

Side Note: I do have a facebook ad campaign that is doing View Contents at about $0.30-$0.40 per view but with only 3 purchases and $200 ad spent and my products cost $10 so I am losing a lot of money. This ad campaign seems like it is doing great but it isn't getting any significant sales.

[Jay_Williams2]

Hi Dan

I read through your post and took a quick look at your website and here are my initial thoughts.

The first thing I would say is who is your market? This is probably the most overlooked step I see in marketing today. Once you are clear on who you're talking to you can start to strategically map out your efforts to meet their desires and solve their problems.

Here is a link to download a perfect Avatar sheet for you to fill in.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_GtZrUeCVVIZG5qUUpOWDBtdzg/view?usp=sharing

Once you've completed this you're going to be able to research your audience further and find out where they are hanging out online. This is going to help drive your targeting and help to identify any 'Niche Lingo' that is used to build the creative. for your ads.

I would then take what you've learnt about your audience and really work on those product pages.

The Product Titles and descriptions - I recommend creating a catchy product title and writing a description that illustrates the benefit to the buyer of using the product. Use bullets and space to improve readability. If you have a USP for this particular item what is it? Do you offer a guarantee or free shipping on the item? What variations do you have if any? What are the specific dimensions of each product?

I could recommend a ton of other things to help you right now but I think that you need to go back to basics of marketing.

I hope this helps, let me know if I can help with anything else.

Thanks

Jay

PS I'd turn the Facebook ad off for now until you make these change, you are just giving money to Facebook.

[Jay_Williams3]

Hi Dan

I read through your post and took a quick look at your website and here are my initial thoughts.

The first thing I would say is who is your market? This is probably the most overlooked step I see in marketing today. Once you are clear on who you're talking to you can start to strategically map out your efforts to meet their desires and solve their problems.

I'd recommend Googling Digital Marketers perfect avatar template. (I would post it in here but they will ban me)

Once you've completed your avatar sheet you're going to be able to research your audience further and find out where they are hanging out online. This is going to help drive your targeting and help to identify any 'Niche Lingo' that is used to build the creative. for your ads.

I would then take what you've learnt about your audience and really work on those product pages.

The Product Titles and descriptions - I recommend creating a catchy product title and writing a description that illustrates the benefit to the buyer of using the product. Use bullets and space to improve readability. If you have a USP for this particular item what is it? Do you offer a guarantee or free shipping on the item? What variations do you have if any? What are the specific dimensions of each product?

I could recommend a ton of other things to help you right now but I think that you need to go back to basics of marketing.

I hope this helps, let me know if I can help with anything else.

Thanks

Jay

PS I'd turn the Facebook ad off for now until you make these change, you are just giving money to Facebook.

[Fernando_Dean]

Google ads are great than Fb ads if you do them right. What have you tried so far?

[Dan_Haynes]

I have mainly just focused on Facebook ads but I will use Google AdWords for retargeting.

[Kevin_Simonson1]

Hey Dan! Very cool store. Makes me want to accessorize 😉

Your question about advertising to grow sales is a smart one. Wanted to add my $0.02:

The most significant evolution of advertising is the concretization of the purchase funnel in the digital era. Before digital performance marketing emerged, an effective ad was measured based on what people said through surveys and focus groups, churning out top of the funnel metrics like ad awareness, ad perception and ad retention scores.

Think of it this way:

The old way: Research, think a lot, execute. 

The new way: Think with agility, test a lot, optimize.

But one thing that doesn't change, whether you run performance or traditional marketing, is that your ad has to look good. Modern images and graphics are so aesthetically rich that digital consumers have been spoiled for high quality creative. Your goal is to get various formats of high-quality creative of your products (product, lifestyle, videos) and test every single one of them.

Anyhoo, we wrote a useful post about these kinds of ad creative tips, if you want to read more:

https://bit.ly/2qlGIJC

Hope those insights help! Keep it up…

[VGrant75]

Hi Dan,

Awesome shop! I totally understand your frustration - it can be tricky to figure out exactly how to effectively make use of Facebook ads. FB ads can be your biggest asset if you utilize them correctly. I’d like to offer a couple of tips that helped me out:

Know your audience

Becoming extremely familiar with your target demographic is the first step in creating effective ads. As one user mentioned, this part of digital advertising often goes overlooked. Simply put, you want your products to be seen by those who are most likely to buy them. Advertising your products indiscriminately may result in clicks, but it will not result in purchases. This chasm can be one of the most frustrating things for a digital marketer. Avoid this by having a solid grasp on who it is you are marketing to.

Create effective ads

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it takes some time to create and optimize your ads. Your ads should directly appeal to your target audience. Take into consideration what your demographic is most likely to respond positively to. Remember, your first draft of an ad will most likely not be your most optimal. Experiment with different images, layouts, and CTA’s. Take note of what works and what doesn’t and adjust your ads accordingly.

Retarget

You mentioned retargeting, which is essential in gaining new customers and maintaining existing ones. After you have a firm grasp on your audience, you want to keep the excitement of your brand alive and well in the customers mind. I recommend one of Shopify’s awesome machine learning apps called Pollen (https://apps.shopify.com/poln) to help you out. Pollen specializes in making sure your ads are being seen by the right people. Their app enables you to acquire customers on Facebook and across the web simply and cost effectively. Through powerful automation, Pollen offers an easy-to-use marketing platform that’s sole expertise is in driving sales.

Hopefully this helps! Best of luck to you and your shop!  

[Denise_Branson]

Choose your campaign intent based on the most vital metrics for your business and your goals for this particular ad.
Set your budget and schedule.
Create your Facebook ads with the desired format.
Maintain & Measure. Manage your ads. Review ad controls. See your ad results. Go to Ads Manager.
 

[Dropkick_Ads]

If you want Facebook ads that convert, you've got to start with the basics:

Functioning Pixel
Ad Copy That Sells
Imagery That Stops The Scroll
Relevant Targeting

We always recommend that you also don't try to sell an entire store or brand off the bat. If you know what you're main product is going to be, focus on getting everything optimized for that in a conversion campaign.

Once you can get some purchases on your pixel, it will get smarter.

Best,

Dropkick Ads