Facebook advertising: boosting posts vs. the Facebook ads platform

We speak to many companies who have dabbled in Facebook advertising, and have learned that that typically means they’ve boosted random posts for a tenner or so and typically haven’t really analysed the results.

That’s all well and good, but even though Facebook advertising is a cheap way to see instant results, it requires a strategy. The best way to develop that strategy? In Facebook ads manager. Here’s why:

 

Targeting options: the difference between boosting posts and using Facebook ads manager

It probably won’t surprise you that Facebook knows just about everything about you… and your potential customers! However, if you’ve been relying on boosted posts, you’re missing out on the power of how creepy Facebook actually is…

Boosting posts allows you to target customers based on their gender, age, location and (in some cases) interests.

Creating ads in Facebook ads manager, on the other hand, enables you to target much more effectively. It includes more options, like excluding people who like your page, or targeting friends of people who like your page. It also allows you to select different placement options (i.e. Instagram stories) and displays a preview of how your advert will look for each placement.

There are also some amazing targeting options when it comes to using the Facebook pixel in ads manager. This function helps you to create audiences based on specific actions based on your sales funnel.

For example, you can create audiences by uploading customer email databases, advertise to people who have engaged with your Facebook events in the past, track and retarget website visitors, or even remind people if they left a specific item in their basket!

 

Facebook ads manager also allows marketers to create Lookalike audiences who have similar interests to your Facebook fans. This ranges from a scale of 1-10 per cent similarity and can also include people who are similar to your Facebook post engagers or even people who are similar to people who have bought your products!

Targeting customers using Facebook ads manager can be a rabbit hole – of cha ching…

 

Facebook advertising metrics

You may be familiar with engagement, impressions and even website traffic if you’ve boosted posts in the past, but you’re not a proper FB nerd until you’ve dug deep into Facebook ads manager!

There are loads of other metrics that seriously impact the performance of your social media ads. For example (to name just a couple):

‘Frequency’ in Facebook advertising

This measures how many times individuals saw a certain advert. For example, a frequency of 2.4 means that, on average, people have been served that advert two to three times.

Keep in mind that your frequency goal is going to depend A LOT on what industry you’re in, as well as how effective your targeting, placement and the advert itself are performing. It all depends on your sales funnel and whether or not the advert is performing how you want it to.

So, for example, if you’re selling men’s clothing and targeting new customers, and you’ve been running the advert for a week, a decent frequency score could be between 3-4. Many people who buy clothes from Facebook ads will need to see an advert a couple of times before they buy, but if they haven’t made a purchase after you’ve paid for them to see that advert 4 times, you need to tweak your ad.

 

Facebook ads’ ‘relevance score’

This is the goldmine of Facebook advertising. It’s also a totally made-up metric that Facebook has developed, BUT if you can beat the algorithm, you’ve achieved Facebook ads perfection.

A relevance score works on a scale from 1-10 with a perfect ten telling you that your ad setup, placement, copy and creative is definitely, 100% relevant to your target audience. This means you’re going to convert better and for cheaper than any advert that has a lower relevance score.

There are many, many more important metrics available but it would take me ages to write about them and some are so damn frustrating that I won’t even go there (in this blog.)

These metrics are available in ads manager for boosted posts, so if you have the time, have a look…

 

The truth about using Facebook ads manager

That was not in any way an exhaustive list of the benefits of delving into ads Facebook ads manager. However, I can sum up the cons of it pretty simply: it’s complicated, ever- changing and quite often, the bane of my life. And Lia’s life, and Katie’s life, if I’m being fair.

via GIPHY

But that’s why it’s so important to use it responsibly, and that’s why we are here to take that risky responsibility off your hands.

Podium manages over £20k of advertising budgets per month in Facebook ads manager, which is why we are so familiar with these frustrating (yet rewarding) metrics that keep our clients’ conversion costs low, and their conversions high.

Get in touch if you’d like to learn more about Facebook advertising… or if you’d just rather not know and let us suffer through it for you!

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