Why should you focus all your marketing dollars on Facebook Advertising? Well, you want to generate more leads than ever, and this is really what you need to accomplish your goals for a better bottom line and sustainable growth well into the future. You’ve just had a direct response experience when downloading this report. So that means that direct response advertising works – and now I will show you more.
Branding vs Direct Response Advertising
Branding is one of the hardest things to do, and that’s because of the money it takes to do it properly. You have to be where your people are and give your brand the exposure it needs for your ENTIRE audience to see it over and over again. You don’t think Kleenex became a household name because they spent $100 in one geographic region once, do you? Of course not. Large brands spend millions of dollars to get their brand in front of you.
You don’t have millions of dollars. If you do, you don’t need to read this. Since you don’t have that marketing budget, you must focus on direct response advertising. Your brand will grow organically due to getting it in front of the right people and getting them to take action.

Here’s the great part about direct response advertising:

• It’s affordable
• It’s highly targeted
• It’s 100% measurable

Let’s talk about that last point for a moment. It’s 100% measurable. That’s a huge deal because you can learn about your ROI. You can also use coupons and other incentives to know how many people are converting. This means that you can see how much your investment is paying off. You can’t say the same thing about branding.
If you spend a lot of money on branding, you don’t know what is and isn’t working. You’re using billboards and radio ads to promote your brand. How do you know how many people drove by your billboard or visited your website because they heard it mentioned on the radio? You don’t. It’s impossible to know how well it did so that you could have dropped thousands of dollars for nothing.
Making the Most of Your Marketing Budget
Direct response advertising is the best way to make the most of your marketing budget. Facebook Ads are a great way to reach a large number of people. You set the budget, and therefore, it will reach as many people as possible with the money you have available.
You also get to determine the audience you play to. Have different audiences? Great, you can have a different ad copy and set a different audience for each ad you run.
It would be best to focus on the “direct” in direct response advertising. You want to advertise DIRECTLY to your target audience to get an immediate response (which is your call-to-action – click here, buy this, download this).
Who is your audience? Well, that depends. Once you figure it out, Facebook allows you to home in on it with the audience selection tools to include:

• Age
• Gender
• Regional area
• Interests
• Behaviors
• Life Events

This is a powerful tool. You can’t market directly with billboards or radio. While you can choose where you put the billboard or what radio station you prefer, you don’t truly get to focus on the audience with laser accuracy.
But Why Facebook?
Facebook is by far the largest social media platform. There are certainly others that are popular, but they don’t have the same draw as Facebook. Plus, Facebook makes it easy to home in on your target audience. This makes it easier for your message to be seen by the right people.
When you show someone an ad that connects with them, they comment, like, and share; sharing is precisely what you need because it stretches your marketing further.
By now, you have probably heard about the unicorn Frappuccino that Starbucks launched. It was available for a limited time. People took pictures of it, created hashtags about it, and it went viral. Here’s the crazy thing about this: Starbucks didn’t do anything. They let their product stand for itself. They earned over $1 million in extra revenue in a single day because everyone wanted a unicorn Frappuccino. People talked about it because it was cute (even though it was filled with tons of sugar).
This is what you would like to accomplish with your Facebook ads if you don’t mind. You get the concept (or product or service) in front of the right people, and then they do most of your marketing for you.
You also have more money when you give up your other marketing (such as radio, SEO, and more). This means you can use the money to give something to those who take advantage of the offer. It’s a better use of your money because it results in guaranteed conversions. Maybe it’s a fantastic coupon or a free product when they purchase a certain amount from you. Whatever it is, it’s the carrot you dangle for them to convert and buy from you.
Client or customer engagement is critical, and it will help you with word of mouth, SEO, and more. Get your audience hooked and let them do much marketing for you.
If you need help getting started with Facebook Advertising, call us directly at 831-789-9320.

BONUS ARTICLE

6 Successful Facebook Advertising Hacks

Facebook is a great tool when you’re a small business. However, posting on your business page is not always enough. You might not get the reach you need, so Facebook Ads is a crucial component to explore.
Various hacks have been used at Core6 Marketing, and we have found them successful with some of our clients.
Regardless of whether you’re paying to reach 1,000 people or 10,000 people, there are some ad tips you need to incorporate to get people to click the ads and take action on the link they arrive at.

Ad Hack #1: Create Buyer Personas

A buyer persona allows you to create your ideal customer. The reality is that you might have several personas based on the product or service you have to offer.
With each potential customer, think about their age, gender, what they do for a living, and the kind of problem they have that would be solved with what you have to offer. Have fun with this and maybe even create a graphic to accompany your customer. This will assist you in future marketing campaigns as well.
Having a buyer persona in hand will make it easier to design a Facebook Ad. This includes being able to identify the best target audience. You will be asked to enter keywords and locations to hone in on who your target is. As you enter more information, Facebook knows more about who they must show the ad to – ensuring you’re not wasting your money.
The more you know about your buyers, the easier it will be to get an ROI from your ads.

Ad Hack #2: Speak To Their Emotional Side

When creating a Facebook ad, you have a limited number of words to use. You have a headline and a description—and neither of them gives you a lot to work with. Additionally, you are limited by the amount of text you can include within your graphics.
That said, you have to speak to the audience’s emotional side within your post. You have to make a connection between your image (or video) and your words. People shop with their emotions, whether they realise it or not. It’s more important to focus on the benefits of a product or service than on the features. This means that you have to figure out why a certain feature is so beneficial—and focus on that.
There are options available when you want to include several benefits and, therefore, play on a few different emotions. When you create the Facebook Ad, create a carousel of images. This will allow you to have other “cards.” Each card features a different photo, headline, and description. It gives you more to work with, so you make the connection with your audience. You can also choose to have the most popular cards featured first, which means if it has already worked for others, it will show that one before going to the other cards.
There are two different types of buyers: emotional and rational. Within your description, focus on both a little bit. List a benefit to be emotional, followed by a great feature. Use emotional, powerful words that people will identify with, such as “money saver,” “time saver,” “free time,” and so on.

Ad Hack #3: Use Call-To-Action

There’s a call-to-action built into Facebook Ads. This is an optional pulldown, so the button says “Learn More,” “Book Now,” “Shop Now,” and the list goes on and on. This is absolutely a feature to use because people will get an idea of what they will be prompted to do upon clicking on the link you have connected with the ad.
However, you don’t want to depend solely on the button when creating a call-to-action. Using your words to convey a strong CTA to grab people’s attention and pull them to your link would be best.
A call-to-action probably isn’t going to increase the click-through rate. It will reduce friction once a user lands on your landing page. They will know what to do and get right to performing the desired action.
The CTA can be anything from “click for your free trial” to “download this amazing offer.” Get creative with the CTA and ensure you deliver once people reach the landing page. If your Facebook Ad promises a coupon and there’s no coupon on your landing page, you won’t get the conversions and could end up with many negative comments on the ad itself.

Ad Hack #4: Limit Stock Photography

A lot of websites offer stock photography. Some might be free, while others charge for using the images. The problem with stock photography is that it’s impersonal. Don’t underestimate your audience—they will be able to tell stock photography from internal photographs. Plus, if they just saw another ad using the same stock image, people will keep scrolling past your ad.
Forget about professional photos. Instead, use the images you capture of your employees working, your products, and real customers enjoying your services. It will be more emotional and REAL, which is the whole idea.
Remember, you’re not limited to photography on Facebook Ads, either. You can choose to use a video. This could be something you record from your smartphone. It could be a time-lapse of something being built, a video of your assembly line, a head decorator frosting a cupcake, or something personalised to your business.
It’s also a good idea to use geo-targeted photography. For example, you need to use different images if you’re targeting NYC for one ad and Chicago for another. This could include using the city name in the ad to get someone’s attention.
The more you get target-specific in your ads, the more your photos (or videos) should reflect it. This could be as simple as adding a few words across the photo into Photoshop. You can get creative and see how it can pay off with a higher click-through rate.
Consider how much people like to see faces if you’re stuck on the photo to use. A study from Caltech in 2005 shows that there are specific brain cells that only fire when a face is seen. The faces don’t have to be human, either. Look at all the cartoon mascots on cereals and even for a bag of Cheetos. We see the face, identify with it, and it’s humanised. Next thing we know, we’re hooked on that product. That’s what you want when sharing photos inside a Facebook Ad.

Ad Hack #5: Use Attractive Landing Pages

Within your Facebook Ad, you determine the link where people land. This means you can create custom landing pages within your website for people to arrive at when they click on the ad. You want it to be attractive and feature-rich when they get there.
What will people see when they get to your page? Will they know a lot of clear information about your product or service? Will they see the same kind of design as what was in your ad? It would be best to focus on branding so people don’t question whether they landed on the correct website.
The reality is that getting people to click on the link from Facebook is only half the battle. Once they have clicked that call-to-action button, you have less than 10 seconds to convince them to stay on your site and read more about what you offer.
Your landing page has to be exciting and deliver the same message. If you promised a free download, people must see where that is. If you promised a discount, could you be sure the discount code or link is easily identifiable?
Some things to consider include:

• Bold graphics
• Minimal images
• White space within blocks of text
• A clear offer
• An enticing call-to-action

Your landing page should take at least as long as it takes for you to create your Facebook page. Before you go live with either one, be sure they are branded similarly. They have to appeal to the buyer persona you are targeting, which means the images and how you pitch have to be considered.

Ad Hack #6: Use Promos and Giveaways

Promos and giveaways are great for your Facebook Ad because people love getting something for free or at least for a discount. Approximately 34 percent of users have identified that they will “like” a Facebook page to get a discount or be eligible for a promotion.
This means it’s in your best interest to provide a contest or promote on Facebook.
A sweepstakes contest, for example, lets people know what you’re giving away. The landing page shows off what you’re giving away, and you have them do a few steps to win, such as liking the Facebook page and signing up with their email address. You might even ask them to share the contest with their friends, giving you more exposure. The added benefit is that you have now collected their email address to target them through a newsletter later.
Refer-your-friend giveaways are also great tools because they help you gather more likes on your Facebook page. When people get their friends to enter, they earn more entries into the contest. With the trust factor involved, a promo can go viral.
Other types of contests include essays, a vote for a specific item/design, or a photo contest. These give you future marketing fodder and ensure people engage with your brand.
There’s also the Facebook coupon, which you can add to your Facebook page and have a landing page to match. The Facebook like button will coincide with getting the coupon. Ask people to enter their email addresses, and the next thing you know, they have their coupon, and you have a new subscriber to your newsletter.
The tools are out there for you to run sweepstakes and contests, so get creative and ensure that it ties back to your brand. With suitable graphics and a prize worth winning, people will give you the likes and shares needed to provide your brand considerably more exposure than it’s getting now.

Final Thoughts

Facebook Ads are simple to create, and the social media platform walks you through all of the different steps. It’s all well and good to launch just any ad. However, if you want a good return on your investment, you want a high click-through rate and a high conversion rate once people get onto your landing page.
Branding matters and this has to be considered in everything you do. A buyer persona will allow you to learn more about your target demographic. From there, you can choose the right images, the correct wording, and the best overall promotion. What goes in the Facebook ad should also match what goes on the landing page, making it easier to convert someone into a customer.
You don’t have to spend a lot on Facebook advertising. You must consider your approach and what you want people to do. Creating a campaign asking people to refer a friend to win something might be in your best interest. Once you have more likes on your page and traffic to your website, you run another Facebook Ad and target the same people. This time, you drive them to a product or service on a landing page, and by exposing them to the brand in two different ways, you have developed a higher level of trust.
With these advertising hacks, you might be surprised by how much easier it is to improve ROI and overall conversion rates each time you run an ad.
If you need help getting started with Facebook Advertising, call us directly at 831-789-9320.