Top 10 Tips When Running Facebook Ads (Guest Post)

Bedros here – just wanted to introduce my good friend Carlo Bernoni, who’s contributing today’s guest post on how to CRUSH with Facebook ads.Carlo

I’ve been working with Carlo for years…he’s a great salesman, badass marketer, and all-around good man.

Now if you’ve been following me for a while you know I like to dig my hands in personally when it comes to Facebook marketing, and I usually encourage fellow entrepreneurs like you to do the same.

…Truth be told, though, that’s not the only way to do it. If you find Facebook marketing too overwhelming or confusing, or you don’t consider it one of your critical 5% tasks, you should look into an automated Facebook marketing solution.

For automated Facebook marketing, my top recommendation is the company Carlo works with, Fitness Marketer. They’ll manage your fan page, design cost-effective ads for you, and funnel MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF CLIENTS into your business. Click here to check them out today! 

And if you’re a “control king” like I am and want to learn to do this yourself, keep reading to get Carlo’s expert tips!

Carlo here!

Running Facebook ads can be extremely frustrating. I know you can all relate.   Sometimes it even causes me to drink before noon!

With that said, I just want to share with you a couple things that could help you when it comes to your ads.

Some of these tips may seem very elementary to some of the seasoned marketers in the group, but I think they are worth repeating.

Remember: often the path to greatness means doing the simple things well, and doing them with more consistency than anyone else.

So it’s always worthwhile to brush up on the basics!

Also, please keep in mind these are suggestions and tips, not rules. I know not everything works for everyone or it wouldn’t be so complicated. I wish that there were hard and fast rules when it comes to FB, but there isn’t.

The only hard and fast rule I live by is…I try things until they work or fail. If I try and it works, I keep doing it. If I try and it fails, I stop. The key thing is that you have to try things out for yourself.

OK let’s get to it.

Tip #1 – Create a New Link

 

Create a new link for your pages/funnels. Do not use click funnel links. Go to tinyurl.com or another similar web site and create a new link.

The thing is, Facebook knows how to spot links from all the different click funnel sites, and they don’t like them, so create your own link.

Tip #2 – Don’t Resubmit Ads

 

If your ad is not approved DO NOT keep resubmitting the same ad/link over and over again.  Stop, look and see the reason why it was turned down.

Fair Not Unfair Sticky NoteYeah, yeah, I know. Facebook’s rules are unfair, random, and annoying…but Facebook does have the final say. Don’t waste your energy banging your head against the wall – figure out a way to work with them. Trust me, it’s possible.

If you feel that it was an error, email Facebook and tell them so. We get ads approved all the time way. If you think that there could be a violation, then start over.

Tip #3 – Split Test Images

 

Split test images. Do it. Seriously, you can’t skip this.

When we create ads we like to split test between 3-5 images then pick the one the that is performing the best.

Think of it this way: split testing takes a lot of the burden off your shoulders. You don’t have to make the final decision on which image to use because your audience will help make the decision for you.

Embrace it.

Tip #4 – Use Real Client Images

 

Real life pictures of your members can work better than Stock Images.

True, you do need to be selective with which clients you use. Preferably you want someone who is camera friendly and in good shape.

However, you don’t need to worry about real client pictures looking like professional photo shoots. If anything, it’s better if these look like pics you just took with your phone in the gym. That feels real to people and they’ll trust it.

As I’ve said before – test it out. You won’t know until you try.

Tip #5 – Split Test Audiences Too

  

Split test audiences after you have split tested images.

Like Bedros is always saying, you do want to be proactive as possible in defining and targeting your niche…

However, there’s always room to further tweak your niche or shift in a slightly different direction.

The best way to do this is to let the market “vote with their feet” and watch which audience has the bigger response.

Tip #6 – Boost from the Ads Manager

 

Boost a post from the ads manager and not from your page.

You have more targeting options from within the ads manager.

Even if you don’t use the advanced options right away, it’s good practice.

Tip #7 – How to Split Test Audiences

 

When split testing audiences, we run one super targeted with the interests and other with no interests at all.

This helps us determine whether our audience is too broad or too narrow. Try it out for yourself.

Tip #8 – Order of Operations

 

Here is the order we test things out: images, audience then offer.  Test Tubes

The reason why is that the image is the most make-or-break part of the ad. If your image doesn’t immediately captivate your audience – boom, you’re done. No clicks for you.

Once you’ve got a hot image, you can split test the audience to try to bump up the response.

Then, once you’ve decided on the image and audience, you can work on the offer.

The truth is that if the image and audience are solid, then the offer really doesn’t need to be perfect, so invest your time and energy where it counts.

Tip #9 – Click Through Rate Doesn’t Matter

 

Click through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who view your FB ad and click to visit your landing page.

There’s a lot of debate out there about what is a “good” CTR or what you should aim for…but really that’s just a bunch of white noise.

A high CTR is useless if people don’t convert or opt in once they get to your landing page. Measure ROI.

For example, you could have an ad with 11% CTR that’s losing you money because nobody is converting or opting in on the landing page. Or, you could have an ad with 3% CTR that’s making you money because those 3% of people convert like crazy on the landing page.

It all comes down to ROI. Don’t get distracted with any other statistics.

(Of course, if you have a high-converting landing page but a low CTR ad, you should work on upping your CTR to get the most out of that hot landing page.)

Tip #10 – Get Your First 200 Visitors

 

Get 100-200 visitors to your page before you start tweaking your offer.

The key thing here is don’t get panicky. On your way to that first 200 visitors, you’ll see minor variations in the performance of your ad.

Don’t let that distract you. Until you have 100-200 visitors, you don’t have big enough sample size to make any meaningful judgements about your ad.

Wait until a decent chunk of your audience has seen your ad, then start tweaking.

Once again these are guidelines. There is nothing more important than stats.  Are you having success with doing it another way? Then Mazel tov, fantastic, cheers! Share it with us. I am always open to learn and try to new things. (I’m talking about ads you dirty minds you.)

Anyway, I really hope these help.  Let me know if you have any questions or comments.  I wish you all the best!

Last Thing…

Bedros here again!

Thanks once more to Carlo Bernoni for that awesome advice.

And hey, if you want to save time and have a “set it and forget it” Facebook marketing solution, make sure you check out Fitness Marketer today! As you can tell by this post, Carlo and his crew really know their stuff, and they’re ready to send wave after wave of leads into your business. 

Committed to your success,

Bedros