Mastering Facebook Ads: Smart Strategies for Optimal Spending
Facebook Ads can be a powerful tool for reaching your target audience and achieving your marketing goals. However, without a well-defined strategy, it's easy to waste valuable ad spend. This post will outline some smart strategies to optimize your Facebook Ads campaigns and maximize your return on investment (ROI).
1. Define Clear Objectives & Target Audience
Set Specific Goals: Before launching any campaign, clearly define your objectives. Are you aiming to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, generate leads, or boost sales?
One of the easiest ways to do this: "What kind of impact do I want to make with my ads?" When we consider this option, we're more focused on giving them 'true value' and not just 'do this so I make money'. People can tell the difference when they're searching for a solution.
Also, set a realistic goal. If you've never run paid ads on Facebook before, assuming you'll make sales in 30 days sets you up for failure. Being able to get the ad published, reach the audience, & have some kind of engagement is the simplest one to achieve.
After that, we can review the data to see what your next goal would be.
Know Your Ideal Customer: Create detailed buyer personas. Understand their demographics, interests, behaviors, and pain points. This will help you target your ads to the most receptive audience.
As of this post, Facebook's "Advantage+" audience selector is doing a phenomenal job. It's taking a look at your image, your copy, and your destination to target the people most likely to take an action.
For example, I just wrapped up a goal setting workshop campaign for my client Kim. We only had about 13 days to run the ads. She had a great turnout from the event and has a ton of good follow-up conversations to have with people.
Her audience choice? Advantage+.
2. Leverage Facebook's Targeting Options
Detailed Targeting: Utilize Facebook's extensive targeting options to reach your ideal customers with precision.
- Demographics: Target by age, gender, location, education, and more.
- Interests & Behaviors: Target users based on their interests, hobbies, online activities, and purchase history.
- Custom Audiences: Upload your customer lists (email addresses, phone numbers) to target existing customers or lookalikes.
- Lookalike Audiences: Create audiences similar to your existing customers or website visitors.
The other alternative as mentioned in the previous point: Advantage+. I know this seems pretty straight-forward to the guise of, "I already know this". Yet, for all the clients I work with and those waiting to work with me tell me the same thing: I'm not sure what to look for with the targeting.
There's an SEO tool I enjoy called "answerthepublic". It's an aggregate search result tool that helps determine the types of searches people are doing with keywords you give.
While this won't tell you specific audiences to reach with detailed targeting, it helps you to decide how you want to put your copy together & the types of questions you want to answer. This also then leads into you thinking outside of the box with interests and demographics.
Last, why not pick things you're interested in? Most of the time, the people you want to work with will be interested in similar things like you. Do you enjoy working out? Place that inside of what your copy is about and how the benefits of your offer affect your workout. Do you enjoy hiking? I'm sure there's a way that you can tie that together with what your solution is.
3. Create Compelling & Engaging Ads
High-Quality Visuals: Use eye-catching images or videos that grab attention.
Concise & Compelling Copy: Keep your ad copy concise, clear, and benefit-driven. Highlight what makes your offer unique and valuable.
Strong Calls to Action (CTAs): Include clear and persuasive CTAs, such as "Shop Now," "Learn More," or "Download Now."
A/B Testing: Experiment with different ad creatives, targeting options, and bidding strategies to find the most effective combinations.
I address a few of these inside my recent "Facebook Ads Metric Mastery: A Beginner's Guide" document, especially when it comes to metrics that explain when testing is necessary and what to improve/change. Overall, the point is to make sure that you're staying active in media creation and copywriting.
What worked today may not work in 3 months, and what's not working now may work in 3 months. The biggest thing I do is keep track of the copy I write on a separate document, then use a spreadsheet to label which version of copy it is and what it's about.
I do the same for images/videos, and pay attention to what colors I'm considering for my topic in copy & what direction the video goes with my CTA and my hooks. You'll always be testing at some point but the overall angle is to get at least ONE good ad that is producing leads and then ONE good variable to try and beat it.
With a $5/ad budget, you could test 2 ads for $10/day and receive solid results on direction & possible sales over 30 days and only $300 spend.
Let's talk about budget while we're here.
4. Optimize Your Bidding & Budget
Choose the Right Bidding Strategy:
Automatic Bids: Let Facebook's algorithm optimize bids for your chosen objective (e.g., conversions, clicks).
Manual Bids: Set your own bid amounts for more control.
Set Realistic Budgets: Start with a modest budget and gradually increase it as you gather data and refine your campaigns.
Utilize Daily & Lifetime Budgets: Set daily or lifetime budgets to control your overall spending.
You know, I was going to go into great lengths about budgeting and what that looks like (background in banking). But, you're not necessarily here for all of that; you're just trying to figure how to make your Facebook Ads work and what to do about them if they aren't working.
Here's the quick & short of it...
$5/day, no campaign budget optimization, 1 ad per 1 ad set, advantage+ audience
Simple copy with a simple media design to a simple landing page and simple automation follow-up sequence (with you jumping in to help answer questions and usher your people into your specific CTA).
A client of mine (Kathleen) wasn't sure about her budget and didn't have a ton of money to spend. We got her set at $5/day for 1 ad and she's now getting $0.17/lead and around 750 new leads every month.
Let me slow down: SEVEN HUNDRED FIFTY new leads EVERY MONTH.
Even at the lowest % of closing, she'll be able to close at least 25-50 people every month with her lowest offer of $27 - $497. If all she sold was the $27 to 25 people, her revenue would be $675.
And at $5/day for 30 days, she's only spent $150. Her Return on Ad Spend would come in at 4.5x (Divide $675 by $150). For every $1 she fees the ads machine, she gets $4.50 back.
She would only know that by tracking her results.
5. Track & Analyze Your Results
Monitor Key Metrics: Track important metrics such as impressions, clicks, reach, conversions, and cost per conversion.
Use Facebook Ads Manager: Utilize Facebook Ads Manager to track your campaign performance, analyze data, and identify areas for improvement.
Regularly Review & Adjust: Regularly review your campaign performance and make necessary adjustments to your targeting, bidding, and creatives.
In my "Facebook Ads Metrics Mastery" guide, I go over this in great detail about tracking and the importance to it. I even have a Google Sheet you can use (just gotta ask so I can make sure you have the right version AND the video to help go over it).
The basic schedule looks like this:
Monday - New Ads
Tuesday - Gather Data
Wednesday - Gather Data
Thursday - Gather Data
Friday - Review Data and shift
Saturday/Sunday - Flexible on new ad creation or just hanging out.
Some weeks are going to be better than others; some are going to be worse and get better over 24 hours. I have one campaign I remember running (Engagement Campaign for a client) and it was a simple engagement type of post.
"Which one is your favorite? Mine is 12"
The image contained 20 different types of snacks and the point was really simple: we were seasoning her ad account because she had a few disapprovals and rejected ads; attempting to get on Facebook's good side.
(And before you tell me that isn't real, it is. I've chatted with support that confirmed my theories of "data flags existing that you can't see" and affects the overall health of your ad account 😉 )
Anyway, the first day was horrible with almost zero traction. I mentioned because it was an Engagement campaign, we would want some kind of metrics to show it's working (CTR All to be in the 8%+ range; we saw 3.5%). I advised I'd turn it off and we'd regroup.
Well, life happened (because I'm a one-person digital marketing army here) and I forgot to turn it off. I came back the next day and the numbers skyrocketed overnight. It turned out to go mini-viral for her and she was instantly sold on doing more ads to get sales.
All because of tracking.
So, What Do You Do?
1 - Don't go alone in this
You're going to need some kind of support at one point or another. I painstakingly did this the hard way with grit & resilience. I wouldn't recommend it, unless you have 3 hours to pour into it every day for about 9 months.
2 - Get clear on growth
Organic growth PLUS Paid Ads is the ideal way for 2025 (this is coming from personal studies and algorithmic reviews on how the platform is growing). Additionally, if bot accounts are going to become the norm, being able to stand out in a personal way that no one else can mimic (hint: you are 1 of a kind), you'll be good. Just get clear on how you want to progress.
3 - Figure out a management plan
I recommend deciding if you want to manage ads or if you want someone to manage them with you. You'll be involved at some level (at least 20% of your time will be on ads with a private ads manager) and it's important to know how you're money is being spent.
4 - Download my guide & fill out an application
I'm about growing my business and growing your business. It would be a waste of your time if I didn't give you some options here. Grab my "Facebook Ads Metrics Mastery" document and then fill out an application so I can help you decide your next steps with wisdom.