Finding the right customer makes all the difference to the success of your ad campaign. Knowing your audience—figuring out the right people who are the right fit—is the way to make your Facebook ad reach those people who are most likely to be interested in your brand, love what they see, and feel your product or service is for them.
Conversion: Always the Goal
Conversions are what count when you want to grow your business. You want to go beyond just getting the attention of people who are interested in your brand to those who are prime to go the next step to buy, in other words, convert.
When reaching out to people on Facebook, you are certainly speaking to your existing customers and informing them of your current and special offers. But you are also marketing to prospects, those people who may also have a need for your products and services.
Your job is to create social ads that laser target the right audience, and Facebook ad targeting can help you do this. Helpful Facebook tools that provide performance history of your past ads give you the opportunity to analyze what works well along with what doesn’t. Take advantage of these tools, and you can create relevant ads that target and attract the right audience as well as gather intel and ideas from long running ad campaigns of competitors.
Speak to Their Pain
Most people make purchases because they want or need something. They have a problem that’s causing them pain and needs solving; they dream of a solution that will turn a bad situation around. Your job in your ad is to speak to their pain and grow an audience based on that pain.
For example, a company who sells home organizational products that are colorful and catchy is not selling to people who simply want colorful and catchy. That company’s target audience comprises people who feel their home is a mess and want it to be organized. That company must speak to their prospects’ pain. They must target those customers who likely have that pain to show that their organizational tools will help them solve their problem and create an organized home.
You Need a Filter
Smart ad creation like that can help you build a custom audience. Targeting people in this way makes a lot of sense. Problem is that when you’re so immersed in your business, it’s often difficult to identify or think of people in this way. You’re simply too close to your business and too committed to the features of your products and services. In fact, when you started that business, you started it more because of your talent and your skill, and less because of acknowledging the way your products and services can help people. But thinking from the standpoint of your customer…recognizing that you serve them, that you have something to offer them that will help them…and showcasing that help enables you to create a Facebook audience that is a custom Facebook audience.
The Important Back End
Many browsers visit your website, but you can’t simply call these browsers your ideal customers. The best place to actually find that ideal customer is on the back end. On the back end, you can see info about what type of people saw and clicked on your ad, and you can begin to make assessments about their age, location, income, and other specific factors. Using the built-in Facebook audience tool, you can use that more specific information to help set up an audience to target.
For example, our agency analysis of a client’s ads showed that the client’s most ad conversions occurred with women over 65. As a result, we proposed a new ad campaign specifically targeting women 65-plus and included a high income factor. The ad was a great success and brought in a lot of new customers. Essentially, we had created a custom audience through detailed targeting. By looking back to analyze our client’s previous ads, we learned so much about who their ideal customer really is, and laser targeted that audience.
In our work with another client, we used the Facebook audience tool and saw that the people who converted weren’t purchasing the brand’s more expensive products. We worked with the client to re-define the goal to target people with expensive taste and an interest in a luxury lifestyle and income in the 10% bracket. The luxury words we used in that ad resulted in many conversions. We also helped our client experience—and proof point—results by using AB testing, using the same ad on 2 different audiences to see which targeted audience produced more conversions and a better result.
Use Facebook’s Wisdom to Expand Your Reach
You’d be amazed at how much Facebook knows about us: things like where we shop, how much we spend, what content we view or interact with and what apps we use, and what actions we take in them”. (source: Meta Private Center)
Facebook Lookalike Audiences share information or exhibit behaviors that suggest they’re a lot like your ideal customers. These value-based lookalike audiences allow you to build targeted lists of potential customers who share attributes with your most valuable customers.
The good news is that Facebook shares its knowledge…at the very least, gives you the tools to gather information about not only your existing but also potential customers. That means that while you can market to your “readymade” ideal customer you can also go a step further to find others like them.
Best of All Worlds
The increasing popularity of Instagram and TikTok has led many people to think that Facebook is dead. Don’t rule Facebook out. It is still the largest social media platform and draws a huge audience. Beyond that, it offers many powerful tools to help you hit the bullseye when you advertise on the platform. Facebook knows its audience groups and can become your partner in creating the most relevant ads for that right audience.
At Ballantine, we know how to use the tools and can help you create Facebook ad campaigns that attract your ideal customers and their lookalike audiences.
Contact us and we’ll show you how Facebook advertising can help you.
I'm the Director of Digital Services and Partner at Ballantine, a family-owned and operated direct mail & digital marketing company based in New Jersey. and started in 1966 by my great uncle!
