The Secret to Running Facebook Ads: How We Made $2,200 in 10 days
- Advertising
- 3 minute read
We can keep debating this, but the reality is that social media has become a requirement to play in the world of business today. Some of the biggest brands (hello Fashion Nova and Gymshark) were built on Instagram and Facebook. It’s no wonder that many small and medium-sized businesses are grappling to keep up, forking over millions of dollars on social media ads, particularly on Facebook. So it begs the question: do Facebook ads work?
Well, let’s take a look at the data
As of Q2 2019, Facebook reported over 2.4 billion active users. That’s billion, with a B. It is inarguably the largest social network and its growth is not slowing down any time soon. If you’re a business owner, this data point alone should be compelling enough to persuade you that your customers are on the platform, regardless of your industry.
So the question…
Do Facebook ads work?
These days, Facebook is an integral part of any social media strategy. While costs have doubled in the last 18 months ($5 used to reach 10,000 people; now it’s $10), businesses still have massive opportunities to generate a positive ROAS (return on ad spend) – so long as you know what you’re doing.
Sure, if you’re a gym owner you can target people who have expressed an interest in weight loss, supplements, diet plans, etc. But interest-based targeting is only scratching the surface of what you can do. Facebook ads is a dangerous place to be if you’re tinkering around without any experience. We see so many people lose money on ads because they don’t understand the nuances of the platform. On the flip side, it is incredibly lucrative for someone who knows how to navigate Facebook Ads Manager. How else do you explain the thousands of Facebook ad agencies out there?
Imagine that you had a money machine that gave you $20 for every $1 that you put in. Every. Single. Time. You would feed that thing with as much money as possible, right?
Yes, CPMs (cost per 10,000 impressions) have risen in recent months, but this doesn’t discount the effectiveness of Facebook ads. This just means you need to know how to make your dollars work for you.
Massive returns on a tiny budget
In a recent campaign that we ran, we spent no more than $10/day for 2 weeks ($119 total), and got a return of $2,200 in sales. That’s a return of 18X compared to the average 4X across industries! We did this by targeting visitors to our website, Facebook, Instagram pages, and designed offers that we knew would resonate with our market (e.g. 15% off for first-time customers). All the while, we consistently reviewed our ads performance to optimize delivery.
Custom audiences
Setting up the custom audiences was key to keeping our cost per purchase low, allowing us to generate an immediate ROI for our client. But we would be remiss if we said that this is the only variable to consider. Let’s not forget about the ad copy, creative, landing page experience, platform (Facebook vs. Instagram), placement (stories vs. newsfeed), and lots of retargeting. All of these elements need to work together to execute a successful ad campaign.
Smart retargeting
Any seasoned Facebook advertiser knows that the real value of Facebook ads is in the retargeting strategy. You can retarget people who clicked your ad, performed certain actions on your website, or anyone who visited your Instagram profile. In our case, we ran ads to abandoned cart customers (people who added items to cart but didn’t checkout) with a second offer, which increased our conversions by 80%!
So the short answer – YES. Facebook ads work. They work extremely well.
Imagine that you had a money machine that gave you $20 for every $1 that you put in. Every. Single. Time. You would feed that thing with as much money as possible, right? That’s exactly what Facebook ads can do for your business. With all the data that Facebook has in its arsenal, it’s one of the most fantastic ad products that we’ve seen in decades. With continuous algorithm changes, and organic reach on the decline, we predict 3 things will happen: (1) more advertisers will jump in causing (2) ad costs to rise due to the increase in competition, and (3) the platforms evolve into a space where businesses are required to “pay to play.”
But with all that said, if you’re not currently advertising, don’t worry — you haven’t missed the boat. At the pace that the platform is growing, we don’t see the momentum tapering any time soon.
If you have any questions or want help with your Facebook ad strategy or campaign, shoot us a message here.