To run a successful advertising campaign, testing and tracking the results of your ads is imperative. Only after analyzing the results will you know if a campaign was successful and worth the cost.
Every campaign is different and requires a different strategy. Businesses that sell physical or digital products can generally appeal to the masses who shop online while brick and mortar businesses such as doctors, real estate agents and attorneys benefit greatly from a localized campaign.
Facebook ads are a great investment for both wide and local marketing campaigns because the ads can be highly targeted to your audience. With so many millions of people online, knowing the keywords used to find your products or business is important. For those running a local campaign, including your city, town, or state name along with your prime keywords can help your neighbors find you more easily.
To start your Facebook ad campaign, choose your keywords and the demographics you want to target. Write an interesting title and description for your ad and use some keywords in both of those spots. Keep in mind, character counts are limited so be creative but choose your words wisely.
After you set the ad budget and publish your ad, check your stats every week in your account, paying close attention to the click through rate (CTR). You will see the number of impressions for your ad as well as the CTR. This is your first indicator of whether people are convinced by your ad copy to click.
The next statistic to watch is what people do after clicking the ad. If they are directed to your fan page, do they all click the “Like” button? Do they sign up for your email list? Do they call your local office? Indicate on your data sheets what the sole purpose of the ad was so you can properly identify if that result occurred after the click through.
Watch your ads for a few weeks and then decide if these are the numbers you want. If you think they can be improved, try changing the headline or call to action in your ad. Try adding more local keywords or even changing the image for the ad. Go slowly and make just one of these changes to each ad and then track the same stats for a few more weeks.
Keep in mind that marketing and advertising plans are meant to be fluid and able to change with the times. A hometown baker who started off with a small, local marketing plan to bring foot traffic into his shop can eventually expand his campaign to include a different part of the state, a different part of the country or to a worldwide audience by adding shipping options to his business.
Likewise, a worldwide brand might focus their ads more tightly to reach a brand new demographic or those in a different part of the world. As with any kind of marketing or advertising plan, the key to success is knowing what tactics are working and how to best improve that conversion rate.
If you need help keeping up to date with the newest online marketing strategies, consider hiring an internet marketing consultant. Just as you would hire an expert plumber to fix a leaky faucet, hiring an expert online marketer to handle your campaigns and to share the latest strategies is economical and will save you hours of time trying to sort it out by yourself.
Don Johnson
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