Why Should You Pay Attention to Facebook Ads Strategy?
Facebook Ads allow for a high degree of accuracy concerning targeting. With just under 3 billion monthly users, the platform is an ocean into which business owners cast their nets. However, if you don't get the strategy right at the base level, everything else will fall apart.
Ben Heath is a Facebook Ads specialist that understands how to build successful campaigns. Our guest took the time to impart on us some of the knowledge he shares with his clients.
What Elements of Your Business Affect Ad Strategy?
According to Ben Heath, two main elements affect your ad strategy; competition and average customer value.
Competition has to do with the level of the other players in your market. Average customer value pertains to the price of your offering. A product with a $20 value requires a different strategy than a high ticket item of $100,000.
What Changes in Facebook Ads Strategy According to Level of Competition?
Low competition is the easier of the two strategies to implement in the sense that it's easier to stand out. Oftentimes, just being in a low competition environment on Facebook is enough to stand out from the rest of the market.
When you have high competition, you must pursue different options. Ad creative will have to be more eye-catching and the use of niche influencers may prove effective. All in all, in a competitive market you'll need to jump through more hurdles to differentiate your brand.
How to Know the Level of Competition of Facebook Ads for Your Niche
Where do you advertise? If you target a local audience, you're probably in a low competition space. On the other hand, if you're advertising nationally or internationally, by default the level of competition will be higher. While this isn't a steadfast rule, you will find that it holds in the vast majority of cases.
Are businesses near you advertising? If you find that 20 companies are in your area but not all of them advertise on Facebook, that is a good sign. Go to Google and find your competition by conducting a few keyword searches. Get a list of competitors. You can then use Facebook Ad Library to obtain a sea of helpful data.
To find Facebook Ad Library, simply search for it while logged into your account. You will find that this is where Facebook makes all current ads visible. It's a way of providing transparency to platform users and offers a great way for conducting competitive analysis. The library even allows you to check out where the ads send people so you can analyze your competitors' landing pages.
Average Selling Price and the Factors That Play Into Facebook Ads Strategy
If you are offering something relatively inexpensive, the barrier to entry is much lower. The law of supply and demand dictates that there is less convincing you have to do. You don't have to put your product in front of people as often and run the campaign as long to achieve results. Success will come with running a direct campaign with a one-step sales funnel.
If you're selling a $10,000 service, it's tougher to convert clients on one engagement. You need a multi-step sales funnel with different types of ad content served to the same user. Ben Heath calls this the omnipresence content strategy as it entails approaching your audience from multiple angles. The cost is higher but when implemented correctly, will yield sustainable conversions.
Examples of Industries and Strategies
Differentiating between low and high competition strategies becomes more evident when considering some examples. Ben Heath looks at specific offerings and explains which strategy works best for each.
Pet Toy Industry
An offering in the pet toy industry has low average customer value with a lot of competition. There are many advertisers on Facebook selling similar products and targeting pet owners. This requires a longer-term approach. A direct to offer strategy is recommended to implement a strategy that gets people to buy on one interaction.
The long-term approach hinges on aiming for break-even on the first campaign. Bordering on a loss-leader, the goal is only to acquire customers. Profits will come from retargeting on a two to three-month timeline. The use of email marketing can help convert users as well as remarket to them in the future.
Salesforce
Salesforce is in the SaaS field which means it has relatively high competition. This equates to a high average customer value. A new entrant would have to do a lot to stand out. Fortunately for Salesforce, the company has a strong brand which makes it easier to stand out.
Ben Heath recommends 8-14 different live ads at any time. Each ad will have a specific objective, all of which work in concert to close a sale. Client testimonials, authority pieces, and other types of ads will shower the target audience over time, bringing down their skepticism regarding a major purchase such as mission-critical software. Keep in mind that you may need to advertise to such an audience for 6 months before they purchase from you.
App That Focuses on Mental Health
A mental health app with a subscription of $5.99 per month falls in a similar categorization as the pet toy example. There is a large addressable target market and the price point is low. The objective would be to acquire as many customers as possible with a direct to offer approach. In this example, you would be looking to break even in the first three to four months. As with the pet toy campaign, you would look to capitalize on a customer list rather than solely focusing on new sales.
Learn More About Facebook Ad Strategies
Lead Guru is where you can find Ben Heath's free webinar on the 3 killer Facebook Ad strategies. In the webinar, Ben breaks down the sales funnel structure for a successful campaign.