Ready for some fresh small business Facebook marketing tips?🥑
Maybe you’re not sure where to even start with Facebook marketing?!
Consider running Facebook ads. HelloWoofy.com recently interviewed a Facebook ads expert just for you, our favorite #underdogs and #smartmarketers.
Michael from Octo13 successfully runs Facebook ads for businesses of all sizes.
Today he is generously sharing with HelloWoofy.com what’s working for small business owners of ALL types — e-commerce, brick-and-mortar, and service-based businesses. We’re so excited that he’d share with us.
HelloWoofy: First of all, let’s start with WHY every small business should consider running Facebook (FB) ads.
Michael🎙️: Every type of business benefits from Facebook advertising. Small businesses don’t have the brand recognition or marketing budget that, say Coca-Cola, has.
The first goal of Facebook marketing is to drive traffic to your own website and offer. For example, if you sell on Amazon, you don’t own the list or the data. Nor do you own your target audience across all social media channels. But if you drive traffic to your own website, you actually own both the traffic and the data.
HelloWoofy: What about a small, local brick-and-mortar business? Tell us a bit about your experience with Facebook ads for that type of small business.
Michael🎙️: Well, for example, I helped an auto-mechanic in LA with his FB ads. Now generally only larger auto shops like Jiffy Lube run ads. We created a special one-time offer on his website and ran a FB ad targeting folks within a 25 mile radius of his business. We had to keep turning off that ad, because he got more clients than he could possibly service!
HelloWoofy: Wow! Imagine being able to get clients as easily as turning on a water faucet. That’s every small business owner’s dream come true. And other online-based businesses? Have you seen success helping them?
Michael🎙️: Yes! Again the goal is to drive traffic to your website. So I’ve seen SaaS companies reach 5 figures a week pretty quickly by running FB ads to an offer. Every business benefits by advertising on Facebook, if you have the right strategy to reach your goals.
HelloWoofy: Can you talk to the small business owner who’s never run a Facebook ad before? What are the basic steps they need to follow?
Michael🎙️: Yes. Absolutely.
- First of all, to be successful and strategic with FB ads, you must have a business website set up with an offer in place on a landing page. It’s super helpful to already have a product or service developed that you’ve successfully sold to at least some people.
- Next, you need a personal Facebook account set up. You MUST have a personal page. I’ve talked to small business owners who do not yet have a personal FB page. Creating a personal FB page is a step you cannot skip!
- Then you’ll be able to go in and set up a business Facebook page connected to your personal account. That’s Facebook’s rules, not mine. Go to www.business.facebook.com and just follow their instructions. You’ll also see in the sidebar the “Ads” button.
- Add your Facebook pixel code to your website. This is crucial! If you’re an e-commerce business on Shopify, it’s very simple. Plus, the support from Shopify is great. For any other type of business, completing this step is a bit more technical and complicated.
HelloWoofy: We’ve heard of the “magical pixel”. If you’re not a techie, you might want to hire Michael! Otherwise, we’ve Googled the how-to steps of installing pixels for you small business owners. Check out this helpful link. Back to the pixel, though. Why can’t we live without it?
Michael🎙️: Essentially, the FB pixel attaches itself to every browser link where cookies are enabled. You can see where your potential client goes and gather valuable data to help tailor your FB ads.
HelloWoofy: Now we’re ready to run our first ad. Any tips?
Michael🎙️: Best practices for running your first FB ad would be to have the goal of collecting soft metrics or soft KPI data.
Optimize your first FB ad for landing page views. Quick explanation needed! A hard KPI is what your actual goal would be — let’s say, for example, to make a sale or to capture an email lead. However, it’s quite expensive to run an ad on Facebook without knowing first who your audience is or what will motivate them to buy.
“What you really want to test is the click through rate (CTR) of your first ad.”
Does your potential client land on your page and actually click on your website?
To gather accurate data, look at impressions under your FB ads manager settings. You need a safe sample size of at least 2,000 impressions. If you run a $5 a day ad, this might take over a week. But if you run a $50 a day ad, you’ll probably get 2,000 impressions in 3-5 days.
HelloWoofy: What metrics are we looking for?
Michael🎙️: You’re looking for a CTR of at least 1%. So if you have less than 200 clicks on 2,000 impressions, you’re likely doing one of two things wrong.
- Not targeting the right audience
- The ad or creative you use is NOT engaging enough.
HelloWoofy: What kind of ads create the most engagement?
Michael🎙️: To be honest, these days running an ad with a stock photo is ineffective.
The simplest, most engaging way to run an ad is get out your phone and take a short, decent quality video of yourself as the business owner.
Simply, quickly, and clearly state who you are and how you help your client. Who you are and what you do. That’s it. It doesn’t need to be a perfect, high-quality video production.
HelloWoofy: That’s great. We do explainer videos ALL the time for our HelloWoofy.com customers, as a side note.
One final question, though.
After you’ve run your first test ad on FB and your soft KPI shows a 1% click-through rate or above, what’s the next step?
Michael🎙️: First, you kill your original ad, but save it. You’ll go in and set up the same ad with a new conversion goal. Either sell a product (e-commerce) or drive more traffic to your website with a discount offer.
Always collect emails. Leverage your data. Next run an email campaign for free. Your best customer is your existing client. Once they buy one offer, you can easily retarget them with a more expensive offer.
You’ll be in a much better position with the actual data you’ve collected from running a test ad or two. Leverage the data to find out who your target market is. Then fine-tune your ads to reach them.
HelloWoofy: Here’s a quick review and a simple checklist, small business owners!
✅10 steps to running your first successful Facebook ad:
- Know your target market.
- Have a proven product or service you’ve had some success selling.
- Have a website with an offer.
- Set up your personal FB page, and then set up your business FB pages.
- Install your FB pixel on your website.
- Run a test ad to a landing page on your website to gather soft metrics.
- Leverage the data. Look for a 1% CTR based on at least 2,000 impressions which means your ad is converting.
- Use a personal business owner video in your FB ads clearly stating who you are and what you do for your clients.
- Drive traffic directly to your website with a tempting offer.
- Always collect client email addresses for the next step of your marketing strategy.
HelloWoofy: Thanks for sharing such truly valuable information with our #underdog small business friends. Any final thoughts for us, Michael?
Michael🎙️: When you own your own channel in outbound marketing, you can successfully scale your business.
Go for email list-building with a smaller offer first. That’s a major goal of running Facebook ads. Again, advertising works! For Every. Single. Business!
Thanks again for the inside scoop on Facebook ads, Michael at Octo13.com!
Are you inspired to try running your first FB ad, small business owner? Need a little bit more in-depth help? Our friend Michael Stelzner at the Social Media Examiner offers this helpful guide!
Do you have some amazing business tools or tips to share with your fellow small business owners? Like our furry friends with highly sensitive noses, we always sniff out the best goodies from YOU. If you’d like to start a share-fest, just pop in OR join our friendly Facebook group, Content Masters by HelloWoofy.
Best,
Arjun Rai, Founder and CEO
HelloWoofy.com, Smart Marketing for Underdogs