How To Drive Revenue Using Facebook Ads

5-step Facebook Advertising strategy that will help you generate leads and drive revenue for your crowdfunding project or small business.

Over 383,000 startup projects have launched on Kickstarter. Only about 136,000 of those are successful. The harsh truth: 80% of startups don't make it past 18 months.

For any small business, promoting your product/service is a must. Especially if you are relying on crowdfunding. Having a sound paid social/digital strategy can be a cost-effective way for you to connect with new and existing customers, tell your story and drum up revenue.

Don’t know where to start? You're in luck.

Here is a proven Facebook ads strategy that will help you raise awareness, collect leads and bring in sales - all points of the customer journey.

STEP 1: Implement Tracking  

Before getting started with social ads, add a Facebook Pixel to your website. This is the first and most important step for any Facebook advertiser. The Pixel allows you to track specific events on your site such as page visits, purchases, revenue per purchase, cart abandons, etc. But wait, it gets better. A Pixel allows you to retarget customers and reach new customers with similar behavior/interests as them.

Advertising without a pixel is like throwing money into the wind.

 

STEP 2: Build Your Audience

If your business doesn’t already have a following on Facebook, you can use follower ads to build a loyal fanbase and start drumming up buzz about your company or project. These ads are simple to create and pretty cheap to run.

+ PRO TIP: Use these ads to test broad demographic/behavior targeting. Look at which demographics (age/location/gender) responded to your ads. This will reflect your optimal customer profile.

STEP 3: Build Audience Targeting

Remember that Pixel you added? Well, now’s the time to use it. The Pixel will allow you to create custom target audiences of potential customers. This will allow you to promote ads directly to your email lists, customer files, people who have visited your website, people who have purchased products, people who have started shopping carts and abandoned them for one reason or another and more. There’s so much you can do depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, but here’s some guidance to get you started.

Retargeting

• Email list: deliver ads directly to email subscribers
• Site Visitors: retarget anyone who has visited your website
• Abandon Carts: retarget users who considered, but did not purchase something. Keeping your brand/product top of mind.

Lookalike Audiences

• Site visitors: target people with similar attributes to your site visitors

• Facebook engagers: target users similar to your most engaged Facebook audience

• Email list (lead-gen): similar users to your most loyal audience of email subscribers

• Purchasers: target users who are similar to those people who purchased your product

STEP 4: Generate Leads

Start building an email list of potential customers and stakeholders who are interested in your product/service. Facebook Lead Generation ads are an incredibly cost efficient way to gather contact information for prospective buyers. This ad type also gives you real estate to ask survey questions and get feedback on your brand/product. A/B test survey ads against basic email collection ads.

+ PRO TIP: Don’t just set it and forget it. Make sure you follow up with leads promptly via email and continue to send updates on your company and/or product. Nurture those leads or else they'll go cold.

 

STEP 5: Drive Sales via Conversion Ads

Deploy conversion ads as soon as your product or crowdfunding project goes on sale. Make sure to use the retargeting and lookalike lists you created in step three. Showcase your product with high-quality imagery and create a combination of single image, carousel and video ad formats (if you have video). If your product is offered for purchase online, try adding Instagram Shop ads to the mix.

Depending on how you structure your ad groups and campaigns, you can learn a lot about who your customer audience is and start developing streamlined best practices.

+ PRO TIP: Create Facebook Offers to drive urgency and exclusivity. This allows you to showcase discounts, limited supply, sale deadlines, etc. to drive more customers.

There it is. A quick look at how to use Facebook Advertising to identify potential customers and move them to purchase.

What social advertising techniques have you found successful?

Continue the conversation on Twitter at @adamjacobspdx.