My Facebook Experiment: Just created my first Ad. We will see how it goes

UPDATE:

Yesterday, I blew my $50 budget in like 10 minutes using CPM. No conversions. But, lesson learned. I am going to do some studying and get up and running again for another shot, today.

I think I am going CPC next time.
 


Yeah, i was gonna say... i think i will go for cpc. i remember seeing some data i think a while back and some ad's were getting like 900000 views with 1 click. Quick way to burn some money!!
 
UPDATE:

Yesterday, I blew my $50 budget in like 10 minutes using CPM. No conversions. But, lesson learned. I am going to do some studying and get up and running again for another shot, today.

I think I am going CPC next time.


You really need to target keywords to take advantage of FB. I've had campaigns where I paid as little as .02$ per click. You just have to get your keyword targeting down.

You can even try to delve a little deeper into certain subjects and find rare keywords that might associate FB users with what you're pushing.
 
You really need to target keywords to take advantage of FB. I've had campaigns where I paid as little as .02$ per click. You just have to get your keyword targeting down.

You can even try to delve a little deeper into certain subjects and find rare keywords that might associate FB users with what you're pushing.

So far, this has been over my head. I just submitted a new campaign with keywords, we will see how I do. (Different offer than the original.)
 
I just found this: The 10 Laws Of Facebook Advertising No Marketer Can Afford To Ignore
It seems to be a reliable source and solid info. After reading the first two paragraphs i realised that i am in way over my head!! It seems that with facebook you are going to get the best results by establishing long term relationships/contacts with users with a view to keeping them hooked and making sales down the line. As opposed to making quick sales. This is because your average FB user is not in buying mode.
For this you need to develop some sort of infrastructure beforehand to manage your relationships. This could be a simple mailing list where you can group users according to preferrences OR i was thinking maybe some solid sites with good hooks to keep people returning etc... with a view to monetising in the long term. Well... back to the drawing board for me!! Any thoughts on this 'relationship' based approach i.e. how to convert?? I will post when i have done a bit more research.
 
Notes from each of the points in the article i linked above ^
1. Facbook is an ineffective platform for direct sales. Instead, you need to focus on building relationships.

2. Targeting factors (age, sex, interests etc..) can and should be used. e.g.ou could use birthday, age and location to promote a bar/nightclub with drinks offers etc...

3. A good technique (that i have seen in practice) is to use the ad's on facebook to promote any pages/events/applications that you have in place with a view to building relationships.

4. An important step in the preperation for a campiagn is to 'define your market' . You need to determine what need you (as a company) fulfill and defining who is likely to want/need that need fulfilled. This allows for more effective use of targeting.

5. Slightly confused here! It says to budget for the long term and measure your initial return as users engaged in your infrastucture... (fans etc...). UNLESS you are an affiliate marketer. I presume as an affiliate you need to budget for the short term. More reading on this i think. I assume that If it's no good for direct sales then that's that... and you need to run other offers. Do the other points still count anyone?? lol.

6.In theory, the more targeted your ad is, the higher your CTR will be. Make use of the monitoring tools provided by FB. Split test and adjust accordingly.

7. Test landing pages etc as well as building relationships on FB. Users who are happy can be a good source of further leads (traffic) even if they dont buy. This means that you must offer some value to the user with good conent/free stuf etc.. it is pointless trying to build relationships around spammy looking groups etc.. On the other hand, you need to convert at the end of the day so test differnt things and diversify! (does that make sense??!).

8. Keep narrowing your demographic and split test AD copy. As somebody else on here put it - throw shit at the wall and see what sticks!!

9. A 'call to action' is important in ad's. An incentive to click e.g. 'click here for free stuff!' or 'win a car!' etc.. Hint - if you see an ad all over t
he place, chances are they are doing something right. Look around in the printed media for inspiration. Bear in mind your target demograpic... e.g. use of slang will only appeal to certain age groups or etc..

10. Strike a balance when targeting. i.e. don't 'over target' if you have identified your customer base then split test copy to see what works... As a n00b you want to spread the word and not get really specific with your target market. If you find that you are having to target really deep to see results then you are probably better off sticking with something that has a broader appeal until you know what you are doing.

To sum up: With facebook ad's you need some sort of infrastucture with which to foster relationships. This can be in the form of groups/events/pages/apps on facebook itself or seperate websites. There must be some kind of 'hook' to keep users engaged, returning and spreading the word. This could be in the form of free stuff, good content (regularly updated), or maybe some sort of comunity that users can engage in (forum etc..). In order to monetise your traffic you need to aim to build relationships first and monetise at a later date. This is because users on facebook are generally not in 'buy mode'. As an example - you can target ad's on adwords to people who are in 'buy mode' by using keywords such as 'buy this now' etc.. On facebook you can't do that. So you must use the ad's to generate traffic and then convert them somehow.. I would say that spammy, poorly built, light on content/intersting stuff pages/sites will lose users and in turn lose money.

Any thoughts??
 
Notes from each of the points in the article i linked above ^
1. Facbook is an ineffective platform for direct sales. Instead, you need to focus on building relationships.

2. Targeting factors (age, sex, interests etc..) can and should be used. e.g.ou could use birthday, age and location to promote a bar/nightclub with drinks offers etc...

3. A good technique (that i have seen in practice) is to use the ad's on facebook to promote any pages/events/applications that you have in place with a view to building relationships.

4. An important step in the preperation for a campiagn is to 'define your market' . You need to determine what need you (as a company) fulfill and defining who is likely to want/need that need fulfilled. This allows for more effective use of targeting.

5. Slightly confused here! It says to budget for the long term and measure your initial return as users engaged in your infrastucture... (fans etc...). UNLESS you are an affiliate marketer. I presume as an affiliate you need to budget for the short term. More reading on this i think. I assume that If it's no good for direct sales then that's that... and you need to run other offers. Do the other points still count anyone?? lol.

6.In theory, the more targeted your ad is, the higher your CTR will be. Make use of the monitoring tools provided by FB. Split test and adjust accordingly.

7. Test landing pages etc as well as building relationships on FB. Users who are happy can be a good source of further leads (traffic) even if they dont buy. This means that you must offer some value to the user with good conent/free stuf etc.. it is pointless trying to build relationships around spammy looking groups etc.. On the other hand, you need to convert at the end of the day so test differnt things and diversify! (does that make sense??!).

8. Keep narrowing your demographic and split test AD copy. As somebody else on here put it - throw shit at the wall and see what sticks!!

9. A 'call to action' is important in ad's. An incentive to click e.g. 'click here for free stuff!' or 'win a car!' etc.. Hint - if you see an ad all over t
he place, chances are they are doing something right. Look around in the printed media for inspiration. Bear in mind your target demograpic... e.g. use of slang will only appeal to certain age groups or etc..

10. Strike a balance when targeting. i.e. don't 'over target' if you have identified your customer base then split test copy to see what works... As a n00b you want to spread the word and not get really specific with your target market. If you find that you are having to target really deep to see results then you are probably better off sticking with something that has a broader appeal until you know what you are doing.

To sum up: With facebook ad's you need some sort of infrastucture with which to foster relationships. This can be in the form of groups/events/pages/apps on facebook itself or seperate websites. There must be some kind of 'hook' to keep users engaged, returning and spreading the word. This could be in the form of free stuff, good content (regularly updated), or maybe some sort of comunity that users can engage in (forum etc..). In order to monetise your traffic you need to aim to build relationships first and monetise at a later date. This is because users on facebook are generally not in 'buy mode'. As an example - you can target ad's on adwords to people who are in 'buy mode' by using keywords such as 'buy this now' etc.. On facebook you can't do that. So you must use the ad's to generate traffic and then convert them somehow.. I would say that spammy, poorly built, light on content/intersting stuff pages/sites will lose users and in turn lose money.

Any thoughts??


This is completely irrelevant to CPA affiliate marketing, you're not a company trying to build long term relationships and dont need to add value with content.

OP, get one of the $100 coupon being given away in another thread and test to see what works. See whats on the Ad Board. Read Nickycakes' newbie guide and his other facebook posts. Test, test, test.

Its no secret what works on facebook - dating, gaming, email submits, mobiles. Direct sales can work too and even ebooks. Rebills, if you're game enough to risk cloaking. All sorts of lead gen short form stuff.

Split test images and copy like a madman and keep digging for the right targets.
 
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

I will update with some pics tomorrow. I ran an ad for a CB product (Direct Link), but targeted. I ended up doing CPM, and got a CTR of .188, with a cpc of .14. I am pretty excited about that.

I ended up with 186 HOPs to a product with a gravity of 250, but no sales. In fact, only 11 order form impressions from that.

I hate Clickbank, but this was the easy thing I could target for a test. I am pleased with some of the results. I made big strides in my ad copy and targeting from the first to the second campaign. Now, I am going to build a squeeze page for this CB offer, and see if I can convert that way, instead of direct linking.

Thanks
 
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

I will update with some pics tomorrow. I ran an ad for a CB product (Direct Link), but targeted. I ended up doing CPM, and got a CTR of .188, with a cpc of .14. I am pretty excited about that.

I ended up with 186 HOPs to a product with a gravity of 250, but no sales. In fact, only 11 order form impressions from that.

I hate Clickbank, but this was the easy thing I could target for a test. I am pleased with some of the results. I made big strides in my ad copy and targeting from the first to the second campaign. Now, I am going to build a squeeze page for this CB offer, and see if I can convert that way, instead of direct linking.

Thanks

Don't forget to test out alot of images. I've seen a 3x CTR increase before just from changing the image in an Ad.

Also, It's not far fetched to get 0.02 cent clicks using keyword targeting so just keep pumping out those Ads until you get some winners.
 
@dispel. ok thanks.... so as an affiliate marketer you don't aim to build releationships, you just go for direct action? What i posted then i suppose is more relevant as a marketing practice for actual companies? Back to the drawing board again!! :)
 
I've a quick question about kw targeting on FB. Let's say you target people for golf as an example. You can keep targeting keywords for golf like: golf supplies, golf equipment, buy golf, golf gifts;;;; and so on. I'm trying to get "buy" words in there basically to target people who are more likely to purchase. But after adding all these keywords, the demo might decrease to like <100,000 people. So how do you scale back up after that? Or do you just let it run and then the campaign is over?

Also, what's a "good" ctr on fb? I'm currently ~0.206% which i'm pretty happy with cause i'm getting ~$0.11 clicks.
 
have you read the full thread? The feeling that i am getting so far is that fb is an innefective platform for direct sales as users are generally not in 'buy mode'. Though it can be done, i don't think it is one for beginners... I'm no expert but as dispel said
Its no secret what works on facebook - dating, gaming, email submits, mobiles. Direct sales can work too and even ebooks. Rebills, if you're game enough to risk cloaking. All sorts of lead gen short form stuff.
As i said... i am not in a position to give advice really.
If i had to choose from the list i would go for email submits but then again i don't know enough about the offer and the rates they pay comapred to the CPA. erm... are you having any sucess with your offer??
Anybody else??
 
greyhat:

Get out of my thread. This is a Thread based on MY experiments, not a place to argue whether of not to use FB. No one cares what you think.
 
Greyhat: You're feeling is also also amazingly wrong. Just because you suck at converting FB doesn't mean it's an ineffectual platform. It means you suck at marketing on FB.

Webetricky: Yeah, FB keyword targeting isn't Google. No one puts "buy cheap golf shoes" as a hobby or interest, and that's what you're targeting.
You could maybe try brand names, although I've found this is a really piss poor way of getting sales in the sports related niche I do.
I usually use pro events, and ifnd there's plenty of people in that. So for golf, you'd want something like "PGA Masters" as a peripheral keyword.
 
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

i took my CB offer that didnt convert, and created a squeeze page. Right now, I am sitting on 143 clicks with a cpc of .12, and I have 58 signups. It will be a few days before I see if those people convert, but we will see.

What do you think of my progress so far? I am still not getting it just yet. Hopefully I can find something that converts soon. I am only down $80 so far with no sales.

How do people afford to sell physical products using FB ads? There doesnt seem to be enough commission in it to be profitable. But I figured I might as well test a CJ product while I am at it, but I want some advice first.

Thanks
 
I usually use pro events, and ifnd there's plenty of people in that. So for golf, you'd want something like "PGA Masters" as a peripheral keyword.

Any noobs reading this thread, pay attention to the sentence above me in quotes. This is the only GOOD and VITAL tip or even tidbit of AM info you will find in this thread, period. Read it over 1000000x times, and get some good keywords up in your facebook campaigns. It's not rocket science.

Hopefully I can find something that converts soon. I am only down $80 so far with no sales.

It was stated already, try free dating offers or game downloads. I have a feeling this was probably posted already in this thread but I dont want to go back and re-read all this so here: http://www.wickedfire.com/affiliate-marketing/75793-example-facebook-campaign.html
 
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Here are some screenshots and results of my progress so far.

Campaign 1

This is my first ever campaign. I was trying a Background Check offer. With article marketing, this was converting 1:15 for me. I got 44 total clicks according to the stats, and 0 conversions I was targeted dating females 35-35 with this using cpm. Not very targeted, as I was killed with cpc. Needless to say, no conversions from this campaign:

fb1.jpg


Notice the fail in that campaign? Anyway, it was my first and I learned a lot from that quick test.

Second Campaign

This campaign takes some explaining. I was targeting a very defined group of people direct linking to a Clickbank product. About half of the clicks you see went to the direct link. The rest, I setup a squeeze page. I figured, since I wasnt converting, maybe I could build a list. I will explain the numbers after the screenshot

fb2.jpg


Of those 431 clicks, I ended up with 295 HOPS and no sales. But, I was learning the targeting thing. Notice the cpc in this campiagn vs. my first? So, I paused the campaign and built a squeeze page. From that I have 202 clicks and 71 people on my list. Still no conversions, yet. But I will give the list a week and see if I can convert from it.

Campaign 3

I decided to try a Obama Poll Mobile offer. I thought I was targeting good, but who knows. Look at the screnshot first:

fb3.jpg


My first click was $2.45! I did some tweaking, and now the avg. is down to .53 cpc, using CPM bidding. According to my stats in CX Digital, I have 22 clicks with no conversions.

So, I have 0 conversions still. I dont know, this targeting thing to get the cpc down is just whipping me. But as you can see, I am trying.

That is all for this update.