3 Strategies To Maximize Your Facebook Spend

There's no shortage of volatility on Facebook nowadays with iOS14 updates and major platform changes being deployed.

As with most things in life, if we're slow to adapt OR adopt, we can be left behind in a wake of other people's success. 

Today I'm sharing 3 strategies that I've had to redevelop in order to adapt to the current landscape of Facebook advertising, to push our budget and ad spend even further.

So buckle up, slip into a nice pocket of stillness and focus, and let's begin.

Strategy One: Identify Top Performing Placements

Did you know that your Facebook ads don't just show on the newsfeed?

There's a good amount of 'placements' from which you can have you ads shown (pictured below)​

Most campaigns will begin by using a function called "automatic placements" which will decide where is best to place your ad to begin with. 

But it's a great idea to learn which placements have worked best for any Facebook campaign that you've run.

For example, a Facebook campaign that I've run recently with a lead magnet has generated the most leads within the "In-stream video" placement. Personally I find this placement annoying as hell when I see ads here. 

But it was a shock to see the majority of my leads come from this placement

Once you identify your top performing placements, consider duplicating your campaign or creating one that only uses those placements

You can navigate within ads manager to find your top performing placements by following the directions in the screenshot - circled in red

Strategy Two: Use All Creative Formats In Your Ads

Most of us are guilty of simply slapping up and image that we think will work well and letting it run.

But there is so much potential opportunity in using the other creative formats that are available to us.

I recently consulted with a client and identified that although they had spent quite a bit of time producing a video that they used in an ad, their Instagram (IG) story ad, which was a simple image, delivered the best results for them.

​You will see on the ad level the opportunity to edit specific placements and how they will show your ads. Pictured below.

In this example, I've cropped my image differently for the IG newsfeed when compared to IG stories

Similar to strategy one, this will give you valuable insight into which creative formats deliver the best results for your brand.

Just be aware that if you are using videos in your ads, you will have to edit the length accordingly to fit certain formats. i.e. IG feed - max 60 secs, IG reel - max 30 secs, FB feed - 10mins, IG story - 15 secs. 

Strategy Three: Run Your Ads On Instagram Only

Remember when everyone was saying, "Only kids use Instagram" (Side note: People are saying the same about TikTok right now, let that sink in)

Well, not only are those people eating their own words, but Instagram is largely a platform that adopted online shopping seamlessly. 

If you run a service-based business don't worry, this is still very relevant to you.

We're finding it 20-30% cheaper to run ours and our client's ads on Instagram, this could be for many reasons..

It seems less competitive, especially for local businesses. It has a lower negative feedback score, and ultimately CPMs (cost per 1000 impressions) is lower across IG.​

Pictured, one of our campaigns which has been running for over 10 weeks is producing results 20% cheaper on the Instagram Feed placement when compared to the Facebook Feed.

To run your ads on Instagram only, just keep an eye out for this section when creating your campaign..

As mentioned in strategy two, ensure you are designing your creative to fit within the difference IG placements: story, feed etc

With these 3 strategies in your arsenal you should notice a significant difference in the results you get from your next Facebook campaign

As the platform and advertising protocols evolve, it goes without saying, staying up to date and adopting new strategies is your 'silver bullet' for growing your business on Facebook.

Feel free to book a strategy call with me if you want more results from your ads!

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