Am I Ready to Run Facebook Ads?
Photo Credit: Anamarie Rok
You’ve heard the Facebook Ads success stories and you want in. Great!
And I don’t blame you. By the end of 2020, Facebook had an advertising audience of at least 2.14 billion, so it makes sense that you want to hop into the action. But before you cannonball into this marketing pool, take a step back and see if you even know how to swim.
Haphazardly throwing your money into this method will go nowhere (efficiently). You may see some results, but are you getting the best bang for your buck? To better strategize your efforts — and maximize your output — ask yourself these questions.
Is My Business Ready to Run Facebook Ads?
1. Do I know what I’m selling and why?
Have goals beyond vanity metrics. If you’re focused only on likes and engagement, there are ways to adjust your organic content strategy to achieve that. Investing into Facebook ads for this kind of surface growth would be wasteful.
You know you’re ready for Facebook ads when your objective is focused on business growth — are you aware of how these metrics are tied directly to your business goals? Campaign goals tied to business goals will ensure your growth and ad strategy will be measurable and impactful. Tip: Hubspot has a great free lesson on how to set business goals!
2. Do I know who my audience is?
Self-explanatory. Facebook’s targeting capabilities can fine-tune down to interests, behaviors, location, and a variety of demographics. Too broad of a pool will lead to spending that is unintentional. The more you have a better idea of your typical consumer, or have a database you can import, the better.
3. Do I know the pathway for my audience?
Reaching your target audience is meaningless if you don’t have a place to bring them. What “bridge” are you encouraging them to walk along, or what funnel do you want to push them through? What actions, landing pages, or value are you presenting them? These will all vary depending on your product and service, but the key is to be intentional and self-aware of the end result(s) you’re aiming to achieve.
4. Do I have engaging content prepared?
People don’t engage with ads simply because they see them — they choose to engage with them because what they’re seeing is, well…engaging. Even at an organic level, are your posts, videos, and visuals things your audience wants to see? If not, tossing money into the Facebook Ads machine won’t lead to conversions. Don’t throw your cash into a fire that will simply burn it up — slot it into a vending machine and get something out of it. And if bandwidth or budget are concerns, your best-performing organic content can easily be repurposed as ads. Work smart, not hard!
Said yes to these questions? Awesome! You’re ready to roll.
Of course, logistically, there are other things you’ll need to do to prepare your Facebook Ads strategy, like setting up your pixel or outlining your campaign structure. (Which I’ve conveniently laid out here in my resources toolbox!)
Still on the fence about whether your business is ready to dip its toe into these uncharted waters? No worries — take the time to really sit down and analyze your organic strategy. Are you nurturing your organic audience to its fullest capacity? Have you experimented with organic content and have a clear idea of what kind of engagement and traffic ebbs and flows from your output? Nail these down before even opening up your wallet for a Facebook Ads budget. (Or hire a strategist to help you out. 😉👋🏼 Haha, sorry, had to sneak that in.)