Facebook Ads, the two magic words that can make or break an advertising campaign. If used correctly they can elevate your sales to new extremes, but if used incorrectly your marketing budget goes down the drain. When it comes to the holiday season the stakes are elevated, everybody is keen to use Facebook ads for Black Friday sales.
Every marketer tries to use Facebook ads for Black Friday sales, so how do you get your ads to stand out above the competition? In this article, you’ll discover new ways to improve your Facebook ads strategy and learn how to use them to elevate your Black Friday sales.
Holiday sales
Widely regarded as one of the most popular times for promotions the holiday period can be quite lucrative for most businesses when it comes to promotions and sales. It all begins with Black Friday towards the end of November and in a non-stop rollercoaster of Holidays topped off by the New Year. Many big brands can end up spending millions on advertising during this period driving the cost up for everyone else. The vast amount of ad spends means that a good return on investment is even more difficult to achieve. But you don’t have a reason to sweat, keep reading to find out how to use Facebook ads for Black Friday sales.
Decide what placements you’ll be using
As you may or may not be aware Facebook ads function very similar to an auction house, your ads are compared to all the other ads targeting a similar audience and Facebook shows the best performing ad the most. Now in most cases, this wouldn’t be an issue there is plenty of space for Facebook to show all advertisers. However, during the holiday period, this becomes much more competitive.
Now to combat the lack of space in the standard placements it’s time to think outside the box. In total Facebook offers 16 different types of placements, this also includes placements on Instagram and it’s audience network. If you’re used to advertising on news feeds there are a lot more opportunities via the other placements.
Try using all placements, to begin with, but be sure to carefully monitor your results to ensure there aren’t any draining your budget without the appropriate results. Our expert advice is to use Instagram Stories if you don’t already, they can be very profitable when done right but don’t forget to optimize your image sizes appropriately.
Utilise Facebook’s targeting capabilities
Custom audiences and retargeting are your friends, don’t let the fear of the unknown scare you off big profits. The aim here is to target you “warm” audiences (people who have interacted with your brand). During the holiday period, you do not want to waste your delicate advertising budget on audiences who may not be interested in your products or services.
Segment your audience by using Facebooks, custom audience capabilities, you can import lists of customer emails, or target those who have visited your website, mobile app, Instagram page or even users who have interacted with your Facebook page. Any of the mentioned audiences will fit snuggly into the “warm” audiences described and are guaranteed to be familiar with your brand’s products or services. Additionally, you can use demographic targeting on your custom audiences for optimal results, use custom audiences to elevate your sales with Facebook ads.
Promote a compelling offer
Regardless of how good you set up your ads without a compelling offer, it will be overlooked by audiences, for a better deal elsewhere. To truly stand out over the competition during Black Friday, you need a compelling offer. Your special offer needs to be good enough to catch the eye of the audience while still being profitable. For Black Friday we recommend a minimum offer of 20% off for maximum results, but if you’re still looking to give further incentive try adding a free product or service into the offer. Add something low cost but gives good value to your customers, a good example if your selling sunglasses is to add in a free protective case or cleaning cloth. Shipping can be another overlooked cost and many consumers would appreciate free shipping included in your offer.
Check results regularly
Facebook ads for Black Friday sales have an extremely short window to be effective. Although traditionally a single day Black Friday, has morphed into a weekend in recent years, nonetheless you need to be monitoring results daily. Being on top of the performance of your campaigns is essential. Pause ad sets that aren’t working and adding budget to those that are performing successfully should all be part of your plan when using Facebook ads for Black Friday sales.
Facebook advertising give unique advantages when it comes to Black Friday promotions. Although it may be a risky move due to its high costs, if utilising Facebook ads correctly during black Friday your ROI will be unmatched.
Don’t go in blind talk to an expert on Facebook ads today! Let’s Talk!