The document provides tips on using Facebook ads effectively, including targeting the right audiences, designing compelling ads, bidding strategies, and metrics to track. It recommends always testing ads and targeting both rational and emotional appeals. For startups, it suggests using Facebook ads to first drive visitors, then generate leads, convert leads to customers, retain customers, and continuously improve the process. The overall goal is to build an ongoing growth engine through the Facebook ad platform.

1. The DOs & DON’Ts of
Facebook Ads
2015
by @MassimoCw

2. - > 5 0 % O F F B A D E X P E RT S N E V E R C R E AT E D A C A M PA I G N !
- N E V E R A S S U M E A N Y T H I N G , A LWAY S T E S T E V E RY T H I N G

3. Facebook vs. Google
Why is Facebook the bigger opportunity?
Imagine you’ve just invented a new,
revolutionary razor and want to market it.
Most men use and buy razors frequently. It’s
a huge market but…
How many of them actually search Google for
”shaving” or ”razor” before buying?
Not many, I’d guess! The addressable market
on Google would be incredibly small!
Alternately, with Facebook you can target any
man in the world older than 14…
THAT’S A HUGE OPPORTUNITY!

4. The Ad’s Design

5. Designing Facebook Ads
Create Buyer
Personas. For each
persona, highlight
specific Value
Propositions

6. Designing Facebook Ads
Add Social proof & clear,
not spammy call-to-
action

7. Designing Facebook Ads
Landing page should be
consistent with the Ad’s
wording and design

8. Designing Facebook Ads
Address the elephant
…
WTF???

9. Direct the driver, Motivate the elephant

10. It’s not about the features…
Our rational self is like a tiny man riding an
elephant
The man is sure he’s in control but when he and
the elephant disagree on which way to go… guess
in which direction they’ll go?
The elephant is our emotional side, our
subconscious. If he can avoid it, he doesn’t like
changing his habits (e.g.: learning how to use new
products, shopping on a new website, etc.).
Your design should address both the man and the
elephant. Don’t limit yourself to product features.
Motivate the elephant with images and copy that
engage them emotionally and highlight product
benefits.
Rational
Emotional

11. The Ad’s Placement

12. Facebook Ad Placement
Where should you display your ads?
Highest CTR & Engagement
Great to drive Sales & Leads
Can generate additional
organic results
Newsfeed

13. Facebook Ad Placement
Where should you display your ads?
Low performances & price
Good for retargeting
Right-Hand Column

14. Facebook Ad Placement
Where should you display your ads?
Great for Mobile App
Installs & Engagement
Tough to get website
conversions
Mobile Newsfeed

15. The Ad’s Targeting

16. Targeting Facebook Ads
Custom Audiences
Best targeting right now! Require a
big email list. Great for b2b startups.
Interests
Used to be the best option. Less
effective due to spam & like buying.
Still relevant.
Behaviors & Advanced Demographics
Huge amount of targeting options:
Purchase behaviors, Travel intent,
Household income. Very useful for
B2B Companies

17. How do we find which interests to target?

18. Graph Search is awesome!

19. Bidding for Ads

20. Bidding Guidelines
Always track conversions!
Optimized CPM nowadays is usually the
best choice
Use CPC or CPM when you’ve already
nailed down your perfect audience
Don’t bid too low. You may not reach
enough people and, generally, you get
what you pay for

21. oCPM Best Practices
Daily budget should be at least 5x your
bid
To train oCPM, conversion goal should
generate at least 25 conversions per day
with >0.5% conversion rate
If the conversion rate is not high enough,
move to a higher funnel conversion pixel
Targeted audience size must be bigger
than when using CPC. Around 1 million is
optimal!

22. Custom Audiences

23. massimo@adespresso.com
email1@gmail.com
email2@gmail.com
Custom Audiences
Upload a list of eMails, phone numbers, user IDs and
create an audience of people you’ll be able to target with
ads
On average 50-70% of the contacts are matched.

24. massimo@adespresso.com
email1@gmail.com
email2@gmail.com
Custom Audiences
Facebook create a BIG audience of
users very similar to yours.
Lookalike Audiences

25. Custom Audiences from Website
Add a Facebook’s pixel and create an audience with anyone
who visits your website (or specific pages)
Extremely effective. Analyze up to 180 days of data.
Add the pixel immediately!

26. Custom Audiences from Website
Lookalike Audiences
The more users you have in your
audience, the better the lookalike
will be!

27. Some ideas to try
Convert Newsletter subscribers into customers
Retarget people who put a product in their cart but
never checked out
Exclude from your targeting, users who are already
your customers
Create a Lookalike audience of users very similar to
your customers
Promote your mobile app to your website’s users
and vice versa

28. Key Metrics
What you should keep an eye on…

29. 1960 - Just Advertise it!
What’s a metric?

30. 1990 - If they watch, they’ll buy
Impressions

31. 2000 - If they click, they’ll buy
Clicks

32. 2010 - If they buy it’s working!
Conversions

33. 2012 - If they Like… then what???
Likes

34. 2013 - It’s time to track revenue
Revenues & ROI

35. More Metrics to monitor
CTR & Conversion Rate: Quickly understand if
the problem is the Ad or the Landing Page.
Optimize for greatest impact
Frequency: Number of times, on average, a
unique user has seen your ads. After a while
either they’ve clicked or they don’t care. A high
frequency can increase your costs by 163%. Try
to keep the frequency below 5.

36. How to use Facebook Ads for
your Startup?

37. B2C Startup

38. B2C Startup
Close Sales Quickly: Target the emotional
side of your users. Send traffic to a
landing page. Close the sale quickly.
Optimize for engagement: If your
product flies off the shelves and might
go viral (i.e. TeeSpring) try oCPM for Page
Post Engagement. Likes, Shares,
Comments generate organic traffic on
top of paid.
Engage: Your ads will likely receive
comments. Monitor them and respond
quickly.
Target broad audiences (Up to 1M)
Interest targeting, age range, gender

39. B2B Startup

40. B2B Startup
Generate Leads: Sometimes closing
sales for B2B from Facebook is tough.
Aim for leads. Give away free content
in return for eMails. Then do lead
nurturing.
Retarget: Sometimes Facebook Ads
are not a good fit to acquire new
traffic. They can still be very effective
to convert into customers visitor
coming from search or other sources.
Retarget them! Special deals are a
nice plus!
Target niche audiences (Up to 500k)
Behaviors, Custom Audience,
Lookalikes are your best friends.

41. The Holy Grail
Building a Growth Engine

42. 1 - Drive Visitors
What: Promote blog posts and popular
contents of your website. Constantly
push out new stuff. Don’t be boring!
To Who: A broad audience. Precise
Interests targeting. Exclude Leads &
Customers via Custom Audiences.
Goal: Create awareness, be top of mind
for your potential customers. Position
yourself as an authority in your market.
Tips: You want to make your brand
recognizable for the next steps. Create
a consistent identity.
Exercise with storytelling and test
audiences to lower costs.

43. 2 - Generate Leads
What: Promote lead generation pages.
Provide value in return for users’ data.
eBooks, Free Tools & Contests works
great.
To Who: People that visited your
content, tracked with Custom Audiences
from website. Exclude customers.
Goal: Get emails and data to qualify
users.
Tips: Find a good balance between data
asked and conversion rate. Keep
building brand awareness. Refresh lead
generation content often. Do
progressive profiling.

44. 3 - Convert into Customers
What: Now that you’ve generated
interest and built trust… Sell! If you
have well qualified leads, use buyer
personas to create different ads
To Who: Custom Audience generated
with leads’ emails. Exclude countries
where you’re not active and existing
customers.
Goal: $$$ (aka Piles & Piles of Money)
Tips: Track Conversions & Revenues.
Use oCPM optimizing for conversions.
Test multiple ad designs & landing
pages
+

45. 4 - Get’em to LOVE (&promote) you
What: Promote exclusive content for
customers only. Offer Deals and
promote your Referral Program.
To Who: Custom Audience with
existing customers.
Goal: Repurchase, Upgrade, Retain,
Get Referral
Tips: Track multiple pixels for
different actions. Facebook Ads
analytics likely not enough. Don’t
advertise constantly, make it look like
a temporary promo or you’ll risk over
exposure. Check the comments often.

46. 5 - Improve & Repeat
Once you have enough people in the
funnel create a Lookalike audience
from your Customers
Move targeting in step 1 from
interests to the new Lookalike
audience (or keep both)
Optimize every step of the funnel
based on your learnings. Test
Everything!

47. by @MassimoCw
Thank you!
www.adespresso.com
@AdEspresso