Up Your Ad Game: Facebook Ad Strategies That Are Working for Us Right Now

Facebook has updated their five ad performance pillars and have given us some new advice on leveraging the platform’s machine learning and automation to optimise your ad performance. From the latest trends in creative to the most influential audience targeting tactics, in today’s podcast we’re going to look at Facebook’s five performance pillars, along with some actionable advice on what’s working in our campaigns right now.

Hi, my name is Jordan McFadyen. Welcome to the Marketing Mindset podcast. This podcast is designed to help you navigate this cluttered world of digital marketing, and to challenge you to move away from random acts of marketing towards planning intentional marketing strategies.

And earlier this month, Facebook, they’ve released a summary of their five performance pillars. And that’s what I really wanted to discuss today. It was an interesting report that gave us a real good glimpse into both what we can be doing now, but also the future of media and in ad buying on the platform in the future. And it’s going to be important for marketing teams and businesses to show where we need to adapt our media spending, to ensure that we’re actually capitalising on the technology and simply not wasting potential return on investment as well. Because that’s obviously a big thing, is we don’t want to be simply giving all of our hard-earned advertising cash to Facebook’s Christmas party at the end of the year.

And at Done By Nine, one of our core values is really to provide clients with marketing solutions that move with industry evolutions. And so as it’s constantly changing, this report was an excellent reminder of how we even need to take a step back and re-evaluate our campaigns, and ensure that we’re actually using the best tools available to us at the time as well.

And in the case of Facebook and their performance pillars, they’re actually suggesting that we all take the time to review current campaigns, build and really simplify and centralise our campaign structures, use automation tools, diversify our ad creatives, and really just ensure that we’re measuring our campaigns with appropriate tools that the platform actually does offer.

So let’s get into this with the podcast today. Before we take a look at what’s actually working for us here at Done By Nine, I firstly wanted to go through this report from Facebook, and actually just sit down and just digest a little bit on some of those five performance pillars that they’re talking about.

So the first one is around simplifying your account structure, and putting ad creative into really a key central campaign. So as a bit of a rule of thumb here, centralising the ad creatives, what it’s going to do is it’s going to help simplify the learning process for Facebook’s algorithm. So if you’ve been into Facebook or the campaign manager in the past, you would have seen the learning phase. The learning phase appears across different campaigns, and this is obviously the phase where Facebook’s still learning more about your campaign, your audience, and the creative that you’ve got attached to that audience.

So really, simplifying our campaign structure is going to help us to exit that learning phase faster, so that we can be more confident that we’ve actually got a campaign that’s going to generate results. And this lets the platform better identify which audiences and which placements are going to be the most effective for your ads.

So how does this look in reality, in real life? Well, in reality, this means that reviewing the amount of ad sets that you have. So obviously, a Facebook campaign is broken down into three different sets. It’s the campaign, which is the overarching campaign itself. The ad set is the second level down, and ad sets are kind of like your audiences, who you’re actually talking to. And then the creative that’s attached to those ad sets.

So what they’re saying here is that you should be reviewing the amount of ad sets that you have, the amount of audiences that you’re actually trying to get your marketing out to. In the past, you may be targeting multiple audiences, and instead, what we need to be doing is consolidating those audiences down into a smaller number of ad sets or audiences. So that’s the first thing. And right now, what we should be thinking about is how we can really streamline the ad structure, just really to make them as straightforward as possible, and this is ultimately going to help us improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Now, the second pillar that they’re talking about is using automation tools to optimise the campaigns. Now, this is all built from within Facebook, and in regard to Facebook, they actually call this the Meta Advantage product. So, as an example, there’s lots of different automation tools that you can use from within Facebook, but we’re having the best results with a couple at the moment, and they include, obviously, campaign budget optimisation.

This has been around for a long time, CBO. What this tool does is it’s actually going to allow you to set your budget at the campaign level, rather than setting them at the ad set level. And what this does is it’s going to allow Facebook’s algorithm to actually automatically optimise your budget across all your different ad sets, all those audiences, based on their performance. And what this does is it’s going to help you leave out the guessing on behalf, and it’s essentially going to let data do all the talking.

So with that as well, we can also take some learnings about where Facebook are potentially spending that cash, on what audience. And then once you kind of leave that testing phase, that’s when you can take off campaign budget optimisation, and then kind of set that budget back onto the ad set level. Because then what you can do is you can really make sure that you’ve got control over what audiences are actually seeing those different campaigns. But to kick off a campaign, setting off with campaign budget optimisation is a great way, because, again, it’s going to take that guessing out of the game, and it’s essentially going to let data do all the work for you.

The other one is automatic placements. Now, again, this feature’s been around for a long time. It enables Facebook to actually decide where to place your ads across its various platforms. So they’re going to have a look at what parts and what features are actually working better for your audience, or for audiences in general. This is Facebook, Instagram, Instagram Reels, Messenger, those type of things. And they’re going to place them in areas that are likely to perform best.

So, with this one, I would recommend that you use it just a little bit more carefully. You still need to decide where your audience is likely to be spending time on the platform, based on who you’re actually advertising to. For example, if your audience generally is spending more time shopping on Instagram, that’s obviously where you’re going to want to put all your ad spend and all your time. Obviously, you can allow it for testing, which is obviously a good thing to do, just in case you’re missing an audience that may be on Facebook. But if you’ve got a really clear strategy that you need to be focusing on Instagram, that’s where this technique probably won’t work as well.

Or let’s say you’re a service-based business. You may be better reaching out, generating leads on Facebook, for example. I say this on every podcast as well, but this all goes back to actually ensuring that you go into your Facebook ad strategy knowing that core audience that you’re actually trying to reach in the first place. That is the most critical thing.

And then another optimisation technique that we use a lot is the lookalike audience. It’s a great optimisation tool that can actually be really powerful in finding a new cold audience for you that has similar interests and similar browsing habits as your existing audience. So, it’s pretty obvious by the name about what it actually does. Essentially, a lookalike audience is building a new audience based on the data that you’re providing it. And it’s based on some of the source audience data that you have. So, this is people that have visited your website. Maybe they’ve watched your videos, or engaged with your social media account, or any of the above. And you can essentially build a new cold audience based on that lookalike, essentially.

The next pillar is diversifying your ad creative depending on your audience. So, the big thing we need to take away from this pillar was, essentially, gone are the days of mass messaging to mass audiences. We simply have so much better tools available to us now to actually reach a much more targeted audience of people that are searching for our product or service. And that’s simply going to be a much better experience for everyone, both us as advertisers trying to reach new audiences and new people, and also for people on the platform who are getting served ads that actually mean something to them at that time as well.

So, the big thing here is to make sure that you’re specific and relevant. So, those are the two critical things that you need to be thinking about in terms of your ad creative. And we’ll go a bit more into ad creative later on the podcast, about some of the things that are actually working well for us right now. But you need to be challenging yourself in how you should tailor your ad creative to your specific audience, to increase relevance and to increase your potential engagement as well.

And again, if we think about this in reality, what this actually means for you and your ad account right now means having a look and ensure that you’re using creative assets that are actually targeting your audience with really distinct messages that are resonating directly with your different customer needs. That’s the big key that you need to be thinking about. And then this works really well in tandem with those other two points that we’ve already discussed as part of the pillar strategy, which is around simplifying your ad structure, and using automation tools to ensure that Facebook actually is reaching your audience where they hang out and actually interact with your content as well.

So all of that works in tandem around making sure that you’re using the right tools, you’ve got a simplified account structure, and you’re using ad creative that is specifically talking to those ad sets, to those audiences that you’re trying to reach. And as a start, what you need to do is you should be trialling, and allowing Facebook to trial, new messages and new ad creative. You can actually specify up to five pieces of headlines or descriptions or primary text to your ad campaigns, to allow Facebook to actually test.

Think about testing different visuals, the different ad types based on the intended audience. A reel is going to be a better platform for you, for example. And you can do this, again, by supplying Facebook with simply more options for your ad creative. And this is going to result in more personalised campaigns, which can significantly actually improve your conversion rates and your success with your campaigns overall as well.

Now, the final two pillars get pretty technical, so we’re going to brush over them pretty quickly, because otherwise we’re going to get pretty deep into the technical knowledge. So the first one is using Conversions API. Now, again, it’s getting a little bit more technical, but it’s still really important to actually include in the summary here. Because the Conversions API really is an essential tool for integrating Meta’s server data, so the data that they have, with your own marketing data.

And how this looks in real life is it means it’s going to help you actually improve your campaign performance, and also your measurement, which is really important. So performance really is going to help Facebook learn much easier about who and how your customers convert. And measurement, that’s a core tool on how we actually measure the effectiveness of our campaigns.

And that final pillar is, again, thinking about measuring: measuring campaigns using appropriate tools. And once you’ve got the conversion sorted using Facebook’s API, then, honestly, you’re going to be in so much of a better position to actually use some of the Facebook automation tools. There’s conversion lift or A/B testing or marketing mix modelling, to essentially measure your campaign performance.

And again, this is getting pretty technical. It’s not really suitable to break down in this forum. However, again, it’s really essential to actually understand the tools that we actually have available to us, and how they can assist in genuinely understanding the performance of your ad campaigns, and to help us compare the efficiency of different strategies that are actually trialling in the Facebook ad platform as well. And again, this is going to allow for more data-driven optimisation, and just really help with the refinement of your marketing campaigns overall as well.

So those are the five pillars that Facebook have recently updated and shared earlier this month. So what I wanted to do also was actually share some of the things that’s working for us on Facebook right now. Facebook’s a bit of a beast, and it’s one that’s constantly evolving. So you need to keep learning and spending enough time on the platform to actually learn and optimise Facebook ads for your business. So here’s a few things that are working well for us at the moment.

The first thing is testing and trialling new ad creatives often. So we’ve spoken about this previously, and it is really important. Facebook’s platform is dynamic, and it really is becoming more and more crucial to continuously actually test and trial new Facebook creatives all the time. And what this involves is varying things like your content, your images and video and your ads, to actually see what is actually resonating most with your target audience, the people that you want to be speaking to, because it may not be the same as another advertiser or another brand or another product or service.

So you need to make sure that you’re optimising for you, and optimising for your audience. And this tactic also is going to actually help you aid in identifying the types of creative that are going to lead to higher engagement rates. And ultimately, that’s going to help us improve the performance of the campaigns. So that’s the first one, testing and trialling new ad creatives, and trying to do it as often as possible.

The next one is then kind of going in terms of your ad copy, and ensuring your ad copy contains keywords that are accurately representing your target audience. And we’re going to do this to increase the relevance and effectiveness of your ads, and really ensure that your ad copy is containing those keywords that are accurately reflecting your target audience’s interests, their behaviours, or simply their demographics, or even things about your product or service.

Because what you want to do is you want to think about how you can use relevant keywords, which will help you enable and enhance your ad’s visibility to your target audience. It’s going to help you improve your click-through rate and the engagement on those campaigns. But also, well-chosen keywords are actually going to help Facebook. And it’s going to help Facebook’s algorithm get a better understanding about who you’re actually serving your ads to, which, again, is going to make your campaigns much more effective.

So don’t just brush over the copy and think that that’s just a small part of the campaign. It’s really important to make sure the copy and the creative in general really is targeted towards your audience, because it’s not only going to help with engagement and speaking to your direct audience, but it’s going to be helping Facebook’s algorithm at the same time as well.

Another tip here is leveraging remarketing campaigns. And we do this for lower ad costs and higher conversions, really. Because remarketing campaigns really are still a really powerful strategy for all types of businesses: e-commerce, service-based, B2B. In a nutshell, remarketing is allowing you to target people who have previously interacted with your business. They’ve already had a piece of what you’re about. They understand who you are. They understand your product and service.

This could include people who have visited your website and seen the services or the products that you offer. Maybe they’ve engaged with your Facebook content, or maybe they’re part of your email database. And remarketing campaigns, they are so effective because what they’re doing is they’re targeting users who have already shown an interest in that product or service that you offer. And this is going to help you to lead to higher conversion rates.

So think of this like a hand-raiser piece of content. These people, these users, have raised their hand on a previous piece of your content. Or they’ve raised their hand and shown interest in your product by going through to your website. So people that have shown their initial piece of interest in who you are, the product or service that you have. Those are the people that we should then be trying to think about how we can get them further down your funnel, or how can we convince them to pick up the phone and to speak to you, or to come into your store and buy something from you, or to buy something from your e-commerce store.

Building remarketing campaigns that continue to potentially share your story. Maybe share more about your product or your service. And essentially we want to drive that ad traffic through to a new landing page, or a new part of your website, that makes your offer or your service or your point of difference, or what they should be doing next, really clear. So that call to action needs to be really clear about what you want them to do. Because if they’ve clicked on a piece of remarketing to go back to your website, it’s again raising their hand and showing another level of interest in your product and service. So you need to capitalise on that as well.

Plus, using this strategy, a remarketing strategy, typically what we see is we see a much lower ad cost, as the Facebook algorithm, obviously, that’s going to recognise that it’s got a higher likelihood of engagement and conversion. Plus, you’re actually presenting your content to a much tighter and a much engaged audience that’s already familiar with your brand. And that’s why they can be so powerful.

But the thing also to remember with your remarketing campaigns is you’re not going to have anyone to remarket to if you don’t have those cold campaigns set up first. If you’re not driving traffic to your website, if you’re not marketing yourself on social media, you’re not actively out in your marketplace, you’re not going to have enough people interacting with your content and your website to even remarket to in the first place. So while remarketing can be cost-effective and can be really powerful, you still need that cold audience to even remarket to in the first place.

And the other tip I wanted to share was, again, going off some of those pillars that we’ve spoken about so far of Facebook pillars, is simplifying your ad sets, simplifying your audiences, and relying more on broader targeting. And again, this comes down to account simplification. We see really good results with this method, which involves reducing the number of ad sets from within a certain campaign, and then trialling to use broader targeting with tighter ad creative. So making sure that we’re allowing Facebook the opportunity to get this out to a wider audience, but tightening the audience by using tighter, more direct creative that Facebook can then use to make sure it’s being served to the right people.

Because again, remember, Facebook’s trying to make sure that people on the platform are having a good ad experience. They want people to click ads, because the more that people click ads, the more money they make. So they want people to enjoy and click on those ads. So they are trying to find the content that’s most likely going to resonate to you as a user. So by doing this, and by simplifying your account, you’re going to allow Facebook to actually identify the placements and the audiences and the ad creatives that are actually driving performance.

So again, instead of narrowly defining audience at the ad set level, a broader targeting approach can actually lead to improved reach and improved results as well. And the simplification also, what it can also do is actually reduce unnecessary redundancies and confusion across your campaign, making your campaigns easy to actually manage and optimise for yourself and your team, which is, again, a bit of a win-win situation for all involved.

So as a bit of a summary, to leverage the power of Facebook advertising, it’s really paramount to adopt and implement the updated five performance pillars, as directed literally by Facebook. And this includes streamlining your campaign and ad set structures for improved learning, and employing automation tools like campaign budget optimisation and automatic placements to make sure you’re actually optimising your campaigns. Diversify your ad creatives, tailor them to specific audiences, which can enhance ad relevance and engagement, which in turn is going to help with conversions and your budget optimisation as well.

Plus, constantly test new ad creatives, ensure your ad copy is resonating with your target audience’s interests, their behaviours and their demographics, and make sure you’re harnessing the power of remarketing campaigns once you’ve built up that data from your cold audience. Because really, the keys to successful Facebook ad campaigns are really about adaptability and innovation and continuous learning as well.

And look, if you want to chat more about how your Facebook ads sit within your marketing strategy, and how we can utilise the platform better, or whether it’s even a suitable platform for you and your business, that’s really what Done By Nine does best. We look at strategy first, so we take a look at your current strategy and think about how we can actually build that into a strategy that will move with industry evolutions and move you away from random acts of marketing as well.

So you can go along to our website, go to the contact page and answer a few questions, and you’ll be connected with a member of the team, and we’ll reach out and chat to you more about your potential strategy. And look, if you want to get more of our podcasts or read more of our blogs, you can get all of that from our website at donebynine.com.

Look, thank you so much for joining us again for another episode of the Marketing Mindset podcast. I do hope that you’ve been able to get some valuable takeaways from today’s podcast. I hope you’ve been able to go back and trial some of these new campaign structures, and some of these ideas that Facebook are literally sharing with us, in your campaigns to be able to drive better results. We’ll see you next Thursday on the next episode of the Marketing Mindset podcast.