How to make the Facebook ALGORITHM work for you!

Algorithm, shmalgorithm Tired of hearing about how you can beat the Facebook or Instagram “Algorithm”? Weeeelllllll... Hate to burst your bubble but there’s no beating this system. Instead of wasting your valuable time trying to beat the impossible, Facebook has created a resource of tips and recommendations for improving the quality of your Facebook ads. So why not use the tools provided by these platforms to help you get noticed and in-front of an audience.

Did you know your organic post only reaches 2% of Your Followers. POSTING ORGANICALLY IS NOT ENOUGH! Facebook and Instagram have become too saturated for organic posts and is automatically biased to those paying to run ads as having feed placement priority. So don’t assume when posting that it will reach all of your followers.

Need a boost? Not so fast... Hitting the boost button on an ad is the lazy way of advertising and an easy way to throw your money away. Unfortunately the boost option doesn’t give you control over who gets to see your post. So why waste your money on advertising only to have your post swiped away by someone who isn’t interested. When instead you can hone in on target audience and get those clicks. But before you hit that ads boost button let’s talk about the one tool that most of us as business owners overlook. FACEBOOK ADS MANAGER

I know it can be overwhelming to use FB Ads Manager. But what most of you don’t know is this resource, if set up the right way can:

1. Increase your reach

2. Get you in-front of the right clientele

3. Get you qualified leads

What is Facebook Ads Manager?

The Ads manager is where you go to create and manage your campaigns for both Facebook and Instagram. Now don’t forget that Instagram is owned by Facebook. So when advertising on either one of these platforms, your ad will appear on both. You can use the ads manager to:

• Set up Facebook/Instagram ad campaigns

• Create new ad sets and ads

• Manage Facebook ad bids

• Target wide variety of different audiences

• Optimize your ad campaigns

• Keep track of your campaigns’ performance

• A/B test your Facebook ad campaigns.

So what’s next? Creating an ad that will offer ROI value. I see it over and over again. Businesses wasting their money on advertising without value. You’ve seen them circulating through your feed. An empty ad with a generic photo saying “Call me” Basically nothing more than an online business card. There’s nothing valuable there so why would anyone click on on an ad like this. You can’t expect to get value if you don’t give value.

When creating an ad you must be prepared to provide value first that’ll inspire, inform and entertain. The possibilities are endless on what you could offer your audience. For example, if in real estate you could offer a free buyers guide or market value report. If in retail you could offer a free eyewear style guide based on face shapes. And for my beauty queens, an ROI idea is you could offer a newsletter on product reviews or tips and tricks of the trade. You guys get the idea

But... We’re not just done yet! Whatever Ad you create, make at least 2 or 3 variations of it Why? You’re going to need to A/B test it to see if what you're doing is working.

What Is A/B Testing?

A/B testing is a tactic used on FB Ads Manager by which you find out which ad headlines, body copy, images, call-to-actions, or a combination of the above work best for your target audience. This is where A/B testing comes in handy: You can quickly test multiple ads’ designs and target audiences to reveal the most effective ones. Usually, they're tested simultaneously, and the variables can be anything from layout, copy, or multimedia. Like Button Colour: Red or blue? Green or Orange? The colour of a call-to-action button could impact your ROI depending on how the colour relates to the rest of the ad. What about Captions/Headlines? Changing a couple of words on the headline of your post could also have a major impact. Test different headlines on your ad. Images: Should you use big images? Small images? CTA position: Where should a call-to-action be located on your ad? Offers: A visitor may respond differently to a particular offer depending on the context of the page where the offer is promoted.

Let’s take 2 ads running simultaneously for the same service/product, both captions are the same but pictures and text style is different. The caption is “Top Ten Tips: Social Media Guide for Beginners” This is where you’ll be able to test all those variables you checked off in the Facebook Ads Manager page. Defining your target audience will help narrow down it down to demographic and even as specific as an interest. Such as buying real estate in the Turks and Caicos, or Brow Lamination. You can even narrow it further to age, education, financials, ethnicity, languages, etc. Thus getting quality leads and people that are actually interested in what you have to offer.

Once you're confident you’ve selected all the right variables you’re pretty much set and ready to go. Let your tests run their course, and evaluate them! See which variables got the best responses. Take note because these will be variables you’ll use to apply to your next ad. Closely monitor how your campaigns perform in the Facebook Ads Manager dashboard. You'll want to keep a close eye. If a campaign isn’t performing well, put your money into an ad that is instead. Once you’ve determined what works best, use the winning ad as your primary campaign.

Here’s a great guide I found on one of my resource sites. For those wanting to tackle Facebook Ads Manager on their own, take a look at The Complete Guide to Facebook Ads Manager: How to Create, Manage, Analyze Your Facebook Ads https://buffer.com/library/facebook-ads-manager/

And for those still feeling overwhelmed, fear not! That’s what Social Media Managers are for. So don't stress. We got you ;)

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Sources: Buffer.com Library:Facebook Ads Manager article

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