The top 4 mistakes entrepreneurs make in Facebook Marketing.
One of the more monumental moments for our business was nailing down our Facebook marketing — as I’m sure you know, learning to run Facebook ads, create landing pages that convert well, and write out a follow-up sequence that closes passive sales is a lot to learn (and if you’re giving someone else guidance to do it for you, understanding the process is essential to communicating what you want).
The good news about our own trial-and-error is that *you* reap the benefits of learning what to do, what NOT to do, and how to avoid the common traps that keep entrepreneurs stuck in their Facebook marketing. Check out my top 4 mistakes entrepreneurs make in Facebook Marketing. Let’s dive in…
Mistake #1: Not enough ad testing.
I’ve been guilty of this early on, and now I tell my clients right away when they want to get started running ads that they must be willing to test. And test some more. And then test more after that.
I cannot tell you how many entrepreneurs come to us with a single ad and say, “Why isn’t this working?”
Of course there are some things you could point to in a single ad that *might* be causing it to perform less than ideally, but the truth is, your target market is going to give you better feedback than anyone else.
Just because your ONE ad doesn’t work, doesn’t mean the entire attempt is a fluke.
Case in point: we ran about 15 tests for one of our offers using different ad images, different text, different audiences — the whole nine yards. Two of them were performing at a level that we could start setting up additional ads using what we already had.
The first segment converted incredibly well. While we did that, we got new ad images designed. Funny enough, the second round of ad images did AMAZING and we were blown away by the results and very thankful we stayed patient and strategic instead of flustered and disheartened.
Tip: Our Marketing Manager, Stephanie, says she starts with a ‘2x2x3’ rule when setting up the first rounds of our ads. This means having 2 images, 2 copy variations, and at least 3 audiences you want to test out to start. You can use this outline at $5/day.
This looks like:
Audience 1:
- Ad Image #1
- Ad copy 1
- Ad copy 2
- Ad Image #2
- Ad copy 1
- Ad copy 2
Audience 2:
- Ad Image #1
- Ad copy 1
- Ad copy 2
- Ad Image #2
- Ad copy 1
- Ad copy 2
Audience 3:
- Ad Image #1
- Ad copy 1
- Ad copy 2
- Ad Image #2
- Ad copy 1
- Ad copy 2
The goal with the ‘2x2x3 rule’ is that you can see which image and ad copy combo works best for which audience. Once you have a few winners, you can do additional tests and/or advanced scaling like segmentation, lookalikes, etc (But that’s for another post :) )
#2: Speaking FOR your audience in your ad copy instead of WITH
One of the most effective things we did for our marketing was to have our Marketing Manager involved in the sales process. In any small business, each member of your team should contribute to the bottom line and I personally like to have commission plans in place should my team decide they want to increase their income anytime they feel like it.
(Interested in getting bigger ROI from your team? Check this out) ← steph link to a podcast ep
Anyway, your sales conversations are your marketing copy. Many entrepreneurs today have a fear of sales — real, live, traditional sales — when in reality, a business needs sales to be a business. In addition, if you’ve ever found yourself struggling to write your ad or marketing copy, you need to get on the phone with more of your target market.
Never guess what your target market wants to read and hear from you. Take note of every incoming question, comment, email, etc. that comes in. What are your prospects telling you? What has your target market been looking for?
One example from us: One of our most popular podcast episodes of all time is called, “Calculate the Cost of Your Dream Life, then Create It.” We decided to create a PDF guide of the episode and run ads to it.
The funny part? We have tons of podcast episodes, blog posts, etc. about vision boards and setting intentions. But the majority of the people we spoke to about achieving their most desired business goals wanted a guide with real action, not more of the mindset that they already had materials on.
Our final ad copy that converted far better than the others started with, “Goal-setting for people who aren’t into meditation or visualization.”
The runner up in our ads? We had a prospect tell a team member, “I’m not doing this to be one of those ‘digital nomads’ — I just want to buy my dream house and be able to send my kids to whichever college they want.”
Our ad copy was, “Maybe you’re into the digital nomad thing, or you just want to buy your dream house in the ‘burbs….”
Getting into more conversations with your target market will make writing your ad copy and marketing copy much easier.
#3: Learning the ads — but not the funnels & follow-up
You can buy a Facebook ads course right this second if you wanted to, but how about the follow up funnel?
So many entrepreneurs spend so much energy on learning how to put up an ad and have it convert well — but what happens with people opt in from the ad and join your list? The funnel is just as important, if not more important, than your ads.
Once you get someone on your list, it’s your responsibility for understanding the ROI of your email marketing. Having ads that convert is awesome, but it’s less awesome if your leads from Facebook never buy from you.
Learning how to create a funnel that converts comes down to our favorite marketing principle: TESTING!
Just as with your ads, throwing up a funnel in your email system doesn’t mean people will buy. You need to understand the buyers’ journey, the types of emails people want to open and click, and how you need to specifically nurture your leads into order to make them pull out their credit card and buy from you.
You may need to take a funnel live, track the opens/clicks, then make a few changes and test it again. You want to be refining and tweaking until you have something that works better than your expectations. You also want to be offsetting the money you are putting into your ads!
If you are running Facebook ads, remember to include your follow-up funnel in your planning stage. If you’ve struggled with building funnels in the past, the best thing to do is a) reverse engineer the funnel and b) get on the phone more often with your target market… they will tell you exactly what they need in order to feel confident in a buying decision!
(We also teach all of this in our The Unstoppable Entrepreneurs Program, which you can learn about by clicking here.)
#4: Being more stressed out about it than observant
This one’s a biggie, because it has multiple meanings. The bottom line about Facebook advertising is this: Facebook wants to give you good results. After all, they want you to keep spending advertising dollars.
So, no, Facebook doesn’t “hate you” if your first few tests of an ad aren’t converting. Instead of getting stressed out, you want to become observant. Are you getting clicks on your ad but no conversions? Your ad might be resonating with your market, but your landing page might not be.
You may also be spending more per conversion than you’d like, which can definitely be upsetting. But instead of throwing your arms up and saying, “not another failed ad!!”, check out the breakdowns in your ad results. You could be spending way less to convert on a certain demographic, age, gender, or placement within your full ad set, and you could cut down your ad costs and increase your results by simply narrowing in your targeting based on the results you have now.
(If you are confused by this: Facebook will show you a breakdown of your ad results. Let’s say you have 5 total conversions. Looking at the breakdown of your ads could reveal that while you paid only $1.73 for women conversions, the two male conversions were much higher. You would want to then test running the ad to just women and seeing the kind of results you get there.)
Be observant, not stressed. Facebook wants you to succeed — but a social media platform can only talk back to you so much. It is your job to be the person who leans in, takes a deep breath, and looks at your performance in a smart and strategic way.
Also be a bit more observant of your own news feed and the ads you’re seeing. You might see an image or copy that is absolutely crushing it in the comments/likes/shares department, and it’s worth taking a look at the structure and language used in it. It might inspire you!
Look at video ads for new styles of ads to run. Be creative. Note what you *don’t* like, and then do the opposite.
Be an active observer in marketing and learn something every day so you can continuously innovate, create, and convert.
Lastly, don’t do it alone! There are tons of podcasts (Perpetual Traffic is a favorite of mine) that will announce via episode every time there’s an algorithm change or update that you as a marketer should know about. Join Facebook groups where you can ask questions. There are an abundance of resources and if you pick a few faves, you will be able to expand your knowledge AND keep up to date on the things you need to know.
(Are you on our Facebook page? I go live weekly to answer your business growth questions! Head to Facebook.com/kellyroachinternational to join the party)
There you have it — the top 4 mistakes entrepreneurs make in Facebook Marketing. We’ve made them during our own trial-and-error period, see many entrepreneurs fall into, and now tell our clients how to avoid them.
What questions do you have? Drop a comment below or reach out to me directly at coaching@kellyroachcoaching.com!
Other resources you might like:
Unravel the Online Marketing Maze to Create Real Money Online – Unstoppable Success Radio
