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    4 Ways to Optimize Your Facebook Ads

    by Carolyn Berk / February 15, 2016

    social media how to
    Do you want to spend less time creating Facebook ads?

    Looking for ways to get more out of the ads that are working for you?

    When you've created a Facebook ad that converts, there are a number of ways to maximize your success.

    In this article you'll discover four ways you can build on the success of Facebook ads that are already performing well.

    facebook ad optimization
    Discover four ways to optimize your well-performing ads on Facebook.

    Listen to this article:

    Where to subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube Music | YouTube | Amazon Music | RSS

    Know Which Ads Perform Best

    To find out which Facebook ads are successful, you should install the Facebook pixel on your website. This snippet of code allows you to see what happens on your website after Facebook users click on your Facebook ad.

    When you can track whether people do things like view a certain web page, add an item to their cart, buy a product or fill out a registration form, you'll know which ads convert best.

    facebook pixel
    The pixel dashboard in Ads Manager gives you information on the traffic across your website.

    For example, while two ads may be particularly successful at inspiring people to click through to your site, only one might drive them to purchase from you.

    Armed with the knowledge that pixels provide, you can focus your budget and the following scaling efforts on the ads that are actually helping you reach your business goals.

    #1: Build Out Lookalike Audiences

    It makes sense that Facebook users who are similar to your best customers are likely to be interested in your business.

    If you've found success targeting ads towards a particular group of people, you can expand your advertising to reach more people who are similar. Facebook allows you to reach these related groups by building out lookalike audiences.

    You can create lookalike audiences in Facebook's Ads Manager or Power Editor.

    lookalike audience ads manager
    The audience creation menu in Facebook Ads Manager.

    Regardless of which of these options you use, you'll need an original audience source to base your lookalike audience on.

    Consider starting with an audience of people who clicked an ad to install your app, people who clicked through to become fans of your Facebook page or people who clicked an ad and completed a certain action on your site.

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    lookalike audience fan page
    Lookalike audiences make it easy for Facebook advertisers to reach audiences similar to their current customers and fans.

    When you build lookalike audiences from groups of people who have already clicked on your ads, you can reach similar people who may also be interested in what you offer. This tactic allows you to expand your audience in a smart way and obtain more opportunities to grow your revenue.

    #2: Refresh Your Images and Copy

    No matter how successful your Facebook ads, your audience will tire of seeing the same ones over and over and they'll stop converting. To avoid this, use ads that have historically performed well as inspiration for new ads that incorporate similar images or copy.

    For example, this ad offers Facebook users 10% off their next purchase and uses an image that highlights a varied selection of card designs.

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    moo cards facebook ad example
    This first ad from Moo uses a time-sensitive prompt in the call to action and presents viewers with a varied selection of product choices.

    The ad below offers the same discount, but uses a different call to action and an image that shows a single card style.

    moo cards facebook ad example 2
    This second ad from Moo is promoting the same discount to viewers, but uses a softer call to action and shows viewers a single product image.

    Run each component in an individual ad to pinpoint what made your ad a success in the first place. Maybe a particular color, background or model drew people in, or maybe a specific call to action was especially effective. Split test your ads to find the secret and use the information to create future ads that build on that success.

    #3: Combine and Conquer With Carousel Ads

    If your audience responded well to a series of particular product images, try combining all those images into a single carousel ad. This newer ad type allows you to showcase several images at once in a single ad unit.

    facebook carousel ad
    If you have product images that have received a high level of positive engagement, try adding a number of them to one carousel ad.

    Ecommerce businesses can take this a step further with dynamic product ads. These innovative ads are especially great to cross-sell complementary products or retarget customers who clicked through to your website but didn't complete a purchase.

    facebook dynamic product
    If a number of single product ads drove click-throughs to your website, serve that same product alongside similar products to increase your conversions.

    #4: Duplicate Your Ads on Instagram

    Did you know that the same targeting options for Facebook are also available on Instagram?

    This means that you can easily expand your successful Facebook ad campaigns to reach an entirely new set of potential customers on Instagram.

    instagram and facebook ad example
    You can easily expand your successful Facebook ad campaigns to reach similar audiences on Instagram.

    While repurposing your Facebook campaigns to Instagram can put your ads in front of a new audience, the change of platforms means a whole new set of creative considerations.

    Because visuals come first on Instagram, be sure to choose ads that have eye-catching images and minimal text. And before you launch, make sure whatever landing page your ads link to is optimized for mobile, as most Instagram users access the social network from their smartphones.

    instagram ad from facebook example
    Repurposing successful Facebook ads for a similarly targeted Instagram audience will open your brand up to a wider range of possible customers.

    Conclusion

    Once your ads strike gold, you can use them as an opportunity to get additional responses from current customers or to reach a wider customer base.

    Using one or all of the tactics above will help you scale great advertising results from past successes, and help you score a similar positive return on investment in the future.

    What do you think? Do you use any of these scaling tactics? How have you capitalized on the success of your Facebook ads? Please share your thoughts with me in the comments.

    optimize facebook ad campaign
    Tips on ways to optimize your well-performing Facebook ads.
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    Tags: Facebook, Facebook Ads

    About the authorCarolyn Berk

    Carolyn is a content marketing associate at Nanigans, an ad automation software company. She regularly shares social advertising tips and tricks on the Nanigans blog.
    Other posts by Carolyn Berk »

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