Facebook Ad Updates

The last webinar on “Facebook Ad Updates for Lead Gen Success” conducted by Meenu Joshi, Lead – Content Marketing at LeadSquared discussed the latest updates with regards with Facebook ads and how you can leverage that for lead gen success for your business. If you missed the webinar, you can watch it below.

View the Recording

Question 1

Which is better Google AdWords or Facebook ads?

We are living in a world where one has to allocate a budget for both channels unless you are convinced that one or the other is not useful for you.

  • You would first need to test both and see if you are able to generate leads. If you are getting leads, then you would need to see if those leads convert into sales.
  • Even if you are generating leads from these channels, see if they are relevant for your business because the cost maybe extremely high – in which case it won’t make sense for you to invest too much on it.

Question 2

Can you target states in a country with Facebook ads?

The very first option while setting up Facebook ads is ‘Locations’. Through that you can target the country, the state, the city, and even certain kilometers outside the city. It’s pretty detailed – take a look:

Facebook Ad Updates

Question 3

Is boosting a post similar to Facebook ads?

They are both ads.

  • In case of boosting a post, there aren’t too many targeting options available unlike Facebook ads, which is more detailed and comprehensive. But they are easier to run.
  • In case of Facebook ads, there are many targeting options. You can upload up to six or seven creatives to run the ad. Each of those six or seven creatives are shown separately with the ad and based on the performance, the best creative is chosen to represent the ad eventually. This is automatically done by Facebook using its own algorithm.

So they are similar but Facebook Ads would be a better targeting option.

Question 4

There are ads on Facebook’s logout page. Can we put up ads there through Ads Manager? 

Those ads cannot be put up by us. When you logout, you would notice big retail ads run by Myntra and certain big brands. It’s generally Facebook’s partners who run these ads for them. Normal advertisers cannot do it using Ads Manager.

Question 5

What is the difference between Facebook Power Editor and Facebook Ads Manager?

They are two ways to create ads. However, Facebook Power Editor has more options. Take a look:

You can learn more about Power Editor in this post. If you have just started exploring Facebook Ads, this post will give you a better idea of what options are available for marketers.

Question 6

Are Facebook ads a good option for generating leads if you are an IT organization?

If you know that your audience is there on Facebook, then yes, it is a good option. You just need to create ads that will gel well with your target audience. Unless you test it, you won’t know if it will work. I have seen quite a few people in B2B using it and they have been successful with it. It depends on how you target it.

Question 7

What you mean by conversions?

In this case, conversion means form fill.

Question 8

Will Facebook give a substitute for Like-Gating which has stopped from some time? Is Like Gate ever going to be back on Facebook?

I doubt it will be back as Facebook has deliberately removed it from the picture. It is justified because you are getting them to like your page for something in return (like a freebie), so they are not genuine likes anyway. You shouldn’t really try to get people to like you if they don’t really like you, on Facebook.

Question 9

Please let us know how can the target audience be selected in terms of demographics.

It’s pretty standard. People who have been running ads would know that. Even in Ads Manager, it’s pretty basic. When you are setting up your ad, Facebook gives you all of these targeting options for demographics, location, age, interest, behaviour, etc. Here’s glimpse of some of the options available in Ads Manager.

We have done quite a few blog posts on it as well. This post is a bit dated, could be useful though.

Question 10

Can you give an example of a B2B company using Facebook ads?

There are a lot of B2B businesses who spend on Facebook ads – including LeadSquared.

Question 11

What is your opinion on buying Facebook Likes? 

Buying likes is not a good idea.

Question 12

What are the key metrics to be considered for Facebook advertising?

There are 2 sets of metrics you should look at while investing in any channel: Channel specific and business specific. In this case, metrics like impressions, reach, frequency, etc. are important, but would amount to nothing if the other set of metrics (business metrics) are not good – for instance, you are able to get a lot of likes on an ad, or even able to capture a lot of leads, but if the quality of these leads is not great (they are not converting), then what good would higher impressions and reach do.

Now, quality of conversion is something Facebook will not tell you; that you would have to determine on your own.
If I have to mention a few metrics you should look at, it would be:

a) Results/No. of conversions (when you are aiming at website conversions)

b) Cost per conversion

c) Cost per click

d) Click through rate (if it’s low, you might want to reconsider your ad images)

e) Frequency: You might want to change the creative if the frequency gets higher than 3-4. Test this. Frequency means the number of times an individual has seen your ad. This number can be misleading, because a person might not actually have seen your ad, if the ad was lower down his/her newsfeed.

f) Impressions: After a week or so, if you are using the same creative, your impressions will start going down. When that starts to happen, you have to be proactive about it and change your creatives and your ad copy.

g) Lead Quality (most important)

Another thing I must mention – Likes is something you should not go after especially if you are paying to get conversions.

Question 13

Do you have any benchmarks for travel industry, primarily for an online travel agency?

We don’t have any metrics related to travel but this is what you can do. When you are setting up your targeting while creating the ad, you would see the number of people the ad has potential reach of, depending on your demographic targeting, interest targeting, etc. Based on these factors, Facebook would show a number – say 100,000. That would tell you that 100,000 is the potential reach. Then you should look at the impressions you are getting right now and the frequency that is there on the ad.

For example, if the ad has been served 3-4 times already to a single person, and the impressions are low and the frequency is high, then it’s probably time to change the ad again.

Question 14

Is it possible to give a URL in the regular organic post?

Yes, it’s possible. Take a look at the screenshot of an organic post from the LeadSquared Facebook Page. Notice the URL in the post.

Question 15

If I am doing SMO (social media optimization) for a company, should I directly jump into paid ads or try organic posts first?

When you begin, you will certainly setup a page and you would share a few updates. It should be a mix of two. I have seen quite a few companies who start running ads from the beginning. It’s fine as long as you are targeting properly.
It’s also important to see what kind of leads you are getting from paid ads and if you are getting good leads who are helping you generate business, in which case, you should spend on paid ads.

Question 16

How can I find relevance score for a particular ad or post?

Relevance score is calculated based on the positive and negative feedback Facebook expects an ad to receive from its target audience. This post from Facebook for Business Page should help you get started.

If you want to find the relevance score for a particular ad or post, here’s what you have to do:

Go to Adverts Manager >> Campaigns >> Adverts (the image below will help you with this)

After coming to ‘Adverts’ scroll to the right to find Relevance Score.

Close-up of unknown people wearing anonymous masks

Question 17

How is a lookalike audience populated by Facebook?

Close-up of unknown people wearing anonymous masks
  1. You are supposed to upload a list on Facebook, thus, creating a Custom Audience.
  2. Facebook will look through their database and try to match all of those email ids against the people who are there on Facebook, creating a Lookalike Audience.

It’s anonymous but Facebook identifies those people and then generates audiences who have profiles similar to those particular people.

Question 18

Are there any advantages of using auction bid over fixed rate?

Auction gives you lot more options in terms of how you are going to bid. When you are auctioning, it allows you to bid based on the objective that you have chosen (optimized CPM). Generally, if you are running ads for lead generation (to capture leads), your objective would be clicks to website or website conversion. In that case, auction would be the best bet, because you’d rather have people who would convert on your website see those ads, than others (assuming that the targeting is same). To put it simply, Auction allows you to bid based on your targeting.

However, in fixed price, it doesn’t give you the capability to do that. It will be a fixed price. Also, there won’t be as many options available in terms of ‘Objective’.

Question 19

Is there a difference between an organic Like and a Paid Like and how would that pan out from an advertising standpoint? What is the impact of Like and Paid Like on the ad?

I’m assuming you are talking about the likes that come generally when we run an ad even though we don’t really buy a like. If the engagement on a particular ad is more, then that ad will get served more. But it will also depend on the objective that you have set. You may be getting a lot of likes but if your objective is website conversion, then Facebook will not show that ad that much.

Organic like would definitely be better than a paid like because somebody is liking your post without an ad being pushed to him. In most of the cases, when you are running the ads, then the likes that you get should be authentic because they are seeing something they are interested in. However, the quality of that particular like will be lesser than an organic like.

Question 20

A Page with more likes gets more visibility on people’s News Feed. Does this work for Page Likes acquired through Facebook ads as well?

No, a page with more engagement gets more visibility on people’s News Feed. The goal should not be to get a lot of Page likes. The goal should be to engage people on Facebook. If you have over 50,000 likes but your engagement rate is low, it will not make any difference.

Question 21

Can I put product description in Facebook store?

Yes, you can put product description in Facebook Store.

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