With organic reach for business pages rapidly decreasing (down from 16% in 2012 to 2.27% in 2016), Facebook ads have quickly become an effective way to spread your law firm’s message and reach new prospects.
Last week we talked about “How to attract your ideal clients on Facebook using buyer personas and custom audiences.” After defining your ideal persona(s) and determining the best custom audience(s) to reach them, it’s time to create your ads and analyze the results.
Creating your ads
The 3 levels to Facebook ads:
- Campaigns: A “folder” of ad sets based on your objectives.
- Ad Sets: Sets of ads organized by audience, ad schedule, ad placements, and budgets.
- Ads: Individual advertisements with differing ad copy, media (videos, static images, image carousels), etc.
Define your campaign-level objective:
- Awareness: Promote your page, boost blog posts, and/or reach people near your law firm.
- Consideration: Send people to your website, get video views, and collect leads.
- Conversions: Increase conversions on your website (e.g., new client consultations).
To create ad sets, you first want to define success conversions based on the Facebook Pixel. Then, determine your custom audience, decide on ad placements (desktop, mobile, etc.), and select your budget and schedule.
When creating individual ads, choose your ad format (image, video, carousel, etc.), choose your media (images and/or video files to include in your ads), and decide which pages and links to include within each ad.
The 3 main ad types:
1. Video ads: Video is the most engaging form of content on Facebook, and Facebook’s algorithm favors video when serving content to users. As Facebook continues to increase video’s reach, it remains a content leader for reaching and connecting with potential clients.When creating video ads, upload videos directly (i.e., “natively”) to Facebook’s platform rather than pasting in YouTube links. Natively uploaded videos autoplay in users’ news feeds, increasing views and audience engagement.
Pro Tip: 85% of Facebook videos are viewed without sound, and including subtitles in your video ads is a keen way to increase engagement at no additional cost.
2. Static image ads: Static image ads are comprised of 1 large image linking to your law firm’s website or landing page. Because of their eye-catching graphics, they’re best suited for catching users’ attention in the news feed.
Pro Tip: Facebook ads do not allow more than 20% of images to be text, so keep text to a minimum when creating ad images.
3. Carousel ads: Carousels allow you to include up to 5 different images and links in your ads, offering more unique, fresh content to viewers. Carousel ads are well suited for client testimonials, case studies, and other social proof advertisements by providing more content to entice viewers to click.
Analyzing, improving, and repeating
To maximize your advertising efforts on Facebook, use Facebook’s Conversion Tracking Pixel to accurately measure your results. Once added to your website, the Facebook Pixel allows you to set up custom conversions to optimize your ads (example: potential clients booking a consultation with your firm).
Metrics to monitor:
- Impressions: How many times your ad has been displayed. Impressions differ from reach because 1 person can receive multiple ad impressions.
- Reach: The number of distinct people an ad has reached on Facebook.
- Click-Through-Rate (CTR): The number of clicks an ad receives divided by ad impressions. Average Facebook click-through-rates are around 2 – 3%.
- Cost Per Click (CPC): The amount Facebook charges you for every click on your ad (dependent on many different factors).
- Frequency: The average number of times your ad has been shown to a person.
- Relevance Score: A 1 – 10 score assessing your ad’s relevance to the audience you serve it to. Relevance scores are calculated as a function of likes, views, conversions, post hides, etc.
Ads with higher relevance scores not only receive higher engagement, but they lower the cost of reaching your intended audience. In short, create content that engages your audience and you’ll save money on ad spend.
When creating ads, there are several delivery constraints to be mindful of. These constraints represent potential problem areas for delivering your ad campaigns.
Common delivery constraints:
- Audience constraint: Your audience is too small or narrow. Solution: Lookalike targeting.
- Bid constraint: Your bid is too low, or your relevance score is too low. Solution: Increase your bid amount, relevance score, and/or conversion rate.
- Budget constraint: The budget is too low to reach your full audience. Solution: Increase your budget, relevance score, and/or conversion rate.
As organic reach for businesses continues to wane, Facebook advertising continues to grow as an effective way to reach potential clients on social media. By narrowing your focus and optimizing your ad targeting, ad types, and messaging, you can open up a new market of untapped clients for your law firm.