There are many ways e-commerce marketers can promote their goods online. They often begin with AdWords campaigns before branching in to Facebook Ads. Their search marketing campaigns may have had very high ROI, while their Facebook campaigns completely tank.
Here are some things you need to know before launching your first Facebook e-commerce campaign.
User mindset is totally different
There’s a reason that e-commerce ads on Google tend to work much better than the same ads on Facebook. People that search for goods and services on Google usually have a clear intent to purchase. If you target the right keywords, you can get visitors to purchase high ticket items. Many e-commerce marketers have used Google to sell products that cost $100 or more.
Unfortunately, Facebook users don’t always have the same intent to purchase. They are simply looking to engage with their friends, browse pictures and view their social newsfeed.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t generate sales by advertising e-commerce products on Facebook. In fact, the average e-commerce advertiser makes a 152% ROI on Facebook. However, they need to follow a different strategy.
When you advertise to Facebook users, you’re disrupting their social media experience. Since they don’t have the same intent to purchase, you need to take a different approach to convert them into future buyers.
Here are some of the most common Facebook advertising mistakes e-commerce marketers make. You’ll have a higher likelihood of creating profitable campaigns if you keep them in mind.
Not keeping your ads fresh
When you’re advertising to people on the Google Search Network, you’re displaying ads to people looking for your specific solution at any given time. They probably won’t use the same search terms frequently, since they’ll eventually find what they want. This means your ads will constantly be displayed to new visitors, so they probably won’t burn out.
The dynamics is different with Facebook. Even if you set a fairly high frequency, the same people are going to see your ads repeatedly. Eventually, banner blindness will set in. Your click-through-rate and conversion rates will drop, but you will still be paying the CPM. You can mitigate this problem by continually creating fresh ad content to entice your target customers in Facebook.
You will need to keep testing new ads to maintain user engagement and keep your CPM rates down. Since images play the biggest role in boosting CTR and fighting ad burnout, you should consider optimizing them with tools like Crazy CTR. Changing your Facebook ad copy can also make a difference.
Relying on direct linking
When you are promoting products on AdWords, you can often get away with direct linking. Users are already engaged and have the intent to purchase.
Facebook users don’t have the same mindset. Since you’re interrupting them, you need to create a more refined sales funnel.
Most Facebook users begin by linking to a lead opt-in form. They encourage visitors to subscribe to their mailing list or take advantage of a special offer.
The next phase of the sales funnel is creating an email marketing campaign to engage in and eventually convert them into paying customers. Email marketing platforms, like Campaign Monitor, give online retailers the ability to create customer journeys that can lead Facebook ad traffic down a sales funnel which dynamically sends emails based on how that traffic interacts with each email.
For example, a jewelry brand is successfully converting Facebook ad traffic into email subscribers. New subscribers receive their welcome email which includes a link to some of their most popular products, information about signing up to their loyalty program and some great video content.
One of the new subscribers clicks on the link to tennis bracelets. This dynamically triggers an email sequence that will delivery bracelet related content and offers to this individual subscriber to ensure she receives personalized email content specific to her interests.
Since Facebook users don’t have the same intent to purchase as visitors from your AdWords campaigns, it can take weeks or even months to convert them. This is why having an effective email marketing campaign that delivers personalized email content is so important in converting Facebook ad traffic into new customers. Direct linking to your e-commerce sales page simply doesn’t cut it.
Not targeting your users very carefully
Facebook offers many ways to target your users. This is a double-edged sword in a lot of ways. On one hand, people that identify a specific subset of Facebook users that other advertisers overlook can get high-converting traffic for a low CPM.
The downside is that advertisers can easily blow a lot of money if they aren’t targeting users very carefully. This is especially true with e-commerce marketing. You need a fairly large budget to test different ads, landing pages and targeting options since conversion rates tend to be lower than other campaigns. Their biggest mistake tends to be making their targeting too broad.
Getting your targeting right is the most challenging part of creating a profitable e-commerce sales funnel on Facebook. You need to create different campaigns and split-test your targeting options.
While testing different targeting options is key, you must also use common sense. Try to figure out what demographics are most likely to be interested. You may want to consider creating a separate campaign to conduct market research on different users. You may get better insights on your best-converting demographics at a lower cost than you would testing different campaigns with e-commerce traffic.
@ryankhgb
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karan zale says
August 16, 2018 at 6:21 amVery good collection, i can’t agree enough on this points very well laid out . All company should avoid something like this in order to keep them safe on facebook ads.
Yasna says
January 17, 2018 at 9:11 pmWow thanks for those three mistakes, this is very important thing. I already do same mistake.
Fernando Raymond says
December 21, 2017 at 2:16 amI committed same mistakes, damn! Though, i am learning from my mistakes, hope have a good year in 2018.
John says
July 1, 2017 at 4:45 amThank you for the article, i about to start my facebook promotion for one of product.Will take care of above mistakes. Thank you!