How To Make Money Using Facebook Ads: An Introduction

Facebook is the largest social platform in the entire world. To date, the social media giant has just over 500 million active users. That is nearly twice the size of the population of the United States of America. Heck, 500 million users represents a sizeable percentage of the entire population of the world! It's easy to see why Facebook ads can be so incredibly effective, if you know how to use them.However, just because millions of people are active somewhere on Facebook, does not mean you can easily get in front of them. In fact, it has become increasingly so that online communities, including Facebook feeds, are insular and inward looking, rather than broad, open, and cosmopolitan.  And even if you can get in front of them, there is no guarantee they are going to pay attention to what you are showing them. And THEN, even if they pay attention there is no guarantee that they are going like what they see or interact with whatever you are putting out, be it videos, or ads, or silly memes. And then and then, even if you have broken through all of these boundaries, there is no guarantee that you are going to be able to convert any of these digital vagrants into paying customers.Because that is what you want at the end of the day, right? You want customers. You want business. You want to grow your business. You want to fight off your competition. You want to thrive so that support the people who count on you. Here is a rather jaw-dropping stat for you: Facebook ads receive 22 billion clicks per year. If you are on a mission to make money and grow your business, advertising on Facebook is a fantastic way to start.So, let us help you out with that. Today, we are going to provide a brief introduction on using Facebook ads to make you money.

1. Building a Landing Page Designed to Convert

When people click your Facebook ads, two things are going to happen. First. You are going to be charged. Those clicks cost money. Second, they are going to be taken you your website. Specifically, they are going to be taken a landing page on your website. If the page they end up on is confusing and poorly designed, they will click away never to return. Even worse, you just spent like…$3 for nothing!Now, that doesn’t sound so bad in isolation. You can’t capture everyone, right? And you have to spend money to make money…right? Sure, both salient points and real concepts, but in the aggregate, this type of loss coming from your Facebook advertising is going to kill you. It is going to drain your pocketbooks and while spoiling an important first impression with a potential consumer. Every time you burn a bridge like this, you are losing out on making an impression on someone who could end up creating a lasting impression with your brand. The cost isn’t just $3 or whatever, instead, there is an opportunity cost loss of potentially thousands of dollars depending on your industry.Before you pump money into Facebook advertisements, make sure you have built a landing page on your website that is designed to convert. Now, the details of making such a landing page are quite complex in and of themselves, but we can provide you with some Cliff’s Notes to the process and say always err on the side of simplicity and clarity.

2. Speaking of Clarity…

It’s so important. Not just for you landing page, but for your Facebook advertisement as well. The more clearly you communicate your message and delineate expectation, the more successful your advertisement is going to be, which means you will make more money. Your ad copy should be almost overwhelmingly clear and concise.This is not the time to enumerate in length on all the assuredly unique benefits of your product or service. This is a time to capture attention and communicate a message. Here is a great example of a clear ad we particularly likeWith just a single sentence it communicates price, expectations, timeframe, and incentivize the Facebook user with two things they are sure to love, luxury, and an escape. There is no chance for confusion and misunderstanding. Additionally, the call to action tells you exactly what is going to happen when you click on the button, you are going to book a room.This type of ad design can assist you in designing your landing page as well as the expectations for what the user is going to see next will be established by the design of the ad.

3. Pick The Perfect Image

Facebook is primarily a visual medium. To grab people’s attention as they are scrolling rapidly through their feed, you need an image that stands out and is engaging. However, it cannot be flashy just to be flashy. The image needs to align with your brand philosophy while speaking to your target demographic.Here at Helix House, we are fans of breaking the mold. If you are a fitness company targeting individuals who are interested in fitness, do you want to push an image of a beefy dude with bulging biceps doing a curl? Think about it. The individuals you are targeting likely see an abundance of such images in their feed. Try to think outside the box to stand out in a way that is commanding. Here is an exampling of such thinking that we have found particularly effective.TaskRabbit is a company that lets you hire out someone to do your chores. They didn’t pick an image that had anything to do with doing chores. Instead, the picked an image that was active, and engaging. Let’s face it, there probably are not too many people using Taskrabbit so that they can go on a run, but the image is aspirational in a way that many people connect with.

4. For Targeting, Go Granular

One of the reasons Facebook’s ad platform is so powerful is that it’s ad targeting options are incredibly deep and robust. With that ability to target your ads with laser-like focus you can appear in front of your exact target demographic.The basic options are pretty standard. As with most platforms, you can select an age range, location, gender, and ethnicity. But things get pretty focused from there.Next, you can target based on interests. The categories include business & industry, fitness & wellness, entertainment, food & drink, shopping & fashion, technology, family & relationships, and much more. Each of these categories has its own unique set of sub-interests numbering anywhere from 2 to 21!That is not all! Finally, you can target based on behavior. Would you like your ad to appear in front of individuals who frequently upload photos? Or how about people who often donate to political parties? Would you like to target frequent fliers? This is just a small sample of the behavioral targeting options at your fingertips.Take all of the customer data you have, and use it to create a detailed client avatar. Use that client avatar to create precisely targeted Facebook ads.Finally, test your targeting and refine it over time. Pretty soon, you will be making money using Facebook Ads.For more information on how you can start growing your business, check out one of our other blogs titles: What Is More Important: To Connect Or To Sell? which details the importance of personal connection in digital advertising.