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How to get started with Facebook Ads for eCommerce

By October 29, 2021January 19th, 2022No Comments

The first steps with Facebook Ads for your eCommerce store can be challenging, therefore you will want to make sure you are following the best practices to give yourself the best chance to succeed.

Before we dive into the exact step-by-step process of launching your first campaigns, let’s debunk some common misconceptions that hold many business owners back from getting started with advertising on Facebook.

General misconceptions surrounding Facebook Ads

I don’t have a large budget!

We buy the latest iPhone, spend money on coaching and shop for pure hedonistic pleasure and that’s perfectly fine!

However, some business owners are reluctant to invest money into growing their business with Facebook Ads.

What happens if you hesitate to advertise?

Why not save your money and choose free publicity through blogging?

I thought so too until I started calculating.

Writing an average guest post requires 20 hrs. On average, that produces 100 subscribers. If my time is worth $10/h, I’m spending $2 per subscriber. Still, I’m risking that no one is interested.

Mary Fernandez, the self-proclaimed blogaholic, used Facebook advertising to grow her subscriber list. She won 532 subscribers in 43 days, after spending $227.05.

That’s $0.43 per subscriber. AND you can still write guest posts at the same time.

I don’t have a huge audience

Facebook has a huge potential reach and it will gladly serve your ads to any of its 1.65 billion users.

You just need to tell what sort of person you want to target.

You may be surprised to find that your market is in fact much broader than you first expected!

Facebook Ads are only for lower-funnel marketing strategies
Marketers usually direct much of their Facebook ads on retargeting, but as you consider all parts of the marketing funnel, Facebook campaigns work well with upper-funnel strategies, too.

Campaigns on Facebook also serves the purpose of brand awareness, as long as you focus your content on brand promotion and use ads as organic posts.

My business is more suitable for Google Ads

Your audience may be actively searching for your products on Google, which makes many business owners think that this is the only platform it makes sense for them to advertise on.

The only catch is that your competitors most likely think the same, which makes your Adwords clicks expensive!

Besides, in addition to people who actively search for your products, there is a significantly greater audience of people who are also in need of your products but have not yet got down to doing anything about it.

What if you could get an exposure to a much broader market AND reach them way earlier than they encounter any product of your competitors?

Using the right strategy, you can use Facebook ads to tap into audiences that your competitors have never thought existed AND generate sales at lower costs than on Adwords.

Facebook gives me a high CPM, so it’s expensive

CPM ( cost per mille ) is the cost per 1,000 impressions of your advert. A low CPM is better as you’ll get more distribution of your advert at a cheaper price.

Each time you place a Facebook ad it runs into an auction and the price depends on how many advertisers are bidding for the same audience and how much are they willing to pay.

It’s a common myth to think that the lower the CPM the better, but let’s see what a low CPM actually means.

Aiming for a low CPM means saying to Facebook “get me the cheapest possible ad views” which Facebook interprets as “find me the very cheapest views by serving ads to a waste audience which no one else wants”.

A quality audience is highly demanded because they’re clicking on ads and regularly buying things.

A high CPM means your audience quality is also high leading to better results. Keep CPM under control not worrying if it’s a bit higher than usual, that just means you’re reaching a quality audience.

The real metric you should be looking at is the Cost per Purchase and return on the ad spend. With the right strategy, you can achieve high returns on investment even if your CPM is high.

What you need to get started

Now that you know that Facebook is not that expensive (if you know what you’re doing) you need to know how to properly set-up the campaign objective. This will allow you to maximize your results on the platform.

Let’s choose your objective, so Ads can be aimed towards the right direction.

Your objective should be chosen by looking at the stage of the target audience and your expected result from your Ad.

Awareness, Consideration & Conversion are the 3 major objectives to run Ads.

1. Awareness: Create interest in your content or product
Awareness can be further sub-categorized into
– Brand awareness: Showcase your brand, so people know your product is the ideal solution to their problem.
– Reach: Find the right people to showcase your product, so you know they will take the desired action upon hearing your message

2. Consideration: Get your audience excited for more info about your brand

Consideration can be further sub-categorized into
– Traffic: Bring people into your funnel, so they can find the offers your business is offering them.
– Engagement: Engage with people who engage with your messages to show you are there to listen.
– App Installs: Let people know your App can convey the messages they will need for your business.
– Video views: Let people feel how your product works with a short video, so they can consider taking a decision with your product.
– Lead generation: Meet your potential customers, so you can make real transactions with them.
– Messages: Talk to prospects about their inquiries on your product.

3. Conversion: Make your audience to purchase your product or service

Conversion can be further   into
– Conversions: Let your Leads buy your product with your right offer.
– Catalog sales: Promote products from your product catalog for your e-commerce store
– Store visits: Get more visitors to your store to get more sales.

Confused?

If you are just starting up your business, then you should be focusing on awareness and reach.

If you are aiming for potential local customers to grow your physical sales, you should focus on conversions & store visits.

You can be specific about your goal, for example, app installs or the video views.

When you see your goal, start aiming & analyzing how to achieve them.