Facebook ad conversion cheat sheet

Execute digital advertising promotions correctly.

Mila Burgundy Author’s own image

What you need

1. An e-commerce website that is secure, has great SEO (search engine optimization) and Alt tags on all product images

2. Have an account on Facebook (Meta) Ads Manager connected with a pixel to your eCommerce website). *You must create ads and not boost posts. There is a difference.

3. An individual in your company with a good eye for designing beautiful graphics (or hire a creative agency/designer). He/she will design 4–6 900 x 900 px ads and assist you run digital ads on FaceBook and Instagram through the FaceBook Ads Manager for the duration of the campaign

4. Money: A debit/credit card or PayPal account linked to you FaceBook Ads Manager account

Before launching ads remember to:

• Plan to run your ad campaign for a month and not a few weeks on FaceBook.
• Use ChatGPT (AI is here to stay) to aid you craft compelling statements / copy that will boost your SEO as well as attract the right clientele. Do not copy someone else’s content. Sound natural, not contrived. One can tell when someone is trying too hard with their copy. Simple-stupid normally works best.
• Copy should be short, precise and pack a punch. Forget the jargon or flowery language. The more concise, the better your ads will be at quickly passing the message. On social, people tend to spend about 4–6 seconds glancing at your content so you better be quick with your information or you will loose them.
• Make sure you use beautiful photography of your products. If they look dated, unrelated or just low res, swop them for the absolutely best ones. Images must be clear, preferably shot properly to show the best angles of your product.
• Design multiple ad layouts on Adobe illustrator or Canva with the dimension 900 x 900 px ads. Minimum ads should be 6 artworks and max 10 artworks.
• Check file size to be no more than 250kb
• Pass them over to EZGIF compressor to get them to the smallest file size possible without compromising on image quality. Load these ones on the app.
• Ensure you have included a Facebook pixel on your website. This is extremely important as this ‘piece of code lets you measure, optimize and build audiences for your ad campaigns’ (Facebook, n.d).

As you launch ads on Facebook Ad Manager

• Carefully select your audience and location. Ensure that the ads attract only the demographic you want and use keywords that resonate with your product category and brand persona. Absolutely check your dashboard before launching ads. Including checking on that ad budget spend. Use a calculator and calendar if you must.
• I recommend your budget spend to be about 5% -10% of what you want to collect in terms of revenues. For example to get orders worth $500 spend $50 on ads per month; if you want to make $5000 of sales spend $500 ad spend and so on. *Note that this is just a technical guess. Don’t shoot me when things go sideways.
• When placing new ads, always use A/B testing. This ensures that your budget is split in half, ads run. Runners up will be dropped, and a winner will emerge which will power on! Viva!
• Schedule ads to run for more than 3 weeks. I prefer running them for 1 month, non-stop.
• Support your ads with social media posts that drum up volume for the same campaign; for example if you are running ads with new products, design posts that speak about the nature of these new products and what value you shall be bringing to the customer. Is it an offer linked to a promocode? Is it a new product line endorsed by an influencer? A different SKU? A new colour range? Perhaps it’s a bundled BOGOF? Consider placing a fresh announcement banner on your website. By just shaking up things a little on the home page, can go a long way to getting more eyeballs or repeat purchase on your website
• If you can triple it up with a newsletter, the better. I use Omnisend

“Shop Nanjala Traffic” ongoing ad campaign Day 4 of 29 days. Author’s own image

Launch 🚀 the ads already!

• Once every day, watch and analyze the data on your Meta Ads Manager dashboard. Data will trickle in in-real time. Google all the jargon to get a better understanding of what they mean and to understand how the ads are performing. Watch and track keenly things like CTR (Click through rate), conversions, audience profiles, impressions.
• Do a little dance when you see a conversion coming through. Well done to you. You did something right!
• With every sale, pack those products promptly and with so much love. Add a thank you note to accompany the receipt. Obsess about your customer, always.
• Do not change the ads. Do not switch off the ads midway unless necessary
• Stick to your budget. The urge to create more ads / boost ads (a horrible idea) is tempting, as Facebook knows how to tempt you with their click-bait (cheeky of them)

Post-launch of ads on Facebook Ad Manager

• Once the ad runs its course, check the analytics again and do a screenshot of the report. Email it to yourself for reference.
• Discuss with the team on what worked, what tanked, and what could be done differently for the next ad campaign.
• Rinse, repeat. Next month run another great ad campaign

References

Facebook. (n.d).The Facebook pixel: what it is and how to use it. Retrieved on April 24, 2023 from https://web.facebook.com/gpa/blog/the-facebook-pixel_rdc=1&_rdr&wtsid=rdr_0RVyOUhMzHbO5Os3m#:~:text=The%20Facebook%20pixel%20is%20a,people%20take%20on%20your%20website.