Our Secret Sauce for Facebook Ads – Hint: You can use it too

The ASF secret sauce for Facebook ads, how to implement it on your page and a detailed video tutorial on how to get started today.

Over the last few weeks we have been talking quite a bit about Facebook here on the blog.

So far we have authored posts covering how to setup your remarketing pixel, how to track conversions, how to import your email list, and we covered some assumptions about selling on Facebook and the basics of a strategy.

It goes without saying we are quite bullish on Facebook for a number of reasons.

Chiefly, the majority of our customers (and pretty much all artists and art businesses out there for that matter) are in need of more solid traffic sources that they can leverage.

Everyone needs more qualified traffic. They do, we do, you do.

We believe that in this, the year of our lord 2015, that Facebook represents the easiest way to do that. The Hiscox report confirms it and the feedback from customers who are on our platform and are successfully leveraging Facebook backs it up further.

What about Instagram?

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We love instagram and we can’t wait to cover it in future posts, but we believe Facebook is the easiest and most effective platform out there currently to get your art in front of the most eye balls possible.

When we look at our internal analytics reports and email open rates – both of which support the fact that posts about Facebook here on the blog, and in the private forum, are some of the most popular content we put out.

So we know you guys are asking for more on Facebook, and we aim to deliver.

Before I go any farther let me ask you a question…

Have you seen any ASF Facebook ads?

Facebook Ad

You have?

You see them all the time?

They just look like normal Facebook posts to you?

Perhaps you have even clicked on a few of them?

facebook ads

Imagine my surprise…

If you have visited our website, then we can show you ads (re-marketing), or if you have signed up for one of our email lists (email) then we can also show you ads.

In other words, if you’ve interacted with us in any way and are on Facebook (read: the whole world/your future customers are), then you are going to see our posts.

You’ll see them this week, next week, next month…you get the idea.

That every-day exposure means our brand, content, and message is going to stay top of mind for you.

Even if you don’t click on the ads, you are going to know we are doing some amazing things here at ASF and perhaps when it’s time for you to get a fully featured eCommerce solution tailored to artists, art galleries, and print studios you will give us a look.

And that’s our goal.

Acquiring customers now and in the future is likely your goal too.

A difference between us is that you’re selling art, which is way cooler than eCommerce software. Don’t get me wrong, I love our product and what we do, but let’s face it – looking at art on Facebook is just WAY COOLER than looking at software.

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Which means your ads will likely be even more effective in terms of likes and shares then ours are.

We practice what we preach here at ASF. We are not recommending this strategy because we read somewhere it works and think you should try it. We are running it ourselves and it’s working great for us and it will work great for you too.

The recipe is simple: you author regular posts on Facebook, you turn them into ads, you show these ads to remarketing + email audiences (people that have interacted with your brand).

That’s the secret sauce and its important to understand the key distinction. Regular posts shown to folks that have interacted with your brand before.

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We are not advertising to cold traffic – people that have no idea who you are – we are advertising to people that have already been introduced to what you do.

Its where you need to start. If your ads prove effective to warm traffic then you can move on to cold traffic.

Baby steps are the key.

That’s it, and once you learn the process its quite easy to do.

So lets get into it.

What will follow is the exact recipe we use here at ASF. Your needs might be slightly different. Say if you are offering services and that’s the only type of Facebook posts you author. We will cover some strategies to use in the future if that’s your situation.

If you are an artist and post your art or any type of content then this strategy will work great for you.

 

Ok so you now know how we do things at ASF. Great. Whats next?

Here are my hopes with this post and video.

Lets split you guys into two camps. Still on the fence or ready to roll.
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If you are on the fence about advertising on Facebook then I hope this gets you a step closer to doing so. Don’t worry we have plenty more content in the hopper that we are going to release on Facebook ads and how to run them successfully to make you even more comfortable in doing so.

If you feel you are ready to roll and want to give it a shot then what you have above are the exact steps you need to get rolling. If you are in this camp I want to follow up with just a few tiny further steps you need to be aware of.

In order for this to work you need to publishing new Facebook posts at least once a week. Lets set that at a minimum (its what we do on ASF currently – only our blog posts becomes ads). If you are doing more than once a week then thats even better.

As soon as you release a new post you author a new ad and turn the old ad off.

Frequency. This is key. What frequency means is the # of times your audiences have seen your ad. You need to pay attention to this number. If it gets above 3 then your audience will start to fatigue on your content (this is not good and annoying.)

So here is how you find frequency.

You get into your ads manager and you click down to the ad itself.

Once you do that locate the columns section and click on it and then click on customize columns.

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Locate frequency and toggle it.

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Now you will be able to see how many times your audience has seen this ad.

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If this number gets higher than 3 then its time to shut the ad off (you can turn it on again in a few weeks though if needs be).

Wrapping up

Is that it?

Yes, that’s it.

It really is that simple and that easy.

Are there several other complicated things about ads; bells and whistles and levers and such that are not covered in this post?

Absolutely. Some of which we use and didn’t cover.

That’s ok though. They are not necessary.

The whole point of this post is to keep things simple.

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What is important in this strategy are the basics. So lets go over them again.

Your most recent content + ads to your remarketing & email audience (warm traffic).

With a minimal spend per month you can assure your latest content is always going to be on the top of mind to your loyal audience.

When it’s time to buy art they will be thinking about you.

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