Read here to learn how to engage viewers, convert leads and drive sales with targeted Facebook ads
Think about an ad you’ve seen recently, something particularly memorable. Odds are you’re thinking of a video. Why? Because video boasts a high level of visual and auditory engagement, for one. Also, cutting-edge marketing savvy has made today’s videos more effective than ever before.
15 years ago, Super Bowl ads were the holy grail of video. 10 years ago, Youtube was just getting started. These days, video is the dominant medium for online consumption. Youtube has 30 million daily users. And the most successful Super Bowl ads integrate social media response (for example, Oreo’s lights out Tweet for Super Bowl). According to a recent study by Millward Brown, the average online adult watches just as many hours of TV as they watch online videos. The times they are a-changing.’
Look.
We can’t talk about video advertising without talking about Facebook. The eminent social media platform recently unveiled its native live video function, which offers advertisers higher-ranking video priority in the news feeds for videos hosted by Facebook. Facebook Video Ads are a powerful yet affordable marketing channel. The social platform offers a diverse array of targeting options to target past, present, and future customer audiences with ease. Video is here to stay and no small business can afford to ignore Facebook. Lucky for us, Facebook’s 1.86 billion active monthly users are within reach like never before thanks to the powerful custom audience targeting function.
The best part.
This post will show you how to create targeted video ad campaigns on Facebook using custom audiences. We’ll discuss the targeting capabilities of Facebook video, plus how to create custom audiences that drive engagement, conversions, and sales. By the end, you’ll have everything you need to achieve results across any marketing objective in any campaign.
Follow the four steps in this how-to guide to leverage custom audiences for your own Facebook video campaigns – and win big.
Let’s roll!
Step 1: Define Objectives for Your Video Campaign
Video social media marketing is truly effective when it’s targeted to specific user segments. Having a goal in mind will directly influence your ability to deliver relevant and meaningful messages to your customers and prospects. The first step in reaching your audience is deciding who to reach. As recent statistics show, serious benefits await businesses who are effective here.
For example, Hubspot reports that content consumption on Facebook has increased 57% in the past two years. Google tells us that nearly 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before purchasing at retail locations. Yes, video is the belle of marketing ball right now because users are loving it!
Interactive video has a nearly 3% engagement rate and almost a 78% completion rate, depending upon length (shorter is better). Yet, of the seven average Facebook posts brands post per week, only 1% are videos, according to a study by Buffer.
Why does this matter?
Point is: Facebook video ads are ready to work for you, and the space is open.
The most relevant campaign goals for small business is promoting building a fanbase, lead generation, and content promotion.
Let’s look at how to succeed in these objectives.
Step 2: Build a Fanbase
Facebook advertising is great at growing followers for your small business Facebook page. If you’re just starting out, this is a perfect first step. Fans are more likely to read and share your content, subscribe to your email list and make on-site purchases. The larger the targeted fan base, the more engagement your brand receives and the more sales you can make.
To grow your fan base on a budget, start by targeting the audience who knows you best. These people already trust you and are more likely to convert, and do so more quickly.
For this, you’ll want to create a handful of custom Facebook audiences.
How to Create a “Customer List” Custom Audience
This is a list of emails, phone numbers, or Facebook User IDs that Facebook will provide. To create a custom Facebook audience using your existing email list, go to the Audiences tab in the Facebook Ads Manager. Go to Create Audience then select Customer List options.
That’s not all.
To sync your existing leads, prospects, or email subscribers, upload them from a.CSV or .txt file. You can also synchronize your email CRM with Ads Manager, or simply copy and paste contact information manually. Facebook will then use this information for ad targeting in your campaigns.
How to Create a “Website” Custom Audience
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If you’re without a big database of contact information, Website Custom Audiences is where to start. People who’ve visited your website are already aligned for Facebook ad targeting, so promoting to these people is the fast-track to conversions.
Here’s the deal.
Facebook lets you create an audience based on website traffic over the past 30, 60, 90, and 180 days and design an audience for each. These are great audiences because they may have already found your site, but perhaps not your Facebook page. Facebook also allows you to choose a “Custom Combination” parameter in “Advanced Mode” for higher-level targeting. Under Website Traffic, you’ll see options:
- Frequency: Target by how many times a website visitor performs a certain action
- Dynamic Date: Target by visitor data range, rather than a set number of dates
- Aggregate Values: Target by total time on page or a combination of pages.
- Devices: Target Android, iOS, desktop, and other mobile devices
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Before you can promote your page to Custom Audience website visitors, you’ll first have to install a custom audience pixel in your website header.
Wait. What’s a custom audience pixel?
A pixel is a piece of Javascript code that gets placed on the pages of your website. It’s name derives from its size, 1×1, like a pixel. This code is what lets you measure and build audiences for Facebook ads. Facebook provides this code.
There are three main functions of the Facebook pixel:
- Building Custom Audience from your website
- Optimizing ad conversations
- Tracking conversions and attributing them to certain ads
The pixel you’ll upload allows you to track nine different actions, or “Events”:
- Content Viewed
- Search
- Addition to Cart
- Addition to Wishlist
- Checkout Process Started
- Payment Information Added
- Purchase Completed
- Lead Conversions
- Registration Completed
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Once you’ve added the pixel to your web pages, you’ll be able to monitor these on-page actions.
You’ll also be able to calculate these marketing parameters as a result:
- Value
- Currency
- Content Name
- Content Category
- Content IDs
- Content Type
- Number of Items
- Search String (users who search particular terms on-site)
- Registration Status
This is all about conversion tracking. Say you’re an e-commerce company: with the pixel installed you can understand the exact value of cart abandonment on your site and optimize your marketing for better conversions.
Where is the Facebook Pixel?
Inside your Facebook Ads Manager:
- Go to Tools
- Select Pixels from the menu at left
- View Pixel Code (copy from here)
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This is an example of the Facebook pixel code. Instructions are included in Ads Manager for pasting the pixel between “head” tags of your website theme. Once successfully loaded, your Power Editor will recognize the pixel as “registered.” If you’re using Chrome, you can also use the Facebook Pixel Helper to make sure it’s working. WordPress offers Pixel Caffeine for the assist.
How to Create a “Lookalike” Audience
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According to Hubspot, 92% of online users share videos with another. This should be your video! Facebook knows friends and like-minded people share similar interests, so the platform lets you create Lookalike Audiences that closely resemble users from your Customer Audience or Website Visitors audience. This way you can find the users who will like you, but who don’t know you exist yet.
Facebook can match your audience as close as 1% in similarity to your new target audience. At a minimum, this will return an audience of 1.9 million people. This is the next logical step for promoting your video social media marketing.
In Ads Manager, go to Audiences then select Create Lookalike Audience. You can create a lookalike audience of:
- Page Fans
- Email Lists
- Current/Previous Customers
- Website Custom Audiences
- App Activity
- Engagement (video, app, posts)
- Conversions/Standard Events
How to Create an “Interests” Audience
Interest targeting is a good option for new businesses with limited website traffic and a small email list. It’s not as effective as the previous targeting options, but it does add value. If you target interests, Facebook will attract an audience who’ve liked pages or expressed interest associated with your audience.
You can optimize these ads, but Facebook will deliver them to viewers most likely to take action. However, you’ll have to pay by impression and so this is less cost-effective.
How to Create a “Video Engagement” Custom Audience
This custom audience allows you to target how people interacted with your brand on Facebook. The four types of engagement are Video, Lead Ad, Canvas, and Page. For ads created with video, you can create audience depending upon who viewed your video. Choose the parameters, from when they watched your video, the audience name and what type of engagement. This way you can really pinpoint your video audience for effective targeting and re-targeting.
Step 3: Promote Your Video Content
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Your next objective is to promote your owned video content. This will generate awareness and drive sales, depending upon where the viewer is along the buyer’s journey. Leverage different video content to target buyers with content suited to these stages. If your audience is in the early stages of the funnel, aim to engage them with your brand values. If these are late-stage viewers, provide videos for in-depth understanding with a strong call to action. Above, we see entrepreneur and life coach Tai Lopez’s engagement stats for his video post.
When promoting video content, you can select multiple audiences. Choose from page fans, fans and friends, lookalike audiences, interest audiences, and customer list audiences. Promoting content to lookalike and interest audiences is how to build brand awareness and develop a sense of value for potential customers. Combine these audiences to experiment with video lead generation. To make sales, fans and customers are aligned to receive special promotions, referral offers, testimonials, and more in-depth videos that could promote sales and up- or cross-sales.
And be sure to split test your ads based on the audience, or audiences. Run an ad for 72 hours and track the results. Then switch up the combination and try again based on ad audience. This way you can develop a sense of what’s effective and what needs optimization.
#4 Boost Sales and Conversions
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Once you’ve developed a fanbase and been steadily promoting video content to your audiences, your efforts to boost conversions will be most effective. To avoid spending without ROI, target only your most relevant audiences and be sure to use your most effective content. Leverage your segmented user lists and pinpoint ads to spark action.
The key to conversions and sales is always laser-focused copy, a quick and emotive video, and a persuasive call-to-action. To boost downloads or signups, position high-value resources inside your videos. Target your most loyal customers and active users with an upsell or cross-sell products or services. To re-engage lost customers, remind them of your product value and offer a discount that’s only available for a limited time.
Bottom line.
This sponsored video post shows the word “FREE” – a power word for driving conversions – with a succinct headline. In your ad copy, be sure to offer a direct benefit to the video viewer. This is what will entice them to watch your advert. Drive profitable video engagement by first telling users why your video is full of amazing value – then deliver.
The Last Word
This has been a guide to creating successful Facebook live video campaigns with custom audiences. Video social media is a powerful asset for small businesses and Facebook Ads are an affordable way to accomplish a range of marketing objectives for your brand.
As we’ve seen, the first step is deciding your objectives. Videos you share will vary between the audience, depending on whether you’re raising brand awareness, boosting conversions and mid-funnel engagement or driving sales. Design custom audiences that align with your best content, then promote videos that will effectively encourage user actions. Use insights gleaned from Facebook Ads to optimize your video messages and split test your campaigns to determine what creates user response.
With a firm grasp of customer audiences and a steady stream of video content, your video social media marketing will drive more engagement and more sales than ever.
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