7 things you should have in place before you run Facebook/Instagram/Meta ads
Are Meta ads even the right fit for you?
Are Meta ads the right fit for your business/product/service right now?
Some high level things to consider:
Who are your audience? Age? Gender? Income? Job title? Intetests?
Where are they hanging out? What social media platforms do they use? What materials do they read? Blogs/Newspapers/Email newsletters etc. What media do they consume? Radio, TV, YouTube etc.
What problems do they have that you can solve?
Do you currently get traffic to your website? Or are you starting from ground zero? It’s ok to start from ground zero but it can effect tactics like building a brand vs showing up as a brand that people are already looking for.
What budget do you have to spend? What is the opportunity cost of spending this budget somewhere else? What is the opportunity cost of doing nothing?
How desperate are you for sales right now? Some platforms are more top-of-funnel and some platforms are more bottom-of-funnel. Meta tends to be more top-of-funnel then say Google Ads.
Do you have an organic social media/content strategy in place currently? Meta ads can really help capitalize on this/
2. Know what you want to achieve from meta ads - Decide which part of the funnel are you aiming for.
Things you can be achieving from Meta ads:
Getting eyes on your content, if you’re going to all the effort of producting engaging, relevant content to build trust with your audience then it can be smart to invest in getting more eyeballs on it.
Educating people on your product if they don’t even know it exists
Testing out different audiences to learn which audiences engage with your ads/product
Testing out different creatives to learn which creatives appeal to your audience
Getting people up the top of the funnel: more social media followers to feed into your top of funnel until they are ready to buy: eg. people signing up for a mailing list or a guide, pushing people to your blog posts/social media posts to showcase your knowledge and educate them on problems they may be having
Selling your procut directly (bottom-of-funnel), differentiating yourself from your competitors (mid-funnel)
Map your buyer journey and the questions and feelings they have at each stage. Brainstorm content to meet these needs.
Conducting customer research can also be a valid goal to achieve with Meta ads.
3. A good landing page/place to send them
Once you know what you are trying to achieve. Look at where your buyers will be going. Is it set up?
If you are directing them to read more of your social media posts and potentially follow you, is your social media profile set up with an appropriate profile picture, link to your website etc? This seems basic, but it is amazing how many times people forget to dot their i’s and cross their t’s.
Is your facebook business account set-up?
If you are trying to increase newsletter subscribers, is there an exit pop-up on your blog? (That ideally only comes up for people once every 30 days so as not to be annoying!)
If you are driving them to a product page, is everything as it should be? Have you tested it yourself recently?
Do you have software like HotJar installed to see where people are clicking on the page? (Not always necessary but a nice-to-have).
If you are conducting customer research, do you have a form/quiz set-up?
4. Some idea of creative
Do you have photos or videos you can use? Professional or otherwise? In this day and age of AI sometimes people actually trust less polished media more.
Do you have brand voice guidelines? (Not necessary but good to think about)
Do you have social media posts lined up to go? Blog posts?
Some basic kit to help you get good videos - microphone, gimbal and/or tripod.
5. Meta pixel installed
This allows Meta to show your ads to the approriate audience and give you as much reporting data as possible. Eg. On conversions.
6. Product feed set up if you are doing ecommerce.
This may mean installing an app in Shopify or WooCommerce and optimising the feed. Making sure the correct images and products are pulling through etc.
7. Google analytics installed
This will further help with measuring success and reporting. You will be able to asses Facebook/Instagram/Meta compared to other channels. Each channel likes to claim maximum conversions that don’t always add up so it is necessary to have a high level view!
Conclusion
These are some things to think about if you are thinking of running Meta ads yourself, or things you can expect a freelancer or agency to ask you if you engage an expert.