Step By Step Guide To Facebook Ad Funnel For E-Commerce

One way to create awareness around your brand is through Facebook, and the Facebook ad funnel is how you do it like a pro.

But first, some little stats: It turns out Facebook is the most visited platform online. Its monthly user base now rests at 2.38 billion – and more to the point; it has one of the most effective targeting systems you’ll ever come across.

The point is: everyone can sell on Facebook. You just have to figure out how to do it right, and that’s what this post wishes to address.

Setting up the Facebook ads and all that isn’t the most difficult part of the whole process. The part you should be concerned with the most is the approach you’re planning on taking.

In which case, you might want to consider setting up a Facebook ad funnel. This approach maximise your chances of selling on the world’s leading social network.

It’s safe to assume that, by now, you’re already conversant with the whole idea of sales or marketing funnel. However, for the sake of those who are hearing about this term for the first time, this is the process that serves to guide your site’s visitor from the point where they get to know about your business to a point where they graduate to your loyal customers. It’s that simple, but of course, with a lot of finer details in between the lines.

A Facebook ad funnel operates in an almost similar fashion as a sales funnel. The only difference is that it uses Facebook ads to nudge your prospects throughout their buying journey or until they take action.

Why do you need a Facebook Ad Funnel?

A Facebook Funnel doesn’t mean that you have to take a user offsite necessarily. You can still sell your goods directly from Facebook while applying the funnel concept.

Here’s how:

First keep in mind that when a user logs in to their Facebook account, they usually have no intention to buy. Things are changing though – some users log into Facebook for some suggestions on what to buy. But that’s only a small sample. In most cases, people log into their Facebook accounts to find out what’s happening in their social network or if there’s anything new that’s worth checking out.

Or we could say people log into Facebook for the same reasons as you.

Do you use Facebook to check on your friends? Do you use it to share photos, memes, or react to your friends’ posts? How many times have you logged into Facebook to look for something you can buy?

You can project the answers you come up with to the rest of the social community – that’s if you’re not the weird kind. The odds are also good that you don’t use it for shopping either.

That’s where a Facebook sales funnel comes in. You don’t just post an ad and expect your followers to jump on it like a pogo stick. First, you have to make them aware of your product. You have to introduce them to whatever product you have in your pipeline.

After which, you can gradually begin to grow their interest and desire. That goes without mentioning the importance of winning their trust.

In brief, get off the idea that your social media followers are impulse buyers. And instead, learn to take them gradually through all steps of the buying process, one after the other. Do this, and you’ll be surprised by the number of your followers that make up their mind along the way and decide to shop with you.

It’s that simple. But there’s more to it.

Let’s just say the main purpose of creating a Facebook ad funnel is to transform a good chunk of your cold prospects into hot customers. The funnel is what you use to warm them up bit by bit until you’re finally able to make them change their mind and invest their hard-earned cash with you.

Leveraging Facebook Objectives to come up with a Cross-funnel Campaign Strategy

Facebook’s ad auctions don’t just cook up decisions. They rely on algorithmic learning for almost every single one of the decisions they make. Everything, starting from who are seeing the ads, to when the ad should be shown, and where exactly should they be shown, the algorithm they use has to gather lots of intel before making any decision.

Some of this information will be provided by you when you’ll be setting up your Facebook audience targeting.

So, what other settings does the algorithm have to factor in the decisions it makes:

• Objectives
• Optimization settings
• Bid strategy
• Budget

Objectives

Objectives are placed at the top of the list – and there’s a very good reason for this. If anything, that’s the single most important first decision you’ll have to make every time you put your thoughts together to create a new campaign.

In which case, you have an option to choose from three ad objectives:

• Awareness: With this objective, you’re simply looking to increase your outreach. You want your ad to reach as many people as possible. In other words, you’re working on increasing brand awareness. Or get your business known by the highest number of social media users as it is humanly possible.
• Consideration: This comes at a later stage of your campaign after you’ve created enough awareness around your brand. At this point, your focus should be on delivering opportunities. This is where you throw in a free offer that should entice your prospects well enough to consider checking you out.
• Conversion: This is where you grab any opportunity that presents itself. This is where you don’t hold yourself back from making your intentions clear. 

As you’ve seen, the Facebook ad system is built around the concept of marketing funnels. It goes on to show that no one understands how the marketing world operates better than Facebook.

So, once you’ve completed your selection, the Facebook ad system will proceed to review your ad objectives and match them up with relevant KPIs.

This is how things will look like:

• Awareness: Impressions and reach
• Consideration: Clicks, engagement, messages, app installs, lead generation, and video views.
• Conversion: Sales, conversions, and store visits

You have to understand the metrics that the algorithm is likely to favour, considering this will reflect on how your campaign performs.

Optimisation Settings

This is the next thing that follows after you’ve selected your ad objectives. You have to proceed to your ad set, or optimisation settings, which comes with three options:

• Optimisation event
• Bid strategy
• Optimisation for ad delivery

Optimisation event is what the Facebook algorithm uses to determine how successful your campaign is. It’s a critical choice, considering the choice you make is what the algorithms will use to determine if your campaign is indeed successful.

Read this, keeping in mind that the algorithm will be learning from this signal. In so doing, they’ll be able to understand the most optimal path in your ad delivery based on the selections you’ve made.

Here’s a real-time example of how it works:

You have two advertisers for this example: i) Advertiser 1 and ii) Advertiser II.

The first advertiser selects ‘downloads’ as their conversion event.

The second advertiser selects ‘viewed landing pages’ as their conversion event.

It’s pretty obvious from this example that the first advertiser will be driving the most conversion.

For the first advertisers, the algorithm will be delivering the ads to Facebook users that are more likely to download the items provided. On the other end, for the second advertiser, the algorithm will be optimising their campaigns by delivering their ads to Facebook users that are more likely to check your landing page.

The signal gap that exists between a download and a landing page will reduce the efficiency of the algorithm in delivering conversion for the second advertiser.

The next thing that comes after setting your ad objective and optimisation event is ad delivery. This will include things like impressions, landing page views, and conversions.

This is where you select your goal, but after you’ve ensured that it matches with your initial ad objectives and the optimisation event you selected.

Bid Strategy and Budget

You’re almost done here. But first, you have to specify to the algorithms about how much you’re willing to pump into the campaign. You’ll be using the bid strategy to control the amount you spend here.

Choose the lowest cost when you want to gain the most value for the money you spend.  Let your money make you the most conversion, with caring much about the rate at which the conversions are coming.

Also, you have the option to place a bid cap. That means there’s a set limit as to the amount of money that you’re willing to spend on a bid.

Target cost: With this option, you want to maintain a specified conversion cost, even after raising your budget.

Your conversion will also be varying depending on your allocated budget. This is simple. All you have to do is specify your daily budget and the date the campaign will end.

So, to get your total budget, you have to multiply your daily budget and the number of days that the campaign will be running.

So assuming you have S$3000 budget and you want the campaign to run for 30 days. That means your daily budget will be roughly S$100.

Common Mistake that Marketers make all the time

Choosing the wrong objectives:

You have to be careful with the Facebook ad campaign objectives that you choose, as a simple mistake on your part will most likely render all your marketing effort pointless.

This is especially true when you’re running a conversion-focused campaign. If anything, you have to bear in mind that there’s no restriction as to the number of conversions you can track and optimise for. This includes the custom conversions that you’ll be setting up based on the interactions you’re having on your site. Ideally, the standard conversions include lead, view content, purchase, and add to cart.

Pick a wrong objective and you don’t have to be reminded that you won’t be getting a desired amount of conversions.

No one understands the Facebook ad system better than Facebook themselves. They know its capabilities, and they even have a recommendation on the conversion type to choose. According to Facebook, the type of conversion you choose must convert at least 50 times per week on every ad you set.

These numbers are impressive. So should it turn out the number of conversions is far lesser than that, that means you chose the wrong conversion type. Another explanation is that perhaps you didn’t set the right budget for the campaign.

Not Providing Enough Data

Facebook won’t know how to optimise your campaign if you don’t feed in enough data. You may find that Facebook recommendations are most of the time accurate. But you can’t expect them to be as effective as you entering the right amount of more specific data into their sytem.

If a great majority of your audience falls in a specific niche, where there’s only one type of product for them to buy, then your campaign can do with a minimum number of conversions.

Essentially, you need to get at least 50 conversions before the Facebook algorithm can look into your audience and dig out for more info about them so they can find you more users with the same behaviours.

So, at first, Facebook will have to rely on the data that you provide to link you up with qualified prospects. Without this data, it’s safe to say that Facebook knows absolutely nothing about what it is that you’re looking for.

Taking the Wrong Approach

You want your campaign to generate results. That’s the end goal in all this. But to make that happen, you have to change your way of thinking.

Facebook users aren’t going to click on your ad simply because you made one and posted for them to see. Before someone downloads your software or freebie or before they purchase a product or service in your pipeline, there’s a series of steps that they must follow.

That means, your initial engagement might not be the ultimate goal you have in mind, but a cue that helps you to move the user through the thinking process that precedes the final action.

Here’s the thing: You have an end goal in mind. But since your users aren’t going to respond to this goal just like that, you have to conjure up a plan comprising of all the steps a user is likely to go through before making that final decision.

How to Stop Wasting Your Facebook Ad Campaign Budget

It can be difficult to plan your Facebook ad campaign budget when you’re just getting started with advertising. How do you ensure that your money isn’t being squandered on sponsored Facebook ads?

With more individuals using the internet every day, it’s no wonder that the digital advertising industry has expanded. Global digital ad spending is likely to rise in the coming years, and the United States is no exception.

According to the most recent estimates, digital ad expenditure in the United States is predicted to reach $239.89 billion in 2022. 

This data represented a 13.6% increase over 2021 when spending reached $211.20 billion.

With that said, Facebook advertising makes it incredibly easy to waste more money. It’s really easy to spend on Facebook ad campaigns, regardless of being new to ad campaigns or don’t understand how they operate.

Thus, before you utterly ruin your marketing budget, you should first gain a full understanding of maximising your Facebook ads to prevent unnecessary errors.

It makes no difference how big your company is or the finances you have to spend on Facebook ads. All you want to see is a return on your advertising budget, either in the form of sales, new consumers, or simply increased brand recognition.

Here are some tips to help you stop wasting your Facebook ad budget and enhance the efficacy of your Facebook ad campaign budget.

• Know Your Objectives

Most importantly, understand what your actual objectives for Facebook ad campaigns are. Do you really want to build brand recognition or increase video ads? Or are you hoping to accomplish more desired objectives, including customer acquisition or page click-throughs?

Starting a Facebook ad campaign with a hazy notion is the quickest way for it to underperform. Set defined goals or objectives before you begin ad creation. Now, what do you hope this advertisement will accomplish? Which modern marketing objectives does it endorse? Will it be geared at a specific demographic?

A defined set of goals will assist you in determining your Facebook ad campaign budget. During the ad creation process, the objective of your Facebook campaign defines the performance and pricing choices you will utilise.

After you determine what you really want to accomplish, you may choose the best type of advertisement to support your clear objectives. The Facebook ad setup menu provides a variety of choices to help you select the best ads for particular objectives.

Facebook Ad Objectives – Image Source: Facebook

You can approach an ad campaign in a variety of ways on Facebook. These methods often fall into one of three benefit categories:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Conversion

For limited budgets, Awareness Ad kinds are likely to provide the greatest return on investment. Moz, Inc. discovered that spending $1 per day can increase your audience by 4,000 individuals.

Afterwards, your specified objectives may be expanded or confined to certain possibilities in the marketing process.

• Target Specific Audience

One of the easiest ways to stop wasting your Facebook ad budget is to target your demographic as precisely as possible. Brands can minimise competition from other firms that post similar advertisements and reach the very same demographic by narrowing down their target audience.

You can target a small group of individuals who you know are aware of the brand and its products by leveraging the remarketing features of a Custom Audience. Individuals on your mailing list and anyone who has interacted with your Facebook fan page or visited your eCommerce site can all be retargeted.

If you have not created your personas or are conducting a test campaign, now is the time to do a little exploration. Make a simple description of the individual you’re attempting to reach. Keep in mind that you can combine any of the targeting strategies indicated below.

• Demographics
• Location
• Interests
• Pain points
• Behaviours

Finding the right demographic for your Facebook ad campaign budget doesn’t really necessitate any extra expenditures, expertise, or a panel of professionals.

If you’re not certain whether you’re targeting the right individuals on Facebook, learn about the following most typical missteps.

• Your target audience’s demographics are far too broad
• You’re not making use of the Audience Insights tool
• You don’t have any effective filters

Take the opportunity, pay more attention to what really works, and don’t be reluctant to switch up your target audience till it’s perfect.

• Don’t Run Ads Longer Than You Need To

Time Concept – Image Source: Freepik

Don’t run your Facebook ad campaign continuously or for any longer than necessary.

Your audiences will not click through your Facebook ads while they are asleep. As a result, your Facebook advertising will always perform better during peak periods; it’s just natural.

Showing the very same ad every day is also not good for consumer engagement. Consider it this way. If you’re watching videos online on any platform and the same commercial continues playing repetitively, you’ll get tired of it.

The same is true for Facebook ads. Your target demographic does not want to see the very same advertisement on their timeline over and over.

According to research from The Drum, your audience can feel marketing fatigue as soon as three days after you initiate your advertising campaign. This marketing weariness can leave potential clients with a poor impression of your brand.

In Ads Manager, you can view the frequency to determine how frequently your ads have been displayed since they began running.

With a frequency of 2.5, the adverts are already displayed to the target demographic, making it the ideal time to discontinue advertising.

Often, you may notice the weak results after a few weeks, and then advertising will be restored. Hence there is no need to tune it too frequently.

Establish the desired result threshold, and when you observe results within one week, cease advertising and try a different demographic.

• Estimate the CPM

Cost per thousand (CPM) is a marketing terminology that means the amount of money an advertiser pays for each 1,000 ad views on a website, and it’s the next Facebook marketing metric you should be aware of. 

This metric can be found in the Ads Managers Performance and Clicks report.

The CPM varies greatly depending on business and marketing aims. Page Like ad CPMs, on average, are more expensive than video views, article engagement, click-throughs, or even web sales.

CPM – Image Source: Alex Fedotoff

If you’re creating a click-through campaign, then $10 CPM is a solid starting point. If this figure exceeds $50 and you aren’t obtaining the desired outcomes, you might need to stop advertising and try something different.

Focusing on individual Facebook ad metrics is useful, but you should also consider the ad’s overall patterns. Examine how it performs over time to determine whether it’s appropriate to stop advertising.

Often an advertisement will have a difficult week, and you don’t want to stop the ads too soon. However, if you notice a drop in productivity of 30% or even, your viewers may be experiencing ad weariness, as discussed previously, and it may be time for something new.

There are two approaches to have a look at your stats. The first is to examine the data in Ads Manager, and the second is to contrast by timeline to get an exact percentage drop.

• Test Your Ads

Testing is the true hidden weapon behind the most successful Facebook advertising strategies. Before you utilise your Facebook ad campaign budget as a starting point, test a few alternatives to determine how well your objective is reacting.

Create a minimal test budget and play around with it. Every test should aim to steadily enhance the efficacy and profitability of your Facebook ad campaign.

Tara Zirker, a Facebook advertisements expert, told the Social Media Examiner that once you go into your advertisements with a testing approach, it will resolve at least 80% of your challenges regardless of your business sector. The remaining 20% are generally just ensuring you have the correct techniques in place for what you’re marketing.

Scoro, a software-as-a-service provider for creative services, for instance, ran a split test to evaluate if emojis improve Facebook advertisement Click-Through Rate (CTR).

 Scoro Split Test – Image Source: Ad Espresso

The company found out that a Facebook ad description with an emoji had a 241% greater CTR than the one without an emoji. This is a good Facebook ad strategy, especially if you’re going to spend lots of money on comparable ad campaigns.

Testing and experimentation with digital marketing go a long way, and Facebook Ads Manager provides a variety of statistics for you to assess and apply to your total spending approach.

One can configure their Ads Manager columns to readily access crucial data in keeping a record of the results that are important to your ad campaign.

It would be best if you also generated your own statistics, including cost per acquisition (CPA), to sum up all of the advertisements, webpages, and views. The CPA is determined as the entire expense divided by the total number of conversions.

Based on your goal, Facebook may charge you each time users take the action you want them to take after viewing your advert. This approach can reflect how effective your advertising budget is at persuading consumers to behave in response to your campaign. 

• Ignoring Videos

A video is a powerful tool that may be used to create high-performing Facebook ad campaigns. It enables users to interact with your brand and the products you’re offering in a more personal and direct manner. 

Facebook video advertisements are similar to musical acts. They take up space in a congested area and attempt to capture your eye as quickly and efficiently as possible. 

Videos elevate narrative to a whole greater direction. Nothing beats the thrill of seeing words come to life.

When developing a video for Facebook, you must follow their interaction guidelines. You’re competing for attention with funny, humorous videos, so make sure the introductory images freeze the audience on their feet.

Facebook may host up to 8 billion views each day on its site, but the large bulk of that viewership occurs in silence. Around 85% of Facebook videos are seen without sound; hence you’ll have to focus on more than just your amazing speaking abilities.

You can incorporate both visual and audible elements. Lenovo’s Smarter Technology advertisement takes multiple spins. 

Lenovo Smarter Technology for All Video Ad – Ad Source: Facebook

The ad begins with an image of a wristwatch as a fitness app. The voice guides you through the startling visuals of snakes and scorpions, emphasising the ThinkPad’s power to convert deadly poison into medication and referring to it as smarter technology for all.

This visually appealing advertisement features unconventional content that challenges users to think about it for a moment. 

This Facebook commercial is distinct in that it has a voiceover, but it also includes subtitles for viewers who choose to watch without sound.

Bottom Line: How to Stop Wasting Your Facebook Ad Budget

Facebook advertising may significantly increase your brand’s organic visibility; however, it can be an expensive endeavour if you don’t optimise your Facebook ad campaigns.

Check that everything is operating effectively and that you have addressed all of the tips mentioned in this piece. Otherwise, you may not be getting the most out of your Facebook ad campaign budget.

You have the ability to target your audience as precisely as possible. Next, determine what your true goals are for Facebook marketing campaigns. Don’t run your Facebook ad campaign indefinitely or for any lengthy time. Calculate the CPM. Finally, use videos after testing a few ads to see how well your target responds.

We hope that by following the tips in this piece, you will be able to get your advertising up and running as soon as possible. To be precise, do not squander your Facebook ad campaign budget.

Conduct some research create ads that will catch the attention of your demographic. Advertising is all about the return on investment (ROI), and you must put in a lot of attention and effort.

The Final Thought

This post barely scratches the surface of how to run an effective Facebook ad campaign. They’re more involved in this process than we can cover in a single post.

But before we sign off, we’d like to mention that there’s a whole lot a social media marketing agency such as us can save you with every time you’re running a Facebook ad funnel campaign. So why not give us a call today or shoot us a message via our contact box at MediaOne Marketing contact page?