Facebook advertising is hard. Not only do you have to target the right audience and create an enticing ad copy, but you also have to estimate the budget and determine the right time to post your ads. Understandably, business owners are looking for every possible hack that could help them maximise their return on investment.
One of the hottest topics when it comes to Facebook advertising is ad scheduling, specifically when it is the best time to run Facebook ads.
We’re sorry to disappoint you, but determining the best days and times to run your ad isn’t as simple as you would want. There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence when it comes to the ideal time to run Facebook ads. Some say that the weekends are the best time to schedule your ads while others claim that you run your ads during the weekdays if you want to boost your conversion rate.
But, the truth is that there is no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to Facebook ads campaigns and you should run yours with your target audience in mind.
Here’s what we mean by that.
People May Not Be Interested in Your Ad
One crucial mistake business owners make is that they don’t always differentiate between organic posts and ads when scheduling them. Organic posts appear in the news feed of people who have already liked your page, meaning that they have subscribed to your content and are expecting to see posts from you every once in a while.
Facebook ads, on the other hand, are more intrusive. They allow you to reach out to virtually anyone, regardless of whether they’ve liked your page or not. In a way, you are forcing your content on people who may not have an interest in what you have to offer.
That is why scheduling your Facebook ads based on how your organic posts perform may not be a good idea. You need to dive deeper than that and into the specifics of your target audience and industry.
When Should I Run Facebook Ads? Look at Your Data
Some factors are quite evident. For example, you don’t want to advertise your Christmas lights business in spring. But you need more data than just this to create, budget, and schedule your Facebook’s ad.
You must know your business and target audience inside out to determine the optimal time to serve them your ads. We’re talking about things like:
- What hour of the day do your blog posts get read the most?
- When do you generate the highest number of conversions, such as email sign-ups or downloads?
- On which day of the week do you generate the most sales?
For instance, statistics show that Mondays generate the highest revenue for the online retail industry while the weekends are the lowest.
Marketer Claire Pelletreau noticed that her conversion rates spiked on Mondays around 2 PM.
This is how detailed you want to be about your data if you want to determine the best time to run your ads. How do you do that?
Here’s what you will want to do:
- Dive Deep into Your Facebook Analytics: Check through your Facebook ad set for any emerging trend. Look for the days and times that your page got the most likes. Get as specific as possible and look at the demographics of your target audience, the placement of your ads, the action visitors took when they got on your landing page, and so on.
- Look Through Your Google Analytics: If you are new to Facebook advertising and don’t have enough data to analyse, then Google Analytics can come in handy. Sure, the data on your website isn’t as accurate and specific as your social media stats, but it can also pinpoint a few trends. For example, you could check the pageview of your check out page (the last page a visitor sees after completing a transaction on your website, such as purchasing a product or downloading an eBook) to see the days and times when your visitors are converting the most.
These tools can help you determine the best time to run your ads for YOUR audience and YOUR business. It may be the weekend or it may be Tuesdays at 3 PM.
Now I Know the Best Time to Run My Ads. How Do I Schedule Them?
You ran the numbers and found the best time for your Facebook ads. What’s left is to just go ahead and schedule them, right?
Not so fast.
Facebook ad scheduling can have a major impact on your ROI, so you need to get it right. Here’s what you need to know.
- Daily Budget or Lifetime Budget?
With a daily budget you instruct Facebook to spend a set amount per day. It’s easy to set up and you always know how much you are spending on Facebook marketing. The problem with this approach is that the social network will focus on spending the entire ad budget without much consideration of other factors. You also don’t have the option of scheduling your ads, so they may be shown during hours when engagement and performance are very low.
With lifetime budget, on the other hand, you determine a budget and choose the date when the ad set ends. You can also run ads on a schedule, meaning that you can choose to show your ads at the times that work the best for you. Keep in mind that if you are running a national Facebook ad campaign, then the ads will be shown to your audience according to their time zones.
Do You Need Help with Facebook Advertising?
Facebook advertising can be incredibly nerve-wracking and frustrating. There are no silver bullets and the only way to create profitable campaigns is by analyzing the data, testing, tweaking, and working tirelessly to get it right. It takes hard work, passion, and experience but luckily we have them all.
If you need help with your social media marketing, whether it’s Facebook or Instagram, reach out to the experts at Sydney’s #1 Facebook Advertising Agency, AIA and have a chat with us.
