Facebook is one of the most important digital marketing platforms in the world. Don’t believe us? Here are some important numbers:
- It has over 2 billion active monthly users;
- Over 1 billion of them are mobile-only;
- There are over 600 million Facebook pages;
- Roughly 74% of them use Facebook ads to promote their business.
Obviously, Facebook is huge, but we’d like to talk about your Facebook ad campaigns, and how we think you get to take them to the next level.
You need Lead Magnets!
Lead magnets are a very effective way to boost your Facebook ad campaigns, particularly if you’re looking to grow the list of email subscribers you currently have.
As Facebook users, it’s not uncommon for us to scroll through our newsfeeds and these ads telling us to sign up for a newsletter or something of the likes, right? Well, that’s actually a problem, because it means a lot of users are so used to seeing them, they stop reacting.
What is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet is something you give back to a user for handing in some information (email, contact info, or other such things). These incentives are usually digital in nature, such as giving users a free pdf, a whitepaper, or a video once they give you their email.
Contact information is, by definition, something very personal. Most businesses we interact with on a daily basis ask for it, so from a user’s point of view, it can get a bit annoying.
But a lead magnet is a way for you to tell users you’re worth getting that information because you offer them something valuable in return, and hint that by signing up on your email list, they can continue getting similar valuable things in the future.
Let’s put that into context. Let’s say you write a blog post about ‘5 tools to discover your target audience’. At the end of the article, you add a CTA for people to join your email list to keep updated on similar content that’s useful for them. Sure, maybe some will, but if you add an incentive, you increase the likelihood of users giving you their email addresses.
So, instead of a simple CTA, you can say ‘Sign up to our email list and get a FREE video tutorial on how to use the 5 tools to discover your target audience’. A lot of your readers would find that useful, don’t you think?
And these lead magnets also have a very big potential in your Facebook ad campaigns. With them, you don’t actually ‘sell’ something directly to users – you first give them something for free. They sign up willingly, and then you can use their email information to market your products or services later on.
The secret of a good lead magnet
Now that we’ve established that lead magnets are a good strategy for lead gen, we should also focus on the elements that make a lead magnet good and effective. Because, as you may already suspect, not everyone knows what makes a compelling lead magnet.
In our experience, there are 5 key principles a good lead magnet should focus on:
1. It directly responds to a problem
We put this one first because, if you ask us if your lead magnet doesn’t address a real issue your audience faces, then it’s near impossible to make it work.
When you design your lead magnet, you need to think of the common issues your target audience has, then build and present the magnet as an ideal solution to that problem. Research is key here, so you’ll need to figure out what are the burning issues your customers need solving.
2. It needs to be simple
Yes, the lead magnet needs to be that ‘perfect’ solution, meaning your audience should easily understand and implement the solution.
The more steps it takes for people to either get to the answer or the harder it is for them to follow the solution, the more frustrated you risk people getting. Now, this step can be a bit tricky at times, because it’s very likely for some problems to have very complex fixes, but you can usually get around it if you listen to the next tip on the list…
3. Focus on very specific things
When you close in on a very specific problem, it’s a lot easier to offer a simple, direct solution. The broader you go, the harder it would be to single out the fix, and you get people to take you up on your offer.
Ideally, people should know exactly what they’ll get just by reading the description from your Facebook ad.
4. Time means money, so keep it short
Try to create lead magnets that are fast to digest, like lists or short videos. If you bore your audience with a 10 page PDF, well, honestly nobody has the time for that. Keep it short and direct, and link additional articles or resources if you feel it’s needed. Those who want to read more will do so by their own volition, but you can’t force everyone to do so.
5. Show your knowhow
The incentive you offer people in exchange for their email address should position your brand as an expert. From this, we can extract 2 key aspects of the lead magnet:
- It should be original – inspiration is one thing, but the lead magnet should, in essence, be 100% a product designed and created by you and your team, not copied or taken from other sources;
- It must highlight your skills – the lead magnet is a first step to get people to join your email list. But if you want them to remain, you have to show them who you are, and why you’re worth their time.
Put it into practice
Once you’ve designed the perfect lead magnet, it’s time to set up the ads and let Facebook advertising do its magic.
Not so fast. Social media advertising is very easy to use, but there are some ‘secrets’ to optimizing these promos and increasing the conversion rates. Here are some of our recommendations for designing the perfect ads for lead generation.
Create custom audiences
Lead magnet ads have to target the right people, so please step away from the ‘People who like your page and their friends’ targeting option. That’s way too broad, and you’ll end up spending money on showing your ads to people who are not interested in your magnet.
But, with custom audiences, you can still reach a rather large audience, but one much more likely to convert. You should already have the ‘ideal customer’ profile printed in the back of your mind, but if you don’t here are the things to think about:
Demographics: age, sex, location, education, and all that jazz;
Interests: choose a domain, field, or even another page with an audience similar to yours. It’s best not to choose a lot of different criteria here, because you’ll lower the ad’s efficiency.
Set up the Facebook campaign
Here, you have three steps:
- The campaign – where you select the advertising objective (in this case it’s getting new leads);
- The ad set – where you establish targeting, placements, bids, budgets, and the ads schedule;
- Ads – here you will design what people will see in their newsfeed, from creating ad copy to adding compelling images and videos.
The good part is that the ad tool is very easy to use, so it’s unlikely you’ll have any issues setting up the ads and campaign. However, you need to think carefully about how you design the ads, so give each step some good thought.
Tracking
You’ll need to track your results, and the best way to do that in this context is with the Facebook pixel. It’s a little piece of code you can add to your website, and it’ll start tracking all the new leads you get from your Facebook campaigns on your landing page.
Plus, don’t forget to check the Facebook relevance score. It shows if the ad reached the right audience, and it can be quite important for your future campaigns.
Off you go
Think about it like this, if on any given day to see a minimum of 10 ads telling you to buy, sign up, or participate in something, do you comply with every single one of them? No, of course, you don’t. You pay attention to the ones that either truly interests you, or the ones that give you an incentive to comply. And that’s why you need a ‘lead magnet’ for your Facebook ads.
And we can help make sure these magnets bring valuable leads! Contact Australian Internet Advertising right now and let’s talk about the future of your Facebook ads campaign.
