Your Facebook Advertising Agency: 5 things to expect
Maybe you have been running your own ads and want to free up time. It might be time to see if an expert can get better results. Or perhaps it’s your first foray into social media advertising and you want a professional from the start.
Either way, it’s important to know what they should deliver.
I have been running multiple Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns for over two years and in that time I have taken over from a few Digital advertising agencies.
I’m definitely not here to knock larger operations, but equally big does not always necessarily mean better.
Read on for my Top 5 things your Facebook ads or Instagram ads specialist should be providing…
1) A tailored proposal
It’s important that any prospective Facebook advertising agency (or Facebook ads consultant) takes the time to get to know your business a little before you agree to work together.
One size definitely does not fit all with Facebook advertising (which also includes Instagram Advertising by the way).
Anyone pitching to you should be asking about your brand ethos, your wider marketing, your overall business goals (as well as your advertising goals).
They should be enquiring into any previous ad campaigns run (if possible do a video call with them and show them your ad account via screen-share).
If you are wanting to drive sales of products or courses, they should want to know what your website converts at, your average order value, and be gathering information about how much Pixel data you have (this is key for where you will start in your ads strategy).
This is vital in order to write a proposal that will suit your business and outlines realistic budget options.
2) A comprehensive onboarding period
Once you’ve agreed to work together, the onboarding starts. And it’s not just giving them access to your ad account.
Never let anyone set up ads for you without first doing all these things:
• Researching your ideal customer’s avatars with you. In great detail.
• Writing a more detailed strategy complete with campaign structure, targeting ideas, creative formats, and budget breakdowns.
• Familiarising themselves with your brand kit and tone of voice.
• Writing tailored copy that speaks directly to your customers, including versions to test.
• Reviewing your imagery and discussing anything further needed.
• Checking that Pixel tracking is working and all results can be measured.
• Reviewing your website/landing page in more detail.
• Discussing ‘hooks’.
3. Testing!
I have seen way too many accounts where campaigns are targeting only one audience, or only use one type of ad type, image or copy.
The beauty of Facebook ads (and Instagram ads !) is the ability to test a whole host of things.
This gives you great insights into the best performing audiences, and what type of creative to invest your budget in.
It also means you save on advertising budget (by turning off things that are underperforming.)
For example, if I hadn’t tested multiple images I would have never found out that Image 2 far surpassed Image 1 (above). In fact, this one image went on to drive over £40,000 worth of revenue, and it’s still in play!
If your Facebook ad strategist isn’t testing and giving you a breakdown of results, you should definitely be asking why.
4) Proactivity
Your Facebook ad expert should be constantly monitoring results and actively coming up with ideas to improve them.
I’ve been told of a few instances recently where the client has been asked ‘what would you like us to do next?’ at the end of an underwhelming month.
And the ideas might not just relate to the ad campaigns themselves, the analysis doesn’t stop there. A good strategist will be regularly reviewing the website, the customer journey, stock levels, researching competitor prices and more to help inform and inspire.
Even if the campaign is stable and consistently delivering, it’s important to look ahead for seasonal opportunities, plan new product launches, and come up with strategies to deal with competitive periods like Q4.
5) Detailed reports, honest feedback
It’s important to report on clear, topline results each week. If you are running conversion campaigns then this will typically be the amount of purchases/leads, cost per purchase/lead and the Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).
But it’s equally as important to include deeper information about what audiences, what creative, which placements, and even which products are performing best.
All this will give you valuable insight into what works for your brand or business on Facebook and Instagram. And helps you decide on a future strategy.
I will always go over and above to get results for my clients. However, I also believe in absolute transparency. If I feel that there is more work to be done in other areas before continuing with Facebook ads (Instagram ads) I will advise this over protecting my own revenue.
I’ll also be honest if I can see that (after testing) Facebook advertising is not the best outlet for my client. Afterall there is always Pinterest!
I hope this piece has been helpful to you if you are about to dive into employing a Facebook ads agency or specialist.
If you need help with Facebook ads but are still keen to run things yourself take a look at my Power Hours
I also offer an ‘Eco-Power Hour’ once a month, which is free in return for a ‘what you can afford’ donation to Friends of the Earth
And do get in touch if you’d be interested in me running campaigns for you.
Jenni 🌿