At KWSM, we have a mentorship program that allows team members to learn from each other. The goal of the KWSM Mentorship Program is for Mentees to expand their professional skillsets and cross-train in an area of business and marketing they may not be as familiar with. It also encourages Mentors to develop their leadership skills and practice teaching and guiding others.
I was excited to learn that I was paired with KWSM’s Director of Accounts, Taylor Lizura, to mentor me on Facebook and Instagram Advertising. Taylor has more than six years of experience in developing and running social media ads for clients. This is an area I’ve desired to grow my knowledge and Taylor graciously took the reins to educate me on what she has learned over the years. Here are a few things Taylor taught me that can help you begin your campaign journey.
Setting the Foundation for Success
First, let’s identify whether advertising on these particular social media platforms is right for your business. Is your target audience present on these platforms? In our mentorship sessions, Taylor discussed the different campaign options and what works best for a business’s desired outcome. When creating a campaign, you have the option to either gain leads, drive traffic to your website, expand your reach, or increase engagement. Whichever outcome you desire, Meta ads provide the tools to get there.
Both Instagram and Facebook ads are managed through Meta’s user-friendly Ads Manager. Using one program makes it simple to select multiple audiences and placements.
Running ads can help you reach more people with little effort. According to Meta for Business, campaigns that run across both Facebook and Instagram show increased performance for website clicks, website conversions, video views, and mobile app installs compared to those that run on just one of the platforms.
Resources to Get You Started
Before beginning our mentorship sessions, Taylor created a curriculum for us to utilize and provided additional resources for what we would cover each week. Before each meeting we had over a 12-week period, I watched YouTube videos on the subject that provided me with a solid foundation before diving deeper.
A few videos I recommend watching to help you get started include:
- Meta ADS MANAGER tutorial 2022
- Facebook Ads Manager Tutorial
- The BEST Instagram Advertising Strategy for 2022: Cheap & it WORKS
Identify Your Audience
When it comes to creating an effective campaign, it is important to identify which of the three audiences (interest-based, lookalike or custom) will project your desired results. I am currently running ads for two of my clients that both have a community-focused audience. For these types of businesses, Taylor emphasized the importance of accurately indicating who belongs in your custom audiences. When creating a custom audience on Meta, you can use the ‘Ad Set’ step to browse through Meta’s selection and indicate the exact groups of people you’re targeting.
An interest-based audience is built using Facebook’s data and user habits and is formed with demographics in mind such as age, gender, and interest. With interest targeting, you can tap into Facebook’s database and utilize what it knows about its users’ interests. This is a great option for any business that doesn’t have a community-based target audience.
Taylor also discussed the positive experiences she’s had using Lookalike audiences. This type of audience uses your custom audience to create a similar audience of people online with a 1-10% variation. It’s a method for reaching new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they share similar interests with your existing audience.
Measure Your Results
It is necessary to measure your results so you can see what is working, or areas for improvement. As I’ve been running ads for clients over the past several months, Taylor and I tracked this progress and saw great results in just those few short weeks. Over a series of 3 campaigns, we saw an initial 56% improvement in cost per click, saving about $2.76 a click. By the end of our mentorship program, my final campaign improved by 89%. To achieve these results, I learned the importance of creating a retargeting audience within a campaign to further narrow down who will be exposed to the ad.
I am grateful for the valuable information I learned from Taylor throughout this mentorship program. My knowledge of running successful campaigns has grown exponentially and I am excited to carry this over into current and future advertising strategies.
93% of social media advertisers are using Facebook Ads.
Are you harnessing the power of Facebook? If you’d like to expand your social media marketing strategy to include Facebook Ads but don’t know where to start, contact us today. Our team is knowledgeable and certified in Facebook Ads management and can take your business to new heights.
CLICK HERE to schedule a complimentary 30-minute social media marketing audit!
