This week I focused on researching strategies for running effective ads through the Facebook ads manager. It was hard to find any up to date academic sources on the subject. I watched videos on YouTube, but the most useful sources I found was talking to 2 people I met who run digital ads as a side business.
One person I interviewed has a digital marketing consulting company that he runs while in school. The other freelance manages ads for independent artists. They were both able to give me solid advice for running ad campaigns.
- Make many variations of a single ad and test them. This means for each ad I make, I’ll create 5-10 different versions with slightly different messages or creative. then I’ll run them all with low budgets. This will give me data to see what is the most effective variation of the ad, and I can put a bigger budget into that.
- Instagram stories are the most effective platform for my target market. Instagram stories engage the user because it fills the screen 100% and the user is guarenteed to view the content.
- Targeting. Know your audience. Adjust the targeting if things aren’t working. Am I trying to reach people in a specific part of the world? Or do I want to target the cheapest markets for lower CPM.
- Experience is the best way to learn. Doing research will only take you so far. In my last campaign I had CPC of $.40 in the United States. I want to try to lower it to .20 by testing the ads and having better targeting.
I’m running an ad campaign in November to get more experience before next semester. I will report the results of that campaign tip make sure I’m on the right track.