As digital marketers it is often assumed that we can turn our hand to pretty much anything in the digital mix. Website development, SEO, social media, email marketing, blogger outreach, ecommerce, Google Analytics, content marketing and more. As our experience base gets broader, quite often our skills base gets shallower. We can turn our hand to most things, but for real in-depth knowledge we find ourselves frantically googling the gurus and wishing we had more specialists on our team.
As a Facebook specialist I’m pretty much at home with Facebook marketing whether it’s best practice for organic posts or paid ad creation and targeting. But I’d pull in a specialist for app development and I’d definitely work with a specialist for the related (but different) field of Google PPC.
So I thought I’d pull together a use case of reasons why you shouldn’t be doing your own Facebook ads. Show it to your boss when they add Facebook ads to your already burgeoning list of work. Apart from anything else they are likely to get far better results than you will. This will ease the pressure on lead generation and ROI.
- Because your own ads aren’t working
Whether you are getting reasonable click throughs but few conversions, or struggling to spend your ad budget because Facebook deems your ad low quality, a professional advertiser knows what works from image to text to landing page. You read success stories of how Facebook advertising has transformed businesses and opened the flood gates to thousands of leads but your ads barely cover the initial investment. - Because pro’s can help you get more creative
You know that there is an art to copywriting but it’s not really your forte.
You know that video ads work but you don’t have the knowhow to create them, add subtitles (or even work around using static images as videos).
Pro’s will also have access to stock photography and the tools to get creative with effects and in-image wording. - Because you probably don’t know how all the ad types work and which are most effective
There are currently some 19 possible Facebook ad types (as well as multiple options on placement). Whilst Page Post Link Ads are the most popular, there are so many more options to choose from. Users are drawn to novel, interesting alternatives but do you know how to make the most of a carousel ad or the under-utilised offer? - Split testing is hard
If you do want to do a simple A/B test you’ll need to use Power Editor. If you want to do more than that you are going to be juggling spreadsheets and have an out-of-control ads dashboard as you attempt to figure out which text, image, and placement combo really hits the sweet spot.
Our new ads service offers you the ability to test up to 250 different ad and targeting elements in a single campaign – something that’s simply not available to you either through Ads Manager or Power Editor.
Another bonus of our testing service is that as with Google PPC ads, our software will automatically present the text and image combinations that are getting the best results. This saves you having to check up on progress every few hours. - Power Editor is not for the faint-hearted
Power Editor has significant advantages over the self serve ads manager (we give you 16 reasons why you should be using it here) but it’s frustrating to learn and use. And (Facebook being Facebook), changes and updates are rolled out with alarming regularity. - Whilst targeting capacity is awesome, you’d missed the option of “Detailed Targeting”
For years we’ve been asking Facebook to enable us to target people who like xxx AND yyy. We got access to an early iteration thanks to a software tool we use and it’s awesome!. The functionality has now been rolled out across the Ads Manager and Power Editor but most brands haven’t even noticed, let alone explored it’s potential. We’re seeing great results with this further focussing of targeting thanks to the “AND” parameter. - Because there are lots of rules to follow
Words you can’t use, images you need to avoid, the 20% text rule – any violation can get your ad suspended and even your ad account banned. An overview of these policies is provided here. - Because people that specialise in advertising keep up to date with it
Facebook changes all the time: what is hugely effective one week can bomb the next.
Facebook is always coming up with new ad types, adding in new features and opportunities, often without a lot of fanfare. Pro advertisers use the new ad types as soon as they are available because they know novelty ads get better response rates. - Because tracking pixels and reporting can be very confusing for the uninitiated
Marketers aren’t generally renowned for their love of maths. Leave the reporting to the professionals for a summary report in English rather than Spreadsheet!
Want more help with Facebook ads?
Check out my new course ‘Zero to Hero with Facebook Ads‘ in the Digiterati Academy. You’ll fast track all my knowledge of what’s working to create great Facebook ads right now and feel confident in your ability to run an effective campaign.
