Last week, we asked experts from Adstage, Socialbakers, and Hanapin Marketing to answer your Facebook questions. For those who missed the webinar, we are sharing the highlights!*

*These will be paraphrased. For more detail and additional questions, check out the webinar: Facebook Ads: Ask Us Anything.

Why should I add Facebook to my advertising portfolio?

A: Cassie (Hanapin) – Your audience is there, no matter your industry. “Of  all the people on the internet, 83% of Women & 75% of Men use Facebook.” Plus, the CPC’s tend to be cheaper than search, even though they’ve been rising. And despite what the skeptics say, people ARE purchasing from Facebook ads.

A: Omri (Socialbakers) – Facebook provides advertising capabilities from brand awareness to lead generation. Most advertising platforms can’t provide such a range of campaign types. Facebook ads fit every type of business. On top of that, Facebook is creating its own currency, so they’re moving even further into the eCommerce space. That’s going to increase the number of purchases made within the platform. 

What are the best metrics to track in Facebook advertising?

The entire panel agreed that, as with many aspects of paid media, it depends. You need to work backward from your end goal to determine which metrics matter most. Paul also made the point that B2B advertisers often have more trouble with determining which metrics to track.

A: Paul (Adstage) – There’s a major difference in tracking capabilities between lead gen and eCommerce. At Adstage, we spent a lot of time last year working to “close the loop” for B2B so it’s as simple to track metrics as it has always been for eCommerce. Ecommerce is easy. You can directly attribute sales to your ads because the sales cycle is shorter and they’re often purchasing your product right after clicking your ad. With B2B, someone can be in your pipeline for 1 year, which makes tracking much harder. B2B advertisers often use Salesforce and other CRM’s to review success metrics. If you can, try to spend time in both worlds. Go into Salesforce and GA to get a full picture of how Facebook is driving leads by reviewing UTM reports. Use Facebook metrics to determine your top-performing campaigns, ads, messaging, etc. Compare the results you’re getting from Facebook and see if there’s a correlation with the lead/opp volume tracked in Salesforce.

When do you use the Reach objective vs. the Awareness objective?

A: Cassie – When it comes to awareness vs. reach you need to ask yourself, “What is your end goal?” The Reach objective will show ads to as many people as possible within your targeted audience. You can set frequency capping to keep this objective from exhausting your audience with ads. You can also use this objective for a remarketing campaign. Since you know your site visitors are a valuable audience, it makes sense to reach as many of them as possible. The Brand Awareness objective will give you lower reach. With that objective, Facebook finds users that are more likely to engage with your brand.

A: Paul – The Reach objective is often used by CPG companies. Most other folks stick with the Brand Awareness objective.

How should you decide between a brand awareness or a sales-driven strategy for a client new to Facebook Ads?

A: Omri – This is a really common question, especially for start-ups. Unlike many of our previous questions where our answer is “it depends”, I can actually give a straight answer here. Brands that are new to Facebook ads should orient their Facebook efforts around a direct lead gen and/or sales strategy. Then, you’re driving sales and those campaigns area also creating brand awareness as a bi-product. 

At Hanapin, we’ve had a lot of success with the approach that Omri described. When brands are accustomed to the measurable ROI or cost/lead of search campaigns, it’s easier to expand into Facebook with sales or lead-oriented campaigns. Marketing managers at small or mid-sized companies generally feel more comfortable using their budget in a new platform when the results are immediately measurable. Then, once they’re confident in Facebook’s abilities, the conversation about brand awareness campaigns is much smoother.

Which industries are best suited for Facebook advertising? Which ones are most likely to see conversions?

A: Paul – I used to say “not lead gen” when someone asked me this question. Five years ago, they introduced lead gen ads. They also went heavy into eCommerce and direct-to-consumer. They now have app install campaigns for the gaming world and all kinds of people, in different industries, are glued to Instagram all day. The only questionable vertical at this point might be B2B SaaS, but even with that, the new generation is rising into decision-making roles and they spend a lot of time on Instagram. These days, it’s hard to find a segment where I would say “don’t advertise on FB”.

The panel covered 7 additional questions throughout the 60-minute webinar including:

  • What are best practices for lead gen ads?
  • What is the best way to understand Facebook conversions in Google Analytics vs. the Facebook dashboard?
  • Are there any best practices you can share to best capitalize on Facebook’s advertising efforts in combination with Google Ads?
  • Is it better to tailor an IG story for that placement only, or just run a video ad sized properly for both newsfeed and stories?

If you’ve been looking for answers to those questions, check out the webinar: Facebook Ads: Ask Us Anything.