Every year, we take a step back from our campaigns, launches, and new products to ask ourselves an incredibly important question…
What worked?
At DigitalMarketer, it’s our job to figure out what works, so we can let you know. Our successes are your new strategies.
And that’s what this article is all about.
You can scroll down to see our best Facebook ad lessons from the last 6 years to see us learning what works in real-time. But for now, it’s time to focus on the present.
What lessons did we learn from our best Facebook ads in 2019?
Let’s dive in.
Our Best Facebook Ad #1: We Tested Running Newsfeed Ads to Our Insider Membership VS. Directly to a Lead Magnet
In the past, we focused our first conversion of the Customer Value Journey on lead magnets. We used lead magnets in our content, and we promoted those lead magnets through our Facebook ads.
This year we did something different. First, we launched DM Insider, our free membership that gives access to our Insider newsletter, 30+ marketing tools, and weekly on-demand training sessions.
Then, we ran Facebook newsfeed ads promoting lead magnets that people would get by signing up for Insider. Here’s what we’re loving about this strategy: to access the lead magnet, people have to go into their new Insider account and go to the toolbox that has all of the lead magnets in it, including the one that the Facebook ad they saw was for.
This let’s new Insiders see the platform versus just seeing the lead magnet we gave them. We’ve seen an exponential growth in leads from this strategy, driving 10,000+ leads in the last 6 months with a $5.70 cost per result (our goal is $5). *Happy dance*
Our Best Facebook Ad #2: We Ran Retargeting Ads to Our Free Lab Trial
This year we put a big focus on simplifying our retargeting inside of Facebook. Like every other marketer who’s been advertising on Facebook since the beginning, things on the backend were getting messy. Here’s what we did to clean up our act.
We started retargeting to Insider members who hadn’t opted into the free Lab trial or customers who had an a la carte product from us (like a single certification). Our goal is to retarget people who already converted, but can be ascended to a higher stage in the Customer Value Journey.
Last month we were able to get these ads down from a $50 cost-per-trial, which is extra exciting because our goal is $90.
Our Best Facebook Ad #3: We Ran TOFU Video Ads Directly to Content NOT Offers
Last year we realized something that didn’t work that well—running top-of-funnel ads with a CTA to sign up or opt-in to an offer. What’s wrong with this approach?
It’s like asking somebody on a first date and then asking them for a second date after they’ve said yes.
We were asking for too much, too fast. These TOFU video ads are for people who don’t know who DigitalMarketer is yet, so we want to give them a chance to get to know us better before we ask them for an opt-in.
One of our best performing TOFU videos is our “Sh*t Marketers Say” ad. It’s funny and relatable and has been a great way for us to drive brand awareness. The trick is that we can’t drive this ad to a product offering, like Insider.
Instead, this ad drives to content with the mentality that our paid ads rise all ships.
For example, if someone sees this TOFU video and clicks on the link to read our What Is Digital Marketing article, they’ve now learned about DigitalMarketer and the type of content they can expect from us. The next time they’re Googling a digital marketing question, we’ve boosted our chances of them putting “DigitalMarketer” at the end of their search.
And we’re growing our retargeting list.
Our Best Facebook Ad #4: We Ran Ads to Our Best Performing Content
When it comes to creating the best Facebook ads, we’re not guessing what’s going to work. We’re seeing what content is driving clicks and then choosing to promote that in our TOFU strategy.
For example, we have a blog post called 101 Best Subject Lines that performs really well, so we run ads to it. Then, we splinter it into a lead magnet, and we run ads to that lead magnet, because we know people are loving this type of content.
Right now, these are the only ads we’ll run directly to a lead magnet (see Lesson #1).
Our Best Facebook Ad #5: Retargeted Testimonial Ads
These are self explanatory, but let’s explain some of the necessities of these ads. First, you don’t want to be using outdated or stale testimonials. You’ll want to update your testimonials and make sure that you’re not letting them sit in your ad creative for too long.
Second, you want to use these ads to retarget people who have registered for something or put an item in their cart, but never filled out an application or purchased. You’ll retarget these leads with the testimonials.
Historically, we see a $115 per application cost, and our goal is $200.
Our Best Facebook Ad #6: We’re Still Running Newsfeed Ads to Webinars
Webinars are a digital marketing strategy that have really held their reign. It’s 2020, and we’re still running newsfeed ads that promote a webinar (that promotes our Certified Partner Program).
The webinar is an information session on our Certified Partner Program. We’re targeting agencies and consultants, and the CTA is to register. If they register but don’t fill out an application, then we pull a Lesson #5 and retarget them.
We just launched this ad, so we’ll keep you updated on its success.
Our Best Facebook Ad #7: Blitz Launch Ads
The Blitz Launch is a new strategy from CEO Ryan Deiss. You can read into the full details of the Blitz Launch here, but we’ll summarize it so you know what’s going on with the ad:
A Blitz Launch is a 7-day multi-channel awareness campaign that focuses all traffic into a single, “Big idea,” content piece, which then drives to a relevant and urgent special offer.
Just like a blitz in football, it’s when you go all in and don’t turn back until you’ve reached the end zone.
For these blitz launches, we had our ads feature a video sales letter that promoted the workshop or product we were actively promoting. If someone clicked on the product page, then we’d retarget them on Facebook.
Since you can’t run blitz launch after blitz launch without exhausting your list and customer base, we only ever run these types of ads when we are specifically selling a special product. There’s no other time that we’d run these ads.
Using these ads, we were able to get 5 extra purchases on the workshop we were promoting in 7 days.
In 2019, a lot worked—and a lot didn’t work. As professional digital marketers, we’re never swayed by things that don’t work. They just make us hungrier to figure out what it is that will work.
Once we’ve figured that out, then we start yelling about it from the DigitalMarketer rooftops (and from the blog front page ?). Our neighbors don’t really get what we’re talking about, but we know YOU understand just how cool 10,000+ leads are.
Now, we’re handing you the baton. Take these strategies and run your own super successful Facebook ads.
We’re rooting for you from the sidelines.
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Source: digitalmarketer