what spending $500k on facebook ads taught me

Facebook advertising for startups

(Stuff I learnt the hard way and by spending a lot of money)

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

The Facebook advertising mistake that hurts clever people more

The false Facebook learning curve

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

The mechanic learning curve

Competent with the mechanics of getting ads running

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

The real learning curve

Competent with the mechanics of getting ads running

Implement method of testing messages to Facebook segments

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

The difference between Google ads and Facebook ads

Google visitors are in streams

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

Facebook visitors are in ponds

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

You can compare Google ads over time

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

CTR or Conv Rate

Because purchase intent stays the same over time, your variable is the ad which you can slowly improve over time

You cannot compare Facebook ads over time

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

CTR or Conv Rate over Time

1:1 vs 1:many

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

vs

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

The mechanics

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com http://www.facebook-studio.com/

26 types of ads, in two major streams – adverts (voice of business) or promoted posts (voice of fans)

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com Facebook Ads Manager

Simple and will get you started

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

LOL

Facebook Power Editor

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com 3rd party tools

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

The message

How I approach building ads

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

How I come up with messages/images to test

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

http://firstconversion.com/facebook-advertising-tips/

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

The method

The prevailing wisdom on image fatigue

is bullshit

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

Bad Science

The way to test – multivariate analysis

LUPUS US

Lupus US

Hands are losing

Lupus US

Addressing the issue works here for a title

Lupus US

Clear winner in body text

Dust Mite Test 1

2nd addition

3rd addition

Dust mite vs woman was the first test. There were two additional testing rounds focusing on images,

which used the winning title and body text

The bug CTRS were the best

Dust Mite in SO: Original tests

The bug CRs were the best

Dust Mite in SO: Original tests

Bug CPL also won

Text 1 had significantly better CPL

Titles were similar

Dust Mite Test 2

Testing the winning bug against the more dramatically allergic man and a more ugly bug. Ugly bug attracts more clicks!

But the allergic guy converts better…

…which gives the allergic guy the best CPL so far

Some takeaways

Where we can target specific conditions we can get the best CPA. Where we have to target by association, we have a higher CPA

Targeting by specific conditions has the best CTR and CPL

Targeting by associations has a lower CTR and CPL

Lupus Trial in the US

When we have winners, its best to create a new campaign with the winner and new tests, so that old data does not corrupt the new test data

Dust Mite in SO

Still some problems to work out

• Confidence interval

• Even delivery

• Biggest win is message testing in Facebook high volume environment that can be carried over to other PPC platforms

Stephen Croome @firstconversion

firstconversion.com

stephencroome@gmail.com @firstconversion