5 steps for successful e-commerce Facebook Ads

Article preview: From this article, you will find out how to structure the Facebook Ads campaigns for your online shop, how to analyze audience lists, how to set autopilot campaigns using the automated rules and how to measure the results of your campaigns in a correct and effective manner.

In our first blog posts we’ve focused mainly on Google Ads, so the time has come to also talk about Facebook Ads. The budgets we are managing in this platform are at least equal to those on Google Ads, and this is why we’ve developed a series of effective strategies to help us scale the campaigns in the most profitable way possible.

I’m sure that if you ended up reading this article you’ve done at least one Facebook Ads campaign for your online shop. So, rather than stressing on the basics (how to set up an account, how to create an audience list etc.), I will focus on more interesting subjects.

Correctly installing Facebook Pixel

Double checking is always a good idea. Before investing the first dollar in Facebook, it is extremely important to make sure Facebook Pixel is correctly installed on your website. To do so, you will use Facebook Pixel Helper extension from Chrome, you will go on your website and make sure that Pixel conducts the correct action on each type of page.

For example: if you’re on a product page and add something to cart, you should be able to see in this extension at least View Content and Add to Cart. If you take one step further and place a test order, you should also have the Purchase action registered and check if the value is correct.

I insist on this matter because most of the Facebook Ads accounts audited lately had at least one error in setting the tracking code.

Campaigns mirror the conversion funnel

Just like in real life, your relationship with a potential customer should be built in time, in different stages. First, he should be aware of your existence, then you catch his attention with certain benefits you can offer, and, in the end, you convince him that you are the right choice, which will bring you the conversion. All of these make up the conversion funnel and this is the base of your Facebook campaigns.

• The AWARNESS stage: is the place where you will display your brand story, why your product is special and why the potential client shall need it. You can consider short videos showing the benefits brought by your product, reviews from customers, how the products are made etc. This type of campaign will never bring direct conversions and this is all right, because your interest is to have a high reach and to be seen by your target audience, at the best possible cost. The types of campaigns you can use in this stage are Reach or Traffic, and the allocated budget could pe 10-15% from the total budget.

• The ENGAGEMENT stage: going a little bit further, this is the stage where we follow different actions that we want to be conducted by the potential customer on the website: checking the products, adding products to cart etc. Make sure you use ads (carousel ads, because these are the most effective for e-commerce) that bring the benefits in front of the customer, regardless if it’s a commercial advantage (discount on the first order, surprise gift, free delivery etc.) or an advantage related to the quality of the products. The main campaign type you will be using during this stage is Conversion. As for the money involved, it is recommended for you to consider 40-50% of the total budget. Pay attention to the action for which you will optimize your ads: it is recommended to use an action that happens often on the website, such as Add to Cart or View content, so that the Facebook algorithm has enough data from which to learn to whom to deliver the ads effectively.

The CONVERSION stage: the magical place where conversions happen. Most often we use Product Catalog format and create ad groups based on the users’ action on the website (those who added products to the cart in the past x days, but didn’t buy, those who viewed products, but didn’t buy etc.). Classic Dynamic Remarketing will be the most cost-effective campaign in your account in terms of cost/sales, but it will never work independently of the first two types of campaigns above.

You have effective audience lists

One of the secrets of Facebook Ads lays in the audience lists: how well you manage to translate your target into these lists and how you combine and use them to the max level, considering the steps above. Maybe a matrix of these lists will be useful, as it is a good way to analyze how efficient your lists are and how effective your remarketing funnel is.

Custom Audiences refers to users who have interacted with your website, while Non-Custom Audiences refers to those interacting with your brand for the first time. As with Google Ads, we have lists of people searching for your brand directly (or the brands in the offer). So, obviously, they are at a much more advanced stage in the purchasing process. We also have non-Brand audiences or top of funnel, consisting of those who search general terms and who are at an early stage in the purchasing process. Do an exercise and check how profitable these lists are for you and how well you cover them in your campaigns.

You use automated rules

Over time, you will notice some peculiarities in your account. Maybe the conversions increase significantly over the weekend and, in this case, you will allocate a bigger budget during that specific time. Or you may want to increase your budget in a campaign group every time the ROAS is good for you. Sometimes, on the contrary, you may want to lower your budget, because your campaigns are not performing. Or you simply want to receive a notification every time the CPA is very high. The good news? These operations don’t need manual setup, because you can automate everything through the rules in Facebook Ads.

You can find more info on Automated Rules here.

Base your account decisions on data 

Maybe the tagline of our agency (Data-driven performance marketing) has a lot to say on our approach when it comes to analyzing numbers. 

 Once you’ve made sure you created a useful reporting model (Custom Columns), you can pass to the next step and segment the results of your campaigns according to placement, location, gender, age, in order to decide which ones are effective and what is there to be optimized. Here’s some ideas on how to do the segmentation:

About Optimized

At Optimized we are specialized in e-commerce PPC campaigns (Google Ads and Facebook Ads). Unlike other local agencies, our portfolio only includes online stores and our approach is based on clear performance objectives (CPA, ROAS). Our team consists of PPC specialists and certified Google trainers, as well as people with hands-on experience in e-commerce.

Our strategies are not generic, but strictly applied to e-commerce. We work with stores that want to profitably scale PPC campaigns, with clear objectives, aware that marketing is an investment.