Facebook Ads Case Study: Increasing Audience Sizes and Sales with Targeted Ads

Let's dive into our Facebook Ads case study and see how targeted ads can increase audience sizes and sales. By using Facebook's powerful targeting options, we were able to reach a highly engaged audience of over 10,000 people in just one month.

This was a significant increase from our previous ad campaigns, which averaged around 5,000 views per month. We achieved this by targeting specific demographics, interests, and behaviors that aligned with our product offerings.

Our ads were specifically tailored to appeal to our target audience, with eye-catching visuals and compelling copy that resonated with them. This approach helped us to boost our sales by 25% in just six weeks.

By leveraging Facebook's advanced targeting capabilities, we were able to reach the right people with the right message at the right time, resulting in a significant increase in audience engagement and sales.

Setting Up Facebook Ads is a crucial step in any online marketing strategy. Seltzer Goods, a company that had never run campaigns before, was able to get started quickly by adding a Facebook pixel to their eCommerce site.

This gave them a major advantage in creating well-informed ads. Because Facebook had been collecting data on purchasers and site visitors for months, they were able to hit the ground running when creating ads.

Having a Facebook pixel installed allows for more accurate ad targeting. By collecting data on site visitors and purchasers, businesses can create ads that are more likely to resonate with their target audience.

By setting up Facebook ads correctly, businesses can save time and resources in the long run. It's essential to get this step right to ensure the success of any online marketing campaign.

When building a Facebook ad campaign, it's essential to start with a clear strategy. We began with the "See, Think, Do" framework, which has proven effective for eCommerce stores. This structure helps to reach new customers and gauge their response to ad creative.

To target the right audience, we started with a single campaign that only targeted cold audiences with no retargeting ads. This approach allowed us to optimize for purchases and weed out window shoppers.

We chose a conversion-based approach optimized toward purchases, which ensures that ads are served to users most likely to take action. This setup sends more qualified shoppers into the sales funnel from the start.

Here are the key targeting options we used:

By starting with a solid foundation, we set ourselves up for success and were able to see results from our funnel-based Facebook Ads structure.

Incrementally scaling your budget over time is key to achieving the best Facebook marketing results. A 10-15% increase every couple of days can be a good starting point, as long as the return on ad spend (ROAS) is at least 5x.

Rapidly increasing your budget can have negative consequences, such as hurting ROAS or cost per acquisition (CPA) metrics. This is because Facebook needs time to adjust to new information and determine the best way to serve your ads.

To refine your audience targeting, it's essential to track how people engage on your website. You can do this by setting up your Meta Pixel and tracking relevant events. This will give you valuable insights to make your audience more refined.

Incrementally scaling your budget over time is key to achieving the best Facebook marketing results.

Scaling up budgets by 10-15% every couple of days can be a good starting point. This approach allowed Seltzer Goods to see significant results.

A bigger increase in budget can be detrimental to well-performing campaigns, hurting ROAS or CPA metrics.

Facebook needs time to adjust to new information and determine the best way to serve it.

Setting up exclusions in your ad sets is crucial to avoid targeting the same audience multiple times. This can lead to ad fatigue and decreased effectiveness.

Excluding previous audiences from each ad set is a must-do to control each customer journey. This helps ensure that customers see different content at each stage of their journey.

Excluding other audience groups prevents the frequency of your top-of-the-funnel campaigns from skyrocketing. This is especially important for impulse purchases with a short consideration period.

A 30-day period is a good starting point for excluding audiences that have visited your website. This allows for a decent chance that they've forgotten about buying the item.

Our Facebook ads campaign for Seltzer Goods achieved a 4.5x return on ad spend (ROAS), with a cost per acquisition (CPA) of less than $10.

The campaign drove 25% of Seltzer Goods' monthly revenue, and sitewide sales increased by 785% during the same period.

We saw a 105% increase in total brand impressions and a 319% increase in clicks on Google organic traffic.

Organic traffic increased by 183%, with a conversion rate of over 6.6%.

The non-brand segment of puzzles showed a nearly 200% increase in impressions and a 1,134% increase in clicks.

Here's a breakdown of the organic traffic increases:

The paid social ads also increased referral traffic from reputable sources like BuzzFeed and Architectural Digest, with a 1,206% increase in users, a 1,001% increase in conversions, and an 18% increase in conversion rates.

Paid social ads can have a significant impact on other channels' performance, as seen in Seltzer Goods' 30-day campaign, where paid social ads accounted for only 25% of the total revenue generated.

This means that 75% of the revenue can be attributed to other channels, such as organic, direct, and referral traffic, which also experienced significant increases in performance.

In fact, Seltzer Goods' organic and direct channels skyrocketed in both traffic volume and conversion rate, with increases of 185% and 351% respectively.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportune time for puzzle vendors like Seltzer Goods, but the company's success can be attributed to the implementation of Facebook and Instagram ads campaigns, which accelerated the increase in traffic and purchase intent.

To achieve similar results, it's essential to invest in paid social and combine relevant targeting with strong creative that resonates with the brand voice and advertising platform capabilities.

Here are some key statistics from Seltzer Goods' campaign:

An eCommerce company's sales funnel is the journey customers take from strangers to loyal customers. It's essential to understand this funnel to create effective Facebook Ads.

Every stage of the funnel requires specific content to engage customers. The budget should be split across the entire Facebook Ad funnel to maximize results.

Here's how one company split their budget:

The funnel stages are:

A common mistake is targeting anyone and everyone with a basic interest in your industry. Instead, use Facebook's algorithm and ability to target your ideal audience, based on people who've already done that action before.

Here's a breakdown of the TOFU targeting strategy:

* 3% Lookalike audiences based on three groups of people:

+ Those who've purchased

+ Those who've added items to their cart

+ Those who've viewed content on the website

The ad formats used for TOFU targeting include:

The goal of TOFU targeting is to reach as many people as possible and raise awareness for the brand.

Audience targeting is a crucial aspect of running successful Facebook ads. To start, you should create an interest-based audience ad set closely related to your product or service.

Having the Facebook pixel properly implemented and firing on key events like ViewContent, AddToCart, and Purchase helps expedite data collection on your seed audiences and builds better lookalike audiences faster.

A 14-day lookalike audience can look and behave dramatically differently from a 180-day lookalike audience, especially during abnormal time periods like pandemics, holidays, or Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

To streamline your optimizations and make reporting easier, use a clean and consistent naming convention structure from the campaign to the ad sets, ads, and UTM tagging on the back end of the URL.

Here are some key audience targeting strategies to consider:

Refine your audience targeting by setting up your Meta Pixel and tracking events such as ViewContent, AddToCart, and Purchase. This will help you collect data on your seed audiences and build better lookalike audiences faster.

A 14-day lookalike audience can behave dramatically differently from a 180-day lookalike audience, particularly during abnormal time periods. Take note of the age of your lookalike audience to ensure you're targeting the right people.

To refine your audience, consider creating lookalike audiences based on three groups of people: those who've purchased, those who've added items to their cart, and those who've viewed content on the website. This will help you target people who are most likely to convert.

Here's an example of how to create lookalike audiences:

By using a clean and consistent naming convention structure, you can streamline your optimizations and make reporting much easier. This will also allow you to leverage the power of Google Analytics alongside the native reporting from Facebook Business Manager/Ad Manager.

Middle Funnel Targeting is all about reaching people who've already engaged with your brand, but still need some convincing to make a purchase. They've likely seen your top of funnel ads and are now looking for more information.

To create effective middle funnel targeting, you need to identify your audience's specific needs and pain points. For example, people who've watched at least 25% of your video ad within the last 30 days are likely interested in learning more about your product.

You can also target people who've engaged with your brand on Facebook and Instagram within the last 30 days, or those who've visited any page on your website within the last 30 days.

Social proof is a powerful tool for middle funnel targeting. Ad copy mentioning customer testimonials, 5-star ratings, and user-generated content can help position your brand as the best choice for potential customers.

Here's an example of how you can use social proof in your middle funnel targeting:

By using a combination of these elements, you can create effective middle funnel targeting that resonates with your audience and drives conversions.

Increasing your audience sizes is crucial for scaling your Facebook Ads campaigns. By widening your Lookalike audiences, you can tap into a broader pool of potential customers.

Facebook prefers broad audiences, so don't be afraid to expand your reach. Small-sized audiences can actually harm your campaign by limiting the number of people who see your ads.

You'll end up using your budget inefficiently, showing the same ads to the same people over and over. This can lead to ad fatigue and even frustration among your target audience.

We tested what worked with smaller audiences and then scaled up to reach more people. This approach allowed us to identify what did and didn't work, making it easier to optimize our campaigns.

Here's a key takeaway: increasing your audience sizes can help you reach more people, but it's also essential to extend your MOFU (Middle of Funnel) audiences.

Scaling your Facebook ad campaigns requires caution and close monitoring. You can be aggressive with scaling using Campaign Budget Optimisation, which distributes your budget in the most effective way between each ad set.

To ensure a bigger budget goes towards your highest-performing ad sets, Facebook serves ads to users who are most likely to take action. This is especially true when targeting cold audiences with no retargeting ads.

We used a conversion-based approach optimized toward purchases, which weeded out window shoppers and sent more qualified shoppers into our sales funnel from the start. This approach helped us reach new customers and see how they responded to our ad creative.

To scale effectively, consider the following targeting options:

A business-to-business attorney spent just a few hundred dollars on Facebook advertising and landed a case worth $100,000.

This case study highlights the potential of Facebook ads for B2B marketing. In fact, a cloud hosting company was able to generate new business leads from Facebook advertising and a whitepaper for $59 each, with the most affordable ads bringing in leads at just $29 apiece.

A financial industry event generated 305 registrations at $71.34 each, while ads reached 1.5 million people and generated clicks from 18,125 people.

Here are some key takeaways from these case studies:

These results demonstrate the effectiveness of Facebook ads for B2B marketing, with the potential to generate significant leads and revenue with a relatively small investment.

We used the "See, Think, Do" Facebook Ads strategy, which has served us well with other eCommerce stores. This framework was used for Seltzer Goods, a company that wanted to reach new customers and see how they responded to their ad creative.

We started with a single campaign that only targeted cold audiences, with no retargeting ads. This allowed us to reach users who were most likely to take action, weeding out the window shoppers.

Our team added a Facebook pixel to the eCommerce site, giving us a major advantage. This allowed us to collect data on purchasers and site visitors for months, enabling us to create well-informed ads.

We opted into all devices and automatic placements, giving Facebook and Instagram's machine learning more options to display the ads. This led to better results for our client.

We used a one-day click delivery optimization, instead of the default seven-day click optimization. This was because the product had a lower price point and consumers were likely to impulse buy.

We chose to retain the same copy across both ad options for several reasons. The copy was relevant, positive, and used a natural call to action. It also invoked a message of togetherness and used positivity and hope instead of hard sales.

Here are some key settings we used for the campaign:

Gift campaigns can be a game-changer for your business. By creating targeted campaigns around specific gifting periods, you can drive more traffic to your brand and increase your most profitable audiences.

To get started, consider targeting people with upcoming birthdays, friends with upcoming birthdays, and those interested in "Birthday" or "Gift". This can include a wide age range, from 18 to 65+.

Creating separate campaigns for gifting periods allows you to adjust your daily budget accordingly. For example, during Mothers Day, Fathers Day, and Christmas, the client shifted their daily budget to 60% in MOFU campaigns.

This strategy can lead to significant returns on ad spend (RoAS). In one case, the RoAS for a Mothers Day campaign jumped to 6.59x.

Here are some key targeting options to consider for gift campaigns:

To get the most out of Facebook ads, it's essential to use the Facebook Ad Manager, not Boost Posts, as it offers all the features you need to run effective campaigns.

Use a squeeze page to convert leads, especially if your website's lead conversion rate is below 5%. You can use tools like LeadPages or Clickfunnels to create a proven template.

Track conversions by placing conversion tracking on your thank you page and selecting Website Conversion ads as your objective. This will help you measure the success of your campaigns.

Knowing your audience is crucial, so use Audience Insights to learn more about your customers or prospects. You can even check out your competitors' pages to see what other pages they like.

Test targeting first with a simple ad and basic image, and then test creative images, headlines, and body text. Test at least 20-25 variations on your proven targets to find what works best.

To optimize ads scientifically, review your results, theorize why some ads or targets worked, and use those theories to create even better ads.

Global Expansion can be a thrilling but also a challenging phase for any business. International growth isn’t as straightforward as you might initially think, though.

You need to consider the language barrier when running Facebook Ads for different countries. Driving people to a website which isn’t in their own language is a huge waste of budget.

Make sure the URLs you’re promoting with your campaigns go to landing pages in the same language. This will ensure that your audience can easily understand and engage with your content.

Business-to-Business marketing on Facebook is a powerful tool. You can reach your target audience with precision and get results.

A cloud hosting company got new business leads from Facebook advertising and a whitepaper for $59 each. The most affordable ads brought in leads at just $29 apiece.

Facebook advertising can also help you discover whether your B2B offering is needed or wanted by your target audience. A financial industry business discovered this with an investment of just a few hundred dollars in Facebook advertising.

A financial industry event generated 305 registrations at $71.34 each, while ads reached 1.5 million people and generated clicks from 18,125 people. This shows the potential reach of Facebook advertising.

Here are some specific examples of B2B marketing success on Facebook:

These examples demonstrate the effectiveness of Facebook advertising for B2B marketing.