9 secrets to save money that allow you to run profitable Facebook Ads
Even experienced campaign managers are continuing to struggle with understanding the right way to go about running paid Facebook campaigns successfully. And the most unfortunate part is that even it doesn’t take much, many ad account managers are reluctant to take necessary measures timely.
If you can be diligent about keeping track of your ad expenses, you will save yourself a whole lot of stress worrying over your business bank account’s future.
Here are nine ingenious ways you can begin shaving a few extra cash and letting your Facebook ad campaigns start to grow:
1. Set a periodic P&L check-up routine
This is secret number one.
The day you paid Facebook for running ads, set an automatic reminder to calculate P&L.
Impose this as rule on yourself and let your campaigns run gainfully.
You will definitely have some extra cash in your savings account from following this tactic.
2. Pause your non-performing campaigns
One of the worst habits you can have is to leave the non-performing ad campaigns ON when you’re not monitoring them proactively.
It’s a no-brainer.
You take the time to get your advertising cost down to the lowest possible, you set up automatic payments, and then you never have to sweat about them again.
3. Use Facebook Analytics to identify your pain point, and then cut it
One of the best tools out there for digital advertising is Facebook Analytics. You can connect your bank accounts and credit cards with your campaigns to start working very easily but then this tool will help you understand where and how people are interacting with your business so you can always run campaigns profitably.
At the end of each day/week/month/quarter, you’ll get a pretty good sense of where your ad spending is going.
When you do this, you’ll quickly realize that you are cutting that unnecessary spending as your campaigns are now more profitable thanks to the ad optimization decision you made based on data.
Then continue with your ad performance analysis and optimization work to save money each month in your bank account.
The bank balance will automatically grow which you may reserve for contingency.
4. Hire an ad consultant instead of a digital marketing agency
Depending on the budget you have, you may hire an individual instead of an entire army.
The only time I would suggest you hire an agency right away when you are completely unable to look after your campaigns.
It’s amazing how much money you save when you hire a consultant and manage campaigns for yourself instead of hiring an agency. The average agency bill for managing social media accounts is much higher naturally due to their establishment cost. You can get the same output from an individual professional at an affordable rate.
Again, track how much you spend as a consultancy fee, what is the ROI, and accordingly decide on hiring an efficient agency if at all required.
5. Look for discounts offered by Facebook as part of their promotion plan
If you have a limited ad budget, and especially if you’re trying to save money, search for offers you can use to save a few bucks.
Depending on your industry type, these could be redeemed for advertising on Facebook and/or Instagram.
Save the costly ad dollars for special occasions.
6. Do experiments and take calculative risks
Ever heard of A/B testing or multivariate testing?
Testing your ad copies and landing pages saves way more money than advertisers give credit. Things like A/B testing, multivariate testing, will help you reduce your campaign cost by improving your goal conversions.
So instead of using the standard ad format every time or so, try out some data-driven experiments for better results.
7. Take the help of the Facebook Ads Guide
There are certainly times when it’s easiest (and fairly cost-effective) to just take the help of free resources published by Facebook for online advertisers.
Especially if you’re keen on saving money as fast as possible, this is one of the best ways to start.
When you’re new, you really only have a few ideas about the nitty-gritty of Facebook ads - how it works actually? You can start by reading the guides on how to advertise on Facebook, created by Facebook’s own team to help novice marketers across the world. Some very helpful insights, as I’ve said, can be derived by reviewing Facebook’s ad library.
Even you can think about contacting the customer support time to get some quick yet smart solution which ultimately helps you save money on your campaigns.
8. If you’re going to advertise online, do homework
This is probably one of the basic things I’m talking about but often overlooked by many.
Search the web for competitors before you start with Facebook Ads if possible. It’s a super easy and extremely useful tactic to know where the market is.
This is one of the benefits of the digital age when it comes to campaign management. There are so many tools, websites, and services out there dedicated to helping you do research on the market. If you’re hesitant in any particular area, chances are you just need to do a quick search and something will come up to help you. Use Facebook search as a guide to see where your competitors are and what methods they are applying.
9. Do not, under any circumstance, forget to set campaign end-date
This is more of a best practice, but it’s also a Cardinal rule.
Do not, ever, for any reason, forget to set campaign end-date, in addition, to refrain yourself from go for an automated bidding option.
I’m not completely against of automated Facebook bidding strategy but with starting a business (not my particular way of running ads, but it’s a strategy many employ, and do so because they have to), go with manual bidding. With due respect to all the salient benefits, an automated bidding strategy will make it so unnecessarily difficult for you to begin building a sound financial foundation for ad campaigns at least initially.
So, set deadlines for everything. Spend within your means, and save as much as you can.
You’ll thank yourself later.
