How to Get Cheap Clicks with Facebook Ads

Since the dawn of the Internet, businesses have been on a quest for the cheapest advertising options to drive qualified prospects to their websites. First came banner ads, then flashing banner ads, then Overture pay-per-click ads, then Google AdWords, and eventually Facebook Ads… Regardless of the ad network, the question is always the same, “how do you get the cheapest clicks?” It’s an obvious question because if all else is equal, the cheaper the click, the lower the cost per sale. And the lower the cost per sale, the higher the return on investment (ROI). In this article I’m going to focus on the ad network where businesses can likely get the cheapest clicks from qualified prospects — Facebook Ads.

But before we dive in to the tactics, I need to explain a critical concept… Fishing vs. Catching Fish As you probably know, anyone can go down to a pond, lake, river, or ocean with a rod and “go fishing.” But unless you know what you’re doing, you’re not likely going to catch many fish. That’s because catching fish requires you to understand the best locations where fish are likely to be. Plus, you need to know the best times of the day when fish are more likely feeding. You should also know which lures to use based on the type of fish you’re trying to catch and what those fish are feeding on at that point in the season. Oh, and if you catch that fish, then you better have the right hook, fishing line, reel, and pole so that you’re able to reel the fish in without the line breaking. As you can see, the seemingly simple act of fishing gets fairly complicated as you get more serious about actually catching a fish. And there’s no one trick or one secret lure… it’s the combination of all the factors listed above that must be working together for you to catch that Instagram-worthy lunker. Of course, the same is true with Facebook Ads. There is unfortunately no one trick or one secret ad or one secret targeting checkbox you need to click on. There’s not one, there’s five… The 5 Factors to Get Cheap Facebook Ads Clicks Put yourself in Facebook’s shoes. Why would you ever reward advertisers with cheaper ad placements? Or, to put it another way, why would you penalize advertisers with more expensive ad placements? When you consider these questions from Facebook’s perspective, then the answers become pretty clear. Facebook’s job is to protect its users so that they continue to obsessively log in and use Facebook. A big threat to Facebook’s business model is showing irrelevant, uninteresting, un-shareworthy, un-likeworthy, annoying, or in the worst case, fraudulent, advertisements to their users. If Facebook users get annoyed with the ads, then they’ll stop logging in and Facebook’s revenue will plummet. With that in mind, let’s dive in to the 5 factors to get cheap Facebook Ads clicks: 1. Match Your Ad to Your Audience Temperature I wrote that audience temperature is the key to success with Facebook Ads and it’s also the key to getting cheaper clicks. Audience temperature is the measure of your prospective client’s awareness of your business and the desire to purchase. I’m sure you’re already familiar with the concept of “cold” leads versus “hot” leads, which is why we use temperature as the measure for this scale. Clearly, you should use different images and language for cold leads that aren’t familiar with your business versus hot leads that already know, like, and trust your business. This is step one to ensure that your ad resonates with your target audience. Again, if the ad doesn’t resonate and instead annoys users, then Facebook will effectively penalize you with higher cost ad placements. 2. Match Your Ad with Your Target Demographics Most businesses do a good job with this since it’s basic marketing 101. I’m sure you know the demographics of your ideal customer personas. Facebook gives you plenty of options to laser-target an audience using basic demographic information, interests, and behavioral data. Be sure to use all the available targeting options and consider adding exclusions to your targeting to exclude Facebook users that are not going to love seeing your ads. 3. Use Scroll-Stopping Images If you do a good job with #1 and #2 above, then you’ll make your job a lot easier when it comes time to select images for your ads. You need to know exactly who you’re targeting and where they are in terms of their familiarity and their desire to purchase. The key here is to test images that will likely get the user to stop scrolling to learn more. Once the user stops scrolling and you have her attention, then it’s all up to your ad copy… 4. Match Your Ad Copy to Your Audience As you know by now, each step in this process builds on the previous steps. Do not try to draft ad copy until you have completed steps 1 and 2. Otherwise you won’t know exactly who you’re talking to and your message will be too generic. Your offer and call to action must also match the audience you’re targeting. For hot audiences ready to buy, you’ll be more direct with your sales offer. For cold audiences, you’ll likely need copy that first introduces your business so that you can follow up with more direct offers later. 5. Test Different Bid Strategies Lastly, test different bid strategies to see if you can drive down your cost per click, or more importantly, your cost per lead/sale. As a general rule of thumb, I recommend launching ads using the Lowest Cost bid option because this will give you the full range for your ad costs. If you launch with a different bid strategy using a cost control then Facebook will limit your ad placements and you won’t know the upper and lower limits of the ad costs. Once your ads have been running and you have cost data, then consider testing one of the following bid strategies: Bid cap – This allows you to set a max bid so you keep your costs as low as possible Target cost – This option is best when you want to set a target cost per action (ex. cost per lead or cost per sale) Highest value – This option is only available if you’re tracking purchase values in your Facebook Ads account. Telling Facebook to optimize for highest value can help maximize your return on ad spend (ROAS). As mentioned above, there is no one-size-fits-all bidding solution so you will have to test to determine which one works best for your campaigns.