The essential 7 step checklist to building successful e-commerce Facebook Ads

Newsflash – success from Facebook Ads cannot be guaranteed (run fast from anyone claiming that it can!), Ads are not an overnight fix and there’s no ‘secret sauce’ recipe for consistently getting great results from Facebook Ads.

However, I’m writing this just after sending weekly reports out to our clients in which we happily reported ROAS (return on Ad spend) of between x4 and x46(!) across our e-commerce accounts. So how do we do it?

 We strategically and relentlessly test every variable in a campaign, we apply knowledge from our combined Ads experience and we invest a lot in our own continual development with the platform. From this we have also developed a 7-step checklist that we work through for every one of our client accounts.

So these are our 7 ‘must haves’ for Facebook Ad success:

1.     A CRACKING PRODUCT(S)

Sounds obvious but even the very best Ads won’t sell a rubbish product, not in the long term anyway!

2.     THE RIGHT LANDING PAGE.

Wherever your Ads lead people needs to load fast, be clear and concise and be congruent with the Ad they have just seen – keep every step of the customer journey in mind and make it as easy for them to convert as possible.

3.     THE RIGHT OBJECTIVE

Ads need to be optimised for the right objective, this enables Facebook to filter and find the people who are most likely to take the action that you want them to take. If you want engagement your ads will be served to those most likely to comment and engage, if you want more traffic to your site the algorithm will find the ‘clickiest’ people who it knows will be easy to sway to click through on something, and if you are selling it will help you reach the engaged online shoppers.

4.     IN-DEPTH UNDERSTANDING OF THE CUSTOMER

It’s the old “you can’t be everything to everyone”…seriously, you can’t! Take the time to understand your ideal customer. What are their habits, likes, dislikes; what brands do they love; where do they holiday; what time are they most likely to be online etc. the better you know that ONE persona you are targeting, the more clarity you will have when you speak to them.

5.     TARGETED AUDIENCES

Building high quality audiences, and not just one! Test a mix of interest based and custom audiences and refine as you learn what gets the best results.

6.     COPY THAT CONVERTS

Copy is key, and to win at really great copy you need to be meeting the customer at the right part of their buying journey and answering their questions before they even ask them! To do this you need to address the specific pain points that your product solves for them, and speak to them with empathy – drilling back down into what you learnt in number 4 above!

7.     SCROLL STOPPERS!

Having a scroll stopping creative that will work for the audience that you are serving it to, and testing different Ad formats to see which resonates best - for some it may be a carousel that stops the scroll whereas others will respond better to a video.

If you can tick off all of the above you’ve built the right foundations to launch a successful Ad campaign and start to drive results from your paid social Ad spend!

If you need further support with Advertising, Nutshell manage paid social media advertising for e-commerce businesses. We’re more than happy to make your life easier and help you take your social campaigns to the next level and beyond!