How much should I spend on Facebook ads in 2018?
Great question, Business Owner.
The answer is probably not what you’d expect: spend less on Facebook ads than you do on other marketing efforts.
Facebook ads are more expensive than ever.
The price of reaching your audience with Facebook ads has risen substantially over the last couple years and the trend shows no sign of slowing.
Why is this happening? Because every small business owner is thinking, “How much should I spend on Facebook ads?” So they all go look for guidance and spend money on ads.
With so many market entrants, the price of ads rises. Supply and demand.
Being that Facebook has over one billion daily active users, the price trend is unlikely to change any time soon. Facebook has the audience and businesses want to reach the right people.
Spend more on Facebook ads than print ads and radio.
Regardless your budget, spending on Facebook ads is a better deal than print, direct mail, radio or television. Don’t waste your money there.
Facebook has the data to help you get targeted. If your audience is a niche (it should always be), then Facebook can help you hit that niche with ads.
Traditional media outlets are spray-and-pray. Facebook is data-based targeting. Targeting wins.
The only effective way to use traditional outlets is to break through the noise with something buzz-worthy. You need something that shakes the narrative and moves the press to you, like the Ryan Holiday trick.
If that’s what you need, I can help you craft that narrative, script the story we run and have the follow-up marketing plan to drive it home. Call me, maybe?
Have a plan for Facebook ads.
A question more important than “How much should I spend on Facebook ads?” is “What is my plan for Facebook ads?”
If you have a product to sell, ads are a great way to move that product. People might like to know a bit about your company first, though, like your why. You do have a strong WHY don’t you?
You need to setup a funnel. You’ll need content to drive people to, and through, that funnel.
Quality content converts. Cheap content probably won’t. Spend on quality content.
You can outsource content to India on Fiverr for $5. You can buy a suit at Walmart. Does that mean you should? … Great. Glad that’s settled.
If you can’t afford to spend on a quality writer in your own language/country, write the content yourself.
Spend more on content than ads.
Content builds trust. It conveys knowledge and expertise. Content drives traffic.
“Content is King.” That’s a saying that many people use for a good reason. “Ads are Kings” is not a saying that anyone uses at all.
In a study of e-commerce companies, Sumo found that companies with more revenue produce more content and generally, longer content.
I happen to be a writer who would be happy to help you with your content strategy and execution.
If you ask me, “How much should I spend on Facebook ads?” I’m going to redirect you to this article.
Spend more on strategy and your marketing team.
Facebook ads can be incredibly effective at getting a sale. And sales are the lifeblood of business.
What’s the cost though? You need to dive into the metrics and see if you’re getting the right return on investment. And that will depend on your company stage, your target market and what you sell.
Data is key. Data helps guide the strategy and lets us know what parts of the strategy are working and which parts need improvement.
Marketing should be creating sales. A full-scale marketing effort will move your product or service better than just slapping some ads in front of people you think might buy.
Need to know how much you should be spending on marketing? Here’s a tool to help calculate that budget.
Maybe a podcast would be a wise investment for your business. The podcast itself won’t make you money, but it could drive your audience to your sales funnel. At $10/month, it’s worth a shot. If you can reach a few hundred people, it’s more effective than paying for ads to reach your audience.
You could sponsor a podcast in your niche.
Consider this: a Facebook ad gets scrolled away from attention easily and quickly. A 30-second soundbite about your business on a podcast with real fans will get heard. Added bonus value: that 30-second clip won’t be removed, so the ad stays lives in perpetuity. Facebook ads don’t have that staying power.
Now, you’re going to need a script for that podcast ad. Where are you going to get that?
Hi again, I’m Johnny. I write. I also have a podcast. I’ll interview you after you hire me. You get publicity and content, I get an episode and a contract. Win-win.
That’s a key growth hack tip for 2018: sponsor a small podcast.
Podcasts are starting every day, so there are plenty available – too many really. Most don’t have sponsors paying them, so the podcast host(s) will likely give you a favorable deal. If their podcast gets more popular and people listen to older episodes – you win the long game too!
That’s part of that staying-power advantage that doesn’t exist with Facebook ads.
But you know what has more staying power than a podcast?
Word-of-Mouth trumps ads. Always.
Drive WOM buzz. How? There are too many ways and too many unique situations to describe in this post, but you can contact me for a free consultation and I can help you think of a few.
Referrals will always be better than ads. Referrals provide social proof. They are a stamp of approval from a trusted source. An ad is just something a company thought might convince me to buy, so they spent a few dollars for me to see it.
I scroll past ads quickly. I often have ad blinders. I’m not alone. I’m in marketing and I ignore most ads. How do you think people who aren’t in the industry feel about ads? Hint: people don’t love ads.
Referrals can be from friends or trusted sources, like micro-influencer marketing.
This is another topic for a private consultation, but the gist is that micro-influencers with audiences that are your niche are a wise investment. Being another weight-loss product advertising through a random, attractive woman with a million followers on Instagram is not a good marketing strategy.
Find your evangelists
You can incentivize evangelism, which is a really good strategy.
The double-sided referral is classic. It works because the people using your product want more of it, and they want to share the experience with a friend. Encourage sharing. It will benefit everyone.
Evangelists will sell your product for you. With your customers selling for you, spending less on ads and keeping more in profit becomes an option.
Think about your business and your target audience. The ones who will love your product are the ones to focus on turning into evangelists.
As you see now, it’s not really “How much should I spend on Facebook ads?” but “How do Facebook ads fit into my overall marketing strategy?”
When you’re ready to dive deeper into that, contact me here.
