Businesses with a Facebook Business page are probably familiar with Facebook ads and “boosting” posts. Advertising on Meta’s platform is incredibly beneficial in creating conversions and increasing leads – even with a budget as modest as $200 – but only if there is an effective strategy behind it. Otherwise, ad spend risks being wasted!

Tired of seeing the Facebook ad budget disappear without results? Keep reading to learn how to increase the effectiveness of your ad spend with just a few simple tips.

Set a Goal

The first step in creating a successful ad strategy is identifying the goals for your ads. Want more leads? Facebook can be a robust lead-gathering platform. Looking for more people to see your content or learn about your business? Run awareness or engagement ads. Hosting an event and trying to increase attendance? Set up an ad designed to get RSVPs.

Because of Facebook’s targeting rules for specific industries, including housing (more on that below), it’s important to understand that home builders can’t target super specific demographics. This means that social advertising for home builders is typically a strategy used higher up in the sales funnel, as opposed to targeted strategies for prospects ready to make a decision.

Another key point to keep in mind when setting goals is how the type of ad affects the budget. A simple way to think of it is the more you’re asking people to do, or the bigger commitment you’re asking people to make, the more expensive the ad will be. For example, asking someone to simply like a post on a page requires the minimum commitment or effort from them and is generally very inexpensive (think under $0.20 per result). On the other hand, asking someone to fill out a lead form so they can be contacted is an incredibly big commitment, so those ads will cost significantly more per result.

Ads Targeting

The messaging and content of a Facebook ad can be amazing, but if the right people don’t see the ad, there isn’t much of a point in spending money on it. A large part of what makes a Facebook ad campaign successful is targeting a specific audience that is more likely to click on it and, thus, create conversions and leads – as long as you aren’t running ads related to housing, employment or financial products.

If you’re not running ads in one of those industries, the ability to choose who ads reach through a variety of demographics means your ads can be highly targeted. When creating social media ads, think about who the target market is and why. Facebook Insights offers a range of statistics that can help drill down to identify their target market based on who currently likes and engages with the business on Facebook or Instagram. Use this information to get started and customize the ads in a way that will provide the best reach.

Special Ad Categories

Ads related to housing are included in Meta’s Special Ads Category, which launched in 2020. This change means advertisers running any real estate ads face restrictions on certain demographic targeting options. The ads can no longer target users based on age, gender, zip code or detailed demographic categories such as household income, current homeownership status and more. Housing ads can still use broader targeting criteria, such as location and general interests. While this may seem limited, it’s essential to remember that these rules exist to prevent discrimination.

Utilize Ads Manager

A Facebook ad campaign should be created through Facebook’s Ads Manager. Businesses with a connected Instagram account can also use Ads Manager to set up ads for Instagram there.

While the bright blue “Boost Post” button looks tempting and easy to use, it is not the best course of action when boosting your Facebook ads. Neither is clicking on any prompts Facebook offers to create an ad. Instead, start every ad by first navigating to adsmanager.facebook.com, and following the prompts to create an ad campaign. This platform provides ways to create the ad, make changes and see the results of both Facebook and Instagram ads.

Continuously Test Different Ads

Part of achieving success with Facebook ads is figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Ads will have different results depending on the target audience, and creative often performs differently. For example, a photo of a well-decorated home interior may perform better than an exterior shot, while a carousel post may do better than a single image. It’s crucial to continuously test different creative and targeting approaches to understand what resonates with your specific audience.

Run A/B testing for a period of time to see how different variations perform, especially when running ads for the first time. At the end of the testing period, use Facebook Ads Manager to compare results. For ads that didn’t perform well, make improvements such as changing the photo, adding a video or refreshing the text. Then, test again. For ads that were successful, continue running them to maximize conversions and leads.

It’s also important to stay up-to-date with shifting trends and audience preferences. As new trends emerge, re-evaluate your target market and update your ads accordingly.

Boost Posts to Maximize Engagement

Our favorite saying related to being a business on Facebook is “you have to pay to play.” Engagement ads are typically the lowest-cost ad type, and they can maximize reach significantly.

It can be frustrating to have a great organic social strategy with beautiful imagery, clever captions and fun videos that no one sees. The average engagement rate for a Facebook business page is around 0.5-0.9%, while anything above 1% is exceptional. This means that for every 1,000 followers a page has, only five to nine of those followers will see an organic post on average. This percentage begs the question, why even create all this content if no one will see it?!

This is where Facebook engagement ads come in. Running this type of ad increases the number of people who see and engage with your content by clicking, commenting, reacting, watching or sharing. When engagement goes up, Facebook’s algorithm sees your content as something people are interested in, making it worthy of being shared. This means your future content is more likely to be shown to more people organically!

Invite People to Like the Page

One commonly overlooked way to gain exposure and grow your Facebook presence is to invite individuals who interact with posts, especially paid ones, is to invite them to like the page. If they already like and interact with the posted content, they are likely to follow the page to keep up to date on the latest social updates. The best part? Inviting people to like the page doesn’t cost a thing and, therefore, keeps more money in the advertising budget!

To do this, navigate to the business page’s inbox and click “notifications.” Facebook will prompt you to invite people to like the page if there are non-followers who have engaged with your content.

Target Using Meta’s Pixel

Meta Pixel is an absolute must for those looking to get the most out of a social ad budget. The pixel is code added to the business’ website that tracks users and collects valuable data to help advertisers target ads better. With the information collected, Facebook ads can be optimized for value, conversions can be tracked, lookalike audiences can be created, and those who have shown interest can easily be retargeted.

Using the information, advertisers can also set up events that are simply specific actions visitors can take on your website. Advertisers can create their own custom events or use the standard events available through Events Manager. These events include actions such as purchase, complete registration, add to cart, contact, schedule and more.

See It in Action

Our Denim Marketing team has successfully incorporated these strategies to create highly effective and affordable Facebook ad campaigns. To demonstrate just how far a $200 ad budget goes, here are two examples of individual ads we have done for our homebuilding clients.

Donley Homes

For client Donley Homes, Ads Manager and the Pixel were used to create ads targeting individuals who visited the Donley website in the previous 90 days and to create a custom audience that exhibited similar online behavior as those who liked the builder’s Facebook page.

Donley’s prospective home buyer email lists were uploaded to Facebook to complete the advertising campaign, and a specific ad was targeted to those individuals. This initial ad had a budget of just $20, resulting in 777 post engagements for a $0.03 cost per result and a 25.26% engagement rate. Other notable metrics include 2,268 people reached, 614 reactions, 6 comments and 9 shares.

Sublime Homes

Facebook ad campaign success was also achieved with client Sublime Homes. When we first started our social advertising efforts with Sublime, a series of A/B ads were run to test a variety of parameters to see what would resonate most with their target audience. The ad created was a Web Clicks ad designed to drive people to the builder’s website. For this ad, we tested variations in the ad set to who and how we are targeting. We spent $25 per ad for a total of $50. At the end of the campaign, the ads resulted in 795 link clicks, 6,928 people reached, an 8.98% result rate and a phenomenal $0.06 cost per result!

As you can see, there’s a lot you can do with a $200 (or less) Facebook advertising budget. Facebook offers an inexpensive means of reaching new audiences or retargeting those who’ve already engaged with a business.

At Denim Marketing, our team is experienced in crafting messages for organic social media and Facebook advertising. As a Facebook Marketing Partner, we have the tools, resources, expertise and recognition to take on any Facebook marketing needs. Ready to get started on your Facebook advertising campaign? Click here to contact us!