This post was contributed by Gavin Bell
Are you looking to build your list and increase the number of people visiting your landing page? Looking to learn how you can use Facebook ads to do that? Whether you’re looking to grow your list, increase the number of people downloading your lead magnets, or generate more sales, there’s no better way to do it than Facebook ads. So if that’s what you’re after… you’re in the right place!The importance of using landing pages
Before we dive into how to drive high-quality traffic to your landing page, it’s first important to clarify what a landing page is and what it should do. Put simply, a landing page is the page someone “lands on” after clicking on your advert. A common mistake I see business owners making is running their Facebook ads to a generic page such as their homepage. However, If we want our ad campaigns to be successful, we need to ensure that the page we’re sending people to is optimised for the action we want that person to take. When I refer to a landing page, that’s really what I mean: A page you build specifically for your ad campaign, designed to push the person that lands on it towards one specific action — such as downloading a guide, signing up for an offer, or buying a product. The reason I share this with you is because you could have the best Facebook ad campaign in the world, with the perfect audience targeting, incredible creative, and compelling copy. But if people are landing on a page that doesn’t convert, it doesn’t matter how good your ad is and how much traffic you send to your landing page… you’ll never see the results you need.What does “quality traffic” actually mean?
It’s important for us to determine what quality actually means when we speak about high-quality traffic. Because quality varies from business to business. A mistake I see regularly is businesses solely focussing on trying to drive the cheapest cost per result possible — but there’s something just as important (if not more important) than the cost per lead. And that’s the quality of lead. Let’s take the sales funnel for a local health practice, for example. They could create a funnel, offering people in their local area the opportunity to get a free consultation for back pain. You’d forgive them for wanting to achieve the lowest cost per lead possible, right? But that’s not actually what you want to aim for. You want to focus on the quality of leads. And if that means spending more, then that’s okay. It’s simple numbers at the end of the day. Let’s say this health practice generates 100 leads at just $5 per lead. But because they’re poor quality (can’t afford services, not in pain, just signing up for the fun of it), only 5% of those convert. In that case, the practice has spent $500 on ads. 5 convert and spend $100 each. They break even. However, let’s say they spend $500, but this time only generate 40 leads (because they asked for more information on the form). This costs them $12.50 per lead. But because they’re much higher quality, 25% of those convert into paying customers at $100 each. The practice would make $1000. So, when we talk about high-quality traffic, we need to understand that high-quality doesn’t just refer to low-cost. It goes much further than that. Ultimately: are the people we’re sending to our landing page actually interested in buying from us?3 steps to driving high-quality traffic with Facebook ads
Now that we’ve covered the importance of having a landing page that converts and we understand what quality actually means, let me show you how we put this together and create a kick-ass campaign that gets results. I’ve got a 3-step process we’ve developed by spending over $1M in Facebook ads each year. There are so many variables that go into a Facebook ad campaign and can alter the success of it:- Coming up with an offer people actually want
- Having compelling ads that encourage people to take the offer
- Having a landing page that converts (as discussed)
Step 1: Create free value-driven content
When you, as a consumer, are scrolling through the internet, how do you feel when an ad pops up? Chances are it annoys you because you’re being interrupted. Someone is trying to offer you something before you even know who they are. There’s a good chance your customers are thinking the same. We also know how important first impressions are in life. The last thing you want to do when you’re trying to grab the attention of your customers is to annoy them. To get around this, what you need to do is to start creating and distributing content that provides value and solves problems for your potential customers. Here’s why: By providing something of value first, it allows you to build trust with your audience. You’re helping them, solving a problem for them, without asking for anything in return. When you create video content, it can act as lead qualification for you. How? Well, let’s take a look at one of my clients, ScottsBassLessons.com. Scott regularly posts free bass guitar lessons on his Facebook page. He’ll answer questions, solve common problems, and share educational and entertaining content on his page.
Now… who do you think is going to consume that content?
People interested in learning to play the bass!
And who’s not going to watch?
People that aren’t interested in learning to play the bass!
Like I said above, this is fantastic because the free content we have produced has essentially just qualified people for us… potentially saving us thousands of dollars in testing (if we were to run audience tests in our advertising).
If people watch your free content, you already know that they’re interested in what your business offers — plus you’ve already started to build a relationship with those viewers.
Step 2: Use retargeting ads to drive viewers to your offer
Have you ever been on a website, looked at something like a pair of shoes, and then had an ad for that same pair of shoes follow you around the web? That is retargeting! It’s an incredibly powerful thing to do. And the good news is that it’s super simple to set up. On Facebook, you can retarget anyone who has consumed your videos with an ad that sends them to your landing page. The reason we do this is twofold: The people receiving your ad now already know who you are, meaning they’re much more likely to engage. This sends signals to Facebook that your ad is high-quality and thus you get cheaper results. The only people that will receive your ad are ones who have qualified themselves, meaning the people visiting your landing page are going to be quality. Who doesn’t want that? Better results, for less! If you’re unsure how to create your retargeting ads on Facebook, here’s a quick guide:How to create your video retargeting audiences in Facebook
1. Go to https://business.facebook.com/adsmanager/audiences
2. Click on ‘Create Audience’
3. Click on ‘Custom Audience’
4. Click on ‘Video’
5. In ‘Engagement’ you can now select which videos you want to retarget from and how long someone must have watched them to be included. I recommend 25%.
6. Choose the number of days
7. Name your audience
8. Click on Create Audience
9. That audience will now be available to use when creating your campaigns!
Step 3: Create lookalike audiences from leads and increase your retargeting audience
As incredible as retargeting ads are, there’s a problem: You have a limited number of people in that audience. Which means you’re not able to scale it. If you were to 10x your budget, let’s say, you’d end up just hitting the same people 10x more. So, what’s the solution? You need to increase the size of your custom audience… and the only way to do that is by increasing the number of people watching your videos. And the easiest way to do that? Use Facebook ads to promote them. But you don’t want just anyone watching the videos you created — you want qualified people watching those as well! And that’s where lookalike audiences come in. A lookalike audience is a type of audience you can create on Facebook. It’s where you take one of your custom audiences (such as video views, like you’ve already created) and you tell Facebook to find more people that “look like” that audience. In essence, you can ask Facebook to find more people like the people who have already watched your videos!How to create your lookalike audience
Creating your lookalike audience is incredibly simple:1. Go back into the audiences section of ads manager (using the URL above)
2. Tick the box next to your video views custom audience then click on the three dots, and ‘Create Lookalike’
3. Simply choose the country you want to target
4. Then choose your audience size. This is based on the percentage of the population. 1% is the most specific and 10% the least.
5. Click create audience
6. You can now use this audience when promoting your videos!
This creates a powerful feedback loop. It continues to get better and better the longer it runs. The more people watch your videos, the larger the retargeting audience. The larger the retargeting audience, the better quality the lookalike audience. The better quality the lookalike audience, the more people watch your videos. And on and on. So, a quick recap: Step 1: Produce high-quality content that entertains or educates your audience. Step 2: Create a retargeting ad that targets anyone that’s watched your video, directing them to your landing page. Step 3: Create a lookalike audience to increase the number of viewers in step one. This is a tried and tested system we’ve used on countless client accounts from solopreneurs to worldwide organisations and it works every single time. It works, not because it’s a hack or a tactic. It works because you’re going back to the basics of human communication. We don’t like ads from strangers that try and sell something. So instead of trying to force a message down their throat, you go one step further and create something they’re interested in. Then, by the time they receive your follow-up ads, they already hopefully know you and like you enough to take the action you want them to take. Are you going to try it? Let me know in the comments below! Gavin Bell is a multi-award winning entrepreneur, speaker, podcast host & director of Fat Pony, a Facebook advertising agency that works with brands across the world. Gavin helps brands across the world to utilise Facebook in a way that not only builds their audience but turns that attention into revenue.
