Summary: Use pages on your website that offer value (blogs) to create highly targeted custom audiences in Facebook. This is a long term strategy that helps to increase Facebook ad relevancy and reduce overall ad spend.
One of the biggest challenges with Facebook ads right now, aside from getting the ad approved, is the targeting. Targeting the right audience is painstakingly slow, difficult and can lead to a very poor audience seeing and clicking on your ads.
And now with the Facebook Relevancy Score, you pay more for ads that aren't relevant, cost more!
Facebook then charges you for this service depending on how you’ve set up your ads, even though the person clicking on your ad may have absolutely no interest in your product or service whatsoever. This means that even if you’re really awesome at defining your audience, you’re probably going to waste a lot of ad dollars on users who aren’t interested in what you have to offer.
So, How Do We Solve This Problem?
The first step to solving this problem is understanding why the typical method for listing your ads is all wrong.
Most personal trainers have a limited budget and might only spend $5/day on ads and even then only run it for a week! Because of the limited budget, the general idea is to get the most bang for your limited buck!
Makes sense...
But this mindset typically leads to panic ads. A panic ad is an ad you might put together in the best way you can to generate a sale. You focus long and hard on the right images and copy to make sure you get as many clicks as possible.
Most personal trainers have a limited budget and might only spend $5/day on ads and even then only run it for a week! Because of the limited budget, the general idea is to get the most bang for your limited buck!
Makes sense...
But this mindset typically leads to panic ads. A panic ad is an ad you might put together in the best way you can to generate a sale. You focus long and hard on the right images and copy to make sure you get as many clicks as possible.
If I came across a Tesco and right next door to Tesco was another leading brand that had a big sign that said, “All products are 10% cheaper than Tesco”, I’d still walk in to Tesco.
Why? Because Tesco is comfortable. It’s familiar and that familiarity is inviting.
When I go to Tesco I get what I need and I’m usually never disappointed. Tesco holds up their side of the grocery store/client relationship.
I’m happy to enter my chip and PIN details at Tesco because we’ve had hundreds of transactions and no problems.
THAT feeling of security is worth paying the extra 10% on your groceries.
How this is related to what we're talking about...
By creating ads for leads and sales straight off the bat to an audience who have no idea who you are, who don’t like you or trust you is the biggest waste of time and marketing budget I see today.
And not just with Facebook ads.
If I came across a Tesco and right next door to Tesco was another leading brand that had a big sign that said, “All products are 10% cheaper than Tesco”, I’d still walk in to Tesco.
Why? Because Tesco is comfortable. It’s familiar and that familiarity is inviting.
When I go to Tesco I get what I need and I’m usually never disappointed. Tesco holds up their side of the grocery store/client relationship.
I’m happy to enter my chip and PIN details at Tesco because we’ve had hundreds of transactions and no problems.
THAT feeling of security is worth paying the extra 10% on your groceries.
How this is related to what we're talking about...
By creating ads for leads and sales straight off the bat to an audience who have no idea who you are, who don’t like you or trust you is the biggest waste of time and marketing budget I see today.
And not just with Facebook ads.
These clicks then take the user to a page that is either designed to obtain new leads or generate a sale.
And that’s where the issue is...
Let me explain:
I shop at Tesco. It’s one of the leading grocery stores in the UK and here in Thailand where I now reside. My wife and I might visit the store 2-3 times a week to get what we need. We know where everything is and see the same faces while we’re there.
Now, if I were to go to a new town or country and I needed to buy groceries, I’d go looking for a grocery store.
How to Create Facebook Ads That Get More Clients
Lead generation is one of the most important goals for any business, as it’s usually the step before sales, but it’s not and shouldn’t be your only goal.
Other goals include brand awareness and audience building. Brand awareness and audience building are the two goals most personal trainers overlook in their Facebook ads and in marketing in general.
A typical Facebook ad funnel might look like this:
Or if you’re really savvy:
Pretty standard, right? But they’re all about leads and sales.
No foreplay...
Straight in there with a cheesy pick up line. Not the best way to score with a beautiful girl or get a new website visitor to invest in your services.
So how do we create more effective Facebook ads? We try to sell to people who have visited your site many times. People you’ve already established rapport with. People who know, like and trust you. And more importantly, people who have visited certain pages of your website!
We do this with Awareness ads and Audience Building ads. They’ll make your funnel look like this:
Other goals include brand awareness and audience building. Brand awareness and audience building are the two goals most personal trainers overlook in their Facebook ads and in marketing in general.
A typical Facebook ad funnel might look like this:
- Ad > Sales Page > Offer
- Ad > Lead Magnet > Email Autoresponder > Offer
Or if you’re really savvy:
- Ad > Lead Magnet > Retargeting Ad > Sales Page > Offer
Pretty standard, right? But they’re all about leads and sales.
No foreplay...
Straight in there with a cheesy pick up line. Not the best way to score with a beautiful girl or get a new website visitor to invest in your services.
So how do we create more effective Facebook ads? We try to sell to people who have visited your site many times. People you’ve already established rapport with. People who know, like and trust you. And more importantly, people who have visited certain pages of your website!
We do this with Awareness ads and Audience Building ads. They’ll make your funnel look like this:
I call it Value Retargeting. So now you’re thinking that that looks like a lot of work.
And you’re right, it is.
In fact, the Value Retargeting method will yield a ZERO return on investment for some time because it takes time to build up a qualified audience to retarget later. But that shouldn’t matter because you plan on running a long term, profitable business that could survive a recession, right?
Let’s Go into More Detail
We’re now sending people to a blog page that offers valuable information and positions you as an expert. We’re then retargeting anyone who goes to that blog page with a lead magnet. Then we’re sending them an email campaign to even more blog posts and valuable resources, and only after all of that are we going to offer our services.
Simple enough. But here’s where it gets more interesting than a talking unicorn.
A typical ad will get you clients (if it works), but nothing except an empty wallet if it doesn’t work.
By using the Value Retargeting method you never lose a lead that would potentially buy. Here’s why:
You’re no longer spamming people who don’t know you with lead magnets and offers.
Every step of the funnel allows you to re-engage the lead in a different way.
For example, when a user clicks an ad to your blog, they become aware of your brand and get added to your retargeting audience.
You then retarget them with a lead magnet and those who click get added to a new audience, those who don’t get served more value ads (blogs).
Those who then receive your emails get to know, like and trust you and those who don’t will get retargeted based on the emails they didn’t open.
Finally, those who now know, like and trust you get delivered more ads to an offer. These people are WAY more qualified and way more interested in your services.
You can also set up your ads to make sure your offer only reaches people who visited your pricing page and therefore more likely to be interested in your services.
Simple enough. But here’s where it gets more interesting than a talking unicorn.
A typical ad will get you clients (if it works), but nothing except an empty wallet if it doesn’t work.
By using the Value Retargeting method you never lose a lead that would potentially buy. Here’s why:
You’re no longer spamming people who don’t know you with lead magnets and offers.
Every step of the funnel allows you to re-engage the lead in a different way.
For example, when a user clicks an ad to your blog, they become aware of your brand and get added to your retargeting audience.
You then retarget them with a lead magnet and those who click get added to a new audience, those who don’t get served more value ads (blogs).
Those who then receive your emails get to know, like and trust you and those who don’t will get retargeted based on the emails they didn’t open.
Finally, those who now know, like and trust you get delivered more ads to an offer. These people are WAY more qualified and way more interested in your services.
You can also set up your ads to make sure your offer only reaches people who visited your pricing page and therefore more likely to be interested in your services.
The $5 Question
Can you run the Value Retargeting ad method on only $5/day?
You can.
Furthermore, I believe you should be setting up these ads INSTEAD of going straight in for the ads that might bring about a quick return on investment.
You can.
Furthermore, I believe you should be setting up these ads INSTEAD of going straight in for the ads that might bring about a quick return on investment.
Why?
Because there are a TON of free ways to market your business while these ads run in the background and create highly qualified audiences for you. Most personal trainers don’t utilise these free methods straight off the bat because they’re bombarded by other personal trainers and marketers who say Facebook ads are the best way to go.
Examples of free fitness marketing tactics include:
- Running a free guinnea pig trial in exchange for testimonials
- Partner with and create relationships with local businesses
- Asking friends and family to refer their friends and family
- Write gust blogs on other fitness websites
- Get listed on the best online personal trainer directories
- Ask existing clients to bring a friend
- Create a Google My Business account and improve your local online presence
- Make yourself known in Facebook groups and on Twitter
I’m literally just listing things off of the top of my head and I’m sure with a bit of basic research you could find 30 free ways to market your business.
My point is this, use free fitness marketing strategies while you build a more qualified audience to send ads to.
It’s easy, when working with online marketing, to fall into the trap of believing that if something doesn’t generate leads immediately, it must be useless. The Value Retargeting method provides the other vital pieces of any online marketing strategy – effective traffic generation and lead pre-qualification, all at a relatively low cost.
All of which can sit comfortably on top of your existing social media marketing campaigns.
How to Get Started
Getting started is as easy as creating ads to promote your blogs instead of directly to your sales page. But there are a few things you need to do make Value Retargeting Ads as effective as possible.
1. Set up a Facebook Retargeting pixel
Without a Facebook Retargeting pixel on your site you have no way to track who reads your blog and who visits your "money" pages. Use this guide to set up a retargeting pixel on your website: Set Up a Retargeting Pixel.
1. Set up a Facebook Retargeting pixel
Without a Facebook Retargeting pixel on your site you have no way to track who reads your blog and who visits your "money" pages. Use this guide to set up a retargeting pixel on your website: Set Up a Retargeting Pixel.
2. Create a custom audience for your money pages
Here we need to create TWO custom audiences. One for blog visitors (people who have read your content) and one for people who visit your money pages (Pricing, Services, Get started, etc).
3. Set up your blog for conversions
Just because we're not trying to get more email subscribers with this strategy, it would be plain silly to not take advantage of the extra website visitors.
Your blog is one of the best places to get new subscribers. They've read your material and enjoyed it enough to subscribe. This is an invitation to send them more of the same. Make sure you have subscribe buttons at the top of your page, the bottom of you page, within the content (if it's relevant) and the sidebar.
4. Create an ad and wait
Use Google Analytics or any available website statistics to find your most popular content and then create an ad that sends people to that content. Now we wait. Facebook will slowly start to add people to your custom audience.
5. Create targeted ads
You'll now have 2 custom audiences.
One who have visited you blog. These guys now know who you are and might even like you. You could send an ad to these guys offering an eBook in exchange for an email. They'll be way more receptive to your offer because they know who you are and trust you'll deliver on your word.
The other audience is people who have visited your money pages. You could send these guys an ad that offers to answer any questions about your service. For example, an eBook titled "5 Questions About X Program Answered". People who download that content are VERY hot leads.
That's it. Like I said, this system is nothing new. Most companies use this strategy to impriove their relevancy on Facebook and reduce their overall ad spend.
