Types of Facebook Ad Campaigns and How to Map Them to Your Funnel

Facebook has over 2.91 billion monthly active users, and with over 36% of the world’s population regularly using Facebook, this makes it one of the best platforms to run your ad campaigns.  

No doubt, you would have seen one of the many Facebook ad campaigns as you scroll through, and maybe even been tempted to click on one. But how do they work, and how can you make sure that your online advertising efforts are getting seen by the right people? 

Regardless of if you have the world’s best product or the most fantastic online content, it’s not going to get the attention it deserves if you don’t have a solid marketing funnel strategy in place. 

One of the best ways to bring new customers to your sales funnel is by advertising on social media platforms, like Facebook. Read on to find out how to make the most of Facebook ads and campaigns.

Different Types of Facebook Ad Campaigns

There are three stages to running a successful Facebook advertising campaign, these categories are awareness, consideration, and conversion. 

You need to understand what each of these consists of and how they work together as part of an overall marketing funnel. Skip a step, then you’re not going to be nurturing those potential clients into converting customers. 

Awareness

This is the first stage of the funnel. If no one knows your product exists, then you’re not going to generate any sales. Facebook recommends using awareness-style ads to boost your brand’s identity. 

The best awareness campaigns will be designed specifically for your demographic therefore reaching people who are most likely going to be interested in it. For example, if you have a product aimed at GenZ, your campaign should reflect this audience in terms of topic, style, and the way you write the copy.

An awareness advert is optimized explicitly for gaining views from people in a specific niche or demographic.

Consideration

This is a big category and has a number of roles. After you have established brand awareness, you’ll then need to nurture your potential customer. Skip this step, on any social media platform, and jump straight to the sale, most likely won’t work and will come across as spammy. 

Consideration advertising campaigns cover six different areas;

• Traffic
• Engagement
• Views
• Lead Generation
• Messages or conversation
• Install or sign-ups

Your advertising campaign should cover each of these, with the objective geared towards low-intent actions. This helps to hone in on your target audience, who are the ones most likely to eventually purchase. 

A well-strategized consideration stage of the campaign will reduce the risk of low-quality leads.

Conversion

Conversion ads are, exactly what they say, Their main goal is to convert followers or viewers into customers. These adverts are optimized for conversions as they are designed to drive individuals directly to your site. They often have an element of intrigue, a freebie gift, or some enticing deal to get viewers to click through and either purchase or sign up for something. 

What Is a Marketing Funnel?

A marketing funnel is a name given to the visualization used to help understand the sales process. It helps to explain the process of turning leads into customers. The different types of Facebook ad campaigns all fit somewhere into this funnel.

Think of the shape of a funnel, it’s large at the top and small at the bottom. The large end represents the broad number of potential customers, also known as leads, possible. Through the nurturing process, these leads and whittled down into customers. Eventually, they will end up at the narrow end of the marketing funnel, which is the purchasing stage. 

In the ideal world, you would want all of your initial leads to turn into customers, but this is never the reality and the same with any type of business. 

Think of a clothing store, for every hundred people that walk in, some might just be looking, others are more interested and try on a few things, they might decide these items aren’t suitable and then leave without buying, they might be given some advice from a shop assistant to try a different item, and then they may go on to make the purchase. This is exactly how a sales funnel works, only using Facebook ads, it’s in the digital domain.  

Cold Vs Warm Audience

When it comes to customers and converting them, you may find some of them are keen, some of them not so much. This is referred to as a cold or warm audience. 

The Cold Audience is those who are unaware yet of your product. These are totally new customers who have not yet seen or engaged with your advert. 

The Warm Audience is customers who have seen your FB ads, and have somehow engaged with your content. They may have shown interest by visiting your page or watching your video.

Using Ad Campaigns

Different types of adverts work for each of the different stages of the funnel. Here we’ve given you some ideas that work well for each stage of the sales funnel. When you start to plan your marketing strategy make sure you include these different types of advertising. 

Awareness

Images and videos work well for building awareness. These can be animated, or with live people. Short and snappy adverts work best at this stage. Ensure your brand or product is visible, at the awareness stage viewers won’t have a vested interest in hanging about and so your advert needs to stop the scroll. 

You could also use a pain point at this stage, with a banner-type advert stating a problem. Another useful way to gain interest is by tapping into the FOMO (fear of missing out) factor.

Consideration

Once a potential customer has taken the first step and is now aware of your brand, now is to start the nurturing process. They know what your brand is about, so now they will have more of a vested interest in finding out more. 

Advertising campaigns that work well at this stage are things that involve engagement. Questions, polls, and opinions all work well. By finding out what your potential customers want, you can really start to hone in on your advertising campaign and tailor what each demographic sees. 

Depending on what your product is, webinar signups are also a great way to nurture clients.  

Conversion

Adverts that work well for converting customers are things like sign-up offers, freebies, and giveaways. If you have done the nurturing stage well, the viewers at this stage are most likely going to be on the cusp of buying.

Things like short videos showing flash sales, or timed features, work well for this stage, giving them the gentle nudge they need to move forwards and make the purchase. 

3 Tips For Creating Facebook Ads

If you’re nearly ready to draw up a strategy for your Facebook ad campaign, here are some great tips to follow. It can be a bit of trial and error to find the sweet spot to get the most conversions. It’s important to remember all the stages of the marketing funnel to achieve the best return on investment. 

Targeting To A Narrow Audience

Create an advertising campaign aimed at your target. This is who you’ll need to woo and convert. This will probably involve taking on a different person, the key is to be specific. Tailoring ads to women is just too general, but if you tailor your advertising effort to women over 30, living in the US who like fitness, then you’ll have a much better chance of success. 

Use Different Facebook Ads For Different People

It’s ok to have multiple ads for a single product, as long as the end product appeal to that person. For example, if you’re a clothing store that sells men’s and women’s clothing, then have some adverts geared toward your male customers and some adverts aimed at women.

Ensure There’s a Call-To-Action

Believe it or not, so many brands fail at this. The most effective Facebook ads have a clear goal and tell the customer exactly what they want them to do. 

By not having a clear CTA, you’ll miss out on valuable customers simply because they clicked away, your advert was unclear, and there was no incentive for them to take action. 

Have You Set Up Your Facebook Ad Campaign Yet?

If you’ve still got questions about setting up your successful Facebook ad campaigns, then ClickSquad has all the information you need. Our experts have been helping businesses since 2008 build their online presence and run successful digital campaigns.

Our proven strategies are based on quantitative and qualitative data, giving your business the best chance for success. Our knowledgeable staff makes sure your website is getting high-quality traffic and uses conversion tracking and ads management software from day one to ensure your marketing campaigns are optimized accordingly. Speak to one of our team today to arrange a free strategy call.