9 Ways to Improve your Facebook Ads Bid Strategy

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In recent months, the Facebook advertising space has been plagued with unique setbacks due to the latest privacy policies and the pandemic. As a result of these changes, Facebook advertisers are now required to do more than was necessary a few years ago to attain success.

And with over 10 million active advertisers on Facebook competing for the same pool of buyers, having a compelling ad design and ad copy alone just doesn’t cut it anymore.

One element of success you must get right is your ad bidding strategy.

Essentially, your Facebook ad bidding strategy determines who sees your ad, how many people see your ad, and how much it’ll cost you to have your ad shown.

To help you set and improve your Facebook Ads bid strategy, we’ve compiled a list of 9 effective tips you can employ to bid better and wiser.

9 Ways to Improve your Facebook Ads Bid Strategy

1. Test different ad objectives within an ad campaign

Choosing the right objective to bid for, gives you maximum control over how Facebook charges you for your ads.

To identify the ad objective that generates the most results for you, you have to experiment with multiple ad objectives within the same campaign until you find the ad objective that matches your campaign goal.

Here are the various ad objectives that you can optimize for:

  • Conversions: When you optimize your ad campaign for conversions, your ad will be delivered to people who are most likely to convert. With this option, you only get charged when someone converts after engaging with your ad.
  • Landing page views: When you optimize your ad for landing page views, Facebook shows your ad to audiences that are most likely to click it and load your chosen landing page.
  • Link clicks: When you optimize your ad campaign for link clicks, Facebook will show your ad to people who are likely to click the link on your ad. You only get charged when someone clicks on your ad.
  • Impressions: This ad objective focuses on getting your ad seen by as many people as possible. When you optimize for impressions, you only get charged every time an impression of your ad is shown, with the price calculated per 1,000 impressions.
  • Daily unique reach: Choosing this ad objective restricts the number of times your ad gets shown to your target audience to once a day.
  • Post engagement: By optimizing your ad for post engagement, Facebook shows your ads to people who are more likely to engage with your ads, i.e like, share, comment, etc.
  • Brand awareness: When you choose this objective, Facebook will show your ad to audiences that are most likely to have their interest piqued once they spot your ad and those who will recall it.
  • Lead generation: Optimizing for this ad objective allows Facebook to deliver your ad to people that are more likely to share information, such as their name, email address, phone number, and so on.

It is important to note that you only get charged by Facebook when the goal of your chosen ad objective is fulfilled.

Furthermore, if you’re wondering what the most common Ad objectives are among agencies and SMBs, in this Databox’s recent study on Facebook Ads performance, we learned that the most common Facebook ads objectives for agencies are conversions, followed by traffic, lead generation, and brand awareness, while the most common Facebook ads objectives for SMBs are brand awareness, followed by conversions, traffic, and lead generation.

2. Use the inspect tool

Facebook’s inspect tool helps you identify ad performance issues and gain insights into your ad set delivery (auction competition, audience saturation, audience overlap, and so much more).

Use this tool to get a broader overview of the impact of your ad bidding strategy on the rise or decline of your ad costs. With the knowledge gained from using this tool, tweak and improve your ad bidding strategy accordingly.

3. Consider using the lowest cost bid strategy

The default bid strategy on Facebook is the lowest cost, and it requires no manual control or effort. With this bid strategy, Facebook focuses on getting you the most results for your ad budget, i.e. you let Facebook automatically call the shots on your behalf.

However, for better results, it is advisable to use the lowest cost bid strategy alongside some manual controls, such as:

  • Bid cap: This allows you to set the maximum bid for all auctions as opposed to giving Facebook full bid control over your value or cost goals.
  • Cost cap: This Facebook bid strategy option instructs Facebook on how you want them to bid on your behalf regardless of market conditions. When you opt for this, Facebook will aim to get the most results for you while keeping the average Cost Per Action within or below your set cost control.

It’s best to use this strategy, if:

  • You have a strict budget and specific goals
  • You have the time to monitor your bids
  • You’ve identified your target audience

4. Duplicate existing ad campaigns

To generate significant results (ROI) when bidding with a limited budget, consider duplicating an existing campaign rather than increasing your investment in the ad campaign. Keep elements like ad copy, landing page, placements, etc, and review the selected target audience to avoid audience overlap.

5. Challenge your competitors with a higher bid

Facebook ad auctions are typically won by ads with high estimated action rates, ad quality, and high bids.

With that in mind, it makes sense to use a high ad bidding strategy, as it provides you with better engagement and allows your ad to be seen by audiences likely to take action.

Additionally, with this bid strategy, you’ll be able to gain quick insights into the performance of your ad campaign. If you’re spending a lot of money but seeing little to no returns, it indicates that something is wrong with your campaign and needs to be changed. Based on this knowledge, you can review your a and modify your bids to get the results you want.

6. Use data to set your bid amount

If you’re unsure how much to set your bid for, calculate the estimated value per click.

Use the average amount a customer is willing to pay for your product or service (average lifetime customer value) and expected conversion rate to determine your expected value per click.

The result becomes your bid amount.

7. Build custom audiences

One effective way to improve your Facebook advertisement bidding strategy is to spend time gathering customer data (your ideal audience pain points, demographics, and interests). Use your learned insights to create unique audiences for your ads.

When you run bids on custom audiences, you’re more likely to see lower your cost per result and gain more conversions and ROAS.

8. Consider Minimum ROAS bidding strategy

The minimum ROAS bidding strategy gives you more control over your budget and revenue. It is a good strategy for advertisers looking to play it safe when bidding and managing potential losses.

With this bid strategy, you indirectly communicate to Facebook to bid for the highest revenue-generating opportunities.

Here is an example of how the minimum ROAS bidding strategy works:

Let’s say you have a budget of $200, and your goal is to get $300 as a reward for your ad efforts. This makes your return goal 150% and ROAS: 1.50.

However, to ensure your ad doesn’t receive little to no impressions, you must aim for an attainable goal. If you set an unrealistic goal and Facebook can’t reach it, your ad delivery might be halted as a result.

This ad bid strategy is best suited for advertisers with historical data to rely on (to estimate conversion rates and marginal cost) and those with revenue-based goals.

9. Always experiment

What works for one person may not work for another, and what works for one campaign may not work for another. The only way to learn the best bid strategy for you is to conduct lots of testing, monitor results, and improve as you go.

By conducting continuous tests, and time, you’ll be able to set benchmarks for future campaigns based on data and improve your ad bids with the knowledge gained.

Wrap Up

There’s only so much this powerful social media platform can do to keep all advertisers happy and satisfied, and considering there are a limited number of ad spots available, it is crucial to put your best foot forward when placing a bid.

Use the tips in this guide to your advantage, and watch how both your ad campaigns and social media strategy improve.

Dhaval Sarvaiya
Hey there. I am Dhaval Sarvaiya, one of the Founders of Intelivita. Intelivita is a mobile app development company that helps companies achieve the goal of Digital Transformation. I help Enterprises and Startups overcome their Digital Transformation and Mobility challenges with the might of on-demand solutions powered by cutting-edge technology.

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