Facebooks ads, a marketing schtick? The better you target, the more they click.
That’s my rendition of the beans, beans song. [curtsies]
And now that you have that stuck in your head … let’s talk about an often overlooked factor with a Facebook ad campaign: For how long should your Facebook ads run?
But first, some basics.
Your ad’s target audience should depend on the goals of your ad campaign. However, there are a few best practices we live by:
Like most social media strategies, there are no hard and fast rules. BUT there are a few things you should consider with your runtime.
Be wary of the following two common reactions of those who see your ads:
Ad Fatigue: Happens when your selected audience sees your ad too many times and a) glazes over them, b) rolls their eyes at them out of boredom c) becomes overly annoyed and hides all ads from your Page. This hurts you no matter what because you ad becomes less effective and your return on investment (ROI) suffers.
Ad Blindness: Occurs because consumers are inundated with ads. As ad copy and images are “copycatted” and users see them more and more frequently in their feeds, they become “blind” to stale ads and tactics. This is why it’s SO important to test copy, images, colors, and to make sure your ads put an emphasis on being unique.
We like to stick to two weeks max for most Facebook ad runs. But it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. You should let the data tell you what to do.
Here’s how:
Here’s an example of two ads I ran for a realtor client.
Here’s a quick glance at a few of our stats:
7-day run
14-day run
You can see based on this small test that there’s a big difference between the small run and the longer run.
However, the results aren’t definitive enough to tell us for absolute sure that the shorter run was the reason the ad performed better.
This is why we live by ABT with our ads. More testing will hopefully uncover better patterns and show us which ads convert more and why.
I know it seems like a lot of work, but without it you’re really wasting ad dollars on Facebook. And whether you’re paying to play with your own money or someone else’s, that’s NEVER a good idea!
What have your Facebook ad campaign tests shown you about frequency? We’d love to know! Give us a shout out in the comments below.