My Secret Weapon: Facebook Ads Manager Tool

I've said it in the past and I'll say it again: I'm always looking for ways to make the most of my time. Whenever a process can be sped up or automated, I'm all for it.

Most of the time, I share these tools with you. There are, however, a few tools I have not shared with you about... and this is one of them.

As many of you know, facebook's ad system can be very tedious, and to resolve that problem, Jacob and I have been using Facebook Ads Manger extension for Firefox.

I've used this over the past few months and it has literally redefined how I look at facebook as an advertising platform, and has helped me to make hundreds of thousands of dollars instead of what I was making on facebook advertising platform (very little).
So What Does Facebook Ads Manager Do?

Facebook Ads Manager allows you to automate much of the tedious ad submission process saving you an innumerable amount of time.


Customization

The toolbar allows for the creation of facebook ads in any way possible. It has all the features you'd expect and allows for split testing by image, text, location, age, and gender. You can even save your settings in a .ad file for later use, or to transfer them to co-workers between computers whether by email or otherwise.


Ad Naming

Ad naming is also an awesome feature. With the ability to add details like targeting information and sub ID, you can easily track your best performing ads. The tags also work in ad titles and and copy for easily including such things as age or country, state, and city names in your geotargeted ads.


Value: Save Time

What's even better is that upgrades are released on a regular basis. As facebook has been updating their platform, the developer of this tool, Jonny, has consistently been rolling out updates.

Although the $200 price tag could seem a bit high, there is SO MUCH value in this that it's an absolute steal. There is a monumental difference between time spent setting things up with this tool vs. if we actually had to take the time to make all our ads manually. It really does pay for itself practically overnight.

You can get this tool here.
How does facebook feel about this tool?

I asked my Facebook Rep about the automated tool and if Facebook was ok with it. Our rep was perfectly ok with it, so there's a bit more security knowing that facebook ads manager is here to stay and they are ok with people using it.
Facebook Advertising

If you're still unsure on how to advertise on facebook, here are a few posts:

* Scaling Your Facebook Campaigns to $100,000.00
So you’ve finally found a profitable campaign on Facebook. Hooray! The problem is, you’re only making $50 bucks profit a day. So how do you scale that? More importantly, how do you scale it to make 6 figure revenues per MONTH like the big guys?

Scaling in Facebook is something that I have been working hard to figure out.

Honestly, I’ve been so used to Google Adwords and other Pay per click keyword engines, that learning how to scale in Facebook was quite a challenge for me. You can see on my affiliate blog, that I write MOSTLY about PPC marketing tips. This was because for the longest time, I would fail at most Facebook campaigns.

I’ve always found however that if you fail enough, you’re bound to find some success. I mean, there are only so many ways you can do it wrong! ;)

I’m used to scaling PPC campaigns (great video interview…) but I had to relearn most of what I knew in order to gain even more revenue through Facebook.

Now, my company is hitting 6 figures per month in revenue just from Facebook alone.

So here are some really helpful tips on scaling your Facebook campaigns:

* More Ads! – Making more ads with little changes can have a big impact. Normally in PPC Engines, I was so used to just split testing 2-3 ads at a time and letting those run that I had to change my mindset. With Facebook, you can run literally hundreds of ads at the same time, going to the same offer.
* Targeting – Targeting on Facebook is where you need to be creative. In fact, if you’ve found a small profiting campaign, chances are, your targeting is actually pretty broad. In my experience, most newbies target very little. So, target more specific things. Remember, people in one place in life might convert differently than another. People at one workplace might convert differently than another. Test them all… ages, geographical location, sexual preference, etc. People at x might convert different than Y. Most people group them all into one large lump of demographic targeting. If the ad is not profitable, you kill entire sub sections which might have been profitable. This might take time, but it’s worth the effort. You can put a small budget on each test to maximize your testing efforts.
* Images – Images are well known as the main factor in producing a maximum click through rate. The higher your click through rate, (usually) the higher your ads get shown. It’s simple enough to know that you should be testing multiple images. If you find a new image that has a much higher click through rate, you’ve instantly scaled your campaign. Test as many images as you can afford. Some images are so odd but work amazingly well. Some images you think would work great, yet perform poorly.
* CPM bidding – Seeing as I am a big pay per click guy, I was so used to the CPC model that it was very hard for me to break away from. Think about it though. Facebook is trying to maximize revenue. If they can get an advertiser to promise to pay a set amount regardless of clicks for 1000 impressions, they have just reduced a lot of risk on their part. Therefore, if you have a good ad, switching to CPM based models really can help you increase your traffic flow. Facebook favors the lower risk (to them) ads.

So now you should be ready to start making some bigger profits with Facebook. The trick is, of course, finding a profitable campaign to begin with.

I have a simple guide about Making Successful Facebook campaigns as well as Shoemoney has a couple great posts on running a successful Facebook campaign.

Now it’s just a matter of doing some actual work…

* Making Successful Facebook Campaigns
Facebook is a advertising system that I have hated for a while. The number of campaigns I have tried on it are huge while the number of successes are so dismal. To advertise on Facebook really takes a certain type of person and understanding of marketing.
Mindset to make a Successful Facebook Campaign

First off, if you're a big Search Engine Pay per click person such as myself, you have to completely change how you think of structuring campaigns.

With most search pay per click advertisements you are paying for advertisements on things people are actively looking for. With facebook however you're trying to get peoples attention on something they may or may not be looking for.

Instead of aiming your search keywords at a particular thing people are looking for, you now have to dive deep into the mindset of a person who you are wanting to buy from you. Who are the people who GENERALLY buy this product? Who are the people who have general interest in the product you are trying to sell.

The great part about facebook is that you can target your campaigns VERY well. You can make campaigns to 27 year old females in California who like the show family guy. It's all about who you are trying to sell to.
Ads

Now that you are thinking in the terms of what your target demographic, it all comes down to ads. Ads are really the most important thing with Facebook.

If you have a good Ad, then you can really make a good chunk of change. Your Ad's click through rate is almost directly proportional to the amount of traffic you will receive. Ads with a CTR of 0.1% and below are a lot less likely to be shown.

If your ads have less than that, chances are you're going to have to pay a nice chunk of change to supplement that low CTR.

One of the single biggest things you can do to increase your ad CTR is to change the image. The image is what is going to catch the eyes of your viewers and thus has one of the biggest impacts on your CTR.

The next is obviously the headline.
Overall

Overall facebook can result in nice profits but it really does take a good amount of work to discover which ads work. You have to target the right people, test a TON of ads, get the high CTR, and overall probably have your ad copied after a few days.

That being said, I wouldn't consider facebook a long term campaign money maker. It's a short term campaign system unless you either own the offer you are promoting such as a service or store or have an exclusive affiliate campaign that is limited to a few people.

Any more experienced facebook advertisers feel free to chime in here if they have been able to make it a more long term system.