Facebook ads will be the most evergreen marketing strategy to help your business generate new leads while growing your business and increasing ROI.
There isn’t any doubt that Facebook ads are god-like when it comes to generating sales and leads. Yet, the chances of someone purchasing your service or product the first time they notice or engage with your brand are less likely than you would think.
If you want to get people to convert to your offer, you need to have several touchpoints. Plus, it would help if you had a funnel to move these leads from one point to another.
However, most DIY marketers tend to overlook that Facebook funnels are unique because they seem complex. Then with a lot of moving parts, it can be easy to mess up and be confusing.
If you want to be set up for success, keep reading to learn how to create a great Facebook ad funnel that will increase your ROI and boost conversions.
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An Explanation of Facebook Ads Funnels
The Facebook Ads funnel is an ad campaign sequence that takes users from a stranger to a paying client. Facebook Ads funnels are technically multiple campaigns that contain multiple ads based on different value propositions delivered at the right time to the right audience.
There are three main stages in the Facebook Ads funnel:
- Top of the Funnel – Awareness
- Middle of the Funnel – Consideration
- Bottom of the Funnel – Decision/Conversion
With Facebook, you can build an entire funnel on just one platform. This can be accomplished by showing users different ads at different stages of the buyer’s journey, each relevant to them. You may increase conversion rates, grow sales and even reduce advertising costs by building funnels using Facebook Ads.
Your advertising dollars would be wasted on cold audiences that aren’t likely to convert without a Facebook funnel.
Most inexperienced marketers use Facebook ads and then run it for a little bit and give up when they see that the costs are pretty high or there are not enough conversions.
The whole problem is that they are going straight for sale and begin pitching products to people who have never heard of the brand. The goals are not in sync with the audience, and many users are not ready to purchase a service or product after a single ad.
How to Create the Best Facebook Ads Funnel
It is the process of determining the best Facebook Ads sequence to execute across the buyer’s journey to build the perfect Facebook ads funnel. Increasing audiences’ interest, warming them up, and eventually converting them into customers.
As part of funnel building, you must choose the right Facebook campaign objective, target the correct audience, and use the proper ad format and message at every step.
Stage 1: Turn Strangers into Prospective Customers
During the Awareness stage or at the top of the funnel, your Facebook ad objective is to attract new audiences. You must educate strangers about the “life-changing” benefits of your products/services if you want to warm up cold audiences and convert them into prospects.
Consider raising awareness and making people realize they need your product/service instead of starting your funnel with a Conversion objective. To do this, highlight your audience’s interests, needs, and problems and how your services can solve them. Put a lot of emphasis on your unique advantages in your ads. Information and education should be the focus of this stage.
A consultation, quote, demo, or free trial is a bit early to ask for a conversion. Although the free stuff is all free, most people are hesitant since giving contact information to a stranger is still a big deal.
Even in the Awareness stage, a free downloadable such as a report, an e-book, or a checklist can prove helpful if it matches your business model. Your offer should be as non-threatening as possible. You haven’t gotten many sales yet, so don’t worry. Investing in this stage will set the stage for later phases and boost your conversion rates at the right time.
Objectives of the Top of the Funnel Campaign
Facebook optimizes for goals (or actions) determined by your campaign objective. For the Awareness stage, you should choose the following campaign objectives:
- Messages
- Video views
- Traffic
- Reach
- Brand Awareness
You might consider your initial goal as a gateway to gaining customers and weeding out low-quality traffic. Micro-conversions such as reach, traffic, and video views should be emphasized in the Awareness stage. Think about what you want your audience to accomplish right now and select your objective accordingly. No matter how small or insignificant they might seem, the right audience and the right objective will lay the groundwork that will pay off many times over in the later stages.
Advertising Copy, Call to Action and Offers to Target Cold Audiences
It would be best if you were patient when advertising to cold audiences. It would help if you were gentle with your prospects. You can use Facebook ads for advertising your brand, attract new customers, and warm up potential customers. Attract their attention. Offer fun, valuable and engaging content without requiring users to do too much work. Cold audiences are better off taking actions that do not require commitment. Another reason to get great results from that video viewership you mentioned earlier. Cold audiences may find it challenging to give their contact information even for a free giveaway. Therefore, tread carefully.
Make sure that you communicate the importance of your product/service in your Facebook ads. Rather than directly pitching like a door-to-door salesperson, focus your copy on unique features and benefits. Here are a few proven Facebook Ads CTAs for the top of the funnel:
- Send Message
- Listen Now
- See Menu
- Watch More
- Learn More
The CTAs in all of the examples so far include the “Learn now” button, so you likely noticed a pattern. This is because it’s a call-to-action text that cold audiences are least intimidated by. You can also use call-to-action buttons like “shop now,” “download,” and “sign up.” Do some A/B testing to find the button that resonates best with your cold audience.
It would be wise to avoid discussing your Facebook ad’s price during the Awareness stage. Your products aren’t going to work if you pitch them directly to a cold audience. You are dealing with strangers at this point, so trying to sell them anything will only drive them away. Offers with a higher level of commitment should wait until the following two stages.
Stage 2: Convert Prospects into Leads
The middle of the funnel is where you collect prospects’ contact information so you can nurture them further. Make use of audiences already interested in your product/service from the previous stage. Consideration refers to your pursuit of prospects who might be interested in buying your goods. Prospects should be exposed to your core offer (products/services) when visiting your website or landing page. Make sure your website has an optimized user experience with a professionally designed website.
A good time to be more direct is during the Consideration stage, when you can provide users with something valuable in exchange for their emails, such as a downloadable pdf, webinar, special offer, or free sample or trial.
Additionally, it’s advisable to have a customized landing page optimized for capturing leads at this stage. Data collection about leads is essential. By remarketing to leads, you can nudge them towards a purchase and gradually increase the likelihood of a conversion.
Prospects are still far from making a buying decision, so be careful not to scare them off by being too pushy. The Consideration stage is also an opportunity to build trust.
Prospects who try your products or download your lead magnets are getting close and personal with your brand. But even more so, they get a glimpse of what it’s like to be your customer. So, ensure it’s a smooth experience.
Middle of the Funnel Campaign Objectives
In the Middle of the Funnel or the Consideration stage, you want to turn prospects into leads by collecting their contact info. That’s why you want to choose campaign objectives that focus on lead generation, including:
- Conversions
- Messages
- Lead Generation
- Engagement
- Traffic
Traffic objectives can be very effective in driving more visitors to a high-performing landing page or a product page. Business models that involve direct communication with customers are good for messaging objectives. You can also test the Conversion objective if you are getting good results with your MOFU campaigns to see how it compares to conversion rates and acquisition costs.
Advertising Copy, Call to Action and Offers to Target Warm Audiences
It would be best if you nudged prospects to turn their interest into desire in the Consideration step. Getting signups is also a high-value action. If you want people to provide their contact information, then a good lead magnet is needed. Keep in mind that the amount in Facebook ads should be proportional to what people perceive the value. It should be fair for a freebie to be given out in exchange for an email address or phone number. By building trust gradually, a deal can be closed more easily.
If you are an e-commerce merchant offering easy-to-understand products, you can also include a menu bar CTA that says “shop now” on your product pages. The product pages are also capable of capturing leads via a pop-up form.
Do not show your cold audiences the same offer you’re showing warm audiences. The Awareness ads focused exclusively on the benefits and features of the product. You can use more aggressive language for your call-to-action since the target audience knows you and is interested in your products/services.
The following are examples of suitable CTA buttons for the Consideration stage:
- Install Now (for apps)
- Shop Now
- Book Now
- Learn More
- Subscribe
- Get Quote
- Download
- Get Offer
- Sign Up
Step 3: Bringing Leads to Life – Turning them into Customers
You want leads to becoming paying customers at the bottom of your Facebook advertising funnel. Buying directly has finally become a reality! With freebies and lead magnets, you’ve introduced your brand, gained users’ interest, and built trust. It is now hotter than it has ever been. Your value proposition must be communicated so your leads will be excited and want your products. Additionally, get them while they are hot, so users are more likely to act fast.
The main idea of the conversion phase is to convert prospects and leads on your core offer, that is, to get them to buy your product or sign up for your service.
Stage 4: Increasing your CLV post-purchase
Customers who are already loyal to you are your best customers. Post-purchase Facebook ads nurture existing customers rather than ignore them. As the customer lifetime value (CLV) increases, you will generate additional referrals through word-of-mouth marketing and also increase the CLV of existing buyers. Facebook ads should be used to encourage two immediate actions post-purchase:
- Recurring purchases
- Referrals from friends and family
Profits come from existing customers since they are relatively easy and inexpensive to re-acquire. In comparison to acquisition costs (CAC), the CLV increases when a customer makes repeated purchases. An improved CLV/CAC ratio indicates a more profitable customer.
In addition, loyal customers can promote your brand on their social networks and take away some of the heavy lifting from you. Consumers trust word-of-mouth promotion and reviews. During this phase, there is no need to worry about anything.
As long as you do business with your existing customers, you do not have to bend backward to get their attention. Please give them a bit of appreciation and a discount to encourage them to return.
Increasing Conversions by Moving Users Through the Funnel
Facebook funnels are created by modifying audiences based on user’s actions, including and excluding users based on that action. For example, you can choose to include or exclude users that have already converted from your conversion stage Custom Audience while creating it. To maximize your Facebook funnel, it is imperative to exclude users.
You will show ads from all previous funnel stages even to users who reach the Bottom of the Funnel without the Exclude function. That would be a waste of your advertising dollars and a complete mess. Make sure you exclude the remarketing audience of the current funnel stage from already-converted users; they will move to the next one.
Conclusion
This is a powerful marketing strategy that utilizes Facebook Ads Funnels. Through it, you can reach new customers at the right time with the right ad, boosting conversions and helping grow your company.
The number of touchpoints required for each funnel step may vary depending on your business model and target market. Additionally, you may need multiple funnels to promote different products, discounts, locations, etc. When you track your funnels, you can quickly become confused and overwhelmed. Before configuring your Facebook campaigns, map out the entire funnel journey.
