PPCChat | Facebook Bidding | 3rd September 2019

Hosted by @duanebrown, this week’s PPCChat session was focused on Bidding on Facebook, Difference between audience and keyword bidding, Best practices to enhance the skills and more.

Q2. How do you pick the bidding strategy for your Facebook campaigns? Do you have a process or a phone tree path you use?

We almost always use automated bidding in FB. It outperforms other options. @Mel66

Lowest Cost is the Default -Introduce Cost Cap if prospecting a broad audience and you have really solid pixel data. @markpgus

For the most part, it came down to client size, audience size, and client needs (ie ecom, engagement, awareness, etc) @JonKagan

Most of the time Automated and on CPC. I change it when necessary.@StephanieErne

We mostly use automated, not much experimentation there. @bufoting

I spend a lot more time on objective strategy than bidding (I know that was a topic I missed a couple weeks ago though). Lowest cost by default and automated to begin, impose limits only if not meeting goal and need to control spend/delivery. @akaEmmaLouise

I like lowest cost, but also CPC if CTR is not great. @andreacruz92

It was a nice metric to peak at, but it won’t make or break any of my accounts. @MaverickAdverts

For longer campaigns I trust automated bidding. This helps me narrow my variables. @MaverickAdverts

We use auto-bidding on FB – strategy & ad group organization is typically where we focus our efforts, have always let FB take care of the bidding (and yet I yell at Google Ads for wanting to do that, don’t judge) @amaliaefowler

For eComm, I usually look at AOV if your highs aren’t that much different than the average I go for conversion. If AOV can swing pretty high I go with Value. Overall – Start with conversion, testing with value. @zmste

Lowest cost and I’ll adjust if need be. @adwordsgirl

Q3. How is audience bidding different than keyword bidding? The power of 5 campaigns is real.

Keywords are going the way of old yeller. The reality is, just cause you can trigger an ad doesn’t mean you’re qualified to see my ad. So its ultimately more efficient to aim for the individual over the behavior. @JonKagan

Is there really a difference? You just look at the goal you want and adjust accordingly. Maybe when looking at the client; they are way more likely to say ‘I want to be found on keyword x no matter what the ROI is’. They never say that in regards to audience. @StephanieErne

This is going to come up a lot but keyword bidding is intent-focused, whereas audience bidding/targeting is disruptive & therefore NEEDS to be more engaging. Keyword folks already have an idea of what they want, audience folks may or may not. It’s on you to show them. @akaEmmaLouise

IMO they are largely the same. Keywords are great signals of intent, but so is someone’s online activity. There’s a reason so many think FB is listening to them. They’re really good! We just became used to the control of KWs and treating queries the same. @markpgus

This is my rant about search… We tried to become so mathmatical with our approach that we were convinced that all clicks on an exact match term were equal in value… when that’s not true. No matter the targeting, some will be more likely to buy than others. @markpgus

Q4. What are some best practices those new to FB family of apps should know? Or even those looking to sharpen their skills in the coming months

It’s not as simple as you think it is and it is not as complicated as you think it is either. Overthinking/underthinking will get you stuck. Test things. @amaliaefowler

USE ASSET CUSTOMIZATION!! Feeds/Stories/Articles/Audience Network all have a different feel when the user encounters your ad. Don’t try to use a one-creative-fits-all approach just by shortening the copy. Test different CTAs, test different imagery/vids. Test it all. @akaEmmaLouise

For the love of god understand FB’s native reporting. Do not treat FB numbers as truth and then leave the client wondering why GA numbers don’t match. @markpgus

EASY EMAILS 1. ALL WEBSITE VISITORS/PAGE INTERACTORS ETC 2. A GIVEAWAY 3. A LEAD AD WATCH THE MF EMAILS FILL YOUR CRM UPPPPP. @markpgus

I am surprised by the amount of leadforms sometimes. If applicable I try to test them. Not really any tips in regards to bidding. @StephanieErne

Q5. Let’s do an AMA (ask me anything) …. though me as in the community and not literally just me. What did we not cover that you want to know about Facebook bidding? Maybe even the Facebook system in general. ASK AWAY!

Has anyone ever had real, genuine, quality success with FB lead gen ads? @amaliaefowler

Yes! I even have a couple of case studies in the works based on them. Spoiler: videos + lead form combo is BOMB. Get the users the info they need, then let them take action right there. I also recommend the “Higher Intent” option that lets them review before submission. @akaEmmaLouise

To all you lead form nay sayers! It depends on your approach. Here are tips 1. At least 1 manual field 2. Remarketing is 3. Consider qualifying via a nurture cycle before sales trys them. (These leads aren’t equal to others) 4. Qualify with Creative!!! @markpgus

Has worked well for real estate clients (although we get a lot of junk leads but the overall CPA has been much lower than click to website campaigns) @bufoting

I think it also depends on the target audience and what you are ‘selling’. In our campaigns, the amount of spam is often 0 or just a few. (at least as far as the feedback from the client reached me ) . They are not large campaigns so that also might help. @StephanieErne

For one of my EDU clients, they’ve been able to open a second cohort for one of their graduate certificates (2 semesters in a row now!) due to the volume of qualified leads we’ve been able to collect through FB lead forms. @akaEmmaLouise

PPCChat Participants:

• Duane Brown @duanebrown
• Ameet Khabra @adwordsgirl
• Jon Kagan @JonKagan
• Mark Gustafson @markpgus
• Stephanie Erne @StephanieErne
• Emma Franks @akaEmmaLouise
• Melissa Mackey @Mel66
• Amalia Fowler @amaliaefowler
• Abdus Samad @bufoting
• Zach Stew @zmste
• Andrea Cruz @andreacruz92
• Mike Lewis @MaverickAdverts