Posts Tagged demographics

15+ Facebook Advertising Tips - Part Eight - More Ad Copy and Landing Page Suggestions

It’s been a while since our last installment in our 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips Series.Facebook Advertising Tips

Last week I gave you five tips for better Facebook landing pages and before that we learned how to write compelling ad copy on Facebook, how to choose the right images, how to rotate your ads, and much more in our 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips Series.

So previously I listed six tips for writing good ad copy on Facebook and talked about a specific ad I did for Jimmy Buffett Facebook fans. Well it turns out I left out a few tips that really apply to both landing pages and ad copy so I am listing them here.

1. Mention “Facebook” and Facebook-specific terminology. This is a tip I got from Brian Carter. He gives examples like using the words fan page, wall posts, likes, and groups. This, as I mentioned in the ad copy post, worked very well in promoting our guitar course to Jimmy Buffett Facebook fans.

2. Address their common situation. I mentioned targeting middle-aged, married women who like Dancing with the Stars in part two on demographics. The more I thought about it, I realized a common situation for this highly-populated group: they usually have husbands who refuse to take dancing classes. So, we addressed that situation with a headline, ad copy, and landing page that focused on this general theme: “Wives, get your husbands to dance!” We asked them “are you tired of sitting on the sidelines at weddings and parties?” and “does your husband refuse to take dance classes?” Well, “we have the answer!”

Consider their situation and ask them about it. Then give them the answer.

Side note: to some extent the reverse can be true. One ad that was mildly successful targets men who are middle-aged, married and have a certain set of likes. Odds are their wives nag them about things like this. So we targeted them from a gift-buying perspective. It’s not the best campaign ever, but worth a shot.

3. Be timely. Speaking of Dancing with the Stars, one lesson we learned is that targeting a group like that is 3-4 times more effective when the show is actually airing. Duh! If you are targeting affinity groups that are seasonal, such as television shows or the like, make sure to target them in-season, not out of season.

4. Don’t be TOO targeted. We have all see the ads that say “find such-and-such in YourTown.” We all know they are targeted and they come across disingenuous. So don’t mention things like their age, specific location, or things like that. Unless it really does make sense and it is a truly local campaign (car dealer, dentist, etc.).

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15+ Facebook Advertising Tips - Part Four - Just Do It!

Yesterday in our 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips Series we covered using demographic information to create the right images.Facebook Advertising Tips

The day before we covered how to find demographic information and how to target effectively (gender, age, Likes & Interests, location, etc.).

And on the first day I encouraged you to use CPM bidding in your Facebook ads.

It dawned on me this morning that I never really actually addressed the concerns that a lot of people have about Facebook advertising. And I never really ever actually said to “Do it!”

That is the critical first step…doing. Set up an account, follow a few of these guidelines, read up on other blogs about it, and then start creating ads.

Here are the three most common holdups that people have about doing Facebook advertising in my experience:

  1. There’s not enough volume. Really? Facebook just passed 500 million users. There are 1.8 billion internet users, so that makes up almost 30% of the internet population.
  2. To put this into perspective, Facebook is approximately twice the size of the adult population in the United States.Facebook Advertising Population

    It would be the third largest country in the world, behind only China and India.

    It has 357 times more users than New York Times subscribers.

    The volume is there.

  3. Yeah, but what about if I target small? Then the volume is almost non-existent.
  4. See yesterday’s post about the number of people who list “learning something new” or similar phrases in their likes and interests. Certainly targeting certain demographics is wise. In fact, my average ad group has about 15,000 people in it. But I have 500 ad groups. Even with 50% overlap (a very high estimate) I am still reaching almost 4 million very targeted people. Start small and expand your targeting…I think you will be very surprised at who you can reach and what will be effective.

  5. Conversions are too low. How can I ever make it work from a ROI perspective?
  6. Keep reading…we will address conversions and ROI soon. But, if you want a quick glimpse, here it is: create specific landing pages for each large group. Apply the same rules of targeting to the landing page and mention Facebook on the page. Notice the plural…landing pageS. Test, test, and test some more. OK, you get the idea and there is so much more to cover on that.

But for now, just get started. Even if it’s $0.20 a click (or $0.20 CPM) or whatever. Even if it’s $20.00/day. In the words of Nike, just do it!

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15+ Facebook Advertising Tips - Part Three - Images & Demographics

Yesterday in our 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips Series we covered using demographic information, how to find it and use it effectively to target the right people.

Now that you know how to target them, how do you write an ad that will attract them?Facebook Advertising Tips

Well, let me first say this: I suck at ad copy. There.

Seriously, I am not very good at it. Occasionally I will stumble on something that works though. So, trial and error is pretty much how I end up with any good ads.

Writing a good Facebook ad is similar (in my opinion) to writing a good PPC ad with a few caveats. We will cover that part tomorrow.

Today though, I want to cover specifically how to choose the right image.

Here are 8 tips to choosing the right image.

  1. Study the demographics and find the appropriate picture. People like to see people who look like themselves. If you are targeting middle aged men, show a middle aged man. Here is an ad for Learn & Master Guitar that has performed very well. It is for men ages 40-45.Facebook Advertising Images Demographic Targeting
  2. Sometimes this is not true as in the case of the best performing ad for men ages 20-28. Oddly enough, the best ad so far was very cartoonish and amateurish. Lesson: sometimes the audience is just weird. But, I did think the image would stand out enough to a younger audience that it was worth trying.Facebook Advertising Using Demographic Targeting
  3. Another lesson learned from #2 is to test various images with the same ad copy. This will be a recurring theme in this series…test, test, and then when you are tired of testing, test some more.
  4. People are used to images by now. They have to stand out and not be TOO professional. Sometimes something goofy actually works.
  5. Consider using an image that is not 110X80 (or has a white background or other color). Sometimes smaller works better because it is different.
  6. Consider using a border around the image. Something that contrasts Facebook blue, like red or orange.
  7. One thing that I have not had the chance to test yet is seasonality. Does it help to rotate the ads based on the time of year? Like a guy playing guitar on the beach in summer and in front of a fireplace in winter? Do the clothes they are wearing matter? Just a thought.Facebook Targeting Demographics
  8. Lastly, think hard about the audience. A 50-year old man has dreamt of playing for 20+ years most likely. A 25-year old guy just wants to learn how to impress his friends at parties. The picture and ad copy change significantly based on this.

And one last thing I forgot mention yesterday. Approximately 880,000 people in the U.S. alone have “learning,” “learning something new,” “learning anything new,” and similar Likes & Interests. Not a bad subset of the population to hit! Consider adding those to your targets as well.

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15+ Facebook Advertising Tips - Part Two - Demographics

There is an old saying in real estate that what matters is “location, location, and location.”Facebook Advertising Tips

In Facebook ads, it’s “demographics, demographics, and demographics!”

But how do you know the demographics? And how to you group your demographics? How do you target them better?

Well, I hope Part Two in our 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips helps.

The first place to start is our “Course Demographics” page in our Affiliate Tools Section. This will give you what I would consider a medium level view of the target markets. Broad would be “people” and narrow would be “women in the southeast U.S. ages 34-38, married and college educated, who like ‘Twilight’.” These demographics fall somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.

So, for this lesson, I will focus on two examples. Our Learn & Master Home School Editions and our Learn & Master Ballroom Dance course.

What is the demographic for the Home School Editions?

Using strictly the demographics we provide,  you will first see that they tend to be lower middle aged, 25-44 years old with moderate to high incomes. They are typically married.

A little bit more research will show you that they are predominantly women (of course their are men, but as far as buyers, they tend to be the women).

Using Facebook’s Targeting, you can narrow it down even further. Here is a screenshot of an ad targeting Home School parents (click for a larger view).

Facebook Advertising Demographics

As you can see we narrowed it down to the United States only. You may choose to regionalize it more. Are there certain parts of the country that will tend to buy a DVD-based course? Perhaps more rural areas where there is not as much instruction available locally?

Then we targeted a small age group (27-32). I segment each broad age group into much smaller age groups. So for the Home School Editions I am targeting 25-45 year olds. I broke that down into 25-26, 27-32, 33-38, 39-43, and 44-45. Older women will typically have older kids and vice versa, so perhaps we may stumble upon the perfect age group in there.  No rhyme or reason really for those exact numbers, but you get the idea. You could literally do it year by year if you wanted.

I then narrowed it down to married women who speak U.S. English only.

The likes and interests part is the most important part in this example I think. I literally picked anything that has to do with “Home School” or “Homeschool” and ran with it. If they are in any of these groups, they ARE our target market.

Now for the example of Ballroom Dance, I decided to target an even more specific audience, but yet one that still reaches almost 300,000 people and has been getting super high CTR (click through rates) and impressions.

The ad targets married women and suggests they get their husbands to learn Ballroom Dance. It has a picture of two people dancing and the clincher is the subject line (more on that factor later in this series) and the ad copy. It plays on “Dancing with the Stars.”

So once again, I targeted:

  • the United States only
  • ages 25-50 (broken down into smaller groups)
  • women
  • married
  • English (US)
  • Likes and interests: ballroom dancing, ballroom dance, dance, Dancing with the Stars, and more.

One caution in targeting demographically: Be careful when targeting people who are TOO in your niche. An example of this might be targeting the Likes and Interest of “guitar” when running an ad for Learn & Master Guitar. These people already play guitar…therefore, they are not in your target audience most likely. Tread carefully there. I am not saying to NOT include that, but if you do, put it in its own ad and bid low and set a low budget.

OK, I think that is it for this part of demographic targeting in our 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips Series.

Until next time…

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Legacy Learning Affiliate Tools Section

Quick post since a lot of affiliates have asked me about it.Affiliate Tools Keywords ShareASale Tutorials and More

Have you checked out the Legacy Learning Systems Affiliate Tools Section? If not, you should.

In it you will find ShareASale Video Tutorials, an article and news archive, keywords for Pay Per Click, FTC disclosure guidelines, content for your site, an archive of our Affiliate Insider Newsletter, course demographics, and more!

It is updated frequently and you can follow us on Twitter or stay tuned here for updates.

I hope the tools help you!

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Three Affiliate ABCs Podcasts

I was very pleased to be a part of three Affiliate ABCs podcasts last week with hosts Debbie Carkey and Vinny O’Hare.

In the first podcast, we discuss Evaluating Merchants for your Affiliate Site. This podcast is great if you are looking for other merchants in other niches. What should you look for?

I talk about how to choose merchants based on the customer perspective and the affiliate perspective covering topics such as “leaks,” navigation, the order process, commissions, cookie length, terms and conditions, banner quality and quantity, affiliate manager activity and responses, and more!

Check out this podcast here:


icon for podpress Affiliate ABCs #26 Evaluating Merchants for your Affiliate Site [28:22m]: Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

And you can also subscribe to it in the GeekCast podcasts in iTunes.

Next we did a podcast about communicating with your Affiliate Manager. Whether you are working with us or another Affiliate Manager, this podcast is full of great tips for working with your Affiliate Manager. While some Affiliate Managers are admittedly not very responsive or open to questions or giving tips, a lot of us are very open and WANT to communicate with our affiliates. Some of the highlights of this podcast include: asking for help with creatives, banners, etc., communicating with instant messenger, phone, email, and forums, and discussing commission rates.


icon for podpress Affiliate ABCs #26 Tips About Communicating with Your Affiliate Manager [31:05m]: Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

And the last podcast, Affiliate ABCs #27 is a spotlight on our affiliate program at Legacy Learning Systems. Unfortunately this podcast cut off at 25 minutes due to a bad connection, but thankfully we got through most of it.

We discuss the many ways that our courses can be promoted by affiliates and the different demographics and target audiences.

You can check out this podcast here:


icon for podpress Affiliate ABCs #27 Merchant Spotlight - Legacy Learning Systems [25:38m]: Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

Enjoy!

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Facebook Advertising for Affiliates from Logan Thompson

I have made it very clear that I believe in affiliates using Facebook advertising. The targeting is great for affiliates promoting a niche product like ours.?The cost is currently very low.?The conversions are good. It’s got everything you could ever want in an effective marketing medium.

Here are some previous posts about Facebook Advertising?from our blog:

Facebook Targeting that Works with our Program

Facebook Advertising Adds New Features

Facebook Ads for Newbies

Amazing Social Media Stats

http://legacyaffiliateblog.com/images/blues-guitar-small.jpg

Today, I had the fortune of reading a post from Logan Thompson, one of my favorite bloggers in affiliate marketing.

He gives 10 tips for How to Profit on Cost Per Sale Campaigns with Facebook in which he shares some of his successes?and errors with Facebook advertising.

I have to disagree with #5, which says: “Don’t Promote Expensive Products.”?Based on our own advertising and the feedback from others, if the targeting is right, our products can really fit our niche market.? Our niche is typically best targeted towards middle-class, middle-aged?people?who are actively interested in the product we are offering. So focusing on the right keywords and narrowing it down to our niche will get you some great results.

Currently, the 25-year old and up crowd only makes up about 30% of the users of Facebook, but that group is also growing at about 200% per year.? There is a sizable market there!

Overall, I give Logan’s post?two big thumbs up?though, so check it out.

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