Navigating the World of Facebook Ads

We’ve seen the numbers, powerful testimonies and heard the overwhelming proof that they work… yet we shied away from taking action. Facebook ads — we know it’s a powerful tool, yet we’ve been hesitant to make the leap to test them out.

Over the past couple launches of the Share-worthy Design course, we’ve decided to jump in and finally give them a try. We’ve tested various ad graphics, audiences, copywriting and strategies. Today, I wanted to share what’s worked best for us, so that you can have some guidance in testing the waters for your own brand! We’ve seen the results first hand (though we’re still learning how to measure it!), and can attest that they are definitely worth tinkering with whether you have an upcoming webinar, course launch, or product promotion in the works.

But first — hello! I am SO thrilled to be sharing with you a little bit about myself, my experience working as Spruce Rd’s assistant, my journey of navigating the world of Facebook Ads, and more. 

First, allow me to introduce myself — My name is Cameron, and I have been Spruce Rd’s assistant for right around 8 months now. To say Jamie and I met in the most beautiful of ways, would be an understatement. My husband and I host people in our home through Airbnb and Jamie was actually one of our guest’s way back when. I loved how my interest in opening my home to strangers and learning about their stories correlated with how Spruce Rd. pays close attention to incorporating a business’ story in designing their brand.

Facebook Ads

One of my first experiences, shortly after starting my job with Spruce Rd. was to do some research on Facebook ads. Just like many things on the web, the slew of information was overwhelming. Everybody had a different idea, a different theory, and different ways of creating their Facebook ads.

Luckily, we discovered a step by step FB Ads for Launching course from the lovely Farideh. Farideh’s course walked us through the “non-user friendly” side of setting up your Facebook Ads Manager account, all the way to sorting data collection to know how to best improve your ads based on your audience. Though the process still took a lot of work and a lot of time, Farideh’s course was a great place to get us started. We knew nothing about how much money I should be putting into each ad, or how long I should keep it up, but Farideh had done the research for us!

Once the hard work of setting everything up was complete, came the fun part — actually creating + testing the ads! Creating the ads, playing with the different images, changing the audience settings and watching our conversions grow.

Experimenting with Facebook ads will always be an evolving process for me. The ads manager is constantly being updated and every Spruce Rd. product or Share-Worthy Design Course promotion we advertise will peak the interests of different people. Learning to recognize those audiences, and how to draw them in is the on-going challenge.
 

So which ad performed best?

During our latest launch of the Share-worthy Design for Freelancers course, we tested a couple Facebook ad graphics to see which was the most effective in terms of conversion. Before diving into which ad performed best, I’ll let you in on what results we were measuring. To kick off the course enrollment, we offered a free webinar revealing our entire client process. (If you missed it, you can catch the full video in the course!). To encourage enrollment for the free webinar, we tested the waters with promoting through Facebook ads. The two images above were launched at the same time… can you guess which performed best?

Personally, we favor the bottom illustrated version, however the top image performed MUCH better! One trick we’ve learned is to test multiple images throughout a couple days, then drop the lowest performing ad and focus all efforts on the highest converting image. In this case, our audience favored the photography based image.

Why? It’s hard to pinpoint exactly, however the top image tells the story better. At a glance, it is much easier to understand what the workshop will cover through the image of a client brand guideline. The audience who would be interested in attending a client branding process webinar, would most likely be familiar with a brand guideline, and intrigued to click on through to the sign-up page!

So, there you have it. A few tips + lessons learned in the world of Facebook Ads. We hope that once you dive into FB ads, that our tips can help guide you in the right direction!

I have truly loved these unique opportunities I have been given to learn new things because of Spruce Rd. Discovering the world of Facebook Ads, or given the chance to write a blog post are just two of the many.

Putting yourself in situations that push you and make you grow, will never be a bad decision. Joining the Spruce Rd. family has definitely contributed to my life’s experiences and my story, something I will be forever grateful for.

Cheers!
Cameron | Spruce Rd. Assistant