To get the most out of your Facebook ad investment, you need to go beyond just launching campaigns. It’s about dominating the competition.

Is this you?

This means overcoming three key challenges: yourself, privacy changes, and your rivals. It’s not enough to target your competitors; you need to win within the entire Facebook advertising ecosystem. This guide reveals how to excel in Facebook advertising and achieve maximum returns.

Conquering Facebook Ads: You vs. Yourself

Before engaging in any battle, you need a solid foundation. Many advertisers focus on outdoing competitors without perfecting their own strategy. Prioritize these Facebook advertising essentials first.

1. Master the Basics

PPC expert Brett McHale emphasizes the significance of mastering the fundamentals: comprehending your target audience and building a robust account structure.

Apply his advice for a solid foundation, or download our complimentary guide below:

2. Craft High-Quality Ads

Like Google Ads, Facebook rewards high-quality ads with better placements and lower costs. In 2019, “ad relevance diagnostics” replaced Relevance Score, comprising quality ranking, engagement rate ranking, and conversion rate ranking. Maintain an above-average ranking for each with these tips:

• Quality ranking: Avoid low-quality attributes such as exaggerated language and engagement bait, which can lead to ad disapproval.
• Engagement rate ranking: Design captivating ads that resonate with your target audience.
• Conversion rate ranking: Use a clear call to action and optimize landing pages for conversions.

Engaging, eye-catching, and interesting? Check, check, check!

Utilize these resources to develop impactful ads:

• 16 Awesome Facebook Ad Examples (& Why They Work)
• 13 Facebook Ad Copy Examples to Inspire You
• The Complete Guide to Persuasive Landing Pages (With Examples!)

3. Construct a Comprehensive Facebook Ads Funnel

Directly promoting profit-generating offers might seem tempting when paying for advertising. However, low-value offers often hold the most appeal for prospects starting their buying journey. These offers keep them engaged and increase conversions on higher-value offers later.

Consider this example: a campaign targeting 200,000 people with a $5,500 budget. With a 70% close rate and $2,600 profit per sale, a bottom-funnel strategy (promoting a free trial followed by a demo) results in 35 deals and an $85k ROI.

Conversely, a full-funnel strategy (promoting content, then a case study, and finally a demo) yields 56 deals and a $140k ROI. Despite initially attracting lower-quality leads, the full-funnel approach proves more profitable in the long run. That’s how to compete effectively.

For further guidance, read our post on building a comprehensive Facebook advertising funnel.

Navigating Facebook Ads: You vs. Privacy

Building a strong foundation is crucial, but conquering your competitors requires addressing privacy changes. Recent years have transformed how we target, track, and optimize Facebook campaigns. Before engaging in competition, master creative yet compliant Facebook targeting. Here are two strategies:

4. Leverage On-Platform Engagement

Retargeting users based on website visits, like newsletter sign-ups, contact form submissions, or product page views, is highly effective. However, iOS 14+ users can now opt out of tracking, impacting the reliability of website retargeting audiences.

A workaround is to retarget users based on interactions with your Facebook page. This approach relies on accurate first-party data from Facebook, allowing you to treat these audiences similarly to website visitors. Explore this and other on-platform strategies further.

5. Utilize In-Market Segments from Search

This tip comes from PPC expert Navah Hopkins. Although Facebook removed or restricted certain targeting categories (e.g., employment, real estate, finance) for privacy reasons, you can still target these audiences through Google Search campaigns using in-market audience targeting. This drives qualified traffic to your website, allowing you to create a custom audience for Facebook lookalike or retargeting campaigns. Discover more creative Facebook audience targeting strategies.

Conquering Facebook Ads: You vs. Competitors

Now you’re ready to tackle the competition head-on. Use these strategies to outmaneuver your rivals on Facebook.

6. Employ Strategic Interest Targeting

Bidding on competitor keywords in Google Ads can be costly due to lower relevance and Quality Scores. However, Facebook allows targeting interests related to your competitors, increasing brand awareness among their audience even without clicks.

Think beyond targeting fans of direct competitors. Focus on broader attributes. SparrowBoost suggests exploring:

• Facebook pages of influencers or institutions in your industry.
• Related Facebook pages: Use relevant keywords in Facebook search or explore “Pages liked by this page” or “related pages” in the sidebar.
• Top fan page likes: The “Community” tab of a page reveals its top fans. Analyze their profiles (add “/likes” to the URL) to understand their preferences.
• YouTube: Analyze Facebook profiles associated with top-ranking videos for relevant keywords.

Combine smaller audiences or test larger ones against each other to identify the most cost-effective options.

7. Analyze More Than Just Their Facebook Ads

To defeat your rivals, you need a comprehensive understanding of their strategies. Analyze their advertising efforts across platforms:

• View their Facebook ads: Search their business name in the Meta Ad Library or go to their page’s “Page transparency” section to see all their ads. Learn more about leveraging the Facebook Ad Library for competitive analysis.
• Examine their LinkedIn Ads: Identify differences in messaging or if they even utilize LinkedIn Ads.
• Analyze their organic content: Understand the topics, content formats, pain points, and benefits resonating with their audience.

8. Decipher Their Targeting Strategies

This advice comes from Social Media Examiner via Anna Sonnenberg. Encourage your competitors to target you. Follow their page, visit their website, and engage with their content to potentially trigger their targeting parameters. When their ad appears in your feed, click the three dots, select “Why Am I Seeing This Ad?”, and gain insights into their targeting:

9. Utilize Lookalike Audiences Effectively

Facebook lookalike audiences generate new prospects resembling your source audience. Create source audiences from uploaded email lists, website visitors, app users, or those engaging with your Facebook or Instagram content. Consider these tips:

• A customer email list offers the highest quality source audience.
• Website traffic audiences might be incomplete due to privacy changes. Choose traffic from high-value pages (e.g., pricing, contact, thank you, checkout) if using this option.
• Select 1% lookalike (most similar to your source audience).
• Combine with interest, behavioral, and demographic targeting.

This strategy ensures you reach highly interested prospects on Facebook before your competitors.

Conquer the Competition!

These strategies will help you maximize your Facebook advertising ROI by leveraging platform features, data insights, and competitive intelligence. Remember these key takeaways:

1. Master the fundamentals first.
2. Create high-quality, engaging ads.
3. Build a comprehensive Facebook ads funnel.
4. Leverage on-platform engagement for retargeting.
5. Utilize in-market segments from search campaigns.
6. Employ strategic interest targeting.
7. Get targeted by your competitors to understand their strategies.
8. Analyze their advertising efforts across platforms.
9. Utilize lookalike audiences effectively.

Now go out there and dominate the competition!