Lawyers engaged in social media are beginning to reach beyond creating Facebook pages and posting content to actively advertising on the site. The primary reasons that Facebook ads are attractive to law firms is because of the ability to target prospects more specifically using Facebook’s highly detailed targeting tools and the relatively low cost of advertising on the site. At the very least, experimenting with Facebook ads should be on every attorney’s radar for these very reasons.
Even if you have been advertising on Facebook for some time, you may not realize that, like Google, Facebook algorithms change all the time and the strategy you set for your ad campaign yesterday may not work in the same way for you today.
Here are 10 current facts about Facebook advertising you need to take into consideration:
- Different devices call for different campaigns.
Facebook’s ad platform offers ad delivery across multiple devices automatically. However, since different devices (smartphone, tablet, desktop, laptop) have different ad requirements and a prospect using a mobile device may have a different intent than those using a desktop computer (immediate need vs. research), you should create different ads for each platform in order to maximize your ROI.
- Image ads deliver better results.
Facebook prefers image ads with little or not text over those with heavy text and delivers ads accordingly. Image ads enjoy a higher distribution rate and lower cost per impression. Keep this in mind as you create your Facebook ads and pay attention to Facebook’s image to text ratio, which is highlighted as you set up your ads.
- Save video for your posts.
Video ads do not perform as well as image ads on Facebook, so you should save your video clips for posts on your own page if your strategy is to generate clicks with your ads.
- You need to change up your ads often.
A majority of Facebook campaigns do not allow you to control how often your ad is served up to the same user. This can lead to ad fatigue, causing users to ignore your ads if they keep seeing the same ad over and over. To avoid this issue, refresh your creative and content often.
- Ad bids are sensitive to seasonality.
Similar to Google Adwords, Facebook ads are subject to a bidding system that determines impression price based on a number of factors. One of those key factors is how many bidders are bidding on a specific audience target at the same time, making Facebook’s bids sensitive to seasonality. Therefore, you will see a higher cost per click at certain times of the year, like the holidays.
- You can limit your ad’s exposure on Facebook’s Audience Network.
Facebook’s Audience Network allows advertisers to extend the reach of their campaigns beyond Facebook to reach their audiences on third party websites and apps, using the same targeting criteria you set for your Facebook ads. However, many advertisers believe the Audience Network doesn’t deliver the same ROI they get from advertising on Facebook. There are also websites on the Audience Network where you may not want your ad to appear. You can either create a block list to exclude these types of sites by category (dating, gambling, mature, tragedy and conflict, and debatable social issues) or upload a list of websites you want to exclude.
- Audience insights allow you to refine your targeting.
By using Facebook’s audience insights with conversion data, you can access more ways to target prospects based on their historical online behaviors, buying habits, and more. You can choose to look at a number of different audiences, from everyone on Facebook to people who have liked your page or a custom audience, which you can create by adding your current client contact list or have Facebook create a custom audience based on traffic to your website. Examining this data will help you expand the reach of your campaign and provide better ad performance.
- Facebook’s pre-selected similar reach targeting option extends ad reach.
Similar to its lookalike targeting, where Facebook takes the data you have used to build Custom Audiences and uses it to target other people who are similar to those on that list, this option delivers ads to audiences that are similar to what you’ve already selected and that are most likely to deliver extra conversions at a lower impression cost. This can help you expand your ad’s visibility and reach.
- Facebook has a Click-to-Chat option.
One of the least used ad options on Facebook is the Click-to-Chat ad option in the website campaign category. If you have already integrated Live Chat into your law firm website, you know that this can deliver highly qualified leads. This ad option works in a similar manner. If you choose it, just be sure you have a trained intake team to capitalize on these Facebook ad leads.
- Bid strategies need to be reviewed regularly.
As mentioned above, Facebook bids are sensitive to seasonality and changes to the site’s own algorithms, so the bid strategy you are using today may not work tomorrow. This is why you need to review your ad statistics weekly to be sure your bid costs are not creeping up and negatively affecting your ROI.
