Five Ways To Separate Your Facebook Audiences So Your…

Everybody tells you ought to be advertising on Facebook, so you try it out and your results are less than spectacular.

The reason is that people on Facebook aren’t there to buy things. They’re there to interact with their friends. So when your ad shows up in their feed, it’s an intrusion.

The key to being successful on Facebook is understanding who your audience is and where they are in their relationship with you. Then when you put your ad, or content, in front of them, they’ll be more likely to take the action you’re hoping for. In other words, you need to be specific.

Separating your ad sets will help you determine what’s working, and what’s not. Here are the five ways you should separate your Facebook audiences so that your ads will be more effective.

 

1 – Separate the Area

If you’re like me running a web-based business, where anyone in the world is a prospective client, you might be tempted to run a blanket ad to everyone, everywhere. Unless you’re running a generic branding campaign where you just want people to see your name, you’ll want to separate your ads for different markets.

People in New York have different needs, wants, desires and attitudes than people in Los Angeles. It’s a completely different lifestyle and culture, and while everybody may need the services your business offers, what resonates with them may differ by location, so you’ll want to customize your ad copy for each market to speak to those needs.

Think that if you’re a local brick-and-mortar this doesn’t apply to you? Do some research about your city and learn about the different neighborhoods and you’ll be able to craft messages that each target area can relate to.

2 – Separate the Sexes

Men and women different reasons for why they want something, how they might use things and what is going to get them to act. Why? Men and women have different pain points, so you’ll want to speak to them differently.

What’s more, is women are more likely to take action particularly when it comes to things around the house. So if you’re in the home improvement area, try separating your ads out and see which performs better.

3 – Separate the Ages

‘Yo, this here’s a killer thing I got going on here’ may resonate with a 20 year old, but do you think somebody in their 50’s or 60’s will feel the same way about the slang? And young people probably aren’t going to buy something that sounds like it’s for their grandmother.

Confused, bored and turned off people don’t buy, so make sure your ad copy speaks the language of the intended age group.

4 – Separate the Interests

Targeting “small business owners” may seem broad but it doesn’t cover everything. Maybe the restaurant owner didn’t list that he’s a “small business owner” in his profile, the retail shop owner may list herself in a different category, and the online marketing specialist might show up as an entrepreneur.

You can target them all in one ad, which is fine if you’re running a branding campaign. But if you’re seeking conversions, you need be specific to the pain points of your target audience and running a single broad campaign to several interests groups is not going to accomplish that.

So run your ads separately, by interest and tailor your ad copy to each. Then you can see which group performs the best and put more of your efforts towards them.

5 – Separate by Devices

Facebook allows you to specify what devices and platforms your ads will show on (ad placement) and you should ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS edit it to show on only one device/platform per ad. There are a few reasons for this.

First, your ad is going render differently in every placement – the image will get cropped/distorted, ad copy will be cut off. You’ll want to design your ads specifically for each placement so that it looks good, and also taking into consideration where to place your call to action so that it’s prominent and will be seen without the user having to take any action.

Second, you must think about what action you want the user to take on your ad. It may not be convenient for people on their phones to pull out their credit card, or if the website you send them to isn’t fast and responsive, they’ll probably bounce, costing you money for a wasted click.

Lastly, there is the mindset of the different users. Although mobile Internet usage has surpassed the desktop, older user (50+) still use their computers more, so you’ll want to tailor your ad copy accordingly.

 

Of course, separating out your ad sets to run to different audiences can significantly run up your ad costs, so you want to do it smartly. Remember the 60/30/10 rule and utilize the data to get a better understanding of when and how to separate your audiences.

Remember to always be mindful of who your audience is. Whatever service you’re providing, spend the time to learn who is most likely to purchase so you can dial in your targeting. I put together a worksheet that will help you get specific with your targeting to find more customers. You can download it here…

With a little research and planning, and a lot of testing, you can take your Facebook ads to the next level and bring more customers into your business.