The Secret to Huge Facebook Advertising Discounts

Does Facebook advertising ever feel like you’re playing the slot machine? You insert money and watch it disappear into the void, hoping, praying something will come out at the bottom?

Or perhaps it more feels like attempting to pilot a plane without any training. You don’t know how much a click will cost until you start running ads, and then you’re scrambling with what looks like a plane-cockpit control panel of bid adjustments, schedules, targeting adjustments… I’ve certainly been there. Anyone else?

HOW DO WE CONTROL THE PRICE?

I have found that there are several things that impact price when it comes to Facebook advertising:

1. Macro Spending
   I recently saw huge increases on cost on my BEST PERFORMING clients and campaigns in the wake of political spending. The more money that is being spent, the more expensive it’s going to be. This isn’t really helpful for us, though, because we can’t really control supply and demand.
2. Audience Selection
   A rule of thumb I’ve developed over time, is I try to keep my audiences above 100,000. Generally speaking, the smaller and more exclusive the audience is, the more expensive the click. If other advertisers are trying to reach the same people, costs go up as advertising slots are limited. Picture a billboard on the interstate: if you’re used to paying $50 for it, and McDonalds comes in willing to pay $100, you’ll have to ante up.
3. Bidding Strategy
   You can actually tell Facebook what you are looking for, and the algorithm will determine the cheapest way possible to achieve your goal. Looking for clicks, engagement, conversions? Tell Facebook, and it will select the lowest cost path toward achieving your goal.
4. Ad Quality
   THIS, in my experience, is the number one driving factor for success in Facebook advertising.

HOW TO ACHIEVE AD QUALITY? DAMN GOOD CREATIVE.

How does this work, exactly?

Facebook is only as good as how many users are on their platform. Think about it. Without any Facebook users there wouldn’t be anybody to click on advertisements, which is Facebook’s business model. How do they keep users on the platform? Facebook shows them content that they want to see.

Armed with this knowledge, I know that Facebook will give me a discount for making sure that the users are having a good time so that they stay on the platform.

So what’s the secret to giving Facebook users a good experience? Really great creative.

I tend to remind myself of this concept by visualizing a triangle. There are 3 parties at play:

1. Facebook
2. The Advertiser
3. And the Facebook User

When advertisers fully understand the game that’s being played between each party, they win.

SIDE-NOTE: GOOGLE WORKS THE SAME WAY, BY THE WAY

Google does the same thing here when it comes to their quality score. This quality score directly correlates to how much you pay per click. Get a quality score of 1 out of 10 and Google penalize you by charging you 4X per click. Get a 10 out of 10? Google incentivizes you by giving you a ½X discount.

So what determines this quality score? Google is also only as good as how many people use its search bar. And what do searchers want when they use the Google search bar? Relevancy.

If google sees that you have an ad that has nothing to do with what the searcher has typed into the search bar then it is not very relevant and the searcher will have a poor time. Google will make you pay.

Inversely, if you have a Google ad that gives the searcher a highly relevant experience and they stay on your website for a long time, Google will give you a discount on those clicks because they recognize your ads are highly relevant.

SO WHAT?

When it comes to saving money on Facebook AND (bonus points) Google ads, your best bet is investing in creative that the Facebook users want to see, and knowing the business model for Facebook and Google helps too ;)

Happy marketing!