Our November 2021 Facebook Ads Tests

Our November 2021 Facebook Ads Tests

Antoine Dalmas Facebook Ads Guide

Every month, our expert team of Media Buyers performs a series of Facebook Advertising Tests to offer you expert tips on how to optimize your campaigns and strategies.

Facebook Ads Inboxing (novembre 1st)

Here are the results of our latest test as of November 1st, 2021.

Sometimes, our best ads are no longer enough to hold the fort.

In such cases, we tend to adapt and diversify ads that work again and again...but there comes a moment when this strategy no longer works.

For an e-commerce client that sells candies and snacks, that’s what we did.

Here are some of the ad variations we published throughout the years.

facebook hook 1

Hook: An avalanche of products

facebook ads hook 2

Hook: Product reaction

facebook ads 3

Hook: Product box

You may have noticed that we often feature all the products that our client sells, as they are from extremely well-known brands that help us make sales.

Over the course of our tests, we realized that the audience that was making the most purchases was mostly young, as evidenced through our Hooks (e.g. ‘Product Reactions,’ a concept taken from YouTube thumbnails), but also through partnerships with trendy influencers.

But as previously explained, all these variations were starting to make our account unstable, so in October, we tested a brand new approach.

facebook ads results

September’s acquisition results: Our maximum ROAS was 2

For our new ads, we decided to continue featuring as many products as possible, while also using the social and linguistic codes of our target audience.

We came up with the idea of filming an Unboxing with a cell phone and doing an ‘Inboxing' (literally packing up a box) with a sticker we found on Instagram/Tik Tok!

Unboxing publicite facebook

From left to right, the unboxing video in which we show each product in the box.

publicite facebook ads inboxing

Still from left to right, we showed a customer's order being packed.

"I placed an order. Can you please make a video of it?" is the question we received from a customer, which inspired us to make this 100% authentic ad.

Needless to say, it’s a video our target audience enjoyed throughout the entire month of October! 😁

Here’s a look at our Lifetime results, with expenses.
lifetime facebook ads results

Lifetime results

As explained, this approach seems to have worked because we replicated 2 already successful strategies:

  • Featuring as many products as possible
  • Using the content/linguistic codes our audience uses and enjoys

We all know the impact that an Unboxing video can have on your advertising results, but don’t neglect Inboxing! If this format applies to you and your business, we suggest you try it!

Betting against Facebook (november 8th)

latest test as of November 8th, 2021.

It’s sometimes difficult to pull the plug.

Especially when a campaign is keeping your cost per result well below your target limit.

But, it’s the game you must play when you run Lead Gen campaigns.

One of our Media Buyers would know, as they experienced this first hand for themselves for one of our clients.

Special Ad Category

Special Ad Category

Like many other Lead Gen businesses, the client in question had to switch over to Special Ad Categories and suffered a short period of increased advertising costs.

Their funnel? Messenger, which our client uses to connect with professionals in the construction or agricultural industries who are in need of equipment financing or loans.

In September, this was their CPL (for Messenger).

messenger facebook ads

Messenger

This CPL wasn’t so bad for this client, knowing that their CPL was $10.32 per result for a standard campaign and no Special Ad Categories last November.

But, there was nevertheless a problem. One that you’re bound to encounter with Lead Gen campaigns: lead quality.

messenger facebook ads

Messenger Ads

Messenger Campaigns allow you to apply tags when managing your messages. A message received from one of your campaigns is identified by an ID, such as the one picture in the image below.

Messenger facebook tag

Messenger Tag

This tool allowed us to understand that this ad was not generating qualified leads, in addition to eating up all of our budget (although for a very low CPL). Nevertheless, this ad met the chopping block anyway.

  • “The leads you’re sending me aren’t good enough. We’re losing money.”

Our Media Buyer had to take action. He had already tried to launch new ads, but the budget wasn’t being allocated to these new ads.

  • “How valuable are these leads to you? How much are you willing to pay for qualified traffic?”

Our Media Buyer got an idea on how to optimize the campaign, but he knew what it would lead to later.

  • “$20. I think $20 is the best we can do!”

Our Media Buyer thus decided to cut the problematic ad that took up the entire budget at the end of September and reassured our client.

  • “OK, your CPL may go up in the next few weeks. We’re keeping an eye on it, but it's for a test.”

Here are the results of the campaign 4 weeks after our Media Buyer took action.

ads manager

Messenger results

We were close to hitting our client’s limit, but we ended the month with $19.46, and our Media Buyer received this email.

Our client sent us this email

By simply challenging Facebook and putting an end to what the platform deemed our ‘best ad,’ we managed to relaunch the whole funnel without having to change our approach or lose time trying to find qualified leads again.

The process was simple: determine a max CPL, follow our leads’ quality and reassure your client of the incoming cost increase.

The Messenger tag has now become an essential campaign metric, just like ROAS for a conversion/purchase campaign.

Lead Gen Quiz (November 15th)

Facebook: lowering the cost of your leads

Here are the results of our latest test as of November 15th, 2021.

Lead Gen is complicated...episode n°2933!

A reality we discussed in detail in our last iOS 14 Squad email about Messenger campaigns.

The client of this week’s test is a Lead Gen client that puts prospects looking to renovate their homes in touch with renovation contractors to receive free quotes.

We have a much better idea of how our campaign is doing this time, as our conversion objective lets us know if/when a prospect submits their project on our client’s website after seeing one of our ads, like this:

ads manager

Last 15 days of September

We have information about how many leads our campaign generates and how many of these leads (Client Details Submission) convert.

facebook lead ad

One of the ads used for our ‘Roofing’ campaign

However, whenever it comes to renovations, one topic of discussion always comes up: the price.

How much does it cost to do this [renovation]? How much does it cost to replace [x]? What’s the cost???

Price is clearly a sensitive topic in this domain. If the cost of renovations is too low, prospects will think it’s a scam. Too high, and they’ll think you’re trying to take advantage of them. But, what is the average cost of renovations? This is what prospects really want to know, and not knowing scares them.

So we changed our funnel, but not our offer!

Advertising to our leads in more or less the same way, we found a way to address their concerns quickly and easily: a Quiz!

facebook quiz ad

Roofing ad with Quiz

As you can see, we didn’t drastically change our ads. We only changed the tagline, which directly mimics our audience’s #1 concern: How much do roofing renovations cost?

Here are a few images of the Quiz.

facebook funnel 1

facebook funnel 2

In fact, this is more than just a quiz: the prospect is actually filling out a submission form, and the answer to their question “How much does [x] cost?" will come in the form of 3 free quotes from renovation contractors near them. We then end on an opt-in page and have them fill out a few final details.

facebook funnel 3

This format allowed us to generate leads that we could re-engage via email (if they did not fill out the entire form) in order to get more project submissions.

Here are the results in October.

ads manager results

It seems almost impossible, but for our Roofing Campaign, we cut our cost per lead by 63% and cost per submission by 92%, even though the budget had practically doubled!

And our ‘Roofing’ theme is but only one; imagine what would happen if we ran different ads for different renovation projects using the same strategy throughout the month?

In September, we spent $5,953 and had an average CPL of $39.96. In October, thanks to our quiz campaign, our account’s global CPL resembled the following:

facebook lead gen strategy

This strategy was successful for several reasons.

1/ The most important: We were able to optimize for our final objective. In other words, our Quiz campaign was optimized to receive exactly what we were looking for: project submissions, rather than just leads.

2/ We bypassed the obstacle of prospects blindly asking for a quote (without necessarily having any information about renovation costs or our client’s offer) by enticing them with a quiz. At the end of the quiz, we offer answers to their questions with information from certified experts. At this point, the prospect is already engaged and is less likely to back away: they want answers now!

If you haven’t tried a Quiz funnel yet, don’t hesitate – even if you’re an e-commerce company.

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