We are now in an age where technology is becoming more and more capable of making decisions on our behalf. News stories circulate about technology gaffes. Some fear their jobs being taken over by machines.
Facebook (FB) has a powerful algorithm that harnesses artificial intelligence to deliver ads to the right people at the right time. Every tiny behavior in the FB environment (which includes Instagram) is monitored. FB probably knows more about certain preferences than we do about ourselves.
If you’re feeling a little uneasy about FB’s data, just know that…they have a lot of your data. From an advertising standpoint, this means that FB knows so much about the people seeing our ads that they could, theoretically, make better decisions about who should see the ads.
Where most advertising thrives with narrow targeting (when we are traditionally saying we want to have the perfect message for our niche audience), FB is the opposite. When advertising through this social giant, the smaller the group that you are targeting means FB has fewer opportunities to show your ad. More than that, FB is limited in how they can make their own decisions about who should see your ads.
Sometimes, only using location, gender, and age is the best way to get strong results for your FB advertising campaigns.
Please know that this is not the case for every situation.
Let’s explore how you harness the algorithm. One more thing…the following assumes that you have really well-researched ad creatives that will connect with your audience. This is not the place to discuss how to create amazing ads. We are talking about that in the monthly live streams throughout 2020, which you can watch on the PILMMA Face-book page.
A Clear, Trackable Step
While the ultimate goal is signed retainers, having a clear step that people take in your intake process before signing a retainer is extremely valuable. For example, this can be filling out a free consultation form. It could be requesting a free report on the topic.
Once you know what that step is, you want to set up your technical configuration to let FB know when someone has completed that step.
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Within an FB ad campaign, you choose what to optimize for. This could be video views, link clicks, and Messenger conversations started, among others. It can also be customized to your unique situation. This is where you use some code that FB provides to communicate to FB when someone has taken that action.
With this “Custom Conversion” set up, you can now tell your FB ad campaign to optimize for that action. FB then knows when someone sees your ad and takes that action as a result.
Over time, FB analyzes the people who take action vs. who do not and then makes its own decisions about who to show the ads to next. The idea is that FB can, to some degree, predict who is more likely to take that action based on commonalities.
When optimizing for a “Custom Conversion,” you need to ensure that it’s a logical step in your sales process. And while you might not think that your prospects share commonalities, there are similarities in the type of person willing to reach out to a lawyer, and FB can identify these.
The question is always: is FB doing an accurate job of interpreting the data? If you’re operating from thorough research and high-quality ad creatives (video, images, copy), time will show you whether or not you’re on the right track.
A Lookalike Audience
A “Lookalike Audience” is where you tell Facebook to use a list of people to determine their commonalities and then go find more people like them.
What types of lists can you use?
• Client list (especially when narrowed down to case type)
• Website traffic on a specific topic
• People who have watched your videos
• And much, much more.
This process is, however, only as good as your list is.
What makes a good list?
• Relevant to your current project. Don’t use a list of clients from one practice area for another’s ad campaign.
• Bigger is better. FB typically won’t even work with a list of fewer than 100 people. So you need to have a list of as many as possible. That’s why sometimes video is useful. If you have a 90-second video on a narrow topic and ask FB to find people similar to those who watched 95%, you might have a good list.
• Regularly updated. Don’t use a list from 20 years ago (unless all marketing has failed since then). More recent is better. That said, if all you have is an aged list, it’s worth testing.
Not every one of our campaigns leverage Lookalike Audiences because sometimes it doesn’t work as well. And that’s why it’s so important to monitor all the pieces of a campaign.
If you’re thinking, “I don’t have a quality Lookalike Audience,” that is okay. Just understand that you need to spend some time investing in your campaign where you’ll spend more per lead. In time, you’ll develop your list to use to upload to FB and create a quality Lookalike.
Put ‘Em Together; It Just Makes Sense!
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By equipping FB with a high-quality Lookalike Audience, you are taking a great step towards increased optimization and giving your campaign its best shot for success. The Lookalike gives FB a set of data to mine to understand who you say are your ideal clients. Pair that with FB seeking to optimize for people who will take your desired action, you are now harnessing the algorithm. It is very easy to pay FB and get little in exchange. The “FB for lawyers doesn’t work” is false. The statement, “FB for lawyers, is 100% doable, and it requires quality resources to succeed,” is quite accurate.
The way you know you are properly harnessing the algorithm is when you use your Lookalike and Custom Conversion and get quality leads for reasonable costs.
How do you know when it’s not working?
That’s a lot harder, and we have a livestream planned for later in 2020 to talk about how to pivot and assess campaigns with sub-par results. It could be your creatives. It could be assumptions you made about your market. It could be a bad lookalike (which is why you test, test, test). It could be that your Custom Conversion isn’t an accurate step to optimize for to attract the best prospects.
Okay, now what?
If you’re thinking you’re interested in doing FB ads, check out our PILMMA Livestreams. Those will equip you with the tools to start assessing if this is the appropriate marketing avenue for your firm.
And when you decide you want to advertise on Facebook, ensure that, beyond exceptional creatives, you can give yourself the best shot at success by looking for ways to incorporate both a quality Lookalike Audience and Custom Conversion.
There are great payoffs for those that harness the algorithm fully. As you explore doing FB ads, keep in mind ways to harness the ideas in this article. Sometimes, you have to start a campaign without these components. That’s okay if you have a plan for getting to a place where you can harness the power of the FB algorithm. ◆
