Meta (Facebook and Instagram) offers targeted advertising, but targeting today is more limited than it used to be, so ad quality and data quality matter more.
Paid Advertising on Meta (Facebook and Instagram)
Meta (Facebook and Instagram) offers targeted advertising, but because of privacy changes targeting is more limited today than it used to be. That is why ad quality and data quality matter more.
The advantages remain: you pay according to the chosen goal (impressions, clicks, actions), advertising is measurable, you can adjust the budget and goals as you go, and you keep costs under control.
How it works today:
- Campaign goal. Most often it is sales, but it can also be leads or traffic. Meta offers automated campaigns (Advantage+ sales campaigns) in which the system searches for the audience and ad combinations itself.
- Item catalog. You connect it with Meta Commerce Manager, and the ads automatically show items with name, price, image and link (dynamic ads). Use the same catalog at Google too.
- Measurement. On your site you need the Meta pixel and a server-side connection (Conversions API) that report item views, add to cart, begin checkout and purchase, all in line with the visitor's consent. After iOS 14.5 (2021) and the tracking permission, part of the data disappears; Meta partly replaces it with modelling, so Meta data and your analytics do not match exactly.
- Audiences. Visitors to your site (with consent), a list of your customers (uploaded with consent), people who have already engaged with your content, lookalike audiences or broad targeting.
- The ad itself. The ad itself does the most: a short video, a photo of the item in use, content prepared by customers or creators. Always test several variants.
What you no longer need today: the Like button for recommendations, comments and login via Facebook, and the Facebook Like Box (replaced by the page plugin). Plugins slow the page down and send visitor data to the network, and you do not need them to sell.
Do it today - what you need before you launch your first ad: 1. an item catalog; 2. the pixel and the server-side connection; 3. visitor consent; 4. at least two ad variants (video and photo).
Tips for Better Ads on Meta
An example from our practice (a healthy food store): they spent roughly a tenth of monthly revenue on Facebook advertising and, by their own data, generated a large part of their sales with it. Tips for effective advertising on Meta:
1. Write down the campaign goal. Sales (purchases), leads (contacts) or traffic. The goal "page likes" usually does not bring sales.
2. Define the audience. Have data about your buyers (country, age, interests). Three groups usually work: existing buyers (a list uploaded with consent), site visitors who have not yet bought (retargeting, with consent), and cold audiences (broad or lookalike audiences).
3. Choose the optimization. Most often purchase; if there are too few events for the system to learn, start with add to cart.
4. Prepare several versions of the ad creative. Test a short video, a photo of the item in use, an image carousel; less text, a clear call to action.
5. Check the measurement. In Events Manager check whether events (view item, cart, begin checkout, purchase) arrive through the pixel and through the Conversions API, and compare them with the orders in the store.
Frequently asked questions
Strong visual appeal (image or video that stops scrolling), clear and concise text (the first line must immediately capture attention), a clear call to action (CTA button), and relevance for the target audience. Each element must be tested and optimized.
Start with a pain point or question (Problem-Agitate-Solve format), not with a product description. The first 1-2 lines are critical - this is where it is decided whether the reader clicks "Read more". Concrete and clear is better than sounding good but being empty.
For A/B testing, two to three variants at the same time with an equal budget are enough. Test one variable at a time (image, headline or text). Once enough data is collected, pause the worse performers and increase the budget for the winner. In automated campaigns (Advantage+) the system distributes the variants itself, and you prepare several versions of the creative.
When CTR drops significantly (ad fatigue), it is time to refresh. How quickly this happens depends on the audience size and ad frequency: with smaller audiences sooner, with larger ones the same ad can run longer. Always have backup creatives ready.
A short video often works well, but it depends on the item and the audience. Images are faster to prepare and sometimes more effective for direct conversions. We recommend testing both. For retargeting, static images with a clear call to action are often effective.
My name is Anže, I am a certified Magento solution expert and the maker of several award-winning online stores. I am the architect of all Degriz projects.
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