One of the things I’m most frequently asked about Facebook Ads is, ‘how much are they going to cost me?’
That’s not an easy one to answer, because every business is different. But it’s an important question, because you don’t want to spend more on ads than you’re getting back.
So, before you even think about investing in Facebook Ads, there are a few things you need to know and think about.
My tips below will give you a good idea of where to start when working out your budget, but if you need more help, I’d be happy to advise you.
Your customer value
In order to set a sensible Facebook Ads budget, you first need to know exactly how much a customer is worth to you.
For example, what’s the average order value of a qualified lead? And what percentage of your customers get additional work done by you?
If a new customer spends an average of £1000 on a first visit – and this is the only number you look at – it could be hard to see how you can make money on advertising.
But if half your customers get you in for more work, totaling a value of £10,000, that puts an entirely different spin on things.
Once you know what a customer – or lead – is worth to you, you can start to calculate what it’s worth paying to get them. And that helps you decide what you can afford to spend on ads.
“On average, a customer to us is worth £6000. I am getting around 10 leads per week, and as a company, we convert 1 in 3. Meaning Facebook Ads is generating my company over £18,000 a week”
Gary Crowther, Cleveland Driveways
Your goals
The amount you decide to spend will depend on your goal.
If your aim is to grow your presence on Instagram and Facebook – get more people to follow, like, comment on and share your content – you can get great results on a low level of ad spend.
The same applies if you have a new shop or café and want local people to find out about you.
In both cases, a minimum budget of £10 per day is a good place to start.
If you can spend £20 per day, you’ll have a lot more room for maneuver. You’ll have greater scope to test running your ads to different audiences as well as testing the ads themselves.
However, if you’re after big sales figures – or a whole heap of high-quality leads – you’re going to have to spend more and I recommend a minimum of £30 per day, if you want high quality leads.
In short, the harder your ads have to work, the more you’ll have to pay. If you have a brand-new product or service for example, a budget of £1000 – £1500 per month is more realistic.
How to get the best results
Whatever your budget, there are a few things you can do to give your ads the best chance of success.
- Be creative. Great images and strong copy not only appeal to your target market, they also encourage Facebook to prioritise you in the bidding – and that helps keep your costs down
- Use final photos of a transformations, create FOMO (fear of missing out) so the potential customer thinks “Wow! I want my house to look like that”
- Be active on your Facebook page. Post at least a few times a week – Facebook likes advertisers who are using the platform
- Make sure your website and landing pages provide a great customer experience. No slow-loading pages or broken buttons, please – you’ll be wasting your ad spend if your site doesn’t work for people once you’ve got them there
- Test, test, test. The quicker you find out what works best for your target customer, the quicker you can adapt your ads and get the results you want
- Optimise! Setting an ad live is the easy part, but optimising it and changing what’s not working, to something that works better is the main way to constantly improve your ads.
- Hire an experienced ads strategist. They’ll be able to spot opportunities to scale when they happen or act quickly when things don’t go to plan. You’ll need to factor the cost of hiring a pro on top of your ad spend
What next?
If you want help deciding what your ad spend should be, or with your wider ads strategy, why not book a free consultation with me?
If you don’t think you have the budget to hire an expert, I also offer a number of training packages, so we can work together to get the most out of your ads budget and get you more, qualified leads.
