Facebook Ad Campaign and Creative Teardown and Rebuild #1

See what a Facebook Marketing Rep recommended a colleague of mine and what I suggest he change

Preface

• First, I received permission to post this from Danny at Nightingale & Lark Coffee Co.
• I was offering free reviews and consultations (still am!) regarding paid Facebook Ads because of Coronavirus and adversity brand owners are facing to try to help them out.
• This is basically the brand’s first attempt at running FB Ads and listened to the Facebook Rep’s advice basically to the T.

Let’s get into it.

Context

I met Danny in Austin Brawner’s Brand Growth Experts group where he helps marketers and brand owners grow and scale their eCommerce and DTC brands.

Danny’s coffee brand is trying to get more sales for their Shopify store. Below I will quickly go over what the rep told him.

Campaign level: The rep recommended a Traffic campaign objective, non-CBO.

Ad set level: The rep recommended a single ad set that was interest based targeting.

Ad level: The rep recommended a single carousel ad within this ad set.

Initial Thoughts

I wish I could devote an hour (or more) every single day to helping brands avoid things like this. There are some OKAY things in here but there’s a lot that is just really poor set up for an eCommerce/DTC brand that wants online sales.

Here’s what I ideated and broke down to him in a 45 minute period back in an email.

Proposed Changes

Budget, Spending, Planning

Facebook is most efficient if you are spending a certain amount and give it enough data. 50 purchases in a 7 day window is their sweet spot to exit the “learning phase” and then thats where your adset becomes its most efficient because their machine learning has a big enough sample size.

So, to get to 50 purchases, we need to find our cost per acquisition (CPA).

If you want a 2x return on ad spend (ROAS), take your Average order value (AOV) and divide it by 2.

Say your average order value is 2 bags of the 6 oz, so $26.

$26 / 2 = $13 for your CPA.

That means you need to spend at least 13 * 50 in 7 days which is $650 to exit learning phase. 

This is not to say you can’t be profitable or successful with Facebook Ads without exiting the learning phase but it is a key for efficiency and consistency.

So if you can afford to budget more, then I would recommend spending more with a proper set up.

But we also should factor in your COGS and shipping etc. with a calculator like this one below.

Need more help figuring out your baseline profitability numbers? Free quick cheatsheet below to download ?

Any questions or follow ups, feel free to email me matt@mattladydigital.com or there’s other another initial calculation bit in my other blog post.

Campaign Level

Facebook is usually really good at what you tell it to do. They know in their system who are “scrollers, clickers, and purchasers” people who view ads, click ads, and purchase from ads.

So by you choosing “traffic” as the campaign objective, you’re telling FB to find people who will click the ad. Not necessarily with purchase intent. They just are more likely to click ads.

This will likely be a lower CPM which is a great (cheaper so more people see your ads) and a higher click through rate (CTR) so more people make it to your website but aren’t likely to do anything once they are there.

Change 1: 99% of the time you should be using “Conversion” as your campaign objective in eCommerce/DTC for direct response ads. Once you choose conversion at the Campaign level, you then have to pick an event to optimize for in the “ad set” level. This again should almost always be ‘Purchase.’

Change 2: Set your bidding to “cost cap” instead of lowest cost. Lowest cost will spend your budget every day almost no matter what. Cost cap will give you a bit more of a safety net in terms avoiding “bad spend” since FB will take that $ you set as the cost cap, and only serve your ad to folks who think will get a purchase for at or less than that cost cap.

Your cost cap should be set AT your CPA to start off. So “$13” based on our example.

Ad Set Level

Really solid! I think I agree with the interest groups you’re going for. Folks who are at home and like ordering food or delivery anyway.

Why stop at 50 though? I’m sure there are plenty of folks older than 50 who would do this sort of thing. Or even as a gift for their parents!

Why start at 25? Your audience is so broad as it is, it seem arbitrary to cut off the age range like you have, FB is real smart, let it find the right people for you!

Overall, this is a solid approach since you may not have enough Pixel Data for using Lookalike audiences yet depending on when you installed the FB Pixel and how much traffic/purchases you get.

Ad Level

You can, and should definitely give Facebook 2-4 ads per ad set so it has a chance to test which one gets better results and performance. 

• The creative is solid-ish – the product on the colored background helps stand out forsure! Especially in a carousel, it helps that they are different colors. But at first glance, someone may not know its coffee. It could be any sort of supplement or powder.
• The ad copy (the top text above the image) is really focused on the discount and free shipping and you can’t see coffee until one of the last words. These are all people who aren’t aware of your brand, the free shipping or discount wont push them over the edge, you need to capture attention and educate and differentiate to get them to click the ad to get them to your landing page. Stuck at home is great though! Relevant to the current situation. good stuff.
• The headline (right below the image) for each image is the name of the coffee but it isn’t super clear that it is coffee so its not really adding a ton of value or clarity.
• The news feed description (right below the headline) is super long in ads manager but only 20-30 characters actually end up being shown so it’s helpful and a good fit “our most popular coffee” and all the other ones are actually awesome!! but the sentences keep going and it cuts off and it isn’t that clean looking.

Some ad copy ideas

A.

Stuck at home but craving your daily caffeine to start the day? ☕️

Get a little taste of Brazil or Colombia delivered straight to your door so you can wake up and get ready for all your Zoom calls.

First-time purchasers use code “SCRUMPTIOUS” for 20% off and free shipping.

B.

Missing the luxury office coffee or Starbucks runs with your coworkers? 

Have flavors like Mango Peach and Caramel Apple delivered right to you so you can enjoy, affordable quality coffee.

Buy now and use code “SCRUMPTIOUS” for 20% off and free shipping.

C.

Want to treat yourself but Starbucks isn’t open? 

Bring the goods directly to your kitchen with our hand roasted coffee beans from all over the world. You can drink delicious coffee -no creamer necessary- at an affordable price.

Shop now with code “SCRUMPTIOUS” for 20% off and free shipping.

Headline ideas

Stop Saying Yes to Bad Coffee – Shop With Us

Start Your Day Off Right With Delicious Affordable Coffee

Don’t Sacrifice Affordability Or Quality When You Choose Us

Why Nightingale & Lark Is Not Just Another Coffee Brand

News feed descriptions:

I’d just shorten them to those first few words! “Our most popular coffee!” “Our tried and true!” or remove them altogether.

Conclusion

Is what I told him perfect and going to guarantee him millions? No.

Is is way better than what he was sold to by the FB rep without a ton of extra work? Absolutely.

I truly believe that was a good use of my time and helpful and at least pointed him in the right direction.

Danny paused the campaign and is reworking it right now. I will update this with any results later on.

Interested in learning more about Facebook Ads or eCommerce? There’s a few ways I list out below:

1. Hire me for an hour here – I can go in-depth like I did with Danny here on a screenshare and audit your account or get you started on the right track. Or we can chat about fully managed services.
   
   
2. Buy a course or two from Foxwell Digital and receive guidance, in-depth and expert analysis and lessons from people who oversee and spend MILLIONS of dollars on FB ads every year so their advice to beginners and intermediate advertisers is really helpful and has helped me improve my campaigns for my clients.
   
   Affiliate – I do get a small % back if you use my code “MLADY20” that gets you 20% off your order at checkout.
   
   
3. If you’re an eCommerce or DTC brand and want help growing your business, being more efficient, and helping focus on the next step in front of you, you have to check out Brand Growth Experts.
   
   Austin’s fast forwarded my freelance business in just the three months I’ve been with him. You get 1 on 1 coaching through messaging with him, access to live trainings and office hour Q&A sessions, trainings and courses or event replays that normally cost hundreds or thousands to access, all for one low monthly payment each month. Not to mention you have a community and forum to interact with over 100 other brand owners, operators, and marketers to share ideas and help each other out.
   
   Affiliate – Using that link above or this link that directs you right to checkout gets you $50 off your first month’s membership and I get a small % back if you maintain your membership.