If you are new to Facebook Ads be sure to read my previous article Why Your Facebook Ad ROI Sucks.

Let me kick this article off by saying we run a lot of Facebook ads! Throughout 2015 we ran over 300 different ads on Facebook. A majority of these ads failed, but several were incredibly successful. In this article we are going to give you a behind the scenes look at our Facebook ad strategy. We will show you the creative, copy, targeting and results from our best ads of 2015.

Why are we doing this? When we first launched Startup Drugz in early 2015 we spent countless hours searching for case studies and best practices in the world of Facebook advertising. We found tons of great resources, but many were broad and didn’t contain actual examples of successful campaigns. The content of this article is exactly what we were looking for a year ago.

So without further ado let’s get started! 

How We Are Ranking Our Ads

We are ranking our ads based on ROI (Total Conversion Value/Amount Spent). There are hundreds of metrics that can be used to judge the success of a marketing campaign (CTR, CPC, etc.), but at the end we are in the business of making money. We ran dozens of campaigns that had impressive CTRs and rock bottom CPCs, but they didn’t generate sales. Conversely, some of our best performing campaigns (in terms of ROI) had CTRs < 2% and CPCs > $1. Obviously if your campaign objective is driving awareness, building a list or some other non sales objective CTR and CPC are much more important. However, for the sake of this article our primary focus is ROI. 

Third Place

Abandoned Cart Campaign 

Targeting 

We used a custom audience for site visitors who added an item to their cart but didn’t make a purchase.

Results  

  • CTR: .11%
  • CPC: $3.64
  • Purchases: 76
  • Amount Spent: $288.09
  • Conversion Value: $4,195.79
  • ROI: 14.56x  

Second Place

Past Customers Campaign 

Targeting 

We used a custom audience for customers who made at least one purchase on our site.

Results  

  • CTR: .98%
  • CPC: $2.45
  • Purchases: 12
  • Amount Spent: $36.73
  • Conversion Value: $917.15
  • ROI: 24.97x 

First Place

New Shirts Boosted Post 

Targeting 

This was a boosted post targeted at people who like the Startup Drugz Facebook page. 

Results 

  • CTR: 5.08%
  • CPC: $.24
  • Purchases: 12
  • Amount Spent: $15
  • Conversion Value: $812.64
  • ROI: 54.18x 

Honorable Mention

The Gary V Ad 

Targeting 

  • Location: United States
  • Age: 25-55
  • Gender: Men
  • Languages: English (All)
  • Detailed Targeting --> 87,000 potential reach

 

Results

  • CTR: 1.84%
  • CPC: $.33
  • Purchases: 212
  • Amount Spent: $1,990.93
  • Conversion Value: $13,733.90
  • ROI: 6.9x 

     

So there you have it! In our next post we will share why each of these ads worked and outperformed the hundreds of other Facebook ads that we ran throughout 2015. And once again if you are a beginner to the world of Facebook advertising be sure to read my post "Why Your Facebook Ad ROI Sucks".

Lastly if you have any questions regarding Facebook ad strategies please don't hesitate to email me at max@startupdrugz.com