Wondering how you can sell more products on your online store using Facebook ads?
Or looking for tips to target your customers through their buyer journey?
In this article, you’ll discover the exact steps my client Diana from Milkbar Breastpumps took to build an effective, profitable eCommerce Facebook ad funnel.
How we generated a profitable 7x ROI in 12 months using Facebook Ads
Step #1: Find your ideal audience
Finding your ideal customers on Facebook is the first key to success with you’re ads.
Getting this right is all about Targeting. How to show your ads to the right audience.
Set up your Pixel
The first thing you gotta do to make this all work, is to install your Facebook Pixel onto your website.
What the heck is a Pixel? You might be asking… Basically, it’s a piece of code (or gobbledigook if you ask me) that you get from your Facebook Ad Account, and you need to go paste it on your website.
It’s a bit different for each website platform, but in 99% of cases it’s very very simple.
To do this, first head to Facebook.com/adsmanager and select Pixels from the dropdown menu:
Then you click the green Create a Pixel button and follow the prompts. You should see something like this:
That’s the Pixel code that you need to copy and paste into your website.
Best thing to do next is to google ‘how to install Facebook pixel’ on your website platform (here’s how to do it on Shopify) and follow the steps. I promise it’s super easy.
Create your Custom Audiences
The most effective strategy to find your ideal customers on Facebook is to ask Facebook to find more people exactly like your existing audience.
That means other people who share similar characteristics and interests to your customers, website visitors, Facebook and Instagram fans and email subscribers.
Doing this is a 2-step process, as follows.
To set up your email list as a Custom Audience in Facebook Ads Manager, you gotta choose Audiences from the top menu:
Then select ‘Create a Custom Audience’:
And then select “Customer File”. Then just follow the prompts to upload your email list.
At the very end of the Email List upload process in the previous step, you’ll be prompted to create a Lookalike Audience – click YES and follow the prompts.
With your Lookalike Audiences, I start with a 1% Lookalike. This means that the audience in the Lookalike will have the most in common with your original audience.
Then, follow the same process to create a Custom Audience and Lookalike audience for your Website Traffic, and Engagement on Facebook and Instagram.
Step #2: Top of Funnel Ad – New Audience Attraction
The first ad in your eCommerce Facebook Ad Funnel is designed to send quality traffic to your online store.
This ad is showing to a cold audience – people who have never been to your website or interacted with your brand on social media.
Your Facebook ad – your text, your images, your offer, heck, even your call to action – needs to attract, connect, educate and motivate action.
The campaign objective is ‘Traffic’, optimized for landing page views.
Show your ad to the Lookalike Audiences you set up in Step 1.
When writing your ad, the messaging should identify with your customers’ pain points or desires, and present your product as the ideal solution.
And when choosing your images – try to select 4 lifestyle images to include in a Carousel. This will help your customer to see HERSELF in your ad.
Like this:
Download my free ‘Perfect Facebook ad’ Template
I know writing ads can be difficult if you’ve never done it before!
We’ve written hundreds, if not thousands, of ads. Learn the framework for an effective ad using my free template.
Step #3: Middle of Funnel Ad – Warm Audience Retargeting
Some people will have purchased from your New Audience Attraction ad.
But, as we all know, most people who visit your website the first time aren’t going to buy straight away. Sad but true.
I you’ve done a good job attracting the right people with your New Audience Attraction ad, then hopefully many of them have had a good look around and are now interested in your products.
The next thing you want to do is to retarget those people who have been to your website and interacted with your brand, but haven’t yet bought.
This is where the 2nd ad in our Ecommerce Facebook Ad Funnel comes in: the Warm Audience Retargeting ad.
For this campaign, I would choose the objective ‘Conversions’. In the Ad Set, select the ‘Purchase’ conversion event.
Show your ad to the Custom Audiences you originally set up (Website Traffic, Facebook engagement and Instagram engagement).
Or, set up a more specific Custom Audience based on people who actually viewed your Product pages but have not yet purchased.
This custom audience looks like this:
There are two ways to write this ad:
- Address any perceived risks the customers might have (for example – parents might worry that their kid will break or lose an expensive pair of kids sunglasses), or
- Show social proof with a testimonial.
This ad should ultimately pacify any concerns about buying online from you.
Like this:
Step #4: Bottom of Funnel Ad – Dynamic Product Retargeting
The hottest prospects you’ll have in an eCommerce business is actually the ones who abandon their cart!
These punters have shown serious interest in your products. They have ALMOST bought! But something has made them pause, or they’ve been distracted.
So we pick up these hot leads using the 3rd ad in our Ecommerce Facebook Ad Funnel: the Dynamic Retargeting ad.
The best, easiest way to attract these people back to complete their purchase is to use a Dynamic Product Ad (DPA) to retargeting cart abandons.
Using DPAs requires you to set up your Product Catalog first (which you can do in the top menu of your Ads Manager).
Once you’ve done this, it will allow you to show images in your ad of the exact products your potential customer was looking at on your website. So powerful!
For this campaign, select the objective ‘Catalog Sales’.
In the Ad Set, you want to select ‘Added to Cart But Not Purchased’. This actually uses your Pixel to create the audience based on the actions taken by your website visitors.
The ad itself is very simple. You want to choose ‘Carousel’ format, but you do not need to upload any images – these will be dynamically updated depending on what products your website visitors look at.
In the text, I like to offer a financial incentive such as free shipping to entice your prospects back to complete their purchase.
Like this:
The Results
Over the last year, we’ve been able to achieve an average return on investment of $7 for every $1 spent on Facebook Ads.
Needless to say, my client Diana from Milkbar Breastpumps is incredibly happy with this result!
“Signing up to Catherine’s program was the best decision I made in 2018. The program allowed me to confidently (and profitably implement) implement strategies such as facebook ads into my business. My monthly sales are almost 3 times higher compared to last year. This is the best program specifically designed for product based ecommerce owners to scale their business. The interaction with other brand owners has been priceless.” Diana Swadling, Milkbar Breastpumps
Let me help you achieve results like Diana
Implementing these strategies can be the quickest way to fire up your eCommerce store and start making some serious dough.
The first step is to book a no-obligation strategy call with me, where we’ll discuss your current business situation and your goals, and work out if we’re a good fit to work together.
