How to successfully use Facebook Ads for opt-ins and sales

Having an awesome opt-in to collect reader information on your blog is only one of the first steps – you want them to come back.  One of the best ways is engaging content by email.

Another way is to get in their path where they are – on social media.

Particularly Facebook, which is holding fast as one of the most popular social media platforms today.

The reason I share this is because it is so important to leverage the existing list you have and build with your social media connections. My current foundational marketing plan for my blog, TheLawTog, is affiliate marketing, email blasts, and Facebook advertisements with the email blasts and ads bringing people back to convert steadily and consistently.

This article is going to guide you on how to successfully use Facebook ads for opt-ins and sales.

Using the Audiences You Have

First, we need to set up and define our custom audiences based on our goal end results – I’ve broken these down by difference methods, non-subscribers (site visitors) and subscribers, for this section because this is done within Facebook ads manager. For non-site visitors who also aren’t subscribers scroll down to the ‘existing Facebook audience’ section.

#1 Target non-subscribers to get on list

One will be getting in front of visitors of your site that haven’t opted in – with the goal of getting them to opt in.  This is done through a custom Facebook pixel to track visitors to your site.

(See full tutorial with images here)

Many times, even with having an awesome free opt-in product/service, readers just won’t opt-in.  Their reasons may range from no-time to read emails or that they already receive too many.  But this doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in what you have to offer.  It just means they haven’t pulled the trigger.

See below for targeting non-subscribers that also don’t visit your site.

#2 Target subscribers for conversions

The second method is to target your existing opt-in visitors (see full tutorial with images here) for add on sales.  By having people on our list that have opted in, we know that they are interested in the content we have and the foundation for buyer confidence has been laid.

The goal with a Facebook advertisement to prompt an existing subscriber to reading a specific article and/or see a specific product page is to increase brand recognition and prompt sales outside of the email inbox.  Once these purchasers convert, we then place them into specific auto-responder sequences of information and product upsells/cross sells to maximize our “buying steam” with them.

Using an existing Facebook Audience

Many times bloggers put a lot of stock into building up social media lists and forget to build the subscriber email list.

Here is where we want to target the audience members through Facebook advertisements that are connected to a Facebook page – but may not have visited our site or subscribed to our list.

Our first level goal will be to put out advertisements to get them onto the opt-in list to build credibility then convert them to purchasers (See #2 listed above).

With the way that Facebook is reducing views, this is probably the best way to get existing interested, yet not fully committed, readers onto your email list – putting you IN their inbox and not just holding your breath hoping they see your content.

Making the most of these advertisements

• Make sure you follow up – whether you run multiple advertisements or multiple email follow ups – make sure you always follow up with the opt-in or purchase.
• Advertise content – Use articles in your advertisements, also called content based marketing (especially if selling to other business owners).
• Advertise social proof – Make sure you’re sharing testimonials of other purchasers/users of your product/service.
• Avoid always selling – Promote non-sales advertisements. Sounds counter-intuitive huh? Promoting your content in a freemium based model will further recognition and confidence so when they are ready to buy it’ll make it easier!

Legal tips for success

I am so glad you asked!  Since you are tracking and saving data from your website into creating custom audiences, it is important that you have a Privacy Policy in place to inform your audience what will be done with their information.

Note: These advertisements are discussing the actual creation of Facebook advertisements through the Ads manager – NOT Through the use of “boosting post” buttons on your site.

For continued help

Make sure you get on the list here as information will be released soon with copy-related and sequence tips to maximize the money you spend on Facebook ads!  You’ll also get a copy of our Legal Biz Checklist. Go here to sign up!