eCommerce Stores: How to Make the Most of Your Facebook Marketing Strategy Through Funnels

If you own an ecommerce business or run any kind of marketing, there’s a good chance you know what a marketing funnel is. You’re familiar with moving prospects through the customer journey, starting broad with an awareness campaign and closing the deal with a hard sell. This is nothing new.

It’s also likely you’ve run Facebook ads to attract new customers. But do your Facebook ads use funnels?

Why Facebook Ad Funnels Matter for Ecommerce Brands

Marketing funnels in paid ads are extremely effective, but Facebook doesn’t offer an easy, out-of-the-box way to create them. Consequently, most businesses settle for a basic Facebook marketing strategy around one-off ad campaigns. It’s all too common to see cold traffic and site retargeting shoved into a single campaign and served as the same four ad variations.

Though easy, this isn’t the most effective solution. Think of it this way. If you met someone on the street, you’d never start a conversation by hollering, “Hey! Here’s my product and how much it costs. Buy it now!” That would be incredibly off-putting.

Sure, ecommerce ads on Facebook are a little different from an in-person meeting, but not as much as you might think. Just like in person, a conversation needs to take place before you ask for a purchase. You introduce yourself, qualify whether the person is interested in your product and a good prospect, introduce your product and provide education around it, and then ask for the sale.

And there’s good news! Though Facebook doesn’t make it easy to create ecommerce ad funnels, they don’t make it impossible. By using some creative retargeting and Facebook events, you can design effective ecommerce ads funnels in Facebook’s ad manager.

How to Create Ecommerce Facebook Ad Funnels

To create effective ecommerce ad funnels on Facebook, retarget custom audiences based on two factors:

• Their interactions with your previous ads
• Their activity on your website

Check out an example of a simple prospecting funnel below. If you have plenty of traffic and activity on your site, you can add additional steps for even more targeted ads.

 

Prospecting: An Ecommerce Facebook Ad Funnel

Ad 1: Content

The first ad you’d typically serve in a marketing funnel is a content ad, whether that be a video, a helpful article, or a page-like campaign. This awareness campaign gauges general interest in your brand and gets your name on the market.

You may not see an immediate return on awareness campaigns, and that’s okay. The primary metrics you want to watch for with these ads are good engagement and low cost per click (CPC).

Ad 2: Features and Benefits

The second ad will still include engaging content but will be a bit more in-depth and product-specific. The additional information offered here will help determine whether your product is actually relevant to the people seeing your ad.

For this ad, you’ll create a custom audience that includes people who viewed your first ad content and retarget them. You can even get as specific as targeting those who spent a certain amount of time viewing the content.

If your first ad was video content, for instance, you can build a custom audience to include only people who viewed at least 10 seconds of that video. Or, if your first ad simply directed users to a “learn more” landing page or collection page on your site, you can stick with basic site retargeting.

Ad 3: Promo

In the third ad, you’d make your first offer. This ad would retarget the audience that viewed and interacted with your second ad, visited a product page, or even added the product to their cart but didn’t purchase.

Make this ad an offer the potential customer can’t refuse, such as a discount on their first purchase or free shipping. Gently remind them that these products are in limited supply.

We recommend leading with your best offer because it quickly separates people who might buy soon from people who won’t. Truly interested customers will at least click through on a strong offer.

One important note: For each step in the ad funnel, be sure to exclude recent purchasers.

While only your third ad makes the hard sell, some people will still convert off your first and second ads. Don’t waste your money serving them the rest of the ads in the funnel, especially since, as you go down the funnel, your ads get more expensive.

Pro Tip: Use Landing Pages in Your Facebook Ad Funnels

We’ve seen it too many times: No matter the stage of the funnel, all ads lead to the homepage.

Most brands that run their own ads have been guilty of this at one point or another. Yes, the homepage is a very important page. It can even function as a good catch-all for some general awareness ads. The homepage is a routing point, introducing people to your brand and directing them to the part of your site they need to see next.

But don’t send the majority of your ads there.

Remember, most Facebook users are on their mobile phones. Think about your own smartphone experience. If you stop scrolling long enough to click on an ad, the destination better be exactly what you were hoping to see and as easy to browse as possible. Whether it’s finding hidden navigation, scrolling for next steps, or having to click a tiny search bar to find what you need, the homepage experience can be more of a barrier to mobile sales than a help.

If you’re putting out targeted ads with targeted messaging, each needs to direct to a page that’s specifically relevant to its content. Land your visitors on a page that includes the same messaging and the same product or promo that just compelled them to click on your ad.

Ecommerce Facebook Ad Funnels: Final Thoughts

Facebook ads are an incredible resource for ecommerce businesses, but they do require some strategy to implement effectively. Begin by constructing thoughtful ad funnels with dedicated landing pages, and you’ll be on your way to effective Facebook ads and higher conversion rates.

Looking for more information on crafting effective paid ads? We have plenty of resources on the topic! Start with our 7 Ways to Get the Most Out of Social Media Advertising or How to Write Magnetic Ads People Actually Click: The ABCs of Successful Ads.