FACEBOOK AD SEQUENCING VS. RETARGETING: A 2020 BRIEF OVERVIEW.
Did you know that you can control storylines and lead people by the hand to your products or services with your Facebook ads?
It’s True!
When you’re running Facebook and Instagram ads and you want to tell a complete story or direct people to specific websites or events you can use ad sequencing and retargeting.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AD SEQUENCING AND RETARGETING
Ad sequencing and retargeting are similar but they’re also very different in how you set them up. Ad sequencing works with reach and frequency campaigns, which are actually a different way of paying for your Facebook advertising.
Instead of working off the auction system, the reach and frequency campaigns allow you to set a specific amount of money per CPM (cost per thousand) for your audience. But, here’s the catch, choosing between the auction or reach and frequency payment method is not available to everyone. The reach and frequency payment method is only available to ad accounts that Facebook considers qualified. So, if you don’t see the option to choose between an auction or reach and frequency now you know why.
For more information on this, you can see what Facebook says about it here.
AD SEQUENCING
If you can choose reach and frequency and you want to use ad sequencing here are some basics to keep in mind.
Ad sequencing is great when you want to tell a story from beginning to end. And with ad sequencing on Facebook, you can create up to 50 ads, in advance, to deliver to your chosen audience. From there Facebook will deliver the ads in the order that you laid them out in your business manager. Meaning Facebook will show ad #1 before it shows #2 and so on.
You also will choose the frequency in which people will see your ads, for example, one video every seven days, so if you have 5 videos in your sequence you can create a five-week campaign. Or maybe you want people to see your ads twice a week, in that case, you have 10 sequential videos in a 5 week period.
Here’s an example of how you could set up your sequential ads.
#1 You discuss the problem that your product or service solves.
# 2 Tell the story of how you created the product or the service.
# 3 You show how the product or service is created or gets distributed.
# 4 You show a person unboxing the product or successfully using the product or service. this is your social proof to help establish credibility.
# 5 Could be your first call to action for the people who’ve been watching this storyline unfold to purchase your product or service.
Here are two suggestions for success when creating a campaign like this:
# 1 Know your audience
#2 Have a minimum of 3-5 pieces of content to promote.
RETARGETING
If you don’t have access to the reach and frequency payment option that’s perfectly fine. The retargeting method of delivering ads can be just as powerful. In fact, this is the method that I use the most personally and with my agency clients.
One thing I love about retargeting ads is that I can create custom audiences based on certain actions.
If I have a video that is 10 minutes long, I can create a custom audience of people that watched at least 50% of that specific video. Then I can create a new video that builds upon the messaging of the first, but it only gets shown to people who were interested enough to watch at least 50% of the original video. And in a world where people generally have a 7-second attention span if they watch 5 minutes of my video that equates to a high level of interest.
You can also use custom audiences made up of people who previously bought products from you and retarget them with images or videos containing complimentary items. So, your ad could say:
“Hey, I hope you’re loving your new skinny jeans. Did you know that these shoes go great with those jeans too?”
YOU CAN JUST HELP PEOPLE TOO
You don’t have to sell people with retargeting, you can simply deliver helpful content as well, this is a method I use all the time. But, it’s done the exact same way. Produce a helpful piece of content either on social media or your website and once people interact with the content they go into a custom audience that puts more of the same kind of helpful content in front of them.
You most likely want to sell them something in the future, but the goal is by the time you make the offer the people are knocking on your door with cash in hand.
I hope this brief overview of Ad sequencing and Retargeting has been helpful to you and it helps to take your Facebook and Instagram advertising to a whole new level.