With all the changes happening in the world of Facebook advertising, staying ahead requires more than just a basic understanding of ad placements and targeting. 

As technology evolves and privacy concerns continue to intensify, advertisers tasked with maximizing ROI must continuously refine their approaches. 

This means going beyond the basics and focusing on things like advanced segmentation and targeting, AI and machine learning for optimization, creative testing, and more. 

The thing is, we know how much potential there is in the Facebook ecosystem, it’s why we are an official Meta partner. When done right, advertisers can see really exceptional results.

So let’s dive in and look at how we can maximize performance and take our Facebook ad strategies to the next level. 

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Advanced Segmentation and Targeting 

We are big fans of segmentation here at Customers.ai. 

After all, detailed audience segmentation allows advertisers to create and deliver highly relevant content to specific audiences. By looking at demographics, interests, behaviors, and more, you can significantly increase engagement rates and improve overall campaign effectiveness. 

Seems like a good thing right?

There are several ways you can add advanced segmentation strategies to your ad campaigns. Let’s look at three: Custom Audiences, Lookalike Audiences & Advantage+ Audiences.

Custom Audiences

Custom audiences are created from existing data on your customers (think email lists or users who have previously interacted with your content).

While Facebook is pushing advertisers to Advantage+, we think custom audiences are way more valuable. After all, they are YOUR audience. 

And with the right data, you can create fantastic segments with highly targeted creative. This includes:

Website Traffic: Create custom audiences from users who have visited specific pages of your website. For example, with the Customers.ai Website Visitor ID X-Ray pixel, you can identify over 20% of site visitors, even if they don’t give you their information. That data can then be used to retarget individuals on Facebook. With Restore, you can get an even higher match rate (check out this post).

Engage Past Customers: No one wants a one and done buyer. Target users who have previously made a purchase with ads for related products or exclusive offers. Is it time for a refill? Is there an update on the product they purchased? Get creative and make your segments work for you.

Segment by Intent: We know that not every buyer is ready to make a purchase. That’s ok! That’s what ads are for. The ads for visitors who hit the shopping cart should be much different than the ads for visitors who hit the T-Shirts page. By being able to track which pages your users visit, you can create really specific segments based on intent. 

Lucky for you, our tools make all of this not just possible, but easy. Including our customer journey mapping feature which shows you all the pages your buyer visited.

And our Facebook integration which allows you to send audiences directly to your Facebook campaigns:

Lookalike & Advantage+ Audiences 

Lookalike audiences allow you to reach new people whose interests and behaviors are similar to those of your existing customers while Advantage+ audiences use Meta’s advanced AI to build your campaign audience.

The thing with both of these audiences is that they are only as good as the data you populate them with. 

So whether you are still using lookalike audiences or have made the switch to Advantage+, you want to keep the following in mind:

Start with a High-Quality Source Audience: You want to reach those most likely to buy right? That means your source audience must be people who…you guessed it, bought! Use your best-performing customer segments, such as those with high engagement or conversion rates, as the basis for creating lookalike audiences or informing your Advantage+ audiences.

Specify Audience Size and Similarity: In the case of lookalike audiences, size matters. While Facebook generally recommends a source audience between 1,000-5,000 people, smaller audiences can actually perform better. For Advantage+ audiences, more data is usually better. The more data you can “train” Facebook’s AI with, the better.

Update and Refine: Like anything in marketing, it’s important to continuously update and refine your source audiences to ensure your segments remain relevant and effective. 

Whatever kind of audience you decide on (maybe all of them!), segmentation not only elevates the efficiency of your ad spend but also drives superior conversion rates by aligning your content with the distinct needs and interests of each audience segment.

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Leveraging AI and Machine Learning for Optimization

AI and machine learning are revolutionizing how Facebook ad campaigns are optimized. 

We’re talking automated bidding processes, campaign data analysis, and real-time campaign optimization. AI algorithms can predict outcomes based on historical performance and real-time data, adjusting bids in milliseconds to maximize ad visibility and engagement. 

These dynamic capabilities ensure that advertisers not only reach their target audience more effectively but also optimize their ad spend, reducing CPA and increasing ROI. 

Here are a few examples of how AI is being used (and can be used) in Facebook advertising:

Dynamic Creative Optimization: AI can be used to automatically test different combinations of ad elements such as images, videos, headlines, descriptions, and CTAs. By analyzing the performance data in real-time, the system identifies the most effective combination for each segment of the audience. Even if you aren’t doing dynamic ad creation, AI tools can be really helpful for creative. 

Predictive Analytics for Audience Targeting: Facebook uses AI to analyze data on things like user behavior, preferences, and engagement patterns. This analysis helps predict which users are most likely to take a specific action (think making a purchase, clicking on a link, or engaging with content) and ensures ads are shown to these particular people. 

Audience Expansion: We already touched on how AI is driving audience expansion above but it’s worth noting just how big of an impact this is now having in ads. With iOS 14 and now the loss of cookies, Facebook audiences have shrunk dramatically. AI is helping Facebook (and you) to build back those audiences and ensure targeting capabilities don’t completely fade away. 

AI is here to stay and as and advertiser, you can use it to your advantage or you can let your competitors use it to their advantage. 

Creative Testing and Iteration

Testing isn’t exactly an “advanced” technique in the general sense. However, the process of creative testing can be. 

Testing allows you to understand which elements of your ads resonate most and it allows you to see results quicker. 

Let’s look at a few creative testing strategies:

A/B Testing: At its core, A/B testing is simple – compare two versions of an ad and see which performs better. The key here is variable isolation; change one element at a time—be it the image, headline, ad copy, or CTA—while keeping all other variables constant. By doing it this way, you can get clear insights into which specific changes improve ad performance.

Multivariate Testing: For a more comprehensive analysis, multivariate testing lets you test multiple variations of several elements at once. While it can be a bit more challenging, this approach can show how different elements interact with one another and their combined effect on ad performance. The key to multivariate testing is a large audience and statistically significant results.

Sequential Testing: Sequential testing involves giving your audience a series of ad variations over time. While more time-consuming than A/B testing, this strategy can be particularly useful for understanding how changes in creative elements impact ad fatigue and engagement over longer campaigns. The goal – figuring out the optimal frequency and timing for refreshing ad creatives.

In the analysis phase, having the right tools in place is key. Whether it’s Facebook’s analytics tools or third-party platforms, you will need something to understand ad performance and test results. 

By prioritizing creative testing and iteration, advertisers can significantly enhance the effectiveness of their Facebook ads. This cycle of analysis and iteration ensures that ad strategies remain dynamic, targeted, and continually optimized.

Making Facebook Ads Work for You  

As we said earlier, there is so much potential in Facebook Ads. I think sometimes we forget there is actually a whole Meta ecosystem of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, giving us multiple places to reach our audience.

But we won’t be successful if we rely on old strategies. 

In order to make Facebook ads work for you, you must go beyond the basics. We need advanced segmentation and targeting, we need to capitalize on AI technology, and we certainly need to remember to test, test, test.

And if you really want to go above and beyond, you need Customers.ai. 

Our Restore product can skyrocket your Facebook reach and allow you to target website visitors you had no idea existed. 

Want to learn more? Try it free or contact our sales team for more information.

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Important Next Steps

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