You’ve found an Facebook ads provider that you’re excited to start working with. Yipee! You’ve agreed the contract, signed on the dotted line and paid the initial invoice…

So what happens next? Your Facebook ads will start running in just a day or two now, won’t they?

Errmm… unlikely I’m afraid.

Now, obviously each Facebook ads freelancer or agency will have their own set of processes on what the next steps are. The below is an outline of my processes – the way I like to do things when I onboard a new client.

Prior to signing the contracts, we would already have had a pretty in-depth discovery call and I would also have been in your ad account and taken a deep dive through the data for the audit.

So, some of what follows can seem like repetition. But, the devil is in the detail, and I like to be as thorough as possible before any ads start to run.

1. Let’s look at those numbers again

Numbers can change. It could well have been a few weeks since our discovery call, so it’s always a good idea to have a refresh on AOV, CPA, your margins, LTV, and your website conversion rate.

We would have previously spoken about the budget (I already know your budget is upwards of £2k/month, as per the contract) but we’ll take a look at your revenue targets and refine what we think the initial budget should be to keep you in line to achieve your goals.

Remember though – there are no guarantees.

2. Let’s nail down your offer

3. Give me the product lowdown

Getting under the skin of your product range also helps me to plan the ads. I need to know the answers to questions such as:

• What are your top five, best-selling products?
• Is there any seasonality to your range?
• Is there a product lifecycle? (ie: would they restock after a few weeks or months?)
• What is your level of repeat sales?
• What are your peak sales periods? (Christmas or Valentines, for example)
• Do you have any new products planned for launch?
  

This is not an exhaustive list and may develop as we progress, but the more information I have upfront, the better.

4. Who is your ideal customer?

This part is not just about selecting an audience to target within Facebook ads manager. What’s really key here is tailoring the copy in the ad to appeal to your ideal customer – so you need to have an idea of who this is!

Maybe your products are for young children, the buyer is likely to be parents – maybe more specifically mums. But we need to go deeper than that.

All too often I see ad copy that says: “Calling all busy mums…”.

This is far too general. Why? Because that can apply to a 25-year age range – and I am pretty sure that this audience is a bit more nuanced than that!

Also.. have you ever met an ‘un-busy’ mum??

Honing in on the characteristics of your customer, their thoughts, feelings and pain points can really help guide the ad copy.

5. Gather the assets

Your images, videos, catalog and social content will form the bulk of the imagery used in your ads – and I need access to all of this in order to upload it into ads manager.

Your catalog is likely to already be connected, as per my previous audit, but I also need you to send me all your other imagery – a shared server, Dropbox or WeTransfer. Only by exploring all the options can I make a decision about where to start the testing process.

You’ll likely have some strong product imagery – professionally taken – but what about video content? Video creative can be a strong performer on the ads platform and so we would be limiting our chances of success if we didn’t test it. Click here for some ideas on how to create simple video content.

Remember, different people consume content in different ways and this is why testing various forms of creative will help guide our future strategy.

6. Copy and creative approval

Once all the above process has been completed, I’ll then draft up some ad copy for your approval – body copy, headlines and descriptions.

This is an important process, to firstly ensure that I have captured the right tone of voice for your brand – but also to ensure that you’re happy with the content that will be launched.

There will be several versions, sometimes with only minor changes, but it’s important that we have several options to start testing with.

7. The build

The exciting part – starting to build out the ads within the platform!

I’ll firstly start by building out all the custom audiences from your pixel data, social followings and also ensure that your email list is uploaded (segmented too if relevant).

Images will be uploaded into the ad account media and I’ll initially create a master campaign within ads manager. The purpose of the master campaign is to act as a ‘base’ for all the ads. It will never be live – the ads will be duplicated into live campaigns from this master campaign.

This is my way of working in order to try to preserve as much social proof on ads as possible and gives me an efficient way to locate high-performing ads when needed.

8. The launch

Launching the campaigns normally happens about 10 working days after the initial contract has been signed – sometimes sooner.

All the above steps are a necessary part of the process that needs to happen in order to try to maximise the chances for the ads to be successful. It’s not something that can be skimmed over.

I’ll be able to explain to you how the campaigns have been structured – and why – what audiences we’re testing, what creative elements we’re initially using and how the budget has been split across the campaigns.

I fully expect you to have questions – and I am always more than happy to answer them!

9. Watch.. and wait!

OK, so this bit can be hard… even I have difficulty sitting on my hands at this part!

But watch and wait is what happens next.

Meta is a huge learning machine and we need to give the algorithm time to work – ideally 6+ days.

Yep – no meddling during this time!

I’ll be in the back end looking at the CTR, how people are moving through your website and watching the metrics. After about a week, the resulting data will be able to guide me as to the next steps. This may just be a few tweaks, maybe testing a new audience, maybe testing some different copy.

As a data-driven platform, the data is key to ongoing strategy – so we need to give the platform time to gather that data.

10. Ongoing management

Upcoming promotions or peak sales periods will be planned in advance in order to maximise chances of success.

There will be frequent communication between us: at the very least a monthly Zoom call, ideally more – so I can talk you through the results and ongoing campaigns – as well as emails/messages.

You’ll always get complete transparency from me on what is going on in the account – the positive and (sometimes) the not so positive.

What is always important to remember, is that Facebook ads is not a set and forget platform. I truly believe that being in the account on a daily basis is the best way to learn the nuances of the account. No account will perform the same as another – even if they sell similar products!