I want you to successfully raise money on Indiegogo.
Why?
Because I want you to come on my podcast and share with ALL of the listeners you’re fundraising strategies and techniques.
Pretty selfish, right? Haha!
By now, you probably know about the fundraising basics when it comes to getting backers for your Indiegogo campaign.
You know… social media, email list, pre-launch, etc.
However, what’s NOT talked a lot about is the importance of Facebook ads.
Facebook ads can instantly bring new backers into your campaign and make your funding meter skyrocket.
I promise you that you’re going to want to pay attention to this. It can mean the difference between blowing past your goal on Indiegogo or fizzling out. No joke.
Facebook ads are a big headache at first. Most entrepreneurs will waste money, trying to target potential backers, but failing to get conversions.
What’s worse, they might spend a bunch of money, but end up targeting the WRONG people on Facebook. Eek!
I want to help you avoid wasting money on Facebook, so that you can invest money other places (like my book, course, etc – haha!).
Below, I’ve outlined a few major components that go into profitable Facebook ads. Let’s get started.
1. Your Image/Video Captures Attention and Communicates Your Offer
The first thing that users will see on Facebook is your image. We naturally tend to gravitate towards images before text.
I would pick an image that gives the user a clear idea of what your product is, what it does, or what they can use it for. You don’t necessarily need a person in the image, but attractive individuals using a product do tend to command more attention.
Now, this image is going to vary from product to product. With some products, you need to show people how they would use it in their life. With others, they can simply see a high resolution picture of the product and know exactly what it does.
If you’ve taken the time to film a video, even better!
Don’t forget to include a call to action at the end of the video so that viewers know what you want them to do next.
Remember that Facebook has clear guidelines when it comes to the images and videos that you use. In general, for an image, you’re not going to be allowed to include very much text, so be selective!
2. Your Copywriting Weeds Out and Communicates Value
A lot of people think that you want the most clicks possible on your advertisement. That’s not true.
You want high quality leads. You want people who are actually interested in your product, or who suffer from the problem you’re trying to remedy.
A very common copywriting technique is to use questions to have users pre-select themselves as being interested in your product.
For example, “Are you tired of your laptop dying quickly? What about those bulky external chargers? Annoying, right!”
Clearly, your product is related to battery storage or may be some kind of elegant charging device.
Interested backers should have a VERY CLEAR idea of what you’re “offering them” when they click on the advertisement. They’re clicking it to find out more about what you’ve teased.
Another common copywriting technique is to tell a personal story that underscores why you created the product.
For example, “I’m a software engineer. I work from cafes and coffee shops, and my laptop battery would ALWAYS die, right in the middle of an important assignment.
It was SO frustrating. I’ve bought every charging device out there, but they’re all B.S.
Finally, I set out to figure this out. I invested $100,000 of my own money. We went through 10 prototypes. After 2 years and a lot of testing, created the PERFECT charging device.
It’s sexy, sleek, and you’re gonna love it…”
I would try to keep the copywriting and video as casual as possible. Remember, these are people on Facebook looking at pictures of their friend’s babies and cute kittens. You want to come off as a “friend” rather than a “dry corporate entity.”
3. Targeting Is Your #1 Indicator of Success
You can have the best product, image, video, or copywriting in the world. It doesn’t matter a whole lot if you’re targeting the wrong people.
That’s like walking into a convent of nuns trying to sell explicit rap music. Probably not gonna get very far…
There are a few different ways that you can target audiences on Facebook.
- Custom Audiences: Retargeted Website Traffic
- Custom Audiences: An email list of buyers or subscribers
- A Lookalike Audience
- Facebook page followers
- Broad interests or inclinations
For beginners, I’d first start with targeting website traffic. You’ll have to install the Facebook pixel on your website to begin to gather some data on your site users. Then, you’ll be able to create a custom audience of these individuals.
I would also upload email lists of your previous customers or email subscribers and advertise to them.
For intermediate advertisers, I’d begin to experiment with lookalike audiences and adding in broad interests to narrow down the target market.
For advanced Facebook marketers, I’d look into extreme segmentation of your audience. By this, I mean that you could target people who’s watch up until a certain portion of your Facebook video. You could target people based on engagements on your website, etc.
Overall, I wouldn’t spend much more than $10 per day. Start to collect some data on how people are interacting with your advertisement and adjust accordingly. Your goal is to get a good fit between your offer and the audience. That’s what makes up a profitable Facebook ad.
Of course, you can always start with targeting broad interest groups. You’re just probably not going to get the best ROI on your ad spend. This is where people end up wasting money.
If you do broad targeting, make sure you’re not throwing in your entire advertising budget. Start VERY small and see what kind of numbers you’re getting.
4. Optimize For The Right CTA (Call-to-action)
When I first learned about the highly intellectual concept of a call-to-action, I was rolling my eyes.
You want BACKERS for your campaign! Duh. It’s not complicated.
But, being young and rebellious, I sometimes need a second look before I actually buy into a concept.
You see, there are actually a lot of different call-to-actions that an advertiser could have. They could want:
- Likes or shares on their post
- Likes for their Facebook page
- Clicks to their websites
- Sign ups to an email list
- Purchases of their product
To you, it might seem like a no-brainer what your call-to-action is, but Facebook doesn’t know that because they’re serving MANY different types of advertisers.
If you’re just starting out with Facebook advertising, I would not recommend buying likes on your Facebook page or engagements on your posts. I also wouldn’t recommend really boosting posts.
You can… I just don’t think it’s as worth it.
Instead, I’d be optimizing for either clicks to your website or conversions. In order to optimize for conversions, you’re going to need to be getting regular conversions (25+) for Facebook to be able to optimize for it.
The better the fit that your ad is for your target audience, the lower the price you’ll get for clicks or conversions (usually).
5. Give it Time (Here’s Why)
We live in a society that craves instant results. They’ve been misled by marketers to believe that you can BUY anything and that you can get it QUICK with little to no effort.
Wrong!
Wrong wrong wrong!
This type of language can be used to sell a product, but it’s the worst way to go about earning revenue for your business.
Remember, you’re a business owner, not a customer.
Since you’re an entrepreneur or marketer, you need patience. This is the only way you’re going to be successful in the long run.
It’s going to take you time before you find the most profitable audience on Facebook. It’s going to take you time before you find the best creative and the right language.
Yes, you’re going to bleed some money as you figure all of this out, but it doesn’t have to be a lot.
You can start on Facebook for as little as $5 per day. Your “testing phase” doesn’t have to break the bank.
Once you’ve found a profitable audience, creative, and offer, then it’s time to scale up and to start pouring in your advertising budget!
Where to Go From Here
Do you want to learn more about Facebook ads? Awesome! Hit me up on one of my webinars or reach out to me directly.
I share a ton of information on my webinars that you can use to enhance the profitability of your marketing. You’ll get way more bang for your buck.
You’ll also learn what you need to focus on if you want to successfully raise funds on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or any other crowdfunding website.
