The goal of this post is to clearly outline the difference between a data driven strategy and a standard campaign strategy. The campaign is a hypothetical and simple situation for a freelance wedding photographer whom wants to advertise on Facebook. The target market are those users whom have a relationship status of “engaged” on Facebook.
Standard Execution of This Facebook Ad Campaign
The photographer creates ad content with a catchy headline, possible promotion, and a link to either their Facebook Fan Page or website. The ads are targeted locally and to only those users with the “engaged” status. The ad budget is set and the ads are run.
What Data is Missing?
The missing piece of this targeted campaign is the point where the engaged couple has already signed with a photographer. There is no way to know that the couple has already contracted with another photographer. However, advertising to the people that have already contracted with a photographer is an inefficient waste of the photographer’s budget.
Data Driven Strategy for this Facebook Ad Campaign
People make choices for the products they purchase at different times. This means that some couples will contract a photographer early, some will take their time, and others will choose a photographer last minute. Sometimes this data is available freely on the internet, or for a fee. Other times, it may be valuable for the photographer to run a quick survey to already married couples on when they chose their wedding photographer and divide it into three groups:
- Early (1 to 2 months)
- Time Takers (2-5 months)
- Last Minute (6 months plus)
These time frames are hypothetical as I have not created the survey and don’t have the breakdown. The main point here is the message can be carefully crafted to each group and targeted to match the time frame the couple was engaged to the current date. Furthermore, if you know that most couples find their wedding photographer between 2-5 months, you can run more impressions to that group than any other group.
Conclusion
This eliminates waste of ad impressions to those couples that will never purchase your services. In an ideal situation you can divide your impression mix among the three targeted groups and provide more impressions to those that are most likely to purchase your services. I will warn you that Facebook does not currently have a way for you to target three specific ad groups. However, they did purchase Atlas ad serving system and this should allow for more ad targeting flexibility in the near future.
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