How many times have you come across the following statement: “working as affiliates doesn’t amount to anything”? I bet many, isn’t it? Investing time in something and not seeing results is really very frustrating. However, using Facebook Ads for affiliates is, without a doubt, a path to success. Come with me!
In case you’ve been trapped in a cave for the past 15 years: Facebook is a social network created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his college roommates.
In 2016, Facebook reached the incredible mark of 2 billion active users. Yes, that’s right: 2,000,000,000 people in one place. Data from 2019 already show 2.3 billion registered users.
Brazil is the 3rd country in the world in number of users. There are 130 million Brazilians connected to Facebook. The first places are India and the United States with 300 and 210 million members, respectively.
You might be wondering why, if Facebook has that many users, you need to use Facebook Ads. What happens is that the American social network uses an algorithm called Edge Rank and it is responsible for filtering which content reaches users.
When it was released, Edge Rank made one person’s post visible to approximately 16% of their audience. Nowadays, it is estimated that this number is around 6%. That is, if you have 100 friends on Facebook, only 6 of them will see the stuff you post.
And that’s where Facebook Ads comes in…
What is Facebook Ads?
They are paid advertisements published within Facebook itself. These posts allow you to target your target audience and drive sales. I will detail how to use this tool!
Ad Types
Facebook Ads allows you to choose from 10 categories of ads.
For people who work with affiliate marketing, the best option is, of course, “conversions”. By choosing this category, the affiliate will be able to quantify the people who performed a certain action within the disclosed link.
In addition, your ad will be visible to people who have already shown a willingness to buy that product or something similar. The “conversions” option is focused on sales.
Soon I’ll talk about pixel creation. However, here’s a spoiler: by adding a Facebook pixel to your product’s “Purchase Confirmation” page, you can see how many people are buying through the ad.
Define the audience
Maybe this is the best feature of Facebook Ads! If you work with digital marketing, for sure you already have your personas very well defined. Use them to define which audience you want to impact.
Facebook allows you to segment your audience according to age, gender, language and some demographic aspects such as education, relationship and residence, for example.
Another thing that deserves attention is a box on the right of the page. According to the parameters established for the target audience, an estimate of how many people will be reached by that ad is shown.
It is necessary and essential that you have your persona very well defined. As an affiliate, your biggest goal is to generate conversions, that is, sales. Delimiting the audience will allow your ad to reach people who have already shown some pre-will to buy that product.
Look alike
The look alike allows you to create categories of audiences similar to those who are already consuming your product. For example:
The product you are affiliated with has already sold 50 units. Some affiliate programs will provide you with details of people who have already purchased this product. With the buyer’s email (as long as it is the same email used on Facebook) you can configure the ad to reach other people with the same characteristics as people who have already bought that product.
After entering the “Publics” tab, choose the “Create a custom audience” option. After that, go to “Customer file”.
Once you are in the “Customer File” tab, you must attach a file in “.TXT” format with the email list of people who have already purchased the product and ask Facebook Ads to find other people with the same profile.
The importance of segmenting your audience so well is simple: focus on who really matters. If you work promoting products for vegan people, it doesn’t make sense to recommend these products to people who like steakhouse pages, do you agree?
Investment
Facebook allows you to advertise with very low investments. The lower the investment, the lower your priority over other advertisers. However, that’s not a bad thing. If you segment your audience very well so you don’t bump into other advertisers, it won’t impact your reach.
You have the option of making a “daily budget” or a “lifetime budget”. In the first option, you set how much you want to spend per day on ads. In the second, choose how much you want to spend on the entire ad.
It is important to remember that, regardless of the options, you can choose a date when the ad starts and ends or leave it indefinitely. It is possible to interrupt it at any time
With R$5.00 it is already possible to advertise on Facebook. I recommend that you do ad testing by investing lower amounts. You can serve more than one ad at a time, so you can make ads for different audiences.
The announcement
Facebook Ads allows you to customize the ad your way. Therefore, it is critical that you have some notion of copywriting and SEO strategies for affiliates so that you can use the right triggers to attract the audience.
Facebook has some guidelines that do not allow the use of words like “slimming” or “money”, i.e. if you use any of these words your ad will go down. In addition to certain words, there are several other reasons that can bring your ad down.
The platform also takes away the visibility of ads with a high number of words or some kind of visual clutter. This is why it is so important that the affiliate has some understanding of copywriting. Also, the ad needs to be attractive to the viewer.
The options are endless! Facebook even allows you to choose whether people will only be able to see your ad connected to a Wi-Fi network or by mobile data. Remember that many people prefer to buy only when they are connected to a secure network.
Conversion pixel
A pixel is a tool that will allow you to have control of people who are coming to your purchase page through the ad. It is always good to emphasize that, as an online entrepreneur, it is important that your business is profitable.
Ideally, you start by investing something equivalent to a commission on your product. For example: your product has a commission of $21.84. Start by investing $20.00 in ads because, if the results are not as expected, with a sale you can already tie with the amount invested. As mentioned earlier, it’s important to go on testing to know where you’re stepping.
Facebook Ads for Affiliates: Conclusion
Does Facebook Ads for Affiliates Pay? Contrary to what many people think, it is not necessary to invest a lot of money to have any return with paid advertising. Obviously, the larger the investment, the greater the chances of a return. However, Facebook Ads can be a very profitable path for any affiliate.
There are some success stories of affiliates earning huge sums from paid advertising alone. You need to monitor your ROI and, according to the results, you can adapt your strategies.