Facebook Ads Strategies: How to Drive Results with Low Budgets

Are you ready to take your Facebook Ads game to the next level, even with a low budget?

In this guide, I'm going to walk you through 5 essential pillars that have helped countless small businesses create successful ads on Facebook.

From researching your audience to fine-tuning your ad structures and scaling your campaigns strategically, each pillar is a building block towards success with small budget Facebook Ads.

Let's dive in and uncover the strategy to crafting compelling Facebook Ads that bring in results.

Here are the 5 pillars for successful Facebook Ads:

Pillar 1: Research and Analysis

Before diving into Facebook Ads, conduct thorough research and analysis. Understand your market, competitors, and target audience.

Product-Market Fit

Are your products and services satisfying customer needs? Is there enough demand to scale volume?

Ensure your products are sought after and there is already a demand on marketplaces for products like yours.

Get inspired by Ads Libraries

Utilize free tools like Facebook Ads Library and TikTok Ads Library to gather valuable data. Identify the best-performing ads by other advertisers that align with your product or service.

While it's tempting to mimic your competitors' strategies, remember not to copy them outright.

Instead, analyze their ads, look for opportunities to improve, and consider untapped audiences they may be missing.

Target Audience

Defining your audience is key to success with paid advertising, not just Facebook Ads.

Create detailed buyer personas that represent your ideal customers. Consider factors such as age, gender, location, interests, and purchasing behavior.

For example, "Phil, the farmer" could be a key persona for a farm equipment supplier targeting rural areas interested in agriculture and eco-farming.

Pillar 2: Tracking - Meta (Facebook) Pixel & Conversions API

Tracking is essential to success with ads. As the old cliché says:

"What gets measured, gets done!" 

Set up both browser-side (Pixel) and server-side (Conversions API) tracking to effectively track your website events. 

Ensure you set up events to match your objectives, such as Purchase for sales or Complete Registration for sign-ups.

With well-known CMS-s like Shopify, Wordpress or Wix, this is a straightforward setup. If you have a custom website it can be trickier to do.

You may have to use Google Tag Manager and Data-Layer.

But this is a topic for another newsletter.

(Let me know if you want to know more about this topic)

Pillar 3: Ad Account & Campaign Structure

I like to use what I call the MVAC - Minimum Viable Ad Campaign.

(Yes, just like MVP startup term.)

MVAC Framework:

MVAC is about simplicity. It's good for testing and you don't overwhelm yourself.

1 Campaign

1 Ad Set (Advantage+ targeting)

3 ads: image, carousel, video 

Ad Copy: 1-3 headlines and 1-3 body text variations

CTA: Maximum 2 variations

Campaign Objectives

Always create campaigns for the goal you want! If you want sales, optimize for sales! If you want leads, create Lead Ads, if you want sign-ups opt to Complete Registration.

Avoid using Awareness & Traffic campaigns unless absolutely necessary.

Campaign Structure

Keep your campaign structure simple. Start with one campaign, maximum two ad sets (targeting different audiences), and three ads (image, video, carousel).

Limit headline and text variations to help decision-making easier, when deciding which ad copy works (more on this later).

Targeting Your Audience

Use Advantage+ Audiences to avoid narrowing your audience at the ad set level. 

Keep your original audiences limited to five interests maximum.

Don't forget to test re-marketing and lookalike audiences to expand your reach effectively. 

However, Advantage+ takes care of this usually, but always test!

Since Advantage+ (2024), targeting is less important and your ad creative and ad copy do the targeting for you!

I you want to read more about the MVAC Framework, read more about it in DAS - Issue #04.

Pillar 4: Valuable Offer

Nothing separates you from the competition who sells the same thing as you do, if you don’t have a unique offer that has some extra benefit for the customer.

Here are the steps to a valuable offer:

Step 1: Craft an Irresistible Offer

Create an offer that feels too good to pass up. Incorporate elements of scarcity or exclusivity to encourage action.

I see this problem a lot. Business do not take a little bit of time to create an offer. They sell the same thing as the competition.

They want sales and have the same exact offer. It's hard ot compete on price and the market will be damaged. 

Step 2: Have an USP - Unique Selling Point

For products, you can create a bundle of products, or have a complementary service. Or offer a warranty that nobody else has in the market.

For services, it's even easier. Offer extra services, a personal touch, a 1:1 meeting.

Step 3: Create a Sales Funnel

Guide your audience through a structured sales funnel, from awareness to conversion.

Tailor your ad creative and copy to each stage of the funnel to maximize engagement and conversions.

Focus on 2 types of users:

• TOFU - Top of the Funnel Ads 

These users DO NOT know your brand. This is a cold audience.

Focus on grabbing their attention and lure them in to your world. A great offer can persuade them to click and visit your website.

• BOFU - Bottom of the Funnel Ads 

These users already interacted with you. They already clicked on your website or saw your ads before.

They are ready to buy, so create a different creative and have different messaging. 

Step 4: Ad Creatives

Experiment with different ad formats, image, carousel and videos to find what resonates best with your audience.

Keep your creative consistent with your brand identity while testing various elements for optimization. 

For start, have 1 image, 1 carousel and 1 video.

Step 5: Ad Copy

Craft compelling ad copy that speaks directly to your audience's pain points, desires, and motivations.

Test different headlines, body text, and calls-to-action to determine the most effective messaging for driving conversions.

Don't overcomplicate, keep it simple as always.

Have 1-3 headlines, 1-3 body texts and 2 CTAs.

Pillar 5: Testing & Optimizing

Budgeting

Start with a modest budget of $10-$15 per ad set to test different audience segments and creative variations.

Gradually increase your budget by 20%-30% if you identify winning combinations and scale your campaigns.

Optimizing

Focus on vertical scaling by increasing the budget for successful ad sets rather than horizontally duplicating campaigns or ad sets. 

Maintain a positive Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) by closely monitoring performance metrics and making data-driven adjustments, as needed.

Leave your campaigns run for 4-5 days, without touching them!

It's important to get data, and as you test with low budgets, ads need time.

Identify best performing ad creatives, and ad copies.

Stop the other ads. Let them run even further for another 2-3 days.

You should be seeing results by then. If not, look at secondary metrics to see if it's there is interest but users are not ready to buy.

I talked about Facebook Ads Metrics in DAS #01 where I broke down which metrics you should be looking at to decide whether a campaign can be successful.

Explore advanced targeting options, retargeting strategies, and lookalike audiences to continue expanding your reach and maximizing results.

Conclusion

In today's competitive digital landscape, mastering Facebook Ads with a limited budget is crucial for small businesses to thrive.

By following the five essential pillars outlined in this guide, you'll be equipped with the knowledge and strategies needed to create impactful campaigns that drive meaningful results. 

From conducting thorough research and setting up effective tracking to crafting compelling offers and continuously testing and optimizing, each pillar plays a crucial role in your Facebook advertising success.

With dedication and strategic implementation, you'll unlock the full potential of Facebook Ads to grow your business and achieve your marketing objectives.