- Apr 14, 2013
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Anybody can plan effective & highly successful Facebook campaigns with some understanding, testing & a pinch of luck
Mod Edit: Syndicating content is one thing, but please don't use BHW to build an audience on another site.
One of our client’s result to show the information below comes from battle-tested methods
The information highlights 7 techniques you should utilise to succeed with Facebook ads.
However, before we run the marathon, we have to go through a bootcamp.
Laying the groundwork
To understand how and what to market, we first have to figure out who to market to…
There are 4 types of potential customers to consider:
Type 0 — People aware about Bitcoin but not invested (Awareness Level: Infant)
Type 1 — People invested in Bitcoin (Awareness Level: Starter)
Type 2 — People invested in Altcoins (Awareness Level: Intermediate)
Type 3 — People invested in ICO’s (Awareness Level: Advanced)
Thousands and millions are getting into Crypto trading every day. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the users you target switch ‘types’ over a period of days (or even hours)
Disclaimer: Since crypto, right now is such a lucrative opportunity being in its infancy, the article has taken the liberty to assume that everybody is looking to invest (or learn) about new ideas (read: ICO’s) that have the potential to change the world & make them rich at the same time
Once we have established the categories, the next job is to decide the 3 most important pieces of content that will establish the language, tone & structure of your campaigns:
Now that we’ve figured out what to say with our Facebook ads and who to target, lets use the various FREE Facebook tools available to our advantage
1. Go Mobile-First
As per Facebook’s own Audience Insights tool, 95% of users that have shown ‘interest’ in ‘Bitcoin’ on Facebook use mobile as their Primary device
95% of users with ‘Bitcoin’ as an ‘Interest’ use mobiles as their primary device
Your strategy should be to use Mobile as the first touchpoint and than re-market to them over other platforms
Use Facebook Mobile News Feed & Instagram News Feed (and Stories) as placement
Placement/Platform Options
2. Go Video
As per a study conducted by Facebook, users find video 5X more engaging than images.
There’s a reason why the first thing you notice on most top ICO’s is a video.
Top Crypto Ventures Use Video (L-R: Dash, Salt, Monero)
Not only is video more engaging but offers a deeper & faster understanding of your offering.
Disclaimer: The foregoing is for entertainment and educational purposes only and not investment advice. Please do your own research before investing
There are exceptions though like IOTA. But they don’t even use blockchain & have achieved unprecedented growth, so we’d let IOTA be IOTA
Since the first impression could be your last impression, a good video can make or break your campaigns.
However, whether you use your main video (the one that explains what your ICO/venture is about) or a short teaser video as part of the campaign that reaches out to new users for the first time; would be determined by the content of the video and who is it catering to.
Best Size for Videos
Square videos (1:1 aspect ratio) are well-known to outperform traditional landscape videos.
You could also try vertical videos (4:5) for both Facebook & Instagram news feed. They occupy more real-estate on a user’s screen (more=better)
An aspect ratio of 9:16 is required for Instagram stories
Best Length for Videos
As per Facebook, a video should be 15 seconds in length.
Videos with lengths under 30 seconds should be used as ‘curiosity-builders’ that takes the user to your website which offers them more information.
However, as Gary Vaynerchuk has said — “The length of the video is as good as the quality of the content” (or something like that)
So, if you believe in your content, time is just a number!
3. Find your audience
You know who your audience is, now its time to find out what they like (except being filthy rich by investing in the next Bitcoin)
Use Audience Insights tool
By using the tool, you could find targeting options that cater to your company & the kind of users you want.
You could search for users that are in need of the problem you solve, or for existing traders or those that have shown interest in similar ICO’s (or just ICO’s)
Fun Useless Fact
Use ‘AND’ targeting
Marketers trying to market ICO’s should not only aim for people aware of the technical & financial rewards of an ICO, but also to people that are all that PLUS those who could also benefit from what the ICO would solve
Your target user should not only be your investor but also an evangelist for your ventureAnd somebody would only truly believe in something if it solves a problem that they are suffering from
Sample targeting for a Crypto-based Freelancing Platform
4. Track user activity
“Facebook helps those that help themselves”
To be able to understand how your ads are performing and to be able to utilise the power of Facebook’s knowledge, it’s imperative to implement the Facebook pixel across your website
Gameflip reached 101% of their funding goal as of the time of writing this
Gameflip, an ICO backed by the founders of Electronic Arts — the masters of marketing (I am looking at you COD & FIFA) utilises 3 Facebook pixels on their website (1’s enough tho)
The pixel would not only allow you to pay less for acquiring users (by allowing Facebook to learn about the best prospects), but allow you to generate an extremely powerful & rewarding Re-marketing audience
RESPEC!
5. Refine Targeting
Custom Audiences
Custom Audiences (CA) are audiences that are unique to you & which you own and do not share with anybody (unless you wanted it to)
Facebook Custom Audience
CA differs from the general ‘Interest’ targeting offered by Facebook in two aspects
i. Only you & you only are the owner of a particular custom audience
ii. A custom audience is customised for your business. It’s a more ‘refined’ form of targeting
For the purpose of an ICO, you could divide CA’s into 3 broad categories:
Lookalike audiences (LAL’s) is the most advanced & useful targeting option available to marketers used for scouting new prospects.
Concept of Facebook Lookalike Audience
Using the Custom Audience as the seed audience, Facebook creates an audience most similar to the users in the seed audience, known as the Lookalike Audience
Lookalike Audience eliminates the use of ‘Interest’ targeting, making your job easier
You can use a Lookalike Audience from any of the seed audiences below:
6. Build Trust
The importance of the message is as important as the person saying it
Testimonials & referrals are one of the biggest influencing factors that decide if somebody would invest in your ICO
Image: Adesrpesso
In fact, the importance of social proof & a friend’s recommendation have been given great impetus by legendary marketers like Dr. Robert Cialdini & Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg respectively.
Promote 3rd Party Content
Did somebody review your ICO on Youtube? Promote that video with Facebook ads
Did a big publication write about you? Promote that article with Facebook ads
Did somebody talk well about you on Reddit? Promote that post with Facebook ads
“Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.” — Proverbs 27:2
You get the picture, right?
Go ahead & establish yourself as the business you claim to be through other people’s word-of-mouth.
Re-engage the traffic
A major problem that marketers face when promoting 3rd-party content that they don’t own is the inability to use the traffic for re-marketing purposes.
However, with tools like PixelMe, Sniply, Replug and many others, it’s no longer an issue.
7. Re-market
If ‘saving the best for the last’ was the law of the land, this article would never go to jail!
The worst mistake you could do in marketing your ICO is to overwhelm the user with information or present the right information at the wrong time.
There are multiple barriers before somebody would invest in your ICO.
Every users travels through their buying (or investing) cycle at their own pace by overcoming those barriers
Your job as a marketer is to provide the information needed by your prospective investor to overcome their objections.
“A customer will invest when he wants to, not when you when them too”
This is accomplished by a ‘funnel’
The Funnel
As per a study, 98% first time visitors would abandon your website and never return again, even if they were as interested as Vinci was in Mona Lisa.
This figure would only make someone happy if their ICO could be funded by only 2% of the traffic.
But that’s rarely the case!
A funnel basically is the offering of the right information to the user at the right time for them to make the ultimate decision of investing in the ICO.
In the infographic below, I have explained what a sample funnel could look like for marketing an ICO over Facebook ads
The Funnel (Condensed Version)
The above funnel follows the famed AIDA principle.
Attention
How — Use a teaser video or use your company’s value proposition in an image ad to reach out to new users
Who — New users (Type 3 & 4)
Where — Website Home Page
Interest
How — Use Facebook Custom Audience to build up a user base of your top website visitors and video watchers.
Create a campaign targeting them with a full-length video explaining your venture and why they should invest.
Who — Top 25% website visitors & 75% video watchers
Where — Token Sale Page
Desire
How — Inspire & inform the users by showcasing your whitepaper, your team & other 3rd party content (reviews, testimonials, Reddit posts)
Who — 75% video watchers (main video) and ‘Token Sale’ page visitors
Where– Token Sale Page
Action
How — Push the users to fund your ICO by creating urgency & scarcity with your final campaign(s) in the funnel
Use of countdown timers, the amount funded and days left are good triggers to give the users a reason to jump over the fence.
Who– People that downloaded your White-paper, visited Token Sale Page & Other pages on website multiple times
Where — Token Sale Page
Although the funnel ends when the user has invested into the ICO, the battle is not over.
A post-sales funnel is important to keep the investors in the loop and to keep spreading good ideas about your ICO
Conclusion
Facebook with its 1 Billion+ user base and a very comprehensive understanding about its users is the best way to market your ICO, period.
A successfully executed Facebook Ads marketing campaign could be the biggest differentiator in the success of the ICO and ultimately the venture in question.
With new ICO’s cropping up daily, it has become the battle of the fittest. The one with the smartest Facebook strategy is bound to win.
Mod Edit: Syndicating content is one thing, but please don't use BHW to build an audience on another site.
One of our client’s result to show the information below comes from battle-tested methods
The information highlights 7 techniques you should utilise to succeed with Facebook ads.
However, before we run the marathon, we have to go through a bootcamp.
Laying the groundwork
To understand how and what to market, we first have to figure out who to market to…
There are 4 types of potential customers to consider:
Type 0 — People aware about Bitcoin but not invested (Awareness Level: Infant)
Type 1 — People invested in Bitcoin (Awareness Level: Starter)
Type 2 — People invested in Altcoins (Awareness Level: Intermediate)
Type 3 — People invested in ICO’s (Awareness Level: Advanced)
Thousands and millions are getting into Crypto trading every day. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the users you target switch ‘types’ over a period of days (or even hours)
Disclaimer: Since crypto, right now is such a lucrative opportunity being in its infancy, the article has taken the liberty to assume that everybody is looking to invest (or learn) about new ideas (read: ICO’s) that have the potential to change the world & make them rich at the same time
Once we have established the categories, the next job is to decide the 3 most important pieces of content that will establish the language, tone & structure of your campaigns:
- What problems does your ICO solve?[Pain Points]
- What benefits does your ICO provide? [Benefits]
- What objections a user would have before investing in your ICO? [Objections]
Now that we’ve figured out what to say with our Facebook ads and who to target, lets use the various FREE Facebook tools available to our advantage
1. Go Mobile-First
As per Facebook’s own Audience Insights tool, 95% of users that have shown ‘interest’ in ‘Bitcoin’ on Facebook use mobile as their Primary device
95% of users with ‘Bitcoin’ as an ‘Interest’ use mobiles as their primary device
Your strategy should be to use Mobile as the first touchpoint and than re-market to them over other platforms
Use Facebook Mobile News Feed & Instagram News Feed (and Stories) as placement
Placement/Platform Options
2. Go Video
As per a study conducted by Facebook, users find video 5X more engaging than images.
There’s a reason why the first thing you notice on most top ICO’s is a video.
Top Crypto Ventures Use Video (L-R: Dash, Salt, Monero)
Not only is video more engaging but offers a deeper & faster understanding of your offering.
Disclaimer: The foregoing is for entertainment and educational purposes only and not investment advice. Please do your own research before investing
There are exceptions though like IOTA. But they don’t even use blockchain & have achieved unprecedented growth, so we’d let IOTA be IOTA
Since the first impression could be your last impression, a good video can make or break your campaigns.
However, whether you use your main video (the one that explains what your ICO/venture is about) or a short teaser video as part of the campaign that reaches out to new users for the first time; would be determined by the content of the video and who is it catering to.
Best Size for Videos
Square videos (1:1 aspect ratio) are well-known to outperform traditional landscape videos.
You could also try vertical videos (4:5) for both Facebook & Instagram news feed. They occupy more real-estate on a user’s screen (more=better)
An aspect ratio of 9:16 is required for Instagram stories
Best Length for Videos
As per Facebook, a video should be 15 seconds in length.
Videos with lengths under 30 seconds should be used as ‘curiosity-builders’ that takes the user to your website which offers them more information.
However, as Gary Vaynerchuk has said — “The length of the video is as good as the quality of the content” (or something like that)
So, if you believe in your content, time is just a number!
3. Find your audience
You know who your audience is, now its time to find out what they like (except being filthy rich by investing in the next Bitcoin)
Use Audience Insights tool
By using the tool, you could find targeting options that cater to your company & the kind of users you want.
You could search for users that are in need of the problem you solve, or for existing traders or those that have shown interest in similar ICO’s (or just ICO’s)
Fun Useless Fact
Use ‘AND’ targeting
Marketers trying to market ICO’s should not only aim for people aware of the technical & financial rewards of an ICO, but also to people that are all that PLUS those who could also benefit from what the ICO would solve
Your target user should not only be your investor but also an evangelist for your ventureAnd somebody would only truly believe in something if it solves a problem that they are suffering from
Sample targeting for a Crypto-based Freelancing Platform
4. Track user activity
“Facebook helps those that help themselves”
To be able to understand how your ads are performing and to be able to utilise the power of Facebook’s knowledge, it’s imperative to implement the Facebook pixel across your website
Gameflip reached 101% of their funding goal as of the time of writing this
Gameflip, an ICO backed by the founders of Electronic Arts — the masters of marketing (I am looking at you COD & FIFA) utilises 3 Facebook pixels on their website (1’s enough tho)
The pixel would not only allow you to pay less for acquiring users (by allowing Facebook to learn about the best prospects), but allow you to generate an extremely powerful & rewarding Re-marketing audience
- Placing the pixel is easy. Start here
- Facebook Analytics — Facebook’s Google Analytics, but for Facebook. Check yours– facebook.com/analytics
RESPEC!
5. Refine Targeting
Custom Audiences
Custom Audiences (CA) are audiences that are unique to you & which you own and do not share with anybody (unless you wanted it to)
Facebook Custom Audience
CA differs from the general ‘Interest’ targeting offered by Facebook in two aspects
i. Only you & you only are the owner of a particular custom audience
ii. A custom audience is customised for your business. It’s a more ‘refined’ form of targeting
For the purpose of an ICO, you could divide CA’s into 3 broad categories:
- Engagement Custom Audience — An audience of users that have engaged with your videos, ads/posts (both Facebook & Instagram) & Facebook event(s)
- App/Website Custom Audience — An audience of user activity & behaviour on your mobile app and/or website.
- Customer File Custom Audience — An audience of the private information (e-mail, phone number, location etc) of the users
Lookalike audiences (LAL’s) is the most advanced & useful targeting option available to marketers used for scouting new prospects.
Concept of Facebook Lookalike Audience
Using the Custom Audience as the seed audience, Facebook creates an audience most similar to the users in the seed audience, known as the Lookalike Audience
Lookalike Audience eliminates the use of ‘Interest’ targeting, making your job easier
You can use a Lookalike Audience from any of the seed audiences below:
- Your Website Visitors
- ICO White-paper downloaders
- ICO Newsletter Subscribers
- ICO Pre-sale Signees
- Information Seekers (Users visiting more than the website homepage)
6. Build Trust
The importance of the message is as important as the person saying it
Testimonials & referrals are one of the biggest influencing factors that decide if somebody would invest in your ICO
Image: Adesrpesso
In fact, the importance of social proof & a friend’s recommendation have been given great impetus by legendary marketers like Dr. Robert Cialdini & Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg respectively.
Promote 3rd Party Content
Did somebody review your ICO on Youtube? Promote that video with Facebook ads
Did a big publication write about you? Promote that article with Facebook ads
Did somebody talk well about you on Reddit? Promote that post with Facebook ads
“Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.” — Proverbs 27:2
You get the picture, right?
Go ahead & establish yourself as the business you claim to be through other people’s word-of-mouth.
Re-engage the traffic
A major problem that marketers face when promoting 3rd-party content that they don’t own is the inability to use the traffic for re-marketing purposes.
However, with tools like PixelMe, Sniply, Replug and many others, it’s no longer an issue.
7. Re-market
If ‘saving the best for the last’ was the law of the land, this article would never go to jail!
The worst mistake you could do in marketing your ICO is to overwhelm the user with information or present the right information at the wrong time.
There are multiple barriers before somebody would invest in your ICO.
Every users travels through their buying (or investing) cycle at their own pace by overcoming those barriers
Your job as a marketer is to provide the information needed by your prospective investor to overcome their objections.
“A customer will invest when he wants to, not when you when them too”
This is accomplished by a ‘funnel’
The Funnel
As per a study, 98% first time visitors would abandon your website and never return again, even if they were as interested as Vinci was in Mona Lisa.
This figure would only make someone happy if their ICO could be funded by only 2% of the traffic.
But that’s rarely the case!
A funnel basically is the offering of the right information to the user at the right time for them to make the ultimate decision of investing in the ICO.
In the infographic below, I have explained what a sample funnel could look like for marketing an ICO over Facebook ads
The Funnel (Condensed Version)
The above funnel follows the famed AIDA principle.
Attention
How — Use a teaser video or use your company’s value proposition in an image ad to reach out to new users
Who — New users (Type 3 & 4)
Where — Website Home Page
Interest
How — Use Facebook Custom Audience to build up a user base of your top website visitors and video watchers.
Create a campaign targeting them with a full-length video explaining your venture and why they should invest.
Who — Top 25% website visitors & 75% video watchers
Where — Token Sale Page
Desire
How — Inspire & inform the users by showcasing your whitepaper, your team & other 3rd party content (reviews, testimonials, Reddit posts)
Who — 75% video watchers (main video) and ‘Token Sale’ page visitors
Where– Token Sale Page
Action
How — Push the users to fund your ICO by creating urgency & scarcity with your final campaign(s) in the funnel
Use of countdown timers, the amount funded and days left are good triggers to give the users a reason to jump over the fence.
Who– People that downloaded your White-paper, visited Token Sale Page & Other pages on website multiple times
Where — Token Sale Page
Although the funnel ends when the user has invested into the ICO, the battle is not over.
A post-sales funnel is important to keep the investors in the loop and to keep spreading good ideas about your ICO
Conclusion
Facebook with its 1 Billion+ user base and a very comprehensive understanding about its users is the best way to market your ICO, period.
A successfully executed Facebook Ads marketing campaign could be the biggest differentiator in the success of the ICO and ultimately the venture in question.
With new ICO’s cropping up daily, it has become the battle of the fittest. The one with the smartest Facebook strategy is bound to win.
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