"Are you serious? In the middle of a pandemic?!" is probably the first question that popped up in your head.
I know how you feel.
With businesses losing sales and people losing jobs who in their right mind would spend more money on marketing? Hear me out. A few weeks ago, as I was optimizing Ad campaigns for a client I realized something ODD. Our Cost Per Result actually went down by more than 2/3. TWO. THIRD.
I'm not asking you to blindly trust the words of a stranger, so I have attached the results of the campaign below.
The blue boxes are the cost per landing page which is calculated when someone successfully lands on your page and the orange boxes are the cost per post engagement.
*Date stamps are available on the last column*
A website landing page view that used to cost $0.40 per result now only costs $0.12 and a post-engagement that used to cost $0.03 is now only costing our client $0.01. That is less than 1/3 of the cost.
It is costing our client $60 to get 500 people to visit their website when it would usually cost them $180+.
From these astonishing findings, I did further research into it and I can attribute it to my first and second points, while the third point will is the icing on the cake to get started on your Facebook campaign!
1. There are more people consuming online content now than ever before.
Due to the #StayAtHome regulations that have been implemented (our team has been working from home for the past month now!) there is a spike in the total numbers of hours that users spend on their devices, from an average of 3 hours and 15 minutes to approximately 8 hours per day! That is more than a 100% increase in screen time!
However, during this period there has been a decrease in conversions/ sales as a majority of individuals are facing financial challenges. JobKeeper payments that will be starting in the month of May are expected to help overturn this situation.
This is precisely why we strongly believe, given the unique situation, this is the best possible time for your business to run brand awareness campaigns.
2. Many competitors are out of the picture!
During a crisis, the first most common budget cut companies will make is to its marketing spending. Analysts have predicted that Facebook ads spending will decrease to an extent of 19% due to this crisis.
We might never be able to come by an opportunity of not having to compete with big players when it comes to marketing spending ever again. With fewer people competing with you in Facebook Ad Auction, the time to double down on social media is now.
As a result, you will be able to dominate your audience pool and CPM or average cost per 1,000 impressions will keep decreasing, allowing you to achieve greater results while spending less money.
3. Multiple financial grants and support available for SME's
Tight on budget? If you are an SME in Australia and you don't already know, there are multiple financial grants and support available to help keep your business afloat during this crisis!
From JobKeeper payments, 100% PAYG cashback, to Centrelink payments available to sole-traders, educate and keep yourself updated on what you are eligible for during this period and ensure that you are receiving all the support available to you.
Facebook has also recently announced that they are offering USD 100M in cash grants and ad credits to help SME's get through these challenging times.
In addition, although maintaining your online presence through ads during this period is highly recommended and extremely beneficial in the long run for your business, remember to only spend what you can afford as keeping your business operating has to be your number one priority!
We acknowledge that this situation poses a challenge to many businesses and marketers including ourselves, and hope that everyone is coping well, staying healthy and being considerate throughout this crisis. We believe that together we can get through this storm!
This time around we are also offering a FREE 15 minutes Zoom consultation to help businesses learn more about the strategies available to run effective Facebook ads amid the COVID-19 period.
Click here to schedule a FREE 15 min Zoom consultation and learn all the ways we can utilize Facebook ads to help you expand your business!