With nearly 3 billion active users worldwide, Facebook is an excellent marketing platform, but does this include affiliate marketing?
Facebook is one of the best social media platforms you can use for affiliate marketing due to its large user base and the option to reach a larger target audience. That said, it is also important that you utilize additional marketing channels to get the most out of your resources.
Keep reading to learn how you can use Facebook ads to successfully complement and advance your affiliate marketing set up for optimum results!
Is Affiliate Marketing With Facebook Ads Easy (And Who Shoild Avoid It)?
If you’re wondering whether Facebook ads is right for you and your brand, there’s probably a couple of things you should know before you splash out on an account.
Facebook ads for affiliate marketing is not easy, especially if you are a beginner with a limited budget and time. You should only use Facebook ads for affiliate marketing if you have enough time, money, and experience to test lots of ads. If not, driving organic traffic through blogging may be a better option.
That said, Facebook ads can still be very profitable if you have the right knowledge (and budget)! So, keep reading to find out how you can successfully run your ads on Facebook and make some top dollar.
How To Use Facebook Ads For Affiliate Marketing (PLUS Avoiding Common Mistakes)
1. NEVER Advertise Your Affiliate Link
One thing that you need to know right off the bat is that Facebook is not a fan of using their platform for affiliate marketing! While this doesn’t mean that you can’t at all, you simply need to be a little more subtle with how you do things.
By this, I mean never redirect an ad directly to an affiliate link. If you do this, Facebook may shut down your ad (which you definitely do not want)!
What you should be doing is redirecting your ads through to a landing page instead, taking extra care that your landing page is compliant with Facebook’s Ad Guidelines.
2. Create Your Own Bridging Page
So, if you can’t redirect straight to the affiliate link then how do you go about this? Well, all you need to do is create a bridging (or landing) page that entices the reader to click on your affiliate link.
You can also use this as an opportunity to create a marketing email list by offering what is known as a lead magnet (something you give away for free in exchange for their email address).
If you’d like to learn more about how to create a successful bridging page, you can find some helpful tips and directions here.
3. Know Your Target Audience
If you don’t want to waste your money and time in vain, then it’s definitely a good move to have a decent idea of who your target market is.
For example, you need to ask yourself how old they are, their location, how your affiliate product would benefit them and grab their attention, as well as which social media platforms they are likely to use and in which country.
You can do this for free by using the Facebook Insights tool.
That said, it is vital that you do this research before you move on to the creation of your ads (otherwise you’re unlikely to succeed).
4. Begin With Laser-Focused Ads
Once you have done your research and have a good idea of the kind of audience that would be interested in your affiliate product, you can start setting up your target audience for your ads.
The best way to do this is by identifying the types of people that are most likely to purchase your product. For example, men between the ages of 30-45 who are interested in golf and own their own business.
These are very specific criteria and the chances are far higher that you will actually earn some profit compared to if you tried to reach a wider, less-specific audience (which would have cost you more money).
Not only will this help you to earn some profit, but it will also allow you to gather some data in the process. Always start with laser-focuswed ads!
5. A Picture Speaks 1000 Words
One of the most important aspects of Facebook advertising is knowing how to capture the reader’s attention with an eye-catching, relevant image.
Using a bright, exciting image could be the difference between a reader clicking on your ad or simply scrolling straight past it.
That said, when choosing an image it is always a good idea to use people’s faces, large, bold text, and colorful spaces. All these factors make your ad appear more appealing and will increase your chances of making a sale!
Insider tip: Another great way to draw attention to your ad is by making the background red. Many tests have been conducted on this and the findings strongly indicate red as attention-grabbing.
6. Display An Obvious CTA (Call To Action)
This next one is super important! You’ll want to display a clear call to action for your reader if you want to make a sale.
For example, you have absolutely no idea where your customer is and what they are doing, so you need to make it super easy for them to follow the prompts and make a sale.
Some good examples are “JOIN NOW’ or “APPLY HERE” and also make it clear which costs and benefits they can expect before clicking on the CTA.
7. Start With 1000 Impressions
If you’re looking to make the most out of your profits then it is advisable to start off with an option that will cost you the least—CPM bidding or 1000 impressions.
In other words, you will be laser-targeting (showing your ad to a very specific group of people) 1000 potential customers while you only pay per click on your ad.
This is a far more cost-effective option to start with and will also give you the option to test what is working wth your ad and what isn’t.
8. Set Your Budget
With Facebook ads, you have the option to set your budget for daily, weekly, or even lifetime. That said, you’ll only want to budget what you can afford to lose.
It is pretty common for people to lose money with their ads when they first begin, but this is simply an opportunity to take your losses and learn from them so that your next ad can perform even better!
9. Overcome The Loopholes
Unfortunately for affiliate marketers, you cannot use the Facebook pixel on your affiliate sales page.
This means that you will be unable to track your data unless you find another way to get around this.
So, what you can do is set up a different lead magnet page and redirect the customers there from Facebook, and prompt them to enter their email addresses.
Once they have done this, they will automatically be redirected to another page for either the affiliate product or the presell page.
You will then need to use a CTA to link to the affiliate products so that you can then add the Facebook pixel.
This will help you to identify the people that are interested in the affiliate product so that you can save money and retarget the people that you know will respond well to your ads.
You’ve got to be sneaky about these things but there’s always a way around it!
10. Test, Test, Test!
If I can leave you with one piece of advice it would be to ALWAYS test your ads. You cannot expect to make money using Facebook ads if you aren’t taking note of what’s working and what is not!
Split-testing and A-B testing are the primary ways to compare ads that have worked and those that haven’t, and they help you through the process of elimination to see which titles, images, copy, and positioning worked best for different campaigns.
So, if you are prepared to put in the effort and do LOTS of testing, you can save yourself a lot of money and drive some serious traffic to your affiliate site!
Conclusion
Affiliate marketing can work very well with Facebook ads if you are prepared to put in the time and money. That said, this combination should only be done by intermediate-to highly experienced marketers who know their way around Facebook ads and how they work.
Beginners are far better off driving organic traffic through blogs and videos and this costs much less and is easier to get right. So, take into account your abilities and start off with the basics so you can slowly work your way up without wasting too much of your hard-earned cash!
