Whether it’s used for offline or online marketing, a picture is sometimes worth a thousand words.

With the increasing popularity of banner advertising through media buys, Facebook Ads, Myspace & Google Content Network, choosing the right images & banners for your campaigns are becoming more important than ever.

Let me explain you why choosing a creative banner ad can bring in crazy profits from experience and show you a real Facebook Ads stats I have tested;

Creative Images Bring Higher CTR’s

Getting higher CTR (click through rate) on your creatives will increase your chance of finding a profitable campaign (unless your landing page is totally unrelated to your banners).

Without getting into further explanation of the importance of using/finding creative images, let me share a Facebook Ads campaign I’ve tested recently.

I’ve created 90 images for this campaign, and tested all 90 in a separate ad group. Titles and descriptions of these ads were exactly the same. After each ad has received between 1000 to 2000 impressions, I have paused the campaigns to find my winner images.

32 images out of 90 didn’t get even 1 click. The winner image has received almost 0.3% CTR (which is not bad at all for Facebook Ads). The funny part is, I never thought this image would be the winner.

Below is the stats of top clicked ads:

Never Settle with What YOU Think is Good

If I wanted to test the offer pretty quick, and picked one image, I’d have paused this campaign and move on. The reason is; The image which I thought would bring the highest CTR, didn’t receive a click.

So, instead of making an assumption, I have tested the offer with real audience and had enough data to make a decision.

Keep Testing to Increase Your Profit

Whether it’s Facebook Ads, media buying or any type of banner advertising you are running, the simple recipe to successful online marketing campaigns is testing.

Don’t settle with the winner image, keep the top 10% (20 or 30%) and remove the ones without sufficient CTR’s, and keep adding new, creative and fresh images.

How Much $ to Spend on Testing a New Campaign?

This is a question I get asked all the time. It all depends on your budget. If I have a feeling that the campaign has potential, I test up to 10 times of the payout. So, if the payout is $30, I spend usually up to $300 for the initial test. Depending on the campaign, this number can go up or down. So, set your test budget (2x, 3x, etc.) and start testing.

To be able to succeed in online marketing, you have to adopt this mindset, and keep testing every single variable (banner, ad copy, display url, etc.) during the life of the campaign.

I have written a post about Facebook Ads Workplace Targeting recently, and the post explained how you can create targeted, profitable campaigns on Facebook Ads by using the workplace targeting feature.

Today, I will share a successful Facebook Campaign which is doing a great job on workplace targeting, in this specific case, college/school targeting.

Targeting College Students & Alumni on Facebook

While I was browsing on Facebook, I saw this ad on the right, targeting my school.

The ad said “Powered by Blockbuster”. And it was enough reason for me to click and check the landing page.

When I was taken to the site, it was a brilliant, customized landing page with my school name, Texas Tech University on it.

Check out the screenshot of the landing page below:

http://www.biggameroncampus.com/ was the URL of the website for this campaign.

When you visit the homepage of http://www.biggameroncampus.com/, below is what you see (no mention of school name):

Facebook Ad Copy + Landing Page Customization = Success

Pictures tell it all, detailed explanation is not needed, but I will still explain why this is so powerful, because there are people new to internet marketing who read my blog.

The most powerful technique when using specific targeting in Facebook Ads is both ad copy customization and landing page customization.

In this specific case study, Blockbuster had a targeted ad copy with a title of “Hey Texas Tech Alums”, which was enough to grab my attention. And, when I was taken to the landing page, instead of seeing a generic one for everybody, I was shown a specific landing page for Texas Tech.

This type of customization creates profitable campaigns on Facebook, or turns your losing campaigns into profitable ones.

If I were the person who created this campaign, I would take it one step further, and create a set of images for each school. Instead of using a generic image, using images of people wearing the specific school’s jerseys would definitely grab more attention. Of course, it takes more work, but this way, the campaign would be a laser targeted one.

How to Create Laser Targeted Facebook Ads?

If you are new to Facebook Ads, and never ran a campaign before, you have to learn the basics first. Please checkout my Facebook Ads 101 Guide and learn the basics before creating your first Facebook Ad.

If you like to try a campaign similar to what Blockbuster did, you need to learn these 2 steps:

1. Creating Targeted Ad Copies

You need to create a custom ad for each school. Also, you can multiply that by targeting, current students, and alumni, etc. Even though you can do this manually, it is so much time consuming to create ads for thousands of schools.

I personally use a tool (Firefox Plugin) called Facebook Ads Manager to automate this whole process. This is a $200 plugin (one time payment, lifetime free updates), and it’s well worth every penny I’ve spent. Because I can create thousands of Facebook Ads within minutes. It lets you split test your ad with every possible combination.

If you want to create a laser targeted Facebook Ad with split testing, you need to automate the process.

2. Creating Custom Landing Pages

The easiest way of creating custom landing pages is using “Dynamic Keyword Insertion” on your landing page.

I won’t get into details of using dynamic keyword insertion, because I’ve found a great step by step tutorial on how to use dynamic keyword insertion.

Check that tutorial out, and shoot your questions below if you have any, I’ll be happy to help.

Facebook College Targeting is Powerful

By using the workplace targeting section in Facebook Ads, I have shown you a case study of how a school targeted Facebook Campaign is built and run.

Laser targeting your audience in Facebook is the key to profitable campaigns. Now, it’s time to get to work and create those targeted campaigns.

If you have any questions about the process, feel free to ask below at the comments, I’ll try my best to answer all the questions.

Related Posts:

• The Power of Workplace Targeting in Facebook Ads
• A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
• Who Has The Biggest Brain? Best Facebook Application
• PPV Affiliate Marketing Guide
• Optimization for High Commercial Value Keywords
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Last week on a regular evening at home, I was on the computer reading my favorite blogs and my wife was on her laptop browsing the net.

We were both quiet and minding our own stuff.

Then suddenly, she called my name with a very excited voice tone asking: “Hey, isn’t my car’s insurance ending this month?”

I’ve said: “Yeah, I guess so, I have to look up”

Then she got more excited and said (while turning the laptop’s screen to my workstation):

“Look at this deal, XYZ Auto Insurance Company is running a special discount for only Westchester Medical Center Employees!!!”

She was showing me a Facebook Ad running an auto insurance offer, and targeting workplaces. I was like WOW!

I wasn’t surprised because of the workplace targeting, I was surprised because of my wife’s reaction to the ad.

Even though I’ve tested some workplace targeting campaigns, I am still kinda new to Facebook Ads. After explaining the ad to my wife, I’ve put on my creative hat and started thinking.

If you haven’t used Facebook Ads before, and don’t have a clue about what I’m talking here, read Chad’s post about workplace targeting 101 first, then come back here to keep reading. Also, I’ve recently written a pretty detailed Facebook Advertising Guide at one of my other blogs, check that out (warning, it’s loooonnnnggg!).

Ok, let’s get back to the topic. The theory was simple. My wife is a Westchester Medical Center employee, and she is more internet savy than an average internet user. So, the question I’ve asked to myself was; “Why did she get so excited about this ad?”

So many creative ideas started coming in, I couldn’t even sit on my chair. I had to stand up and walk around the apartment for a few minutes to calm down.

After I’ve calmed down, I wanted to run to the computer and start testing some campaigns right away.

But I’ve decided that this wasn’t a good idea. I had to analyze this through my affiliate mindset, and understand the human psychology behind this excitement. And, I did.

This was a true AHA MOMENT for me to understand the real power of Facebook Ads Workplace Targeting.

Facebook Ads Workplace Targeting is way more powerful than I’d ever imagined, because;

Average Internet User is NOT used to Personalized Ads

Understanding your customer demographics is the key to affiliate marketing success.

I’ve started by asking this question to myself:

What type of ads average internet users see daily?

Average internet users search on Google, read their favorite newspaper online, check out the blogs daily, etc. They usually see both PPC & CPM ads from Google, Yahoo, MSN, Media Buying Companies, etc.

How targeted are these ads? They can be pretty targeted to some specific customer demographic criteria.

But, unless they visit a company’s fan blog, or a university’s fan page, they are not targeted enough to call them “Personalized Ads”.

Ok, Facebook Team has hit it right on the target by workplace targeting, and I have already started turning this into some serious $cash$.

I am sorry, we ran out of fish today, so I won’t be able to offer you fish, but since you are my guest here, I will get you started with some tips, so you can catch your own fish

Great Idea => Brainstorming & Creativity & Research & Planning => Implementation => Success

As you can see, this is a 4 phase process in general. I’ve already shared the most important part with you: the Great Idea.

I will give you some direction on the brainstorming & creativity. You will need to take it from there, do your research and planning, start testing, and scaling, and finally create a number of successful Facebook Ads Campaigns out of this blog post.

Some Ideas to Exercise with Your Left Brain

• Start with where you (your family, friends, etc.) work. Think about specific things they do or buy, related to their jobs. Basic observation task, everybody can do this!
• Which schools did you go to? Are you a member of any Alumni Association?
• Split test your current campaigns. Maybe you have a profitable “tech offer” which is already targeted, but not using workplace targeting option. What if you’ve created 1000 campaigns out of that 1 campaign targeting 1000 companies which are very much tech related? Would workplace targeting alone increase your ROI or turn a losing campaign into a winning one?
• Start with the Inc. Top List, and learn more about the big companies in the US. Ideas will start pouring in while browsing the company list.

Use Your Right Brain – Let’s Get Creative

• What are the chances of a Wall Street Journal Employee clicking your “Wall Street Journal Home Subscription Offer”? Or a Walt Disney World Employee clicking your “Mickey Mouse Toys Sale Offer Ad”? Reverse thinking (& exclusion) can be a powerful tool & asset when you are planning your affiliate campaigns.
• How powerful can it get by combining keyword targeting and workplace targeting (along with other targeting options)? Don’t jump to the next one in the list. Stop here, take a pen and a paper and write down the first things that come to your mind.
• We need to use some more of that right brain. Let’s say you work at UPS. You don’t know me, I don’t know you.

  Let’s assume that I know you like golf (keyword targeting), I know today is your birthday (birthday targeting), I know you work at UPS (workplace targeting).

  You’ve stopped by my office to drop me a package (this way we have a few seconds on interaction ~~hint: you saw my ad on facebook~~), and what if I told you that your friends from UPS has a gift for you which is paid in full, just fill this form and you can pick it up right now?

  What would you do? Would you trust me?

• What if you knew the average IQ of your potential customers and I have a list of potential customers who are in that IQ range, how valuable would this list be to you?
• Think about which offers/products could you sell to Lehman Brothers employees on the day it went bankrupt, while they were all leaving the building with boxes of personal belongings, if you were there? What if you can reach the publicly available data to corporations filing bankruptcy, corporations starting to fire employees, companies whose employees are scared to hell that they will lose their jobs the next day, what would you do with this data?

I can keep writing ideas for hours. There are literally thousands of creative ways to catch the same fish.

Take it from here, and don’t forget the 4 Phase Plan:

Great Idea => Brainstorming & Creativity & Research & Planning => Implementation => Success

Probably You Won’t Make a Penny with Facebook Ads

What?

I just gave you great ideas and why am I saying this? To discourage you? To scare you? Am I scared from the competition?

The answer is NO to all of these.

It’s statistically proven data.

9 out of 10 people who read this post and got excited will NEVER take action!

Therefore, will never make a penny with Facebook Ads.

If you are one of those 9 people, I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do for you. Probably, it is just a huge waste of time to keep reading my blog. I sincerely wish you my best at your 9 to 5 job.

But if you are that 1 special person. Take Action Now!

And always remember to share your ideas, results and comments below to encourage me to write more.

Remember to check out the Facebook Advertising Guide I’ve written. It has more tips, ideas & cool screenshots to get you started with Facebook Ads.

Related Posts:

• Facebook Ads College Targeting Case Study
• PPV Affiliate Marketing Guide
• A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
• Who Has The Biggest Brain? Best Facebook Application
• It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask
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