4 Facebook Offers That Convert

Most people that dive into Facebook advertising get carried away with all the possibilities, without considering which Facebook offers will work best for them.

Don’t get me wrong, the advanced features are awesome but…

The #1 factor that determines whether of not your Facebook campaigns will succeed is what you’re actually offering.

If you offer something on Facebook that you’re prospects really want, you’ll generate conversions.

Even if your ad copy isn’t perfect and you aren’t using custom or lookalike audiences.

If you’re struggling to generate a high enough ROI with your Facebook ad campaigns – your offer is the place to start.

So let’s get started with a reall simple offer…

1) Voucher Code

Voucher codes are very simple, but very effective.

You’ve almost certainly seen an ad in your Facebook newsfeed that says something like:

Use the voucher code “FACEBOOK10” to get 10% off for…

As a Facebook advertising agency, we’ve created tons of these ads for our clients.

If “please buy this” ads aren’t working for you (I’d be surprised if they are) then give voucher codes a go.

Including a voucher code in your ads will always improve your conversion rate. You just need to make sure your margins are healthy enough for the math to add up.

Existing Customers

Voucher code campaigns work particularly well if you target people that already know your business and have already bought from you.

These people have already placed a value on your products and services, and if they’ve paid full price previously, a special discount might be too hard to resist.

Digital marketing is very similar to offline relationship building.

By doing nice things for our friends and family in the real world, we deepen our relationships with them.

Offering a discount to your existing customers is a ‘nice’ thing to do (even if you have a secondary motive).

When you’re customers feel like they’re getting a great deal, they’re more likely to buy and they’re more likely to enjoy doing so.

Stay Top Of Mind

When your prospects and customers don’t buy your products or services (or don’t buy them again), it’s not necessarily because they’re not interested.

A lot of the time don’t buy because they have simply forgotten about you.

Have you ever been to a great restaurant, forgotten about it and remembered how good it was when you went back years later?

I certainly have.

Staying top of mind will always be a primary marketing objective.

That’s why big brands plough so much money into TV advertising.

And there is no friendlier way to stay top of mind, than to offer a discount in the form of a voucher code.

Use Holiday Promotions

I really like using Facebook specific voucher codes like “FACEBOOK10”

It makes the people being advertised to feel special and feel that they found something that not many others have.

But you can’t run a campaign like that forever, particularly if you’re only targeting your existing customers.

That’s where holiday promotions come in.

This is hardly a new tactic (DFS seem to be running a sale permanently) but they do work very well.

It’s obviously best to pick and choose the holidays you use and make sure they are somewhat related to your business.

A Christmas sandal promotion probably won’t be very profitable…

Can’t Afford To Give Away 10%?

You don’t need to offer a discount on your core product or service.

If that squeezes your margins too much then offer a discount on a smaller product.

And then up-sell your new and re-engaged customers your higher value items.

Suitable For…

So what types of businesses should try and incorporate voucher codes into their Facebook advertising campaigns?

1) E-commerce – no brainer

2) Local businesses – restaurants, hair salons, etc

3) Online businesses

4) Experience providers – go-karting, sea fishing, etc

5) Membership clubs – gyms, sport clubs, etc

2) Free Consultation

I know, I know…

How boring and unimaginative.

But the free consultation has made my list because for the right business, it works very well.

Strict Criteria

Free consultations can be very time consuming, but you don’t have to meet everyone that wants one.

And in some cases you don’t have to meet them at all.

Some companies (like the agency side of our business) can hold free consultations over the phone or on Skype.

To make sure you don’t waste time with unqualified prospects you can also insist people or companies meet certain requirements before they are entitled to a free consultation.

When we first started, we offered free over the phone digital marketing strategy sessions to anyone that wanted one…

Which was bloody hard work!

Now if you want a free phone call with me you need to meet certain criteria.

Warm Audiences

Where most people go wrong with free consultations, is they advertise to cold audiences.

People who don’t know who are you are or how your business can help them, will not place a lot of value on your time.

On Facebook, you need to offer free consultations to people that have already consumed your content.

That can use video, blog posts, podcast episodes, etc.

Once someone has consumed your content, they’ll see you as an expert and an authority in your industry.

Then they’ll place a lot of value on your time…

And when they’re offered a free consultation, they’ll jump on it.

Suitable For…

1) Service providers – the higher the average customer value the better

2) Bespoke manufacturers – for certain industries

3) Webinars

Whilst the previous 2 are as simple as it gets, this one is a little bit more complicated.

It’s also underutilised.

The only people that are really taking advantage of webinars are digital marketers like yours truly.

But they can work really well in many different industries.

Expert Status

One of the best things about running a webinar is how effectively it builds your industry authority with your prospects.

Provided your webinar is packed with great content and value, the webinar attendees will absolutely see you as an expert.

And this is very important.

This expert status will make it much easier for you to convert these prospects into clients and you’ll be able to charge more for your services.

Webinars are also a fantastic relationship building tool.

If you’re a high level service provider, or your prospects really need to trust you and your skills before they work with you…

You should definitely give webinars a go.

But… It’s Expensive

Getting someone to dedicate 60 or 90 minutes of their time is a HUGE ask online.

Which means to get a reasonably sized audience for your webinar, you’re going to have to advertise it to a lot of people in your target market.

And that’s expensive.

If you can acquire webinar registrations for £5 or less each, you’re doing well.

And only around 25% of those people are actually going to show up for the live webinar.

So you’re probably going to pay £20-£30 per webinar attendee.

And you’re only ever going to convert a small percentage of those people into customers.

Which is fine if you offer enterprise level solutions starting at £50k or have a £1k online course to sell.

But if your average customer value is in the hundreds of pounds (particularly if you’re a service provider and you actually have to provide the service!) then you’re almost certainly better off going down the free consultation route.

Suitable For…

1) Service provides with a high average customer value

2) Online businesses

4) Free + Shipping

A free plus shipping offer is a clever way of converting warm prospects into customers and for the right businesses it can work very well.

To offer this on Facebook you need to have a small inexpensive product that you can afford to give away for free…

Or at least subsidised.

With a lot of free plus shipping offers, companies will make some of the money back on the shipping.

For example, let’s say you’re giving away a £5 product that costs you £3.

If shipping usually costs £1.99, you can charge £3.99 for shipping and reduce the loss that you make on each unit sold.

Obviously in this scenario you’d be making a loss on this product, especially when you add the cost of advertising.

BUT you can use…

Up-Sells

Once a prospect has become a customer of yours, they’re far more likely to buy again.

And that’s true even if they have only bought a free plus shipping offer.

If you want to use a free plus shipping offer, you need to have a series of much higher value up-sells, that people are automatically taken through.

(I’d recommend using SamCart. Full disclosure: I’m an affiliate.)

Up-sells can massively increase your average customer value and more than make up for the slight loss you take on the free giveaway.

Small But Critical

The best products to use for a free plus shipping offer are small but critical.

They are small and inexpensive, but they are needed to do whatever it is people do in your industry.

The best example of this that I’ve come across is a guitar pick.

To play the guitar, you need a guitar pick. But they must cost next to nothing to produce.

This makes them the perfect free plus shipping offer.

A guitar retailer can give away guitar picks and then immediately look to up-sell all the newly acquired customers.

Only a small percentage will go onto buy guitars and guitar cases, but this is still a profitable strategy because those are much higher value items.

Think Longer Term

If you’re newly acquired customers don’t buy your up-sells straight away, that doesn’t mean they’re never going to.

Perhaps they needed some new guitar picks but their existing guitar and guitar case are fine.

However, in a year’s time they might want a new one.

If you have been consistently providing valuable content to them via social media and effective email marketing, they’ll come to your website first.

And if you can run a voucher code campaign to these people every now and then, you’ll generate sales from them for months and years to come.

Suitable For…

1) E-commerce

2) Some online businesses

Key Takeaways

• Stop creating “please buy this” or “please work with me” Facebook advertising campaigns and hoping for results
• Use at least one of these 4 Facebook offers that convert to generate new customers and clients quickly
• Tailor any offer you make to your type of business and make sure you’re offering something your customers really want
• Know your numbers – it may not be profitable for your company to use certain types of offers

Have you used any of the offers listed above?

What Facebook offers have converted for you?

Let us know in the comments section below.