Facebook Ads I: Strategy, Funnels, Campaigns, Targeting

When it comes to spending money on marketing races, Facebook Ads remains the most popular choice for race directors and professional race marketers, regardless of race size or type.

So how do you make the most of the opportunities Facebook Ads has to offer for marketing your race in 2022 and beyond?

We’re going to be going over all that in a special two-part show on Facebook Ads with the help of my guest, EventGrow CEO, Andy Reilly. You may remember Andy from the very very popular marketing psychology episode - that was episode 25 back in February  - and he’s with us again today and for our next podcast episode to really break down every aspect of Facebook Ads as it pertains to race marketing. 

Today, for part one of the discussion, we’re going to set the scene by looking at Facebook marketing strategy, understanding sales funnels, planning and structuring ad campaigns, and mastering audience targeting. And in our next episode we’re going to delve into some more advanced topics around ad creatives, ad performance monitoring and optimisation, and the very important, highly-converting area of ad retargeting.

In this episode:

Why Facebook ads still offer the best bang for your marketing buck (even if the landscape has become more challenging for advertisers)Facebook ads vs Google ads vs Twitter ads vs Tik Tok adsUnderstanding ROAS (return on ad spend) and customer lifetime valueIntegrating Facebook ads into your sales funnelPicking the right landing page for your Facebook ad (website? registration page? Facebook event page?)Boosting posts vs using Facebook's Ad ManagerPicking a campaign objective for your ad: conversions vs traffic vs reach/awarenessStructuring and naming your campaigns, ad sets and adsChoosing between automatic and manual ad placementsPros and cons of using the dynamic creativesUsing demographics, location and interests to target the right audience for your raceAvoiding the pitfalls of over-targeting

Many thanks to our podcast sponsors, RunSignup and Racecheck, for supporting our efforts to provide great, free content to the race director community:

RunSignup are the leading all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events. More than 26,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. Find out more at https://runsignup.com/.

Racecheck can help you collect and showcase your participant reviews on your race website, helping you more easily convert website visitors into paying participants, with the help of their Racecheck Review Box. Download yours for free today at https://organisers.racecheck.com/.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about paid marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.