How to Create a Facebook Ads Funnel: 2 Strategies

Facebook Ad Funnels

The majority of marketer complaints regarding Facebook ad performance can be traced back to a lack of creativity. Far too often, campaigns are created as if they apply to all within the target audience when in reality there are layers of shades of gray.

Not everyone in your audience knows you. Not everyone who knows you fits your target profile. Not everyone who knows you is ready to buy. We need a strategy to pull apart these layers.

Let’s take a closer look at the problem as I face it, and the two primary ways that I am attacking it to create an effective Facebook ads funnel.

Example: The Problem

One might assume that I have a finely tuned target audience. I write only about advanced Facebook advertising topics for advanced Facebook advertisers. My content shouldn’t be particularly helpful to new advertisers or those not interested in spending money on ads.

While my intention is to reach only this group, I can’t prevent new advertisers from finding me. And they do!

You might assume that you could eliminate reaching the wrong people with the right ad targeting. Well, let’s remember that I only write content for an advanced crowd. When I run ads, I don’t even mess with targeting interests anymore. If I did, there would immediately be a potential problem since it’s not easy to find an interest that would isolate advanced Facebook advertisers. But I target only my website visitors now, so that should be a refined audience.

The truth is that I get plenty of website visits from beginner and intermediate advertisers looking for answers. In fact, I often have to turn away less experienced advertisers looking to buy products from me.

The result is that my targeting isn’t as refined as I’d like to believe. I promote products and opt-ins intended for advanced advertisers only, but I inevitably waste money reaching a less advanced group within my website visitors.

This may seem like an isolated problem unique to me, but it can be applied to virtually any brand or product. You assume that those who visit your website have a particular interest and demographic, but that isn’t always the case.

The goal is to separate these groups, create funnels and have something to offer each audience that is perfectly suited for them.

My Solution: Tiered Products

For the first time, I have decided to create tiered products. While I’ve historically focused only on the advanced advertiser, I’ve always turned away those who weren’t ready for my products. Instead, I’d like to nurture these people with suitable products until they are ready.

For now, this is just an experiment inspired by my backup CEO John Robinson. He’s pushed me hard on this, and I finally gave in.

So I’ve created a series of free webinars (one beginner, one intermediate and one advanced) as well as two four-week training programs (one for beginners and one for intermediates) with the ultimate goal of educating advertisers until they are ready for my Power Hitters Club community for advanced advertisers.

So… How are we going to separate my audience into beginner, intermediate and advanced advertisers, while properly directing them into each track? With a little creativity and help from Facebook, of course!

Strategy 1: Self-Guided

The first approach is simple: Allow users to define themselves as beginner, intermediate or advanced so that I can communicate with them appropriately.

You may be familiar with my experiment. It starts with the following post (also promoted as an ad to website visitors)…

That post offers some general definitions on what constitutes a beginner, intermediate and advanced Facebook advertiser, and it asks the audience to label themselves. When someone clicks on the image for “Beginner,” “Intermediate” or “Advanced,” they are sent to what is essentially a thank-you page. They’ve “opted in” without providing an email address by adding themselves to a segmented Website Custom Audience.

If you click on the “Intermediate” image, I can then send you ads with the understanding that you are an intermediate advertiser. I do this with an evergreen campaign, sending that person through a series of ads made for their level.

I essentially give these people a drip campaign of Facebook ads:

  1. “Welcome to my experiment” video
  2. Facebook ads quiz for your level
  3. Video highlighting how others did on the quiz
  4. Video lessons for your level

Along the way, they will be invited to a free webinar created for their experience level. And eventually, they’ll be introduced to a relevant product.

All of this is done with a series of Website Custom Audiences and Engagement on Facebook Custom Audiences. To learn the step-by-step details of how I set it up, I created a workshop for Power Hitters Club members.

Of course, if you aren’t advanced yet, that community and workshop probably aren’t a good fit for you! And finding the right fit is part of my goal.

Strategy 2: Performance Guided

While I’ve had a blast with my evergreen experiment and it’s been successful, it has one fundamental flaw: It assumes that people can accurately qualify themselves.

This may not be an issue when asking people what interests them, but pride can get in the way when asking people to rate themselves. Are those who say they’re advanced truly advanced? Or intermediate?

Based on quiz results from that experiment, many aren’t what they said they were. Advertisers who segmented themselves as beginner, intermediate or advanced all took the same quiz. Here are the average scores by group:

  • Beginner: 24%
  • Intermediate: 34%
  • Advanced: 56%

This was a multiple choice quiz, mind you, though I did provide an “I have no idea” answer for each question, and I asked users not to guess. While some may have accurately assessed their experience, I find it interesting that the average score among the “advanced” group was 56%. That’s not very good!

Let’s take a different approach. Instead of allowing people to take their preferred path, let’s have them prove it by showing the quiz first.

I created this post and also shared it with my email list:

As I type this, more than 5,000 people have taken the quiz (though about half have completed it — it’s a long quiz!). After completing it, you are given a score and a link to a free webinar that suits your experience level.

Facebook Ads Quiz Complete

When I allow people to qualify themselves, the most popular choice is “advanced:”

  • Beginner: 3,000
  • Intermediate: 4,500
  • Advanced: 4,900

But when I gate entry into each group with quiz results, things look quite a bit different:

  • Beginner: 863
  • Intermediate: 1,363
  • Advanced: 367

When people are forced to prove what they know, we find that only 14% of those who completed the quiz are truly advanced (21-30 correct). Intermediates (11-20 correct) make up the largest group at 53%, followed by beginners (0-10 correct) at 33%.

I find that fascinating. I cater my content to advanced Facebook advertisers. And while my quiz isn’t easy, it was multiple choice and I applied very liberal and reachable thresholds for each level. Yet, the smallest group is advanced!

Equipped with this information, I invite those who completed the quiz to a suitable free webinar. If they register, I can then message them (both with email and Facebook ads) accordingly.

Taking a page from the experiment, once someone registers for the intermediate webinar, for example, they’ll be shown the video ad highlighting the questions on the quiz that gave people the most trouble. I can then promote the 4-week program relevant to that experience level.

Your Turn

I realize it’s easy to say this wouldn’t apply to your industry, but I strongly disagree. Find ways to take what I’ve done, get creative and use it for your business!

What ideas do you have? Let me know in the comments below!