The rapid growth in online marketing methods and techniques has provided consumers with more opportunities than ever to connect with your business, from email and social media to live chat and user forums.
But for some potential customers, nothing beats a phone call. Complex, multipart questions, for example, are often better resolved from person to person in conversation. Even quick queries benefit from the instant answers that a call can provide (as opposed to hours that may be spent waiting for a response through other channels).
Facebook’s “Click-to-Call” ads can serve as the bridge connecting you to these highly interactive consumers, but the program is not as intuitive as some of the platform’s other offerings. Keep in mind the following tips to improve your campaign results.
Pay special attention to your targeting options
One notable challenge with Click-to-Call ads is that Facebook will automatically improve your access campaigns, rather than targeting consumers who are likely to click on CTA for your ad. This means that you have to do the hard job when it comes to identifying the right targeting options for your campaign.
Here are a few tips to consider:
- Limit your ads to Facebook users only to mobile devices. After all, most people can’t click to connect from a desktop computer.
- If you have an actual business, target customers in your specific geographic area, using past transaction data to understand how likely consumers are to travel to your site.
- Set up Facebook pixel, so you can direct your campaign to Facebook users who have visited your website. This increases the likelihood that they will participate sufficiently to reach your business.
- Select your campaign viewing times according to your business hours or times when you tend to get the highest volume of calls. If you’re only open from 9 to 5, for example, click-to-call ads don’t run at 8 p.m.
Test your campaign designs
As with any other type of Facebook ad campaign, continuous testing is critical to achieving profitable results. Although you won’t be able to test user-urged phrases (CTA) other than “Connect Now,” you can still try different forms of:
- Copy of your ad
- Your photo (including whether you choose to use one or not)
- Whether your ad includes the website URL (plus the URL you choose to view) or not
- Separate view link
- Address text that appears next to your CTA
- Text describing the link to the news feed that appears below the CTA address
Start with thoughtful guesses about what is likely to resonate with your target customers, based on what you know about them from other marketing campaigns. But watch your results carefully. Make many ad formats ready, so you can start a new test once you’ve finished each.
Track the performance of your calls
When you monitor your results for testing purposes, keep in mind that although Facebook will record all click-to-call produced by your ads as a transfer, not all calls are created equally. If you are receiving calls from potential customers who are not suitable for your products or services, you have effectively paid to receive unwanted calls.
To really improve your Click-to-Call ad results, you need to look beyond Facebook’s reporting features and link your call performance to any revenue you produce. The easiest way to do this is usually through your CRM, using integration with a VoIP solution that allows you to select calls produced from Facebook that have led to closed deals.
Not all companies will have the infrastructure for this level of analysis. If your account isn’t, it’s up to you to decide whether you’re creating enough performance data within your Facebook ad account to see if your campaigns meet expectations. If you see an increase in call volume, but not an increase in revenue, this may be a sign that you need to invest in additional tracking technology.
Finally, even if you’ve finished setting up Click-to-Call tracking, keep in mind that you may have some ad viewers who are doing their rogue business and connecting to your work without clicking your ad.
Imagine seeing a Click-to-Call ad for a business you’re interested in contacting, but you can’t call it at that very moment. Instead, you write down the company name, plan to search for it online and connect later when you’re free.
