Five Secrets to running a Flash Sale on Facebook

Five Secrets to running a Flash Sale on Facebook

There’s a secret to running a flash sale on Facebook. And you won’t believe what it is when I tell you, after the advice I have given before.

Black Friday and Christmas is a busy time for businesses and marketers as well as those customers on the lookout for a bargain.

In a recent blog, ‘Are Black Friday and Christmas Ads More Expensive’ I explain that the cost rises around this season due to the sheer increase in adverts on the social media platform. Every business owner wants to get in front of customers when shopping is high on people’s agendas.

But, sssh, here’s what to do if you want to be running a flash sale on Facebook

Let’s say for example that you want to do a sale for four days to cover Black Friday through to Cyber Monday. You don’t have time to test. You don’t have time to build up audiences. So what choices can you make to get a better result?

My advice is to give Facebook the reigns and let the social media platform take charge of your campaign. Yes, really!

Give the control to Facebook

There are choices that you can make when setting up an ad campaign that actually allows Facebook the power to make some of the decisions for you.

As a Facebook Ads manager I don’t always use these options myself because I want to be in complete control of everything, and no, it’s not because I’m a control freak (well maybe a little bit), it’s because I need to see what is and isn't working directly correlating to my choices. Understanding this allows me to optimise and test to get better results.

But for a flash sale it’s different. When you have a short time, it’s time to listen to Facebook and follow their prompts.

Here’s how to hand over your flash sale to Facebook to get you the best results:

1. Set the correct objective.

For sales always set your objective for conversions and set it at purchase level to tell Facebook that that is the outcome that you want for your ad (you will need to have registered purchases through your pixel to be able to choose this option). This gives Facebook the green light to go out there and find the people who are highly likely to make those purchases.

2. Schedule your campaign.

The other option is to choose to schedule the campaign and give it a lifetime budget.

lifetime budget for Facebook ads - Five Secrets to running a Flash Sale on Facebook

By giving the maximum amount of money you're instructing Facebook to spend it. Facebook will spend that money to get you the most results for your campaign. When you choose daily spend, Facebook can spend under the amount on some days, so your reach might be less.

This also stops the messing around with scaling the budget, or watching to clock waiting to turn the campaign off.

3. Expand your reach.

Under detailed targeting is a little tick box saying “Detailed targeting expansion: Reach people beyond your detailed targeting selections when it's likely to improve performance".

Expanded reach for Facebook ads

Normally I don’t choose this, as you don’t know who or what it is targeting to get you the better results and in the past it didn’t help with finding quality leads. However recently Facebook has upgraded it’s automated options and this can really help to find better quality leads.

Or try a broader, much larger, audience than you usually would target – all Women in the UK for instance, without any detailed targeting options.

I have discovered from experience that I can sometimes get a much better cost-per-result when I exercise this third option.

4. Automatic Placements.

The other thing you can try is automatic placements for your ad placement.

Automatic placements for Facebook ads

In this choice, Facebook decides where to put the ads depending on where it gets the best results. You might find that you get results from Marketplace or the Audience Network, somewhere you might not have tried before.

5. Dynamic Creative for your ads.

Switching on the Dynamic Creative option in the ad set level is another way to give Facebook control.

Dynamic Creative for Facebook ads

Here, you provide up to 10 images and videos – you can mix these up, five types of copy, five headlines, five descriptions and five call to action button choices. Facebook then optimises which combination will perform the best for any given person. It also creates videos from your creative sometimes too.

In all five of these options the Facebook algorithm takes over when using them to run a Flash Sale on Facebook. I have used this recently for a client and we got much lower costs and a higher conversion rate on purchases without having to micro manage the campaign when there isn’t time. Never underestimate just how clever Facebook is! Think of these as the ultimate marketing department doing all the work for you.

Why not give them a go and let me know how you get on.

If you need more help with how to set up your ads, why not book a Power Hour with me for £97 where we can do some bespoke training.

Good luck with your festive campaigns! 

And don’t forget, I’m always here if you need some help!