Once you start running Facebook Ads and capturing profitable campaigns, you will get addicted.
But a lot of people don’t know the nuances of getting installs and traffic to mobile apps using Facebook Ads.
Manol Georgiev is one of the top Facebook Ad traffic experts both for the web and the mobile ecosystem. If you’re interested in paid traffic advertising, you will get a lot out of this post.
Manol is a paid traffic consultant, specializing in mobile app user acquisition on Facebook and Instagram. In just the past 2 years his client list includes Game Academy, and other top social gaming and mobile app companies.
He has managed over 7 million dollars in advertising spend to acquire new users. If that weren’t enough he also runs his own app business, with a game portfolio of over 4 million downloads.
Manol’s tactics aren’t just theory, he’s implemented these strategies in his own portfolio with great success.
Meet app gurus like Manol at our Live Events.
Scroll down to download my interview with Manol and learn why using Facebook Ads is so powerful.
Together, Manol and I discuss the traffic strategies he uses on his own apps plus a deeper look at the inner workings of his business. Tons of high-end information in this episode that can be implemented and garner similar success. Listen carefully and take notes!
What is buying traffic?
Buying traffic is spending money to get people to click on impressions (views) or conversions (a sale) from your ads. This can be for ads directed towards a product, app, or webpage.
The basic components for buying traffic are:
- Going on Facebook
- Creating a campaign (involves a visual ad targeted towards an audience)
- Setting a budget for impressions or conversions to your website or app iTunes page
How do Facebook Ads work?
You need to integrate the Facebook SDK in your app to analyze the data your app sends to Facebook. To use Facebook Ads with your app, you must:
- Install the Facebook SDK in your app (a few lines of code to allow your app to communicate with Facebook)
- After you’ve installed the Facebook SDK in your app, Facebook will start to generate custom audiences based on your app users. Custom audiences are madeup of specific traits of your app users such as where they’re located, how old they are, their gender, how much money they make…
- Next, you can run ads to specific audiences to build a bigger following for your app
What is a lookalike audience?
Lookalike audiences are people who have a lot of similarities to people that use your app.
Here’s how it works… Once the Facebook SDK is in your app and Facebook has started to create an audience based on your app users (source audience), you can reach other audiences of similar interests and traits (lookalike audience).
You can also trigger Facebook to create lookalike audiences for users who complete a specific action like spend money in your app, or even achieve a specific goal like beat a level in a game.
Using the lookalike audience Facebook has created based on your current app users, you can buy traffic towards a targeted demographic.
Steps to run a Facebook Ad campaign
- Step 1 – install the Facebook SDK in your app and update the app so it reports data to Facebook
- Step 2 – start creating and testing your ad based on image, app copy (text), and headline. It’s important to test variations by testing the click through rate of each.
- Step 3 – start targeting and slicing lookalike audiences to get an even more specific user prospect
- Step 4 – test the ads to see which one is the most affordable to get an impression or conversion
The biggest mistake people make with Facebook Ads
“The biggest mistake people make when using Facebook Ads is they give up too early.”
Most developers try Facebook Ads once and then give up. To find the right campaign and audience, you must be continuously learning and testing.
Running Facebook Ads campaigns is just like testing keywords and ASO within your app. You are not going to nail it your first time. You need to be constantly measuring, tweaking, updating, and studying market trends and shifts.
In addition, the more you test and learn about target audiences, you’re going to set yourself up with the ultimate marketing blueprint. For example, you don’t need to repeatedly update your app to find out what app screenshot works best. Instead, you can run a few Facebook Ads and see which one gets the best click through rate.
If you’re new to Facebook Ads, try setting up an organized tracking system to measure your campaigns. You don’t need hundreds of dollars to start using Facebook Ads, you can start with a simple 1 day campaign at $5. The information you will acquire could be game-changing.
Click the link above to listen to the Bluecloud Podcast and learn more about Ted’s story and adtech.
In this 60 minute session, you’ll hear:
- What paid traffic and Facebook Ads is
- Intersecting Facebook audiences
- Where to start with Facebook Ads
- Steps to run a Facebook campaign
Resources mentioned:
- App Empire – the book that introduced thousands of top developers like Manol to apps
- Flurry – a mobile analytics, monetization, and advertising company
- Audience Insights – Facebook tool that provides you with all the demographic components of the audience you are going after
- Adspresso – a simple and powerful Facebook Ads manager
- Power Editor – a Facebook advertising tool designed for larger advertisers who need to create lots of ads at once and have precise control of their campaigns.
- Ads Manager – helps users create and manage advertisements
Download this podcast episode on iTunes
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Please share this post with someone who you think would be inspired by this story! You can also reach Manol on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ManolGeorgiev
If you want to get started with apps (or at least learn about the business), download our free app “Cheat Sheet” here.
Catch you guys later,
Carter
Is there a guest you would like to hear on the podcast? Shoot us an email at support@bluecloudsolutions.com
I have a simple idea for an app that I haven’t seen anything like I know it’s a great idea everyone I talk to says they would buy and use it but I have no experience with coding developmentdevelopment or apps I’m scared to talk to someone who knows about this stuff because I don’t want it stolen and soon I will have money to back the idea I am in a couple different advertising programs so I don’t think getting the word out will be a problem can I get some advice /help
@Anthony – Execution > Ideas. Everyone has a “million dollar app” idea or whatever….it’s the guys who put apps in the store who actually make the money. Good luck!
Thanks Carter, awesome podcast! So much information 🙂
Really looking forward to the course… we’ve spent $15000+ on FB ads these last two months but now I kinda have the feeling we approached it the wrong way, we always did CPI campaigns, not CPC… and with CPI it’s pretty impossible to get installs as cheap as $0.5
Hi Carter, great interview!
There is one specific app we have (http://apple.co/2bzdMEX) where we are getting conv rates such as 7.69% for Switzerland (iPhone device) and our ARPPU (Rev per paying user) is about $5,5 . However, we are struggling to get organic traffic, do you think Facebook ads is an option to us or should we increase our ARPPU our conversions first? We are getting about 1k downloads worldwide per month.
Thanking you beforehand for your advice,
Freddy
Megataps.com
Hey Freddy. It really depends. The 7.6% rate is pretty good, but what is the average conversion rate worldwide? The price per install may differ for each country, so most likely for Switzerland you will lose money (you’ll have to pay more per install than you can make, i.e. you’ll have negative ROI). However, if you have a similar rate in other countries (2nd or 3rd tier), it can be a good deal even at an ARPPU of $5.5 – but that’s not easy either, because 3rd tier countries usually can’t afford to pay much in apps. That’s why I was asking about your worldwide conversion rate
@Tiger – Hi Tiger, thanks for the help
I truly get it. Our worldwide conversion rate so far is 0.57% on average for the last 3 months, and for 2nd and 3rd tier countries, we have for example, a conversion rate of 2.7% for Mexico at the iPhone, hope this info can help you out. If you need anything else does not hesitate on contact me over my personal email freddyjose92@gmail.com, it is always nice to meed new developers 😉
Thanks in advance for your help Tiger,
Freddy
Megataps.com
@Freddy – thanks for the info! Always good to compare to others out there. Conversion rates tend to fluxuate depending on factors like time of week, time of year, creative, landing page, and many others. Keep up the good work!