Adam Reimer has been in the digital marketing space for over a decade providing companies of all sizes with ROI based marketing.  His specialties include Affiliate Management, SEO and ad platforms like Facebook and Pinterest.  Also, he is a popular blogger. You can read his affiliate marketing advices  here . And he will tell in this article how to use facebook ads to promote affiliate offers.

One of the most important things I’ve learned from managing affiliate programs is that you need to empower your affiliates.  This not only means encouragement, but teaching them new techniques that can grow their business.  One of my favorites is how to use the Facebook ads platform and advanced targeting strategies.  That is what this post will help you learn.

AdCombo has asked me to create a guide featuring either nutra-products or weightloss products, so I said sure.

Disclaimer: When promoting these types of offers I highly recommend you do not make any medical claims, give medical advice or make false claims.  You also need to check with the ad platform to make sure the product or offer you’re promoting is allowed.  There may be restrictions that could cause you to lose your account.

The first step is to get to the ads platform on Facebook. Click on the top right drop down next to help and select “Create Ads”

On the next page you choose an objective.  If you’re able to place a pixel, then conversions could be good.  If not, traffic or others may work for you.  Think about the audience you’re trying to reach and the goal.  I would choose traffic as an affiliate if I cannot get the merchant to place a pixel for me.

Next you need to think about what groups would be looking for this type of product as a solution.  If I was going to create target groups for a campaign promoting weight-loss launching around now (spring time), here are three groups that I may test.

• Gay men ages 21 – 35
• New moms
• Trendy singles with disposable income

Gay Men Ages 21 – 35

Targeting specific groups with Facebook is easy.  The trick is narrowing it down and matching it with your messages.  If I’m running ads in early April (right now) targeting gay men in this age range, my first instinct is to think “why would they want to lose weight?”.  My next thought is where they are going that they would need to lose the weight for.  I came up with the beach.

Next I did a Google search for cities that have winter (some cities are sunny and warm year round) and a reasonable sized gay community and that have a gay beach town nearby.  You have Rehoboth Beach (DC, Philadelphia, Richmond, Pittsburgh and Wilmington), Sitges (Barcelona, Madrid, Terassa, Badalona and Toulouse), Provincetown and Fire Island (NYC, Boston, Providence, Hartford and New Haven).

Now that I have my city targets and theme I go to Facebook and I start adding my demographics.  Here is the following that I would choose as a starting point to try and show ads to this particular group.

• Men
• Age 21 – 35
• Interested in Men
• If you can, target by likes the gay beach town, stores or restaurants in the beach town or other landmarks and celebrity performers there
• Interests, likes and hobbies including different LGBT causes and organizations

Now with the ads I would incorporate in that it’s almost beach season at XYZ city and messaging about being ready.  The imagery, messaging and landing pages should all be focused around gay men (i.e. no heterosexual couples or women since this is targeting men who like men and who are going to a gay beach town).

New Moms

This is another target that came to mind.  Having a baby may mean you put on some weight and you may want to lose it.  Targeting new moms is easy.  Facebook offers you an actual target called “New Moms” under demographics and parents.  But that isn’t good enough.

You could run this, but also make it more targeted by including things like interests in diets, weight loss, yoga, exercise, fitness and also in natural remedies.  Another way to better target is to include being a fan of or interests in a specific gym chain, weight loss tv shows and weight loss programs.  All of these may be complementary to the dietary supplements you’re promoting.

Trendy Singles With Disposable Income

Depending on where you’re targeting, you can try to reach people who are trendy may have disposable income.

First start by targeting people under “relationships” that are “single”.  Next think about who may have a higher income.  If you’re in the US (and some other markets) you can set a target with household income, median income or net worth.  If that isn’t available, think of the demographics that would make more.

• Job titles – CEO, VP, Director, etc…
• Postal codes – Look at where you can target based on postal codes. Some have higher incomes than others.  Combine that with age ranges and non-work hours and you may get the higher earning singles who are home from work.
• Food and drink choices – If the person drinks fine wines (you may be able to target by more exclusive varietals or high end vineyards) and unique or foreign foods, this could potentially be a way to target higher income people. There will be cross over to fans and people who aspire to reach that level, but that’s why you combine it with other targets.

Now for the trendy part.  Targeting people who are fans or enjoy fads like miracle diets, herbal cures or other things that come and go could be a good way to find a “trendy” person.  You can also target people who enjoy fashion magazines and trendy stores.  Facebook also offers trendy as an adjective with numerous other targeting demographics to help show ads to people who may consider themselves trendy.

As you can see, Facebook ads offers you a ton of ways to be able to target specific audiences and groups of people.  You can get as specific as you want or as generic.  Either way it gives you a great way to try and reach a specific audience that you think may convert well for the offer and make you money.  If you’d like help with your Facebook advertising or affiliate management, you can always contact me through my blog here.