If you are struggling to make money on Facebook, a very easy way to drive costs down and profits up is to build keyword targeted campaigns. I have received a number of questions about how to build a successful Facebook campaign that utilizes keyword targeting, so I’m going to explain a few ways you can go about doing it.

The thing to remember is that there are many different ways to structure a campaign, and generally, the more creative you are, the more profitable it will be.

Targeting User Interests on Facebook

If you have been advertising on Facebook, you are familiar with the changes in targeting, and the fact that if the ad calls out a user attribute, it must be directly related to the landing page and the user. This, my friends, is where creativity comes into play. In my last post I wrote about monetizing hot trends, and combining a trend with a user interest on Facebook – well, you will be printing money.

Understand Your Audience

There are a few very important things to remember before you even build your campaign.

• People care – Most people are true fans of what they list on their Facebook profile. Therefore, creating ads directly targeted to them will invoke some emotional response from them.
• Demographic differences – If you are targeting Pokemon, it would not be smart to try to ‘sell’ them something as many of them probably do not have a credit card, let alone money. Think about offers that your demographic would respond to.

Keeping those general tips in mind, it’s time to set up the campaign.

1. Select Your Audience

Let’s take the NBA Finals for this, since Game 7 is tomorrow (Thursday).

Keywords: NBA, NBA Basketball, NBA Finals, Lakers, Celtics, players names, etc

2. Pick Your Angle

How are you going to make money on this audience? Here are a bunch of suggestions that I can think of off the top of my head:

• “Lakers suck” gear
• “Celtics suck” gear
• “Lakers fan” gear
• “Celtics fan” gear
• Who will win polls
• Kobe Bryant vs. Paul Pierce poll

Again, test many different angles and find the most profitable. The easiest would probably be to build a poll of some kind and then monetize or ‘reward’ the backend. Let’s discuss that.

3. Make Money

We know for sure that these people are fans of basketball, players, and the teams in the finals. Remember, you could build multiple campaigns drilling-down as much as you want, but test and see what works best. Here are a handful of ideas to monetize a campaign like this:

• NBA mobile quiz
• Email/zip submits – (think male demographic) TVs, home improvement, video games
• Clothes

4. End Result

Alright. We have everything in line now, let’s talk about how to build this campaign so it can make some money.

I would test a one page poll and maybe a 2-5 page poll that causes these people to be a little more devoted to the results. After they take the ‘quiz’, provide them with something for their time.

• “Thanks for your answers – Here is the HOTTEST Lakers gear, and for you, 20% off!”
• “Thank you, we hate the Lakers too! (If you are targeting Celtics fans only) – Enter your email and see how you can get a 50″ LED TV!”
• Send them directly to a mobile offer, disregarding the poll you built.
• Collect their email for your own list to send them NBA gear, tickets, and other male demographic offers throughout the year.

There are plenty of options, and it’s key to cycle through a number of offers and/or demographics rather quickly. Just because you are targeting interests, does not mean they will convert.

Milking It For All It’s Worth

My most successful campaigns that I have structured this way, have all caused the user to do something. On top of targeting them based on their interests, here are a few ways to increase CTR from the ad, and also conversion rates after they are on your landing page or the offer page.

1. Force action – Find out why the Celtics will lose…
2. Question them – Kobe not playing Game 7?
3. Be controversial – Garnett = Wimp
4. Exclusive – Lakers fans only

Using ad titles that include those aspects, as well as bringing them to the landing page (if you can) has drastically helped increase performance. If you can do this right, there is PLENTY of volume, and tons of inexpensive traffic for you to bank on.

That should be enough to get you started. You could spend 12 hours/day just building keyword targeted campaigns on Facebook and be busy for months doing JUST that. Keep testing things and eventually something will land. Also, remember that the more fans there are of something, the more profit potential. Try obscure interests if you are looking for little competition, but just remember that there may not be much room to expand your campaign if you build it that way. Good luck!