Facebook Ads Budgeting During BFCM
How should I break down my advertising budget?
Here’s a question that ad buyers find themselves asking other ad buyers multiple times per year… even multiple times per week, and maybe even multiple times per day. You’re not alone.
However, come BFCM (Black Friday/Cyber Monday), advertisers’ budgeting breakdown will shift significantly when online shops are doing everything they can to convert every customer possible to hit those holiday revenue goals.
We had a conversation recently in the Foxwell Founders Membership about budgeting breakdown between prospecting (TOFU), warm retargeting (MOFU), hot retargeting (BOFU), and reactivation/loyalty customers (i.e. previous purchasers).
Quick recap: usually, from January to October (ish), and unless we’re running a big sale in any given ad account, this is our general budget breakdown by funnel:
70-90% prospecting/TOFU (brand-new customers, never heard of you before, or at least never engaged with the brand at all and/or in the last 180 days)
5-15% warm retargeting/MOFU (these customers have shown interest somewhat recently, but haven’t pulled the trigger to convert yet. Here, longer form content (video or written/blogs), testimonials, problem solving, or even founder/mission introductions can work here).
5-10% hot retargeting/BOFU (these customers looked at a product or added it to their cart, maybe even started checkout, but didn’t buy. Maybe they got distracted, and maybe something in the checkout process held them up, but they’re quite literally one click away from purchasing).
Optional: 1-5% reactivation/loyalty customers (customers who have purchased before and might be interested in coming back. Running these types of campaigns are also dependent on if the product at hand is a one-time purchase or if customers will buy again and again, as well as can work well during sales and when new products are released).
Now, to the good stuff: BFCM budgeting breakdown by funnel
Some things to keep in mind when customizing your shop’s budgeting breakdown by funnel:
Prospecting/TOFU
TOFU generally does better than you think, specially if the offer is good.
TOFU can be extremely successful (especially if you start early), like 60% prospecting/40% consolidated retargeting, then based on ongoing performance, scale the parts of the funnel where they need it most
Run larger audiences as much as possible, since we know larger audiences are working better post-iOS14
Retargeting/MOFU or BOFU
Be cautious of the BOFU DPA, as it seems to be have struggled since iOS14
Consider just MOFU/BOFU in one campaign, consolidate audiences, and have creative ready to be refreshed throughout the holiday sales window.
Bidding
If you’re intending to use manual bids, for cost caps, during the full holiday advertising push, use bids that are at least 1.5, maybe 2x over the CPAs you saw in the specific accounts over the weeks before BFCM
Foxwell Founder Member 1’s BFCM Budget Breakdown:
TOFU: 40%
MOFU: 5%
BOFU: 40%
Regular: BOFU 28%
BOFU DPA: 12%
Reactivation: 5%
We chose this distribution for this reason: MOFU performance was underwhelming last BFCM, TOFU performance was actually surprisingly good, and iOS14 tracking changes are impacting our decision to only spend 40% in BOFU (in past years it was way more.
Foxwell Founder Member 2’s BFCM Budget Breakdown:
70-80% TOFU
1x Lowest Cost with 3-4 ad sets (1x open, 1x interest stack, 5% and 10% Lookalikes)
to control costs, especially when we go really above 20k daily: Cost Cap with 3-4 ad sets (1x open, 1x interest stack, 5% and 10% Lookalikes)
DABAs through brand page
DABAs through passion page
15-20% MOFU/BOFU
180 day WCA/365 days engagers and mostly with Klaviyo audiences in it too)
5-10% BOFU with DPAs
