Facebook Ads During COVID-19: Should You Run Them or Not?
Our lives have changed a lot over the last few weeks. We’re staying at home, isolating ourselves from other people, changing how we work, how we live, and we’re not sure when it will change.
Even with all the uncertainty, we do know one thing, the future is going to be different.
During these crazy times, as a business owner, you’re faced with very important decisions:
“Should I even run Facebook Ads right now?”
A legitimate question.
You’re probably seeing businesses closing down, people losing their jobs. All of this simply makes you feel weird when even thinking you should continue using Facebook Ads.
The question of running Facebook Ads during a pandemic is actually two-fold:
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Is it ethically okay to run Facebook Ads for your business?
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Is it economically good or bad to advertise at the moment?
Let’s look at both perspectives.
Is it ethically okay to run Facebook Ads during a pandemic?
If your marketing is focused on injecting fear into your audience because you want to directly profit from their panic, then no. You shouldn’t advertise on Facebook. You should actually stop doing that altogether and make some changes in your life.
However, if you’re running a legitimate business, don’t stop marketing because of an outbreak.
Unfortunately, things will remain uncertain for a while. My guess, is that today’s environment will continue through the end of April at the least. Waiting for uncertainty to go away is only going to make things worse. Not just for you, but for the whole economy.
Instead, adapt your message, pivot, and move on.
Is it economically good or bad to advertise at the moment?
All businesses fall into two categories:
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Businesses that have been directly impacted by the coronavirus in a negative way
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Businesses that haven’t been directly affected by the coronavirus
If you’ve been directly negatively impacted by the coronavirus
If you own a gym, restaurant, retail store, or even if you’re a hair dresser, or any kind of business owner that works with their clients in person, directly, then you’ve probably been negatively impacted. Your business will have to adapt to a new reality for the time being, before things go back to normal.
If you found yourself in this group, it’s best to stop advertising on Facebook at the moment. Pause all of your campaigns and find new, innovative solutions on how your business could continue.
Offer video courses on how to take care of your hair at home, create an online store selling products your existing customers typically use.
If you’re a gym owner, have virtual coaching hours with your members.
Restaurants that did not have a digital ordering system, you probably now realize how important it is. Your industry will be forever impacted by this and major shifts will be permanent. Not only externally, like how people purchase from you, but internally, with your staff- who are more than likely now delivery drivers.
Find new ways to continue doing what you love and what allows you to live your life the way you do. And when you implement that solution, you can start reinvesting in Facebook Ads again.
If you haven’t been negatively impacted by the coronavirus
I’m lucky enough to run a business that, so far, has been unscathed by this pandemic. The opposite actually happened — I’ve been getting more consulting requests, more new clients turning to digital marketing and business systems, and even existing clients are increasing their services and doing more.
If you fall into this category, then this is the best time to advertise.
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A lot of advertisers have stopped using Facebook Ads in the past week because they’re scared, or they have been directly impacted by the virus. That means the advertising space is “less crowded,” there’s less fight for attention. You can reach a lot more people for a lot less money.
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Because so many people are staying indoors (we all should be BTW), there’s more attention. People are spending more time on Facebook than ever before, there’s more demand for frequent updates. So when a user refreshes their News Feed for the hundredth time, it’s more likely your ad is going to pop up.
This kind of a combination – less crowded advertising space + more demand – creates a perfect ground for advertisers.
Experienced advertisers already started spending more money on Facebook. We’ve had businesses that went from spending $2,000/month for Facebook Ads to $5,000/week in just a few days!
“Beginners” are in the best position as well. With the ads being so cheap, this is the perfect time to start using Facebook Ads, launching first experiments, and then grow from there.
What should your next step be?
If you’ve been running your Facebook Ads campaigns for at least a few months now, optimizing your ads regularly as you should, you’ve probably seen your results improve in the last few weeks.
Start increasing your budget little by little, by 10-20% every 2-3 days.
Because you’re going to be spending more money, your frequency will increase as well, so make sure to add a few more visuals to your Ad Sets to prevent ad fatigue from setting in.
If you haven’t advertised before and you’re just starting out, make sure to start confidently, but slow.
Don’t just boost your Facebook posts, that won’t help you generate any sales. Instead, develop a lead generation funnel that’s a reflection of what you want to achieve, choose the objectives that match the goals of each funnel step, and implement the campaigns one by one.
If you need help with this, schedule an appointment with me and we’ll discuss it further.
