I get asked alllll the time for my best ad tips and tricks, and honestly, it’s one of my favorite parts of my j.o.b! There’s so much goodness to share about the magic that are Facebook and Instagram ads. From pinpointing the right target audience to writing ad copy that converts to picking the best assets that draw people in—there are ample opportunities to streamline your ad efforts in your business. But today, I want to talk about just ONE strategy that is often forgotten about, but that can make for some of the most effective advertising…

 And that’s nurture campaigns.

What are nurture campaigns & why are they one of most effective advertising formats?

 My favorite type of nurture campaign is to publish a video ad that displays on your target audience’s feeds. From there, you can create custom Facebook audiences based on the viewers who watched the video.

 You can then retarget those custom audiences with another ad, so that they continue becoming familiar with you and your brand.

 Essentially, nurture campaigns are a mega-effective way to take a cold audience to warm, and to gauge exactly who is interested in your offers. It’s a quick way to introduce people to who you are, what you’re about, and how you can help them.

 And it’s the lowest barrier to entry for THEM, which is important. They don’t have to read a bunch of copy or click through to anything else. All they do is watch the video right in front of their eyeballs, and then they’re in your court! Score! (Okay, that’s enough sports lingo for me, y’all.)

Why do people forget about nurture campaigns?

As effective as nurture campaigns may be, they can also be scary because these ads are more of an investment. Although video ads are typically cheap to run, there’s no immediate return with nurture campaigns. Think of it as playing the long game, though. (Never mind, I guess we’re not done with sports analogies.) You won’t see an immediate return, but as long as you have an offer coming up in the next month or two, these ads will pay off.

While nurture campaigns don’t HAVE to be video ads, these are my favorite kind of nurture campaign. They’re inexpensive to create—just hit record on your phone or computer camera and share something your target audience will find valuable. And they build engagement audiences quickly because they can get to know you and your business from one quick video.

Plus, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. If you’re selling a digital course or you have video of a speaking engagement you did, you could simply pull a small portion from there… something you are teaching or something inspiring! No need to go out and hire a full camera crew, hair, and makeup, or video editors. Take what you have, or create something simple from scratch using what you have, and go from there.

What to remember about nurture campaigns

Think of it like this: The video is simply a way to warm people up to YOU! And as much as this gal loves an image ad or long-form copy… nothing can replace your bright, shining face on screen, sharing a piece of your heart and business. People connect with people, and as much as an image or great copy can endear some folks, a video goes so much farther.

Now, more than ever, in this post-iOS-update world, video is KEY! Video engagement on Facebook is an easy way to gather data directly ON Facebook, which, not only is a perfect way to gain audiences insights and warm them up at the tippy-top of the funnel, things you do ON Facebook are more likely to be able to be seen (by Facebook) whereas when you’re directing traffic OFF of Facebook, and given the iOS update, it’s more difficult for Facebook to keep track of.

After you’ve got your video ready to go, you would run these ads using the objective “engagement” or “video views” for them to be the most effective.

And be sure to set up a custom audience for the video you’re using AND answer any comments and questions on the ads. This is important! If you are showing up on video to humanize your brand, then it needs to expand to the comment section. If people are sharing their excitement or asking for clarity, you or someone on your team needs to be showing up for them to feel seen and heard (marketing 101, anyone?).

That’s it, sweet friends! You’ll be all set to rock nurture campaigns and take a cold target audience to a warm audience, ready to buy what you’re selling, in no time.