Advertising Supplements On Facebook: 9 Strategies For Success

Tried-and-true strategies for advertising supplements on Facebook and gaining customers that are truly invested in your health brand.

Benefits Of Advertising Supplements On Facebook

Advertising supplements on Facebook is a long-term strategy for building your customer base. Don’t expect to have a high Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) overnight! Google Ads and other platforms may result in quicker conversions. But if you take the time to invest in Facbook ads, you can make dedicated customers who turn to your band again and again.

One of the main goals in advertising supplements on Facebook is building trust. The supplement industry is overrun with poor quality supplements. You want to stand out as a company that has true values, with quality products. Thus, your Facebook ads must be unique, branded, and provide true value.

It also takes Facebook some time to understand the audience you’re targeting so it can help display your ads for highest conversions. Facebook’s ad algorithm determines what ads are most relevant to users and will be more likely to receive engagement.  It takes Facebook some time to understand which ads perform best with certain demographics.  

That said, here are some tried-and-true strategies for advertising supplements on Facebook that have helped our clients find much success. 

9 Strategies For Advertising Supplements On Facebook

1. Watch Your Language (and Images)

Think carefully about what kind of language you’ll use in your ads. Facebook’s advertising platform has a strict set of rules that you must follow in order for your ad to be approved.

When it comes to advertising supplements on Facebook there are two rules, in particular, to be mindful of:

Rule #1: Do not use misleading or false content, which includes deceptive claims, offers, or methods. “False claims” is a tricky in the supplement industry, because the government does not support many products which are well-known in the althernative health world for their benefits. For example, colloidal silver is widely accepted in the alternative health world as a powerful natural antibacterial – with scientific research to boot! Still, such a product must be advertised carefully. Rather than stating your supplement “can cure bacterial infections naturally” you can phrase it as your product “supports the body’s natural anti-bacterial defenses”.

Rule #2: Do not use images that contain before-and-after photos or imply a negative self-perception in order to promote your product. Take a more positive approach when choosing photos. Focus on the positive effect your product will have on the customer, not the problems that may motivate purchase.

Also, Facebook has very strict rules regarding sexual imagery. For example, even if an article you boost has an illustration of the reproductive system, your ad may be forbidden.

2. Build Trust

Don’t just look at Facebook ads for supplements as a way to get someone to buy your product. Instead, look at them as an opportunity to build your brand’s audience. After all, it’s unlikely anyone is going to purchase from you if they aren’t familiar with you or your product.

Use paid ads to promote quality content that provides valuable information to your auiene. For example, if your supplement aids in joint support then it may be wise to promote a blog post you’ve written on natural ways to prevent osteoporosis. This type of content gives your audience a reason to pay attention to you and what your brand is doing.

3. Use Lookalike Audiences

One of the best ways to create an audience on Facebook is with its Lookalike Audience tool. You provide a source audience, such as people that have purchased from your website. Then the tool will create a ‘Lookalike’ audience, composed of people similar to the source given. Facebook can also create lookalike audiences from people that have engaged with your Facebook page or certain posts.

It’s much more likely that these people will want to purchase from your brand since they are similar to your already existing customers. Facebook has some uncanny methods of determining the lookalike audiences are likely to suffer from similar health issues – even mysterious issues like infertility.

Just make sure you have Facebook pixel properly set up on your website!

4. Think Outside The Box

There are so many ways to be creative with your ads on Facebook; don’t stick to boring one-note campaigns. Engage your audience with entertaining and interactive content. For example, Facebook quizzes are known to be highly viral. You can use Facebook’s Lead Generation form to incorporate a quiz into your ad. This builds brand awareness and grows your audience so you can retarget them later with product ads! If you have a strong Instagram following, there is also an option to run quizzes in Instagram stories.

Another way to create interesting Facebook ads is by using video. Some of the best video ads are the ones that don’t actually look like ads. Perhaps your ad is a video of a woman sharing her morning beauty routine which includes taking the vitamin supplement you sell.

5. Retarget Your Visitors Using Facebook Pixel

Retargeting is a powerful way for online retailers to stay top of mind with their site visitors. It allows you to ‘follow’ potential customers that have visited your website but have not converted. They may have browsed through some products or abandoned items in their shopping cart. If you have Facebook Pixel installed on your site the items they’ve left behind can show up as ads in their Facebook feed, reminding them the supplements they were interested in are still available to purchase.

The Facebook Pixel is a piece of code that must be properly added to your site in order to track properly. Make sure your web developer understands how to properly set it so that you can optimally leverage your visitor data.

6. Make An Offer Or Deal – Especially Timely Deals

Providing a trial offer can be a good way to entice someone to try your product without making a huge financial commitment. For example, if you’re offering a monthly subscription for vitamin supplements, you may want to consider offering the first month at a discount. Or you could offer a sample of the product for free. Be sure to communicate this offer clearly. Of course, as with any ad, make your call-to-action is clear and enticing.

Timing can be huge with this one. If you have a product that’s more popular seasonally, such as a natural allergy remedy, try offering 25% or another deal right before allergy season hits.

7. Share Compelling Stories

These days it’s difficult to find someone who will buy anything without checking reviews online. What can be even more compelling is a great success story about the product. Find the right customers that are willing to share their experiences. Start by engaging with your community and see which one of your followers have been raving about your product. Reach out  and ask if they would be willing to share their experience with the product. Get their feedback and organize it into a story or video that will connect with potential customers.

8. Try Creating Ads That Click to Messenger

If you hope to gain long-term customers through advertising supplements on Facebook, you may want to try creating ads that click to messenger. If someone is interested in your offer, they get it in the Facebook messenger app, and can ask questions and learn more there.  Once a person clicks on this option, you can later retarget them in their inbox with free ads, offers, content, etc. Make sure you don’t overuse this option, however. Retarget them with ads and info that provides value. If you annoy them, they can  tell Facebook they no longer want you to have access to their messenger.

9. Test, Test — and Try Dynamic Creative Ads

It’s important that you determine which ad text and images or videos really vibrate with your target audience. Take time to test different headlines, text, images, and videos all advertising the same offer or product. Running many different ads within one ad set and keeping tabs on them all gets complicated. So try creating dynamic creative ads. This is a relatively new feature on Facebook ads, which tests ad content for you. You give Facebook the different headlines, text, images, videos, etc., and it rotates them for you. Once the data come it, it automatically puts more budget into the combinations that perform best.

Advertising Supplements On Facebook: Do Your Due Diligence

There are no shortcuts when it comes to advertising supplements on Facebook. You have to take time to truly build your brand and educate your audience about the benefits of your product.

Please review some key Facebook policies below:

Finally, CBD or hemp derived products are not allowed on Facebook Ads, for now…