While many understand that Facebook ads can be a powerful tool to reach out to potential customers, not everyone knows how to create them. Some are afraid of the process, thinking it is too complex or expensive. Others may simply not know where to start.
In reality, the wrong way to create Facebook ads is by guessing how they work or copying what others are doing. The right way to do it is to understand how Facebook Ads work while keeping your goals in mind.
In this post, I want to go over the process of creating Facebook ads so that you can avoid any mistakes and create ads that work for your business. By the end of this guide, you'll be able to know what suitable ad campaigns look like for your business and how to set them up.
Whether you are using Facebook ads for eCommerce or to increase brand awareness for your business, the following guide will help. Let's get right into it.1. Choose Your Marketing Goal
Knowing your Facebook campaign objective will help you select your ad type and target audience better. When creating a Facebook ad campaign, there are various marketing objectives to choose from.
It's important to note that having a Facebook page is key to running ads on the platform. If you don't have one, you can create a business page in a few simple steps. This will be the foundation for your ad campaigns.
In addition, this Facebook business page allows you to run ads and gives you insights into how people are interacting with your page. You'll be able to see information like age, gender, location, and even the interests of people who have liked your page.
Let's explore the different marketing goals you can set out to achieve with Facebook ads.
Build Brand Awareness
This is one of the more common objectives businesses set out to achieve with their Facebook ad campaigns.
Image Credit: http://marketingandadvertisingdesigngroup.com
The goal is to show your ad to as many people as possible while introducing them to your brand. The logic behind this is that the more people are aware of your brand, the more likely they will buy from you or use your service in the future.
Brand awareness is suitable for increasing general understanding of your company rather than driving a specific action, such as making a purchase.
Create An Online Presence
This objective is closely related to brand awareness but focuses on creating an online presence for your business.
The goal is to have people interact with your ad so that they can learn more about what you do. If people know more about your company, they will be more likely to use your service or buy your products in the future.
Creating an online presence is suitable for increasing awareness of your company and getting people to interact with your brand.
Many brands achieve this objective by running a video views campaign. With this type of campaign, you pay for each view of your video ad up to a certain amount. This ensures that you only pay for people that watch your video - and not just scroll past it.
Another way to create an online presence is by running a page likes campaign. This type of campaign is designed to get people to like your Facebook page. If someone likes your page, they are more likely to see your future posts (organically) and interact with your brand. While this is not as effective as it used to be, having people be 'fans' of your Facebook page certainly doesn't hurt.
Increase Online Sales
If you want to use Facebook ads to make money, your objective should be to get people to purchase a product or service.
Whether through generating leads that you can later convert into sales or getting people to buy something directly from your ad, the goal is to get people to part with their money in exchange for a product or service you offer.
This objective is suitable for driving sales and increasing revenue from your Facebook campaigns.
There are a few different ways to do this, but one of the most common methods is running a conversion campaign. With conversion campaigns, you target people who will visit your website and (hopefully) make a purchase.
Re-Engage Customers
If you have customers who have already interacted with your brand, your objective should be to re-engage them.
The goal here is to get people who have already shown an interest in what you do to come back and take action. This could be making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or any other activity on your website. There are a few different ways you can do this, but one of the most common methods is running a retargeting campaign. I'll discuss retargeting ads in more detail later in this guide.
Monetise Content
This objective is designed for publishers who want to make money from their content.
The idea is that you use Facebook ads to drive people to your content and then monetize it in one way or another. This could be through advertising, subscription fees, or pay-per-view.
Monetizing content is suitable when you want to make money from the content you publish.
One way to do this is by running a CPM campaign. With CPM campaigns, you pay for every 1,000 views of your ad.
2. Choose Your Objective
Your campaign objective will influence various things when you create Facebook ads. The platform will build a new Facebook ad campaign based on the ad format you select as your objective. The campaign's budget and schedule will also be based on your selection, so it is essential to understand each option and how it can help your business.
Image Credit: http://bigspy.com
Your ad objective will be closely tied to your marketing goal and help determine the best way to achieve it.
3. Select Your Audience
Once you've chosen your objective based on the above guidelines, it's time to select your audience. This will determine who sees your ad.
Facebook allows you to target people based on various factors, including age, location, gender, interests, and behaviors. You can also target people similar to your current customers (known as creating lookalike audiences). This level of targeting means your ads are seen by the right people, which maximizes their chances of success.
One of the most significant Facebook ads benefits is that you can get detailed when choosing a particular audience, making it more likely that people will take action.
4. Decide Where To Run Your Ad
Facebook offers various options for where your ad can be shown. The most common choice is to show your ad in the news feed, where people see updates from friends and family and content from Pages they follow.
You can also show your ads in the right-hand column, which is Facebook's version of a banner ad. These ads are less intrusive than those in the news feed and are more suited to awareness campaigns.
Another option is to show your ad in Facebook's Audience Network, a network of websites and apps that allow you to extend your reach beyond Facebook.
In addition to the above, you can also run your ads on Instagram, giving you even more reach when it comes to potential customers.
Finally, there's also the Messenger option. This allows you to send ads as messages to people who have opted-in to receive them. With many people being on Messenger virtually all hours of the day, this option can be highly effective.5. Set Your Budget
Facebook ads don't have to be expensive, and you can set a comfortable budget for yourself and your business. You can choose to set a daily or lifetime budget, or you can even choose to pay per click or impression.
You can also set the period you want your ad to run. For example, you may only want your ad to run during business hours or on certain days of the week.
This level of flexibility means that you can control how much you spend on your Facebook ad campaign and ensure that it fits within your overall marketing budget.
6. Pick A Format
If you want to run Facebook ads that drive people to your website, the best format to choose is one that best fits your objective. For example, depending on your industry, select the video format if you're looking to increase brand awareness. If you want people to click through to your website, choose the carousel format.
That said, let's look at the various Facebook ad formats that you can choose to go with.
Photo
A photo ad is a single image that appears in the news feed or right-hand column. These are best suited to products or services that one can convey a message in a single image.
The best use case for a photo ad is to highlight your product or service in a way that tells a story and compels people to take action.
For example, you could use a photo ad to show people how your product can make their life easier or how it can help them save money.
Video
A video ad is a short video that appears in the news feed or right-hand column. These are best suited to products or services that can be conveyed with moving images and sound.
Stories
A Stories ad is a short video or image that appears in the Stories section of Facebook. These ads are fullscreen and can be swipeable, making them highly eye-catching.
Messenger
I've already touched on Messenger ads and how they can be an extremely effective way to reach people. Messenger ads are short videos or images that appear as messages in the Messenger app. These ads are highly personalized and can be very effective in driving conversions.
Carousel
A carousel ad is a multi-image ad that appears in the news feed or right-hand column. These ads are best suited to products or services that can be conveyed with multiple images.
Carousel ads are best used to highlight multiple products or services to show people how your product or service can best help them solve their problems.
Slideshow
A Facebook slide ad format is an ad that appears in the form of a slideshow. Use these when you want to show off a product or service in an interactive way or when you want to tell an engaging story. You can include between 2-15 images in a slideshow ad, and each can be up to 30 seconds long.
Collection
Collection ads allow you to promote a collection of products on Facebook. Collection ads include a cover image or video and then up to three product images beneath it. This type of ad is great for businesses that want to show off a range of products or services or for companies with multiple storefronts and want to drive traffic to them all.
Playables
If you have a game or app you want to promote on Facebook, playables are the way to go. Playable ads are essentially short demos or "mini-games" that are displayed on Facebook. This ad is great for getting people interested in your product and can be a fun way to engage potential customers.
7. Place Your Order
After choosing your ad format, it's time to place your order. Facebook offers a bidding system that allows you to compete with other businesses for space on people's news feeds. This system is essentially an auction, and it will enable you to compete with other publishers that are targeting a similar audience as you are in their ads.
Knowing how these ad auctions work is crucial for setting an adequate budget and getting your ads in front of the right people. Your ad is given an ad value score, which is based on three main factors, as follows.
Bid
The bid is the amount of money you're willing to spend on your ad. This is the amount that you're ready to pay for each click or impression on your ad.
Estimated Action Rates
This is a measure of how likely it is that someone will take action, such as clicking through to your website or downloading your app, after seeing your ad. Facebook uses data from their user base to estimate this number. This is then improved as your ad is shown to more people.
Ad Quality
The quality of your ad is determined by several factors, including how relevant it is to the audience, the design and copy of the ad, and how well it's performing.
The combination of these three scores determines your ad's overall value. The value determines various aspects of the ad, such as how often it's shown and how much you'll pay per click or impression.
The Facebook ad auction is a complex system, but having an idea of how it works is crucial to set an adequate budget, design the right ad, and get your ad in front of the right people.
8. Measure And Manage Your Ad
Facebook ads manager provides a lot of data that can be used to track the performance of your ad and make changes accordingly.
The ads manager will show you how your ad performs in terms of reach, frequency, clicks, etc. You can use this data to determine whether or not your ad is effective and make changes as needed.
You can also use Facebook's A/B testing tool to test different ad versions to see which performs better. This is a great way to improve the effectiveness of your ads over time.
Taking the time to track performance cannot be understated. This data is crucial for understanding what's working and what isn't, and it can be the difference between a successful ad campaign and an unsuccessful one.
A Note On Retargeting Ads
While suitable ad placements will help you reach your target market, retargeting can help you ensure that the right people see your ads multiple times.
Retargeting is a process that involves showing ads to people who have already been exposed to your message or have even visited your website. This is a great way to ensure that potential customers see your ad multiple times, increasing their chances of taking action.
Retargeting tools are available on all major advertising platforms, and Facebook is no different. Their tool (accessed through the standard Facebook Business Manager) allows you to target people based on specific actions they took in the past regarding your ads.
Image Credit: http://retargeter.com
Keep in mind that retargeting cannot happen immediately when creating a new Facebook ad campaign as it takes some time and data to be able to set up. However, it's well worth the wait, as retargeting can significantly increase the success of your campaign.
To get going with retargeting, you'll need a minimum audience source of 100 people. However, Facebook recommends that you wait until this number is higher, as the more information you have, the more accurate data you'll be able to use.
Eventually, you can also set up a lookalike audience. These are people who have similar interests and demographics to your current audience. Facebook will find these people for you and allow you to target them with your ads, based on what has worked in the past.
While this gives greater control to Facebook and its AI over who sees your ads, it is a great way to ensure that your ad reaches people who are likely to be interested in what you have to offer.
Conclusion
Facebook ad campaigns can be a great way to reach more people and increase sales. The best Facebook ads are well-targeted, relevant, and eye-catching.
When creating a Facebook ad, keep your audience in mind. Consider what they want to see and what will appeal to them. Also, be sure to have an adequate budget for your ad campaign.
In addition, Facebook's Business Manager provides a lot of data that one can use to track the performance of your ad and make changes accordingly, so be sure to take the time to measure and manage your ad to understand what's working and what isn't.
Finally, consider retargeting to ensure that the right people see your ads as many times as needed to take the right action. Retargeting is a great way to increase the effectiveness of your ads and reach more of your target market.
Understanding how to create Facebook ads is essential for any business that wants to reach a wider audience. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can create an effective ad campaign to help you achieve your marketing goals.
For further reading on using paid advertising to market your company or business, check out my article on Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads to learn more about which platform is right for you.
