Summary
Facebook ads allow you to target business-specific demographics through its 1.13 billion active users. It is cost-effective, offers instant ROI, and with a platform you can use seamlessly. You can easily track your campaigns and reach people who are in the early buying process.
There are 11 Facebook Ad types you can choose from depending on your marketing needs. Some include promoting your page, boosting your posts, and getting people to visit your website.
Let’s say I have a product that I’d like to advertise in the most cost-efficient way possible with the instant return of investment!
This dilemma led me to try out Facebook advertising.
Advertising on Facebook is easily one of the most effective ways to advertise online for getting more conversions, click, and impressions. I would love to make it a seamless and secure process for you to run your business with Facebook Ads. The following are the exact lessons and steps to build up your own paid campaigns and ads.
Why use Facebook Ads?
Advertising on Facebook is currently one of the most cost-efficient tools to grow your business, generate leads, sales, and create loyal customers. There are over 3 million companies that are advertising on Facebook.
Here are some of the factors why Facebook is a great advertising channel:
- Size of audience: Facebook boasts 1.13 billion active users, wherein the 1.13 billion gets access through mobile devices.
- Attention: People spend loads of their time on social media. The average netizen spends 50 minutes on Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger daily.
- The decline of Organic reach: Organic reach on Facebook has been declining in recent years now and has almost reached zero. If you want to break through the site now, Facebook is a pay-to-play network.
- Targeting option: This feature offers businesses to target users by demographics, age, gender, behavior, interests, location, and much more.
Relevant: Read here how to get verified on Facebook
Advantages and Disadvantages of Facebook Advertising
Before heading straight to the process of Facebook advertising, I would like to narrate the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing social media advertising:
Advantages
- Campaigns can be easily tracked
- Gives you complete control with your maximum cost-per-click and daily budget
- Instant ROI: You can define a cost per conversion and fully understand what your profit is.
- Immediate traffic influx
- Plenty of targeting options such as regions, towns, age, likes/interests, income bracket, among other demographics
- Much easier to set up as opposed to Google AdWords
- Users are given the ability to reach people early into the buying process, right before they are even aware of what they need, while also capturing those who are aware of their need subtly.
- You can use videos and images to capture the interests of your target market, which assists you to sell products and your services,
- Cost per Click is relatively affordable, depending on which industry you belong to. It costs an average of $0.61 per click
Disadvantages
- Once set up and managed incorrectly, it can be quite costly, but much less than Google AdWords
- Depending on your target market, the majority of considerable audience potential can be irrelevant. For example, I would not recommend Facebook Ads if someone only supplies their services and products in 1 village.
- There is no option to target your advertising at specific times in a day or on certain days within a week unless you pick a lifetime budget
- Facebook ads are most suitable to those who operate on B2C markets
- Reaching people very early in the buying cycle could reduce your goal conversion rate.
Get your Ads started
First, you must head on to the Facebook Ads dashboard or simply click the dropdown arrow within the upper-right portion of Facebook and select “Advertising on Facebook” from the dropdown.
Navigating around the dashboard
As you arrive at the ads dashboard, you’ll be able to manage all aspects of your Facebook ads experience. There is plenty to work on here! This where to find all the important menus, tools, and buttons.
We will get to each of these tools as we go further down the article. You can use CTRL+F to find the specific phrase you need.
Also, read how Facebook makes Money.
The 11 Different Facebook Ad Types And How to Set up Each
Facebook Ads are highly versatile, and currently, there are 11 different variations that you can use to solve a whole substantial host of business problems; from reaching people in your local area to driving traffic into your company website.
Below is a list of Ads that Facebook advertisers can use. I shall walk you through each type.
- Promote your Page
- Post boosting
- Sending people to your Website
- Increase conversions to your site
- Get app installations
- Increase app engagement
- Reach people close to your business
- Raise attendance at your upcoming event
- Get people to claim an offer
- Get additional video views
- Collecting leads for your business.
Read how to add Impressum or your Facebook page
How to Select your Ad type
When you’re about to create a new Facebook ad (through clicking on the green button on your ads dashboard), you will get the option to choose among 11 different options. Each option has a unique focus for growing your page or business.
The general setup for each ad type will be similar: You will go from choosing the ad type or the objective of selecting the budget and audience to make the ad directly.
Here’s a rundown of each of the 11 ad types:
1. Promote your Page
Steps involved:
After clicking to create a new ad and choosing “Promote your page,” the next steps would be:
- Selecting one of your Facebook pages or enter the page URL
- Naming this campaign
The next step allows you to set your budget and audience
Upon placing a budget and audience, you get to set the creative elements such as texts, photos, and more. First, you will be asked to select an image to use; you can upload a copy of your own, choose from a collection of stock photos or pick from an image library that you have used in previous ads.
To easily create ad variations and test how different images would perform, you can create up to 6 advertisements by uploading multiple images. For selecting images, Facebook has these guidelines:
- 1,200 x 444 pixels (Width and height)
- Image ratio should be 8:3
- Your image would work best with minimal text, 20% or less of the image should be text. A fairly new guideline is ads would be rejected if the image exceeded 20% text
The 20% text guideline was put in place because Facebook is mindful of the visuals ads display on its network and wants to ensure the highest quality experience for its users.
To make things easier for advertisers, Facebook has gotten rid of the 20% text restriction on their ads (update 2020). Facebook adds a grid overlay to your image, and you can click on any box that has text. If the boxes you clicked on make up less than 20% of the photo, then you are all set!
You can also upload a series of three to seven photos that Facebook will automatically stitch into a slideshow. You can choose the shape of the slideshow, either rectangle or square, the length that that image stays on, and the transition from one model to another.
If you have a video that you would prefer to utilize for page promotion, you can add it here too. Upon choosing a slideshow or video, you can customize the text that appears above the ad. Click on the “Text” box to edit. You have a limit of 90 characters to use for this.
From the right corner of the panel of the Ad Editor, you can preview your ad and choose which locations you would want it to show. By default, Facebook will showcase the ad on the Newsfeed for desktop, a mobile news feed, and the right column of the desktop. Click to remove any of this selection.
Below the “Show Advanced options” are three new places for customization:
- Add a headline – this appears only at the desktop right column
- Choose where the visitor ends up- By default, people will come at your Timeline. You can also choose any page that you linked from your Facebook page menus such as photos, events, videos, or custom pages.
- Track conversions- Facebook conversion tracking includes the installation of the conversion pixel, which I’ll explain to you below.
2. Boost your Page
Steps involved:
After clicking “Boost your posts,” the next steps would be:
- Choose the Facebook page or its URL
- Select the update on your Page
- Name this campaign
The next step would be to set your budget and audience. After this, you can move ahead to the ad creative. What is good about this ad type is the ad creative is already set, the original is already the post!
From this screen, you can change the post that you would want to boost, and you can view how your boosted posts look in 3 different areas on Facebook:
- Desktop right column
- Desktop News Feed
- Mobile Newsfeed
If you want more details about how to handle the budget for Facebook marketing, read my guide here
3. Sending people to your Website
Steps involved:
Upon clicking to create a new ad and choosing “Send people to your website,” the next steps would be:
- Entering the Page URL you would like to promote
- (Optional) Select a conversion pixel to track the performance of the ad
- Name this campaign
You can now set your target and audience.
Upon setting your target and audience, you can now build the creative. The first customization tool option for website traffic ads is selecting if you would want to show a single image or multiple images or video in the ad (you can select up to five images).
With selecting a single video or image, you will see similar image options that you got in the “Promote your Page” ad type: slideshow, model, or video.
With choosing the multiple image option, you can build a carousel visual of your photos, each having their descriptions and headlines.
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With using multiple images, you are given a choice to customize four different aspects of your carousel photos:
- Copy: Allows you to upload a new image or select one from your library. Here you can crop the picture with the editor so you can get the correct parts to show.
- Headline
- (Optional) Description
- Call users to Action: Changes to the call-to-action will be shown on your carousel slides. You can choose among Donate, Now, Book Now, Contact Us, Download, Learn More, Sign Up, Shop Now, or no button at all.
Bonus Tip: You can alter the URL destination for each photo; for instance, you may want to have individual landing pages for each unique feature that you are pitching.
For the multiple-image tool option, you can choose for Facebook to show the top-performing photo first (the image that most people click on). At the end of your carousel, you can select for Facebook to include an additional slide with your Page’s profile picture and a call-to-action to ‘See More’ at (heading to your site).
Similar to the previously mentioned ad types, in the “Send people to your website” ad, you can choose to show it in the News Feed on mobile or desktop. You can also select more options, such as:
- Displaying your advertisement within Facebook’s audience network, other networks owned by Facebook or other mobile apps.
At the Ad Preview stage, you can select and click to view each location.
From here, you can set which sites you would like your ad to be seen on. For any spots, you would instead not show on your ad, click on the Remove link at the right side of preview.
- Showing your ad on Instagram: Each option goes with previews within the ads editor so you can see how your ads are performing.
4. Increase conversions to your Website
Steps involved:
Upon clicking to create a new ad and choosing “Increase conversions,” the next steps would be:
- Put in the URL that you want to promote.
- Select a conversion pixel to track the conversions in the ad.
- Name this campaign.
In the next step, you can now set your target and audience. Upon setting budget and audience, you can now produce the creative for your ad. This works similarly as it would for the “Send people to my website” type of advertisement, as mentioned previously. You can select among a single image, video, or multiple images. All the similar options are:
- Connecting to a Facebook page
- Writing a headline that shows under your chosen image or video
- Include a description text to go above your video or image
- Select a call-to-action
- Choose where you would want to allocate the ad: In Facebook’s Ad network, Instagram, Right column of desktop, or in the Newsfeed of mobile or desktop.
5. Getting app installations
Steps involved:
With clicking the “Get installs” the next steps would be:
- Choosing an app, either by typing in the app name or by pasting URL coming from the iOS apps store or the Google Play Store. You can advertise any app that you have registered in the developer site of Facebook
- Naming this campaign
The next step is setting your budget and audience.
After setting your budget and audience, you can now build the ad’s creative. Similar to other ads, you will have the choice here between a single image/multiple images or video. Among other customization options will be quite familiar, like Headline, Facebook page, and text.
For this type of ad, there are a few differences:
- Deep Links: You can link it straight to a particular state within your app or specific screen. For example, if your URL points to a particular product page or account in the app.
- Ad Preview: App install ads will only appear within mobile websites and apps.
- Call to Action buttons: There are some few additional, specific app CTAs that you select, such as Book Now, Install Now, Learn More, Shop Now, Sign Up, Use App, Watch More, Watch Video, among others.
6. Increase App engagement
Steps involved:
Upon clicking to create a new ad and choosing “Increase engagement,” the next steps would be:
- Selecting an app, either by putting in the app name or by simply pasting a URL from the Google play store or iOS App store
- Naming this campaign
The next step is setting your budget and audience.
After setting the budget and audience, you can build the creative elements of the ad. For this ad type, the settings are the same as the “Get app installs” ad type. The main difference between them is their goal and destination. For app installs, you will likely be interested in gaining more on point-of-entry registrations, linking to the page installation of your app.
With the “Increase app engagement” ad type, you’ll most likely be more interested in Facebook’s Deep Link settings, wherein you can link to specific pages within your app and boost more engagement there.
7. Reach people close to your business
Steps involved:
Upon clicking to create a new ad and selecting “Reach people near you,” the next steps would be:
- Select one of your Facebook pages or enter the URL of the Facebook page
- Name this campaign
The next step allows you to set your budget and audience. Different from the other Facebook ad types here, the audience settings related to “reach people near you” will ask you to choose an area found in a map to target the ad with the people in those areas.
The map, by default, will center on the street address of your business. You can enter any sort of speech you would like in the text box under the map and set the radius within eight defaults up to a custom mile radius.
Upon having the map in place, you can also click to change the target area to a different city on the map.
After having the set budget and audience, you can now create the ad itself. These location ads would have four different options to gain engagement for your audience and business, such as:
- Like Page – the ad will be veered towards driving your page likes. You can change the main text, headline, and the link description with this ad.
- Learn more – when people choose the “Learn More” button; they will be taken to any URL you put in. All the similar customization options would show up here, such as headlines, text, and images, plus a box of the URL that you choose.
- Send Message – clicking this option will enable people to send you messages from the Facebook page.
- Call now – you can have the same changes as the “like page” campaign, and also include your phone number.
8. Raise attendance in your event
Steps involved:
Upon clicking to create a new ad and choosing “raise attendance,” the next steps would be:
- Choose one from your Facebook events list or enter the Facebook URL of the event
- Name this campaign
The next step includes setting the audience and your budget. The ad’s audience defaults to a segment close to the event location.
Upon having a set budget and audience, you can now create the ad, and like the other ad types, you can create six ads to test your multiple photos.
The rest of the ad is taken care of by Facebook for you. Facebook will automatically include the time, date, event title, location, and several people who are attending or interested.
For more customization, you can alter the text as it appears above the ad. You can also do custom URL tags and pixel conversion tracking.
Additional Tip: Like many types of Facebook ads, a great photo is key for event ad promotion. Ensure that your image gives a good insight into the kind of event you’re promoting.
9. Getting people to claim your business offer
Steps involved:
After clicking to create a new ad and choosing “Get people to claim your offer,” the next steps to do would be:
- Selecting one of your advertised offers to your Facebook page or perhaps create a new proposal.
- Naming this campaign
In terms of creating an offer, you can create this straight from the ad editor, or you can make offers from your Facebook Page. If you’re on your Facebook page, select the “offer” link just above the text editor.
In creating the offer, you can name it directly in the text and headline, then link it to a specific landing page or put in a promo code. In addition to this, you can set the offer dates too as a limit to the number of people who would grab the opportunity.
Once you have selected an offer to boost, you can set your budget and audience.
Upon setting the audience and budget, you can now preview how the ad would look like in the mobile or desktop and the right column of the desktop. There are not much customization tools here, besides adding URL tags and conversion pixels. Similar to a boosted post, this will get out looking identical to the original post offer.
10. Getting video views
Steps involved:
After clicking to create a new ad and choosing “Get video views,” the next steps are:
- Entering a Facebook page URL or choosing one of your pages
- Naming this campaign
The next step is setting the audience and budget.
Upon setting your audience and budget, you can now create the ad. The first step is to upload a video to share. You can pull from a page post that has a video. When you upload a video, Facebook recommends these formats:
- .mp4 or .mov file format
- At least at 720p resolution
- Widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio) is recommended
- 1 minute and 2.3 maximum for Instagram
- 120 minutes and 2.3 GB max on Facebook
Alternately, you are allowed to use a series of 3 to 7 images for a slideshow, which will enable autoplay as a Newsfeed video.
After the video is selected, you can edit the way the ad would appear by customizing buttons and texts. By default, Facebook doesn’t show a button, allowing the ad to focus on gaining additional views. You can edit the text as that appears above the video.
If you would like to include a button with the ad, there are seven available choices from the “Call to Action”:
- Book now
- Download
- No button (default option)
- Shop Now
- Learn More
- Sign Up
- Watch More
- For each option, you can customize four additional text fields, the display URL, the headline, the URL of the Website, and link description.
11. Collecting leads for your business
Steps involved:
After clicking to create a new ad and choosing “Boost your posts,” the following steps would be:
- Selecting one of your Facebook Pages or enter the site URL
- Naming this campaign
The next step is setting your budget and audience.
Upon setting the budget and audience, you will go to the ad creative. Building the ad will be similar as it is for many other campaigns. You can do customization of the image and text that shows up in all portions of the ad.
The Facebook lead ad is different from its Lead Form. In the ad, there are options for six different buttons:
- Download
- Apply Now
- Learn More
- Get quote
- Sign up
- Subscribe
Each button will link to a form that you can create from Facebook’s ad editor.
Under the customization section is the Lead Form section, where you can select to attach an existing Lead Form that you have created before or a new one.
Here the two steps to make your new Facebook Lead Form:
- Name the form and choose its primary language
- Select which date you would want to receive
- By default, Facebook will suggest the email and full name of the registrant.
How to find your audience with your Facebook ad
Found in each ad type is the chance to target a particular audience with your ad, and this is where advertising on Facebook can be highly efficient and powerful. Here is a quick rundown on how to choose your Facebook ad audience.
Navigating Around the Audience Settings
The audience settings will be the second screen you’ll arrive to after choosing Facebook ad type. Here is a quick overview of Facebook audience ad settings:
- Create a custom audience (more here)
- Geographic targeting
- Age, gender, language targeting
- Target by interest or behavior
- Target based on how someone’s connected (or not connected) to your Page
- Audience selection scale
- Audience selection overview
Targeting
You can quickly tell from the layout of audience settings that the majority of options are about targeting the audience. You can choose accurately who sees your ad based on thousands or hundreds of factors, such as location, age, gender, language, behaviors, connections, and interests.
Budgeting and Strategies
Setting a Budget for Facebook Ad
The budget setting on Facebook will give you control to significant factors such as: how much to spend on and when you want to start spending that amount.
Selecting a Budget
Facebook begins by suggesting a 20$ budget daily. You can simply customize this however you want, choosing either “lifetime” or “daily” and editing the amount you would want to spend on.
Selecting a Schedule
For daily and lifetime ads, you can tell Facebook when you would like the ad to run. And by default, if you are operating a daily ad budget, Facebook would suggest running your ad continuously. Otherwise, you can choose to begin and end the ad on a specific date.
Top Tips to Keep in Mind When Running Facebook Ads
Here’s what you should remember when running your ads.
- Test your ad frequency. Facebook IQ research found that more exposure to your ad may result in higher purchase intent. You can run your ads more frequently to know how much exposure works for your campaign
- Never assume. Eventually, you’ll come up with more strategies or encounter some that you want to try. Instead of assuming whether these will work or not, better test these out with actual campaigns. Ideally, run your test campaigns with smaller budgets and target audiences.
- Monitor how your ad performs. If it’s not doing well, you can allocate its budget to others that are performing. You can optimize your ads by selecting the best performing and use that as your primary campaign.
- Consider higher funnel marketing. Reliable data from Facebook and Analytics Partner show that higher funnel brand-building ads can bring similar rate-per-dollar-spent sales. It means that you can still generate sales by simply letting people know of your product through ads.
- Check out Facebook Pixels. You can install this code on your website, and it has more advanced features to manage your campaigns.
Strategies for Facebook advertising
- Placement of your site URL- Keep your information short and concise, use taglines and keywords for cost-efficiency and reaching customers
- Double down on what works- do not wait to add on your spending. You must test every aspect of your campaign: Is it a wrong photo? Consider doing split tests on your campaigns.3. Spend 5$ per ad at least- along with this, create buyer personas and allocate a sufficient budget of at least $5.
- Imaging tips- this is the most crucial factor of your campaign. Do not use low-quality images. Images of actual people work best. Use close-ups of attractive faces that would entice or resemble your target audience.
Lookalike audience
Lookalike audience refers to the collection of Facebook users who are similar to your Facebook visitors, customers, or fans. You can form a lookalike audience from the audiences section of Facebook ads (starting from menu, under Assets to Audience). Click on to “Create Audience” and select the “Lookalike audience” from that list.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read through this guide. I have more tips and tricks to help you out with social media and running your business online with the articles below!
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