Facebook ads give you the opportunity to target a very narrow group of people, and that helps to ensure you’re reaching your ideal prospective customers. But for new business owners, Facebook ads can be a little intimidating. Luckily with the right information and tips, you can easily market on Facebook.
To learn the essentials and figure out how to get started, check out this guide to Facebook marketing 101.
Why Facebook Ads?
Facebook ads offer a lot of significant advantages to business owners. most notably, this marketing platform offers immense customization options. If you want to reach parents with toddlers who are into vegan nutrition or retirees looking for vacations, you can set up your campaign so only people who meet those criteria see your ads. You can also customize your ad campaigns based on the people who follow your page or friends of people who follow your page.
Beyond that, Facebook ads tend to be less expensive than a lot of other options including Google ads. As an added bonus, you can get extra bang for your buck by combining Facebook and Instagram ads. You just create a single campaign, and then, you elect to have the ads run on both sites, letting you reach even more people.
Facebook Ads Guide
Now that you know why Facebook ads are such a great option for marketing, you are probably wondering how to set up a campaign. You can choose between Facebook’s Ads Manager or the Power Editor which has a lot of advanced features. For most small business owners, the Facebook Ads Manager is easier and more effective. To help you get started, here is a step-by-step guide to using that.
- Develop Your Strategy
Facebook’s Ads Manager has a lot of compelling features and options that can be distracting, especially if you don’t know what you want. Before even opening the site, take some time to think about your marketing objectives. Some of the questions you should consider include the following:
- What products or services do you want to promote?
- What kinds of customers do you want to reach? Think about age, gender, location, income level, interests, etc.
- Do you want to target people who have heard about your business or new prospects?
- What do your customers want?
- What problem can you help them solve?
- What is your overall goal? More traffic to your site? Increased exposure for a new product? More sales?
- Choose Your Objective
In Facebook Ads Manager, you actually get to select your objective, and the right selection can help lower the cost of your ads while still making your campaign more successful. Usually you pay per click which is called cost per click or CPC, but you can also pay per impression which is referred to as CPI. Potential objectives can include brand awareness, reach, traffic, engagement, app installs, video views, lead generation, messages, conversions, catalog sales, or store visits.
- Target Your Audience
After thinking about your target audience, you narrow in on the right specs when you set up your ads. The options are nearly endless, and you should customize as much as you can so that you reach the perfect audience.
- Choose Where You Want Your Ad To Be Displayed
Where do you want people to see your ads? You can choose all devices, but in some cases, you may only want to reach people on mobile devices. You can also choose if you want to display the ad in the feed, in the right column, or a handful of other locations.
- Set a Budget
Once you nail down the details of your ad customization, you need to set your budget, schedule your ads, and choose an optimization method. You can set up a daily or monthly budget, have your ads run constantly or over a set time period, and you get to choose if you want to pay per impression (the number of times your ad gets displayed on people’s screens) or by click (when people click your ad). When in doubt, default to Facebook’s optimization methods. They are set up to give you the most benefit possible.
- Choose the Ad Format
You get to choose from the following formats when you create a Facebook ad:
- Single images
- Videos
- “Carousel” ads which run through multiple images or videos
- Canvas ads which create an immersive, full-screen mobile experience
- Don’t Forget the Little Details
Finally, you get to add a call to action such as call us today or visit our site, and you can pop in a URL description. Don’t forget these little but essential details.
8.Monitor Your Ads
To see if your ads are working, track their performance. Pay attention to how much you’re paying per click or impression. See if you’re getting the results you want. And make adjustments to your strategy accordingly.
How About Split Testing?
Split testing is when you run two very similar ads and you see which one works better. To be the most effective, you should only vary one or two details. Then, when you figure out what works the best, you can keep using that ad and split test with another idea.
Luckily, Facebook makes split testing easy. You can actually just click a split test box and follow the prompts to set up a second campaign for split testing. You can split test with audience, ad placement, or a variety of other elements. If you want to get really serious about split testing, you may want to bring in an additional tool such as AdEspresso which brings more options to the table.
With Facebook Ads, you get a lot of options which can be overwhelming, but ultimately, those options help you to create very effective campaigns. Marketing is essential for new and existing businesses, and if you want to reach the best audience for your products or services, Facebook is a great place to start.