Have you wanted to run ads on Facebook but never had the time to figure it out? Are you not sure if it’s worth your money? Are you spending too much time posting and then forgetting about it all day long?
Or maybe you’re just scared that it won’t work or that people will comment “Your ad sucks!” at the top of their lungs. I can assure you they won’t. But don’t just trust me on it; here’s what other marketers are saying:
Fed Van Otterloo – “The campaign generated 5,000 new leads for less than $0.50 each! And the quality of those leads is very high.”
Andy Crestodina – “The ROI for Facebook ads is ridiculously high if you know how to do it right.”
Sue B. Zimmerman – “Using Facebook Ads at the moment, I’ve found a 56% lower cost per lead and 18% higher conversion rate on fan acquisition versus search advertising.”
Getting started with Facebook ads can be a little bit intimidating. There are so many options! Plus, all these numbers look like gibberish.
But don’t worry, I will simplify this process in 10 easy steps. Ready? Let’s do it!
1. Firstly, choose between Boosting posts or running an ad:
You can edit your existing posts or create new ones which will only be shown to your current fans. This is the option I recommend because you can promote your page without paying for extra clicks.
2. Pick one of the six ad types:
Single image ads – people like images, so these tend to get high engagement rates.
Link Ads – clickable links in an ad image or body text. It can be good for getting clicks, but not always for sales – remember that Facebook users are “window shoppers.”
They’re likely to browse through your products and then buy them elsewhere, like on Amazon (and never tell you).
Carousel Ads – this is excellent if you have multiple product offerings that can fit into a slideshow format with 5+ images per slide.
Video Ads – only available to promote fan pages that already have at least 30 videos on their channel.
Slideshow Ads – these allow you to add up to 10 images with a total of 2 minutes of playing time. This is great for selling multi-product bundles, showcasing new releases, or simply showing off your lifestyle, and it can be used for ads and boosted posts.
Canvas Ads – it is also known as “immersive ads” because they allow you to take up the whole screen when people click on them.
Usually, it’s a movie-like animation that can scroll down when people click anywhere on it or sit there and wait to decide if they want to learn more about your product.
Think of this ad format as a mini-site where you have all the main elements: image, description, call to action, etc., but within one clickable ad. This ad format is currently available for iOS apps or external websites to promote on Facebook.
3. Pick the right campaign objective:
You can choose between Reach (get people to see your post), Engage (connect with fans) or Drive traffic (send people somewhere else like an external site). I’m sure you’ve already figured out what you’re going for here:
Reach – if you want more people to see your post,
Engage – if you’re looking for people to like, comment, or share it. This is the right option if you’re running ads to promote your page because you’ll want people whose attention you already caught through your business (fans) to like and follow your ad.
Drive traffic – if you want more visitors for an external site (for example, you have a website selling products). Then this is the recommended option which also includes social actions (likes, shares).
4. Find your target audience:
If you know who will be most likely interested in what you’re selling, then put that into Facebook’s targeting options. You can choose among several demographic filters, including age, gender, location, language, interests, and behaviors.
There are also more advanced options like Custom Audience (if you’re already running a remarketing campaign, for example), lookalike audiences (find people who have the same characteristics as your current fans), or even excluding your existing customers from your ads.
5. Create ad:
There’s a lot of information you’ll need to include here, so I’m going to let you do this part on your own.
6. Set your ad budget:
This is how much you want to spend on the campaign every day. If you’re starting, I strongly recommend setting a daily limit and not going over it until you’re more experienced with all other variables in play (like picking a good target audience or timing of posting).
Keep in mind that Facebook ads are usually cheaper than the alternatives. Hence, if something’s working well for you, there’s always a temptation to increase how much you’re spending, but this might also dilute the quality of your results.
7. Review and launch ad:
When everything is done, click on the “Review Ad” button, where Facebook will show it to their team for approval before sending it to live.
You can always go back and edit things later if needed, but keep in mind that it cannot be paused for further changes once the ad is running.
8. Start ad delivery:
If everything looks good, then click “Start ad delivery” and let Facebook take care of getting your message in front of more people.
9. Monitor and tweak:
Facebook will send you a daily performance update every morning showing how many views, clicks, likes, comments, etc., you got during the previous day.
It takes some time to figure out what works well for your audience, but it’s all part of the learning process so try different things (targeting options) until you reach your desired goal.
These are essential steps in order to run ads on Facebook correctly. Now that you know to do this yourself, feel free to check Facebook Ads Manager. If there’s anything amiss, let me know. Please let us know in the comment section below! Have fun with success!