As you know, social media is a tremendous way to increase exposure and traffic for your business. It helps you to create loyal customers, and generate leads and increases your sales.
Facebook remains the most popular social media platform. It is the social-media platform of choice not just for the public but also for the majority of businesses and brands…for good reason.
It has never been cheaper to build your brand and create new demand for your products and services.
Facebook Advertising probably offers some of the most targeted advertising opportunities today, maybe even ever in existence. At the time of this writing, Facebook serves more than 1.94 billion monthly users. More than 1.7 billion visit daily on their mobiles alone.
If you aren’t already advertising on Facebook, you’d be crazy not to.
Facebook ads allow you as the advertiser to target these visitors by factors like location, age, interests, likes, and so on.
When you advertise on Facebook, you can make sure you’re really reaching the right audience. According to Facebook.com, you can target by:
Location – you can target by country, state, zip code, and proximity to the business.
Demographics- You can target by age, gender, interest, language(s) spoken, and more.
Interests- You can target based on what people have said they like on Facebook. These things might include music, movies, sports, games, shopping, and so on. It’s almost eerie how targeted ads can get based on people’s interests.
Behaviors– You can target people based on the things they do, like what they are buying or looking at, the phone they use, and even if they are shopping for a new car or home.
Connections– You can target those who have liked your page or app. You can target the friends of those who have liked your page or app.
There are advanced ways to target your ads as well, such as with Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences. These are areas to explore once you’re really rolling and familiar with Facebook advertising.
Before You Create a Facebook Ad
As you’ve probably guessed by now, we do not encourage you to just go and create an ad, have it shown to all of Facebook, and pray.
To be successful, you’re really going to think about this. Your ad is only going to be shown to the very specific audience YOU choose.
It makes sense, then, that you really think about the ad itself and your goals for the ad before you actually run it. What do you intend to accomplish with the ad? Are you directing it to a squeeze page or are you directing it to a Facebook page where you hope to get more likes?
It can often make sense conversion-wise to direct people to like your Facebook page first since that’s something easy for them to do and they aren’t likely to object to that. It’s built right into Facebook, after all. And you can build a relationship from there and then funnel them to your list.
It might make the least sense to direct your Facebook ad right to a sales page. Do these people know you? Are they even in the mood to buy? You might be wasting your money. Think about these things and study these things before getting started.
Creating Your Facebook Ad
Actually creating your ad is very simple. Facebook really makes it easy to do, even if you’re a total novice. They want to make it approachable for everyone to run ads with them, from top companies to those who might only have $5 a day to spend. I think you’ll find it very easy.
Simply start with their “Create Ad” button and use the ad creation tool. Note that you have to have a profile with Facebook before you complete this step.
Facebook will have you choose an objective for your ad. This is something we’ve talked about, so you should already have this in mind. Page post engagements? Page likes? Clicks to website? Video views? There are several options there.
You’ll then choose your audience. As you’re choosing your audience, resist the urge to be more general. Sure, your ad will be displayed more often, but you really want your ad to be displayed to those who are most targeted. You’ll save yourself money that way and you’ll be a lot more likely to get the results you want to get.
After walking through those steps, Facebook will have you set your budget. You can set a daily or lifetime budget. Be careful here– if you’re on a limited budget you’ll have to weigh how often you want your ad to be shown and clicked on with how much you’re willing to spend. Over time, you should be able to get more bang for your ad dollars.
When you’re first starting out, you may want to go with Facebook’s suggested big pricing optimization.
After you’ve gone through setting up all of that, it’s time to finally create your ad. The type of ad you’ll set up will depend on your objective.
Facebook Advertising Options
There are many different Facebook ad options. Facebook will walk you through these, depending on what you’ve chosen.
For example, if your objective is ‘Clicks to Website,’ there are ad types Facebook Carousel, Facebook Links, etc.
There are other ad types for Page Post Engagement, Page Likes, Lead Generation, etc.
You’ll need to think about the image/graphic you want to use. Note that you’ll need to keep the text and headline limits in mind for your ads or Facebook will reject them. Facebook walks you through all of this.
Facebook Ad Manager
You’ll want to keep a close eye on the Facebook ad manager. You’ll learn things like how often your ad is being displayed and what kind of actions are being taken. This can help you tweak and better your ads so you can get more for your ad dollars.
As someone who is now using Facebook for paid advertising, you’ll live and breathe the Facebook Ads Manager. We recommend you become very familiar with it.
Setting Up Your First Facebook Ad Campaign
Really, the best way to become familiar with Facebook advertising is to go ahead and set that first ad up. You’ll soon find out that it’s not nearly as tricky as you thought, and you can probably advertise for less than you thought.
Your first Facebook ads will be a learning experience, so set your budget low or don’t let it go live at all.
For inspiration, study those who are successful with Facebook advertising to learn how to get your costs down and get the best possible results.
Need help with Facebook Advertising?
Some businesses still find social media advertising daunting, especially if they have had their fingers burnt in the past.
The good news is that you don’t have to go it alone. We are an experienced Facebook Ads agency and we can make sure that all of your Facebook Advertising marketing campaigns are successful and generate leads and sales.
We will be very happy to manage your Facebook Advertising and social media marketing. Give us a call today and discover what we can do for your business. Facebook Ads Management by Flarecom Digital takes the stress and hassle out of Facebook ads. Let us optimise your ads and improve your advertising ROI.
