Facebook is the most used social network in the world, with over 2.2 BILLION active users
why wouldn’t you want to use this platform to advertise your product or service?
In this video I’m going to talk you through how to advertise on Facebook in 8 straight
forward steps.
I will also share a template for planning a Facebook advertising campaign at the end.
To start I’m going to answer some questions you may have.
' I’ve never used Facebook before, will I be able to advertise?'
Firstly congratulations for not getting sucked into the Facebook hype.
And secondly yes of course you can still use Facebook advertising!
It is completely different to Facebook for personal use.
Although you will have to set up an account in order to get started with advertising (this
doesn’t have to be for you – you could use a pet of yours for example).
•'My target audience is B2B, can I still advertise on Facebook even though my audience
isn’t B2C?'
Absolutely!
Once logged into Facebook, it continues to collect your data in the background even if
the app / site is closed on your phone or browser.
Think of how many people log in to Facebook at work (we all do it).
'I don’t want the whole of Facebook to see my ad, is there a way to only show my
ads to certain types of people?'
Yes, the targeting function on Facebook advertising is great, you can really pinpoint what type
of person you want to target.
If you have any questions for me just watch this video (I may well answer your question
in this video) and leave a comment!
Getting set up The first step with Facebook advertising is
of course getting your Facebook ad account set up.
In order to do so you will need: - A company page linked to your personal Facebook
account - A personal Facebook account
- To set up an ‘ad account’: - To do this, go to your Business Manager
setting in Facebook, Under the People and Assets tab, click on “Ad Accounts”
- On the right side of the page, select “Add New Ad Accounts”
- Choose one of the 3 options: “Claim Ad Account”, “Request Access to an Ad Account”
or “Create a New Ad Account” The next important step before you get started
with Facebook advertising is to install the Facebook Pixel tag to your site – this way
you can track when people come Choosing your ad objective
Facebook lets you choose what your marketing objective is for your ad campaign.
The different objective options are: Reach
Brand awareness Engagement
Video views Messages
Catalogue sales Traffic
App installs Lead generation
Conversions Store visits
Most of these are self-explanatory but here’s a quick summary of each.
Reach – This gets your ad out in front of as many eyes as possible
Brand awareness – This enable Facebook to get your ad out to people who are most likely
to be interested in your product or service.
Engagement – Get likes, comments and shares on a post, get event responses or page likes
(there are 3 types of ad format that fall under this campaign objective)
Video views – Get more people to view your video
Messages – Get more people to send messages to your business
Catalogue sales – Automatically show items from your catalogue based on your target audience
Traffic – A traffic ad sends more people to a destination on or off of Facebook – for
example a website page.
App installs – Get more people to install your app
Lead generation – Drive more sales leads from people already interested in your business
Conversions – Drive more valuable actions on your Facebook page, in Messenger or on
your website Store visits – Get more people nearby to
visit your store / business Ad types
Facebook allows you to advertise around a range of different things, from text to imagery
to video.
Here is a summary of all the different types of ads you can post.
Video Image
Carousel Canvas
Offers Event responses
Collection Slideshow
Lead generation Post engagement
Page likes The wide range of ad types means you can choose
what sort of ad you think suits: - Your target audience
- Your product or service For example, if you run a clothing store a
carousel ad could be perfect for you.
If you run a video production company a video ad is probably the right ad type for you.
Organising your first festival?
An event response ad will work a treat.
You can use common sense when making this decision, although it’s also a good idea
to split test and see what ad type works best for your company.
Boosted posts Boosted posts don’t fall under ‘ad types’
in Facebook ads manager, instead you can boost posts directly from your businesses’ Facebook
page.
Boosting a post means putting a bit of money behind a post to get it in front of a wider
audience.
While you can choose a target audience for a boosted post, you can’t choose what action
you want the audience to take – for example you may be looking for people to visit a website
page, but Facebook may decide to optimise your ad for engagements – so you get loads
of post likes and no website visits.
It’s best to stick to running a proper Facebook ad through Ads Manager as you get more targeting
options and can decide what your marketing objective is.
Targeting Facebook is (in my opinion) the best platform
to use when it comes to targeting.
You are given an array of options to target people based on georgaphy, job role, online
activity or interests.
You can even choose which postal code they live in and what school or university they
go to.
It’s important to spend a lot of time on this part of the ad process.
You want to get this right to ensure you target your dream customer and you don’t waste
money getting clicks from people who will never buy your product or service.
The key thing to remember when it comes to targeting is that you want to target each
stage of the buying cycle.
You want to target people who are already considering buying your product or service
at the same time as targeting those who don’t even know you exist.
The way to target people at different stages of the buying cycle is to create different
ads within your ad groups.
You have no idea where members of your audience are within the buying cycle so you need to
ensure your ads reach out to each stage: Unaware – They haven’t considered needing
or wanting your product / service.
Problem aware - They are aware they need / want your product / service but haven’t considered
looking into a solution Solution aware - They are aware of your product
/ service as a solution to their problem / want / need
Deal – They know about your product / service and are interested in purchasing
Once you have different ads focussing on the different stages of the buying cycle you can
check back to see which ads are most successful and which need tweaking.
If you are solely focussing on retargeting (with help from the handy Facebook Pixel)
you can write your ads exclusively to reach out to the ‘deal’ stage of the buyer’s
journey.
Budget Deciding on a budget for your Facebook ad/s
can be hard.
How do you know what to spend if you’ve never run ads on Facebook before?
A good idea when starting a campaign on Facebook is to start with a trial amount – for example
set your total budget to £50 and see how far it gets you.
Be careful not to set a daily budget with no end date if you don’t want to spend all
of your company’s money.
Also be wary that Facebook cheekily sets the total budget to £350 as a suggested amount
– nice try Facebook!
What makes a good ad So now you know how to set up an ad, but how
do you know how to set up a GOOD ad.
Here are some tips that are vital in ensuring your ad performs to the best of its ability:
Use simple, bold imagery with little or no text on the image – If you have too much
text on your image Facebook will rarely show your ad.
Simple and bold stands out, and if you’re thinking about running an ad with no image
at all just don’t bother.
Set a goal for your campaign – you need a goal to ensure you know what the aim of
the ad is.
How are you going to know if your campaign has been successful if you don’t know what
you’re measuring?
Use video!
Video ads grab the audience’s attention and are very effective on Facebook.
Although always bear in mind that only decent videos are effective, don’t post a video
ad for the sake of posting a video ad.
Make it look sleek and professional and reflect your business the right way.
Don’t go it alone.
Get people to read over your ad ideas to ensure they make sense and look good.
Spend time on audience targeting.
If you don’t want to waste money spend as much time necessary on targeting the right
audience.
Facebook allows you to delve deep into this so make the most of it.
Take risks.
Funny ads work – be brave and ensure your text / imagery fits in with the tone of voice.
Measuring success The next (key) step to running ads on Facebook
is measuring what’s worked and what hasn’t… and why.
Facebook allows you to view lots of stats around your ads.
Always check back to see which ads have brought you the most clicks for example, you can then
pause the ads that aren’t working and work on the ads that are.
It’s essential to install the Facebook pixel so you can track conversions and retarget
audience members at a later date.
Measuring success (and failure) also means you can report back to your Manager and show
progress and give suggestions for future ad campaigns.
I hope you’ve found this video useful.
If you’d like to know more about social advertising or if you’d like access to my
social advertising strategy plan just leave me a comment.
And if you have any questions or feedback please leave a comment below.
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Thanks for watching!