Facebook advertising: the perfect platform to run ads

There are many reasons why Facebook is the best platform to run ads, but here are two of the most important. Facebook has a user base of over 1.94 billion monthly active users worldwide. With over 50% of that number in mobile, it is even more astounding that Facebook has such an expansive reach.

The second reason is that Facebook Ads offer you options for targeting your ads to specific demographics like age, gender, interests/behaviors, and location. As someone who wants to advertise their product or service, you want to make sure it reaches your target audience!

In this article, we'll go through the steps you need to run successful ads campaigns on Facebook and avoid the most common mistakes.

Let's get started

 

The first step in a Facebook ad campaign is to define your target audience. Remember, Facebook allows you to narrow down who sees the ads by choosing the age, gender, interests/behaviors, and location

If you are unsure who exactly should see your ads or if Facebook's categories don't match with what you need at all make sure to check out Facebook's Audience Insights tool. Facebook will provide you data like top interests, age groups, and locations of your target audience based on Facebook pages they've liked or apps they use.

Once you define the main category for your ads (i.e. "men, aged 25-30 who live in New York City"), Facebook allows you to target a more specific audience. Facebook Ads Manager has an option to define the interests and behaviors of your target audience, but it's worth noting that you can also use Facebook Pixel Events as targeting options.

Lastly, make sure to check out Facebook Audience Network if you want ads on other platforms like Instagram or Facebook video for example!

Understanding your targeting audience and tailoring Facebook's ad categories to match their needs is the first step. But choosing the right interests or behaviors for this category will help you avoid wasting money on people who won't be interested in what you're advertising.

For example, if I'm promoting a business aimed at women between 25-30, Facebook will show my ads to women in that age group regardless of their interests or behaviors. But if I choose "female interested in pregnancy" as a primary interest for these women Facebook may also show them content about parenting and family even if they aren't pregnant yet.

This is why it's important to use Facebook Audience Insights and Facebook Pixel Events as well.

The best way to avoid this is to create a Facebook pixel event and use that as your targeting option instead of Facebook's pre-defined interests/behaviors categories! That way you can target people who've already visited your website, downloaded the app or used the product for example. This will help you narrow down your target audience and filter out the Facebook users who won't be interested in what you're advertising.

What about Facebook video ads? Facebook allows advertisers to run video campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network (Facebook-owned platforms).

When it comes to making a Facebook video ad we suggest using playlists or story feeds with multiple videos. Facebook Ads Manager has an option to promote your video with one ad or multiple videos, but make sure you don't run the same Facebook campaign on Instagram!

When promoting Facebook video ads it is recommended that brands use longer content (i.e. 30-90 seconds) as people usually watch at least half of a long video before

Once you have your campaign target audience defined it's time to choose a campaign objective.

The campaign objective is a metric Facebook will use to measure how well your campaign performs. Your campaign's target audience, ad set, and budget all depend on the objective you choose.

Depending on what you're trying to accomplish with your campaign it may be better to go for website clicks or video views as an example of campaign objectives.

Once you've chosen a campaign objective, Facebook will show you suggested ad sets based on that specific type of campaign (i.e. website clicks). The number of ad sets depends on how specific you want them to be and may vary from one or two ad sets to ten ad sets.

Lastly, Facebook allows advertisers to run objectives for websites and app activity from the same campaign if they want!

The best way to maximize engagement is by choosing a objective that makes sense with your business goals (i.e. lead generation or increase sales) or promoting an interactive piece of content like an event or your online store.

You can use the campaign objective as a way to measure the engagement of your campaign on Facebook - the more people engage with it, the better results you'll get!

There are many campaign objectives available on Facebook, but the objective you choose should depend on your campaign goals.

One of the most important things to do when running a Facebook ad campaign is setting up your pixel (or tracking code). This piece of javascript allows you to track conversions and optimize future campaigns.

You can use any type of conversion on Facebook like lead generation or online purchase for example! Once someone completes that specific action, their details will be recorded by Facebook and you'll be able to see accurate results in your Ads Manager.

To create a conversion pixel, go back to the "Create Audience" section on Facebook and click on "Conversion Tracking".

Once there you will need to upload your custom conversion code (i.e. Google Analytics). If you already have one on your website, all you need to do is paste the code into Facebook's conversion pixel.

Depending on how many conversions are being tracked on your campaign it may take up to 24 hours for Facebook to start showing accurate results.

If you're not sure about what type of event or action should trigger a conversion on Facebook feel free to reach out to our team and we will provide that additional help!

When the ads are ready, choose a campaign name and click on "Next". Then hit "Create Campaign" in order to proceed. You can start creating new ad sets by clicking on "+ Create Ad Set" button. It's time to get creative with custom audiences again! If you already have a custom audience of people who have visited your website, Facebook will automatically choose this as an ad set.

All that matters at this point is that you make sure to select the right interests and demographics for your campaign. You can actually save this ad set as a favorite by clicking on the "Save" button at the top of Facebook Ads Manager!

 

Once you have your ad set, it's time to choose a format for your ads. Facebook has a total of five different types of ads available for you to choose from and they all vary depending on what type of ad set or objective you're running.

The most popular ad formats include link ads, image ads, and video ads - each with its own distinct advantages! For example, if your goal is awareness it may be better for Facebook to use a carousel ad that contains multiple images as opposed to a single image or video.

It's also important to note that the size of your ad will depend on what type of objective you're trying to achieve! For example, if brand awareness is key for your first campaign Facebook may show an expanded link unit with multiple links and headlines instead of one big picture ad.

As you're probably aware Facebook currently owns Instagram and they even allow advertisers to run campaigns on it! If your target audience is active on Instagram, then consider setting up ads there as well.

Lastly, don't forget about Messenger Ads which are still relatively new but can be a very powerful tool for building brand awareness and generating leads!

We highly recommend the video format to run successful ad campaigns because it's proven to be a more engaging ad format than even eye-cathing images.

It's time to fine-tune your ad campaigns and write a compelling message that will attract the attention of potential customers. Keep in mind that not all audiences are the same so you need to adjust your copy accordingly!

For instance, if Facebook sees people on their platform who have already purchased from your website it may be wiser for you to send them an ad that says "Congrats! You just made $100." This is because Facebook knows these people are already loyal to your brand.

However, if you're targeting a completely different audience who has never heard of your company before then it would be better for you to focus on value propositions and other similar strategies. The ad copy should aim at providing value to your audience and should be written in a way that will convince them of the benefits they'll receive by choosing your product or service!

What you need to keep in mind is that Facebook's ad manager allows you to run up to ten ads at once, which means there are plenty of opportunities for testing. Depending on how well each ad performs you can choose the best ones and delete the rest.

And this takes us to the next tip to run successful Facebook ads, Testing.

Once you have created ads for your ad sets, it's time to test them. Facebook allows advertisers to run up to ten different variations of the same ad at once which provides a great opportunity for data-driven decision making.

You can use this feature in order to see what type of images/videos and headlines work best with your audience! For instance, you may find that using a female model in your ad image would generate more clicks than using an attractive male.

Or, Facebook data might show you people are responding better to headlines such as "Start [X] by [Y]" rather than straight-up value propositions like "Save money with our discount!"

Just remember the goal of this phase is to discover which ad type performs best for your target audience. If one particular ad type gets more clicks, then use it! However, if you're not getting the desired results consider creating a new "optimization" campaign that will allow Facebook to automatically test different ads until they find the ones that work best for you.

The key is to keep track of these ad variations and see how they perform compared to each other.

The final step is to set your Facebook ads budget! For the last couple of years, FB has been getting more expensive so you'll need a healthy sum in order for them to create successful ad campaigns that will generate results quickly.

As you can now see running successful Facebook ad campaigns are not only possible but also very effective if you follow the tips and tricks outlined in this article. If you don't have the time to go through the entire process but you still want to increase your store traffic or escalate sales contact our team and they will happily provide the support you need, from creating collection ads to choosing from your different target audiences we'll make sure you get the most out of your Facebook advertising campaign. You can check our different services at www.socialgrowthengine.com