Facebook Ads, sometimes referred to as “adverts,” are one of the most popular and effective ways of getting your product or service out to the public. However, while they can be useful tools, you must be careful how you use them and understand how advertising on Facebook works.
In this article, we’re going to run down the basics of Facebook Ads so that you can take advantage of this powerful advertising platform and do your best with marketing on this popular social media network.
Step One: Create A Product Or Service To Advertise
When you’re thinking about advertising on Facebook, you first need to figure out what you’re trying to sell. Are you looking to boost your existing products, or are you looking to create a new product or service to advertise? This completely changes how you should approach marketing on the platform.
If you already have a product you want to promote, then you can use Facebook Ads. However, if you’re looking for a new product, you should consider making a Facebook store where you can sell and promote your new ideas and creations. A Facebook store will give you the ability to run ads and use other features that the regular Facebook account doesn’t offer.
Step Two: Choose The Right Platform For Your Ads
There are a variety of platforms that you can use to run Facebook Ads, and each one has its perks.
A popular choice for business owners is the Facebook Ads Manager, which gives you full control over your ads’ content and day-to-day performance. This is the ideal platform if you’re looking for detailed reporting and analysis of your ad campaigns.
Step Three: Decide Whether You Need To Test Different Placement Options
Once you’ve created your product or service to advertise on Facebook, you need to decide whether you need to test different placements of your ads. What is a placement option?
This is where you decide which of the four sizes (standard, high, long, and wide) of the rectangular-shaped Facebook ad spaces to use for your ad. The standard placement is the default option and is used when you don’t specifically choose a high, long, or wide option when placing an ad on the platform.
Another important consideration is the type of content that you put in your ad.
For example, if you’re running an ad for a flower delivery service, you should use photos of beautiful flowers rather than models of flowers because the latter would make your ad look more like an information product rather than an advertisement.
Keep content as simple and straightforward as possible so your target audience can easily understand what your ad is trying to sell.
Step Four: Determining The Target Audience For Your Ads
Once you’ve chosen your platform and determined which placements you’ll be using, the next step is to figure out who your target audience is. This group of people want to see your ad and are more likely to buy your product or service. You can use a variety of tools to help you find your target audience, including:
- Facebook Ads: This is where you advertise on Facebook. You can use this tool to choose specific locations and demographics to target, set a budget, and create a schedule for when you’ll run your ad campaign.
- Instagram Ads: You can use this tool to choose specific locations and target demographics and set a budget for your Instagram ad campaign. This is one of the most popular social media platforms, and it’s also a place where people go to get product information and reviews.
In other words, if you’re looking for people who are already on the platform and may be interested in your product, Instagram is a good place to start.
- YouTube Ads: Similarly, you can use this tool to choose specific locations and target demographics and set a budget for your YouTube ad campaign. Much like Instagram, YouTube is where people go when searching for product information and reviews.
This makes it a good fit for product review videos or similar types of videos that appeal to a broad audience.
- Amazon Product Ads: You can use this tool to choose specific locations and targeted demographics and set a budget for your Amazon ad campaign. Much like the other tools mentioned so far, Amazon Product Ads is a place that people go when they’re searching for product information and reviews.
This makes it a good fit for product videos narrated by the company or store owner narrating how to use the product.
Step Five: Determining The Types Of Content That Will Attract Your Target Audience
Now that you have a target audience, you need to determine the types of content that they will find interesting and attractive. The goal is to create content that will engage your audience while also enticing them to buy your product or service.
From here, you can see the types of content that people are engaging with and discover the most effective ways of making your content more attractive.
For example, if you’re looking at an Instagram account, you can see the types of content they are posting and find similar content you can create. Or, you can see the most popular videos on YouTube and find the types of content that are most effective in getting views.
Step Six: Determining Whether To Advertise During The Day Or Night
When you’re deciding when to run your advertisements, there are a few things you need to consider. First, how active is your target audience on the platform? This largely depends on the day of the week and the time of day.
If you’re looking for a broad audience, you should probably target either the day or night to catch most people’s attention.
Between the hours of midnight and 6 am, there are a lot of inactive people on social media. This is when many people are sleeping, so you can bet that they’re not going to be doing much else.
However, if you’re looking for a more specific audience, you should probably choose the day because there’s less competition during the day than at night.
Plus, there are many more people on social media during the day, giving you the chance to reach a larger audience. This is important if you want to be effective with your advertising campaign.
Step Seven: How Many Ads Should You Run To Get Your Best Results
While it’s important to target a broad or specific audience, how many ads should you run to get your best results? This depends on a couple of things.
First, how much are you willing to spend? The more you’re willing to spend, the more you can afford to experiment with, and the better your results will be.
Second, how large is your audience?
You can afford to run many ads to see the best results if you have a large audience. On the other hand, if you have a smaller audience, then you might want to limit how many ads you run to see the best return on investment (ROI).
In general, you should try three to four ads per day for the best results. However, this can vary based on your specific situation.
Step Eight: Configure Your Targeting Options Based On Your Budget
If you have a limited budget, then you need to be careful how you use it. However, this doesn’t mean you should avoid effective advertising strategies. You simply need to adjust them a bit to fit your budget.
For example, you might want to choose targeted demographics that are more affordable or use cheaper words and phrases in your ads rather than paying for expensive advertisements to target the coveted millennial audience.
Remember: Your budget will change how you need to approach certain aspects of your advertising campaign.
For example, if you’re looking for a broad audience, you may want to experiment with video content rather than just text-based content because videos usually cost less to produce than text-based ads, especially if you’re using online platforms like YouTube to host and publish your videos.
Step Nine: Use The Right Metrics To Determine The Success Of Your Campaign
While you can’t control exactly how many people will click on your ad, you can control what metrics you observe to determine the success of your strategy. This is important because there are multiple parts to a successful advertising campaign.
First, you need to choose the right platform for your ads.
Second, you need to choose the right content for your ads.
Third, you need to choose the right placements for your ads.
Fourth, you need to choose the right time to run your ads.
And finally, you need to measure the effectiveness of your ads using the right metrics.
Don’t Let It Pass You By
Facebook Ads can be really useful when you want to market your products or services to certain audiences. You can target demographic, psychographics, or geographic locations to reach specific groups of people.
You may decide to use them to target existing customers, potential customers, or just generate some extra interest in your product.
While Facebook Ads can be effective, they can also be a bit tricky to understand and implement effectively.
