We all have a Facebook account and connect with friends and family..but how about using Facebook to advertise?…like a pro! Interested? There is a course online at LinkedIn Learning that teaches the basic things to know about advertising on Facebook and I can’t wait to share it with you!
Advertising on Facebook” is a course conducted by Megan Adams, a social media strategist and LinkedIn Learning Instructor. The goal is to help you create amazing ads while avoiding common mistakes.
Facebook Advertising Overview
Advertising on Facebook can help you increase awareness of your business. Why? Because almost everybody has a Facebook account, the steps are simple and you can start with a budget of only $5.00! As with any marketing project don’t forget to have in mind what you want to say, who do you want to tell your message to, and how much money you want to spend.
An ad on Facebook looks similar to a regular post with likes, comments and shares, there is also the option to ask the viewer to act by clicking the call to action tab, that can direct the person to your website or to the place you want him or her to go. You can always customize the post to make it more appealing and aligned with your goals.
To start a Facebook campaign, as Megan suggests, determine your objectives and what it is you want your viewers to do (Adams, 2019). Create awareness, that means to make a product interesting, make your viewers search for more information and have them purchase your product.
Fortunately Facebook has the proper tools to help you achieve your objectives. With the Conversion button you are able to monitor the number of people visiting your post and what reactions they have taken. This information is vital in measuring how well you are doing and what things need to be improve.
With a business page at Facebook you will have access to the Ads Manager tool, here it is where you can start creating an ad. Facebook will guide you through the process starting at the Manage Ads button, clicking then on the selected advertising account. Facebook at this point will ask you to click on the Ads Manager dashboard, and click Create; this is on the Campaign level focusing on the main advertising objective. Below, the Ad Set can be seen, where the audience and budget are determined. The more you use these tools the more familiar you will become with each step. (Adams, 2019)
Take advantage of all the options Facebook has to make your ads suitable to your target audience. You can customized by location, demographics, interests, behaviours, and connections.
It is important when advertising to understand the different terms and symbols used on Facebook (Adams, 2019). This will allow you to measure the ads performance and improve the advertising effectiveness. Some of what you will see are Clicks, which means how many times viewers have clicked on your ad, CTR (Click-Through Rate) is the average of how many people see your add and actually clicking it (the higher, the better). CPM or Cost per 1000 is the cost of the add for 1000 clicks. Cost per Click or CPC is paying for each click. Frequency relates to how many times an ad can be seen and Reach is how many people actually have seen your ad.
How Facebook Ads Work
Set up your advertising account page to be able to launch advertisement and create an association between the account and a payment method (Facebook credit, PayPal, or credit card). Facebook will send you notifications and suggestions on how you can manage your account efficiently. On the advertising account is where all information of your work will be storage from creativity to billing. You will get familiar with the steps once you start managing it.
To make it easier Facebook has divided the process of advertising into Campaigns, Ads Sets and Ad themselves (Adams, 2019). This will help you have a more organize setting. On Campaigns is where the ad’s goals and target audience are included, within the Campaigns division appears Ad Sets, to help you control images, links and messaging.And finally you can create different ads to compare and chose the one that works better for your goals.
How to Create Facebook Ads
When creating a Facebook ad remember that you have to define what message you want to send, who you want to reach with that message, and what is it that you want people to do. As Megan mentions, Facebook has the ability to reach the narrowest niche (Adams, 2019). Take advantage of the audience size icon, which will show how large and specific the target audience can be depending on your selected options.
“Interest targeting is really where Facebook advertising stands out.” (Adams, 2019). Facebook collects information on users liked pages, ads they have clicked, apps, and then connects these information with ads appealing to the specific data.
A way to refine the targeting audience is by behaviours, things people do during online activities (browsing the internet). On setting the account, Behaviours is under the targeting section, with different options. Megan stresses the importance of testing alternatives to come with the best result, especially because Behaviours does not guarantee an accurate information (Adams, 2019). Facebook includes the option of Connections, helping the administrator control the inclusion or exclusion to whom to send the ad. A benefit is to avoid saturating viewers with and ad. Megan suggests using no more than three behaviours and up to five interests (Adams, 2019).
Facebook will advise a budget to start with, calculating the proper audience they believe should be reach. It can be a daily budget (how much to spend on a day), or a lifetime budget (how much money to spend on a period). Remember that these are only suggestions and you have the power to decide your budget.
Advertising on Facebook talks about the different alternatives available on where to place an ad. Again, Facebook can help you decide the location by clicking Automatic Placement (Adams, 2019). On Edit Placement is where you see all the options available that you can click and have your ad appear on. You can have your ad show up on Mobile, Desktop or both, and platforms on Facebook (Instant articles, In-Stream Videos, Suggested Videos, Marketplace and Stories), Instagram and Messenger.
Once you decide where to place your ad, is when you start creating the ad for its release. Start by naming the project, then you can select whether to use a single image or video, or carousel (two or more scrollable images or videos). Following it heads to the media section, where for each ad there is the option to include up to six images. On the text section, headlines are included. Megan advises the text should be natural and attention grabber (Adams, 2019). Below its the action button, here you tell the viewer what to do. A preview can be seen to make sure everything is on the right place.
View Your Advertising Data
To manage your campaigns you must click on the ads dashboard, this is where you can view and update all advertisements. First, select the date range to have specific information on the account spending limit, how much has been spend, impressions and links on reach, location, hour, gender and age. With the results given, you will have a better understanding and perspective to customize future campaigns with more precision.
Advertising reports provide information on refining ads and if goals are being achieved (Adams, 2019). These details are located under the Campaign tab on the dashboard.
Understanding the success in metrics it’s important to have a better knowledge of the campaign results. It will show the amount of reach, people and impressions the ad generated. For an objective measurement, Megan suggests comparing the campaign with other campaigns on different dates to identify the most important metrics for the campaign.
It is vital to understand how the billing summary is presented by Facebook, this will allow you have a good sense on where, how, and the amount spend, keeping on track any current balance or incoming bill.
Implement Best Practices
To improve the performance of your ad remember firstly, to have well defined what is your call to action, that is, what you want people to do after engaging with your message. Secondly, highlight your product or service benefits, your competitive advantages. And thirdly, your images have to be clear, colourful, high-quality, and attention-grabber. Pictures must resonate with the target audience.
If for some reason you do not achieve your goals, don’t give up! Go back and analyze your data and make improvements.(Adams, 2019).
Finally, the course wraps up with some major policies Facebook has that you must read and follow. For example, images cannot contain more than 20% of text on them, there should be no nudity, no sexual implication, ads have to be relevant to your audience and your language must be adequate.
Any shocking, sensational or violent content is not permitted as well.
Conclusion
Following the tips and guidelines on Advertising on Facebook, creating and publishing an ad on Facebook can be more effective. This social platform can give you the path to increase your brand awareness and connect with target audiences in a much easier and faster way. Set your goals and decide who you want to connect with, then go to Facebook and follow the instructions, get familiar with the settings and before you know it, you will be launching an amazing ad!
References
Adams, M. (2019, Oct 02). Advertising on Facebook. LinkedIn Learning. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/learning/advertising-on-facebook-2/facebook-is-an-advertiser-s-dream
Endless Summer 