Why use Facebook ads for marketing? The answer is in the numbers. As of the end of 2018, there were 2.23 billion people using Facebook every month. Twenty-four percent of Facebook business pages were using paid ads and their e-commerce click-through rates tripled since the beginning of 2016. With all of this in mind, one thing’s for sure — your target audience is somewhere on Facebook and you need to tap into the platform’s advertising to fully reap its marketing benefits!
If you tried using Facebook advertising before, but were unsuccessful, it may be because your ads weren’t set up to correctly suit your business’s marketing needs. Use our information and Facebook ads checklist to ensure your next campaign runs smoothly and successfully.
Facebook Ad FAQs
If you’re not familiar with social media marketing, here are a few common questions you may have when it comes to Facebook advertising.
How Do I Get Started with Facebook Ads?
One of the first steps is setting up your business page. Once you have a business page, you can choose to boost regular posts for more visibility or create ads to target new users. Here’s more info on the difference between a boosted post and an ad.
How Long Does it Take Facebook Ads to Work?
Once your ad is approved by Facebook and you’ve turned the ad on, it should begin working immediately! However, you won’t be able to really see results for a few days. With some data, you can begin to see how users are interacting with the ad.
How Long Should a Facebook Ad Last?
This is really dependent on your budget. Do you have enough in your budget for the ad to run all month, or just a week? Ideally, your budget shouldn’t dip below $10 per day. Any lower and your ad won’t be as effective as it could be.
How Much Does it Cost to Run an Ad on Facebook?
As stated in the previous answer, it’s recommended that you not to dip below $10 per day for an ad. At a minimum, you’ll want to set aside at least $70 per week for a single ad. There isn’t a cap on how much you can spend, it just really depends on the funds you have available and how long you’d like to run the ad.
Facebook Ads Checklist
This Facebook marketing checklist will allow you to hit all the bases, ensuring your ad is set up for success! If you need additional help with these steps, use our free, downloadable social media ad plan to help guide you through the process. It pairs perfectly with the social media marketing plan template we offer.
1. Define Your Goal
As you begin creating your Facebook ad, you’ll be prompted to choose the objective of your overall campaign. Here are a few options you’ll have to choose from:
- Brand Awareness
- Reach
- Traffic
- Engagement
- App Installs
- Video Views
- Lead Generation
- Messages
- Conversion
- Product Catalog Sales
- Store Visits
Think about what you really want your ad to accomplish. Do you want users to navigate to a particular link? Do you want them to engage with your ad, and if so, why? Would you rather they browse your products? Figure out what the end goal is and set it in stone.
2. Create a Measurable Objective
Your measurable objective will depend on your goal. Do you want a certain number of users to click your ad link and go to your site? Do you want to reach a certain number of comments and reactions on your ad? Finding a measurable objective allows you to see how well your ad performed in comparison to your expectations.
Some Facebook objective choices determine how your results are measured. For example, using the brand awareness goal will force you to measure your results by ad recall lift rather than link clicks or ad interactions.
Ad recall lift is determined by the estimated number of people who would likely remember your ad within two days of seeing it. This type of measurement makes sense for an overall goal of brand awareness since you’re aiming to make more users aware of your brand and company.
3. Find Your Target Audience
Finding the right Facebook audience can be tough. You really need to think about the type of person you’re trying to attract. If you don’t target the correct audience, you’ll be wasting valuable time and money, so it’s important that you take time to think it through.
Facebook Ad Manager gives you the option of inputting email addresses, phone numbers, or Facebook user IDs to create a custom audience that you want your ad to be shown to. This is a great option for businesses that would like to target specific users and anyone similar to them.
If you don’t want to create a custom audience from user information you’ve already collected, Facebook allows you to identify your targeted locations, ages, genders, and user languages. You can also add demographics, interests, and behavior attributes so Facebook can match your ad with users that fit within those guidelines.
4. Decide On a Facebook Ad Strategy
Next, think about how you’ll achieve your overall ad objective. Will you try to evoke emotion from users? Will you use specific imagery or a unique ad format?
When it comes to picking your Facebook ad format, here are some of the options you’ll have available to you:
- Traditional Video — Allows you to add a single live-action video.
- Image — Allows you to add a single image.
- Image Video — Allows you to turn multiple images into a video.
- Slide Show — Allows you to add multiple images that will automatically rotate.
- Carousel — Allows you to add multiple images or videos that can be scrolled through by users.
- Collection — Allows you to add a group of images that open into a fullscreen mobile experience.
You’ll also have the option of adding an Instant Experience to your ad. If you select this option and provide the necessary details, your mobile landing page will open instantly when someone interacts with your ad. It’s designed to encourage people to visit your website or app, increase brand awareness, and drive product sales.
5. Create Your Ad
Set your overall budget, ad running time, and craft creative ad copy to complete your ad. To create copy that helps your ad succeed, follow these suggestions:
- Don’t sway from your initial ad focus. Make sure your copy is consistent with the objective you chose.
- Consider the viewable space you have for text. Facebook tends to cut off longer text in ads, so you’ll want to make sure the viewable portion is engaging.
- Set up ads with multiple versions of your copy. These will live in your “ad sets.” Use short versions, long versions, versions that emphasize your brand heavily, and versions that do not. Testing different copy options will allow you to see what kind of ads your target audience is more attracted to. You can use your findings to create better ads in the future.
6. Launch Your Ad
If you think you’re ready to launch your ad, take another glance back through all your settings, copy, and videos or images just to make sure it’s to your liking. Once it’s all ready to go, save the ad.
Depending on how long you’ve been working on setting up your ad, it may or may not be already reviewed and approved by Facebook. If it hasn’t been approved yet, you will need to wait until Facebook reviews it. If it has already been approved, you’re ready to launch!
7. Monitor Your Ad
During the first few days of running your ad, check back at least once a day to make sure everything is running the way it’s supposed to. After the first few days, checking in on the ad once a week is sufficient.
As you monitor your ad, be sure to keep an eye out for:
- Daily Budget — See how much you’re spending each day on the ad you’re running. Whether you’ve chosen a daily or lifetime budget in your ad setup, the ad should be hitting close to your daily allotted limit every day. If it’s not, there may be something wrong with the ad.
- Cost Per Click — For obvious reasons, you’ll want your cost to be as low as possible. If your clicks are costly (over $2.00), it’s a red flag that something isn’t right.
- Ad Frequency — You don’t want users to get tired of seeing your content. Keeping the frequency around two or lower will help prevent that from happening.
- Interactions — See how your audience is responding to your ads to get a feel for what they like and don’t like.
- Result Rate — This will depend on the type of measurable objective you chose for the ad. Keeping an eye on this will help you see how well your ad is doing overall.
Facebook Ad Best Practices & Tips
Now that you have the tools you need to set up, launch, and monitor your ad, take some of these Facebook ad best practices and tips into account. They’ll help you stay organized and elevate your ad’s performance.
Use Descriptive Campaign Names
Unfortunately, Facebook Ad Manager doesn’t currently provide a great way of organizing your current and previously-run ad campaigns. Because of this, we recommend naming your campaigns with as many identifiers as possible. Include the month, your objective, and your focus. Don’t forget to be just as descriptive when naming your ad sets! It’ll help you stay organized when it comes to differentiating your ads and ad sets.
Align Ad Run Times with Other Marketing Efforts
If you’re planning on running a full digital marketing and print marketing campaign, set your Facebook ad running time so it’s consistent with those other marketing efforts. This will make your marketing campaign consistent and more powerful as a whole.
Make Your Ads Authentic
Users prefer honesty and authenticity. Your ad’s message and voice need to be genuine in order to attract more users. Be direct, clear, and calm in your messaging, but don’t forget to make sure your audience knows you care about their needs and experience.
Follow Facebook Ad Policies
This is crucial! If you don’t follow Facebook’s ad policies, your business account can be suspended. Take the time to understand what Facebook prohibits when it comes to ads so you can ensure your ads always get approved and your account is never in jeopardy.