How to Get Started With Facebook Ads
Looking to up the ante when it comes to your business’ online presence? Facebook Ads are a great way to raise awareness of your brand, drive engagement and increase conversions by creating an effective campaign for your business. But how do you get started? Well, we’ve covered all the basics to get you set up.
Work out your business goals
The first step to any good ad campaign is to stop and consider your overall business goals. Ask yourself the following questions to help establish a defined goal for your campaign:
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Do you want more brand awareness?
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Do you want more customers to interact with your page?
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Or do you want to increase online purchases?
It’s crucial to decide what you want and what the desired outcome is for your business to ensure you’re using Facebook Ads to your fullest advantage.
Define your target audience
The second step to creating your ads is to define your target audience. Though it would be nice if everyone became a customer of your business, it’s not a realistic goal and so it’s important to focus on the people most likely to be interested in your products and services. A defined target audience can help your business achieve your goal more efficiently.
A target audience is a specific group of people you want to reach with your marketing message because they may be more likely to take action. To help define your target audience, ask yourself:
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What do my customers need?
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What motivates my customers?
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What are some characteristics my customers share?
Based on these answers, you can begin to define what your ideal customer looks like and the type of message that will be most effective in reaching them.
People in your target audience will share certain characteristics which fall into 3 broad categories: demographics (e.g. age, gender, household income, occupation), interests (e.g. certain topics or activities) and behaviours (e.g. reading the same publications, visiting the same websites).
If you need more help identifying your target audience in more detail, working with resources such as My Social Media Planner is a great idea. You can also join the Digital Women Facebook Group or our membership for even more tips, resources and support with setting up Facebook Ads.
Set your ad adjective in Ads Manager
Once you’ve defined your business goal and target audience, it’s time to select your ad adjective and get set up in Ads Manager. When you select an ad objective, it will prompt you to choose where to send your customers when they click on your ad.
For example, if you select Brand Awareness or Reach as your ad objective, you are mainly focused on people only seeing your ad, not clicking on it. The more people you show your ad to, the more people become aware of your business. As a result, when you select Brand Awareness or Reach, Ads Manager won’t ask you to select a destination for your ad.
If you select an ad objective that is part of the consideration stage, your goal will be to have your customers interact and engage with your business (e.g. sending a message, liking a post on your page or visiting your website). As a result, you can choose where to send people once they engage with your ad. When people click on your ads, you can send them to a variety of places, such as a chat thread with your business on Messenger, your Facebook page, an event on your page, your website, download your app or fill out a form.
If you want to increase conversions, your goal is to have customers make purchases. When people click your ad, send them to your website, app or start a conversation in Messenger or WhatsApp.
Choose where people will see your ad
Once you choose where to send people once they click on your ad, it’s time to decide where people will see your ad. In addition to Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, you can also run your ads on the Audience Network. The Audience Network is a collection of apps and mobile websites where your ad can be displayed, and reach more people.
Choose when people will see your ad and decide on your budget
Now it’s time to decide when your target audience will see your ad and how much you’ll spend on your campaign. When you tell Facebook how much you want to spend on a campaign, it will try to get you as many results as possible for that amount. There are 2 ways to define your budget:
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Daily budgets – these are the average amount you want to spend on an ad set or campaign each day. Daily budgets are not a hard cap – they can work well if you want to spend roughly the same amount each day to achieve consistent daily results.
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Lifetime budgets – these are the total amount you want to spend on your campaign. Lifetime budgets can be useful if you don’t want to exceed a certain spend amount and work best if you have flexibility on how much you want to spend each day.
How much you spend will also affect the duration of your ad campaign. When you want to determine your ad budget, ask yourself:
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How much are you willing to spend on your campaign?
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How much control over your budget?
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How long do you want to run your ads for?
A good place to start with your budget and duration is to start running your ads for 7 to 10 days. This timeframe can help you find more people that are likely to take action on your ad. Begin your campaign with a small budget, then adjust from there.
Once you’ve done the above, congratulations! You’ll be more than halfway through setting up and creating your ad campaign in Ads Manager.
For more guidance and information on setting up and making the most of Facebook Ads, join the Digital Women membership today!
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