There’s no doubt that Facebook has a lot to offer your business when used the RIGHT way.

The good old days of spending 100s of thousands on offline media is long gone because the attention has shifted. It’s only natural to adapt your marketing tactics with the new age or you will let your business crash. Facebook is still the preferred place for 97% of marketers to run paid ads. After all, Facebook boasts the MOST ENORMOUS USER-BASE of any social network and one of the MOST ENGAGED. In other words, if you have an audience of any kind, there’s a non-zero chance they’re active on Facebook already.

Having said that, by learning a little bit about how Facebook ads work and taking the right steps, you should be able to make your ad campaigns profitable time and again. Let’s look into “How to set up Facebook ads the right way” to help you get the most out of your investment.

Firstly, Develop Your Strategy.

Before you even get started looking at the Ads Manager, you need to have a strategy in place. 

For each campaign that you’re going to create, you need to ask yourself:

  • What products or services am I specifically promoting? (In other words which are my best-selling services or products?)
  • Who are my potential customers, age, gender, location, and type?
  • What is their pain point, and what objections will they have?
  • What is your goal for the campaign? (What do you wish to achieve with the campaigns?)
  • Will you be targeting a cold audience or a warm audience or perhaps both?
  • Do I want leads, brand awareness, site traffic, sales, or something else?
E-Medias Online Guide to Setting Up Facebook Ad Campaigns - Defining Your Target Audience

Secondly, define your target audience.

The most significant benefit of Facebook ads is the ad targeting function that lets you pinpoint specific people who are most likely to buy. And only those people. For starters, use Facebook to create ad audiences from scratch. Businesses can define audiences based on specific parameters, such as:

  • Location: for example, local businesses can target their own cities or serve ads to nearby neighborhoods where new customers might be waiting.
  • Age: if your audience has a broad age range, you can segment your ads accordingly rather than take a one-size-fits-all approach.
  • Interests: based on your users’ “likes” and Facebook activity, the platform can highlight potential customers.
  • Demographics: additional details such as education level or relationship status can help you target specific social media personas that resemble your real-life customers.
E-Medias Online Guide to Setting Up Facebook Ad Campaigns - Choose where you want your ad to be displayed

Thirdly, Choose Where You Want Your Ad To Be Displayed.

Next, at the ad set level, you’ll be choosing what placements, apps, and devices you want your ad to be shown on. You can select mobile-only, desktop-only, or both desktop and mobile. You’ll also have multiple options on Facebook, several on Instagram, and the audience network.

(Keep in mind that if you are targeting customers like tourists, they will most likely only be on their mobile phones, so targeting should be set for that device.)

Fourth, Ads Budget

Be realistic, (remember that for your ads to perform well they need to have a solid budget behind it) but start with a lower number, this is because you still need to monitor the results in the beginning and then you can slowly increase as it performs. The golden rule is if it performs and you see good results then put more money behind it, and watch if it performs even better then you keep increasing. 

E-Medias Online Guide to Setting Up Facebook Ad Campaigns - The Advert Itself

Fifth, The Advert Itself.

1.Don’t neglect entertainment value. Being boring is a kiss of death for any ad campaign and Facebook is no different. The more entertaining you make your ads, the less they feel like, ads. Whether it’s humor or imagery that catches people’s eyes, strive to avoid static, stuffy campaigns.

2.If possible, use a video. You’ve heard it a thousand times, but it bears repeating: video content is totally crushing it right now. Videos are capable of showing off your ads in action, perfect for both raising awareness and grabbing users’ attention. Don’t forget that Facebook has explicitly encouraged brands to get on board with video in the wake of their algorithm shift.

Think of a video ad as a sort of mini commercial for your brand. (read more in this in-depth blog)

3.Come up with a compelling call-to-action. Any sort of engagement is a plus with your Facebook ads, but ultimately you’re on the hunt for clicks. To make those clicks happen, you need a strong call-to-action.

Sixth, Monitor Your Ads Carefully

After you’ve started your campaigns, monitor them carefully. Some campaigns may begin to see increases in CPC (cost-per-click) after the frequency gets too high, and others may start out at a significantly higher CPC than you’d expect. Facebook’s Ads Manager will show you the details of all of your active campaigns. Watch the CPC, frequency, relevance scores, and the number of actions taken particularly carefully. These are the most crucial metrics. Also, monitor the results and the sales that turn from it. Again be realistic and give it time.

(With so many metrics to track and variables to watch, we don’t blame any marketer for getting a bit overwhelmed. This is precisely why we encourage newbies to run smaller test campaigns to get their feet wet and make adjustments before blowing out their budgets.)

Lastly, Retargeting, to complete the circle

Also known as “custom audiences,” is a game-changer for your Facebook ad strategy. Simply put, these retargeting ads target members of your audience who’ve interacted with your business before. Maybe they’re your former or current customers. Perhaps it’s someone who has watched 50% – 95% of your video or visited your site for a certain amount of time. With the help of tools such as Facebook Pixel, businesses get a sort of “second chance” to win over leads who already know who you are. 

Final Thoughts

Facebook Ads has a lot of options to choose from, but once you’re familiar with the system, that will work to your advantage instead of your detriment. As long as you have a plan before going in, the campaign creation process will be a lot easier, and you’ll create much stronger ads as a result.

If you’d like some help creating or managing your Facebook Ads campaigns, let us know we’d love to help: https://www.e-media.asia/#contact

E-Medias Online Guide to Setting Up Facebook Ad Campaigns - Final Thoughts