Reach your audience and make an impact through Facebook Ads
With Facebook boasting over 1 billion users, advertising on the platform should be a part of any marketing strategy. Through customizable audience reach, targeting, dynamic retargeting and look-a-like audiences, marketers can reach even the most niche audience! Plus, Facebook ads are a low-cost option that, when done correctly, can yield big results.
From novice to expert, the Facebook advertising platform is a useful tool for marketers, and it doesn’t need to be overly complicated to be effective. Yakkety Yak’s Senior Analyst Chris Mueller covers the three steps of creating a Facebook ad and the best practices of campaign creation that will help get your first campaign running in no time.
How to Create a Facebook Ad
1. Set Your Campaign’s Goals
The first step in setting up any campaign is to define the overall goal. “If you don’t have a clear goal in mind, it’ll be difficult to measure your success,” Chris says. Are you running this ad to drive website traffic? Are you looking to increase video views? Goal-setting helps determine which type of Facebook ad campaign will be used, helping Facebook optimize the campaign.
2. Create an Ad Group
Audience
After you’ve set your goals, you’ll need to create the Ad Group. This is where you define your target audience and placements, or where your ad will show up. With so many people on Facebook, getting specific about your user is crucial to reaching your target audience! Facebook’s targeting capabilities go beyond basic demographic information to include interests, behaviors, and connections. Experiment with audiences until you find one that best suits the needs of your ads.
Placement
Once you’ve targeted your audience, select your placements. Ask yourself if it makes sense for your ad to show up on the Facebook Audience Network or if the ad would work well on Instagram stories. Remember, your ad placement should always align with your campaign goals.
Budget
Next, determine your budget. You have the choice between a daily or lifetime budget and options on how you will be charged. “If you are optimizing for link clicks, you may want to be charged per click, but if it is a branding ad, then you may opt for a CPM (cost per impression) model,” Chris says.
3. Develop Creative Assets
Facebook provides ad managers with different creative options, and the ad style you choose should work with your campaign goals. For example, a carousel ad would work best if you are looking to promote several products on different landing pages. If you’re promoting an individual blog, stick to an ad with a single image.
Be sure to use high-resolution photos that don’t come off as stock images, and avoid text within images. Graphic text can prevent the ad from being approved, and even if it is approved, Facebook will limit where the ad shows up. “Keep the copy relatively short and have a clear call to action,” Chris says. The CTA can be within the copy, but Facebook also provides a few standard CTA buttons.
Before submitting your ad for Facebook’s review, ask yourself a few questions:
- Is the image compelling and does it align with my goal?
- Is my copy clear and concise?
- Is it clear which action I want the user to take?
And that’s it! Follow those three steps to create an advertisement on Facebook. If you need help along the way, you know where to find us (on Facebook, obv.).
