The spread that the social media website Facebook has is unprecedented. There are over one billion Facebook users, stretched out all across the globe. Never before has there been an easier way to access such a wide collection of consumers so easily.
Advertising on Facebook can be a great way to reach the kind of audience you’re looking to connect with. However, crafting a Facebook ad can be easier said than done, especially if you aren’t used to creating these kinds of ads.
How can you ensure the Facebook advertisement that you launch will be worth the time and effort that you put into it? How can you ensure it’ll be a success and positively impact your business? Read on and we’ll walk you through everything that you need to know.
Create an Account in Facebook Ads
In order to get an advertisement set up on Facebook, you’ll need to get yourself up and running on their platform. That means creating an account connected to but not identical to the profile you already run on their platform.
First, you’ll need a Facebook Business Page. You most likely already are running one for your business enterprise if you’ve reached the stage where you’re ready to post advertisements.
You are not able to run an ad through a personal profile account. You will inevitably have to run a business page if you want to promote any sort of service or product.
Once you’re on your business page, you should be able to navigate to a tab that says “ad manager”. This will bring you to a page where you can enter the necessary account information. You will need to provide a form of payment.
Once the information is all in, you can save your changes, and your Facebook Ads account will be set up and converged with your existing Business Page.
You should be able to see the Facebook ad creator dashboard that includes estimates for your spending, as well as key statistics such as reach, frequency, and cost per click. These will be essential later to track how well each of your advertisements is performing.
Crafting a Facebook Ad
Now you’re all set up within the Facebook Ads system. How do you get started?
You should click over to the tab of the kind of ad you want to create and then select the bright green ‘Create’ button that should be found to the left of these types. You can then launch a new campaign.
Facebook does a good job of walking you through the ad creation process in a way that should be productive. The first thing they’ll have you do is to pick an objective campaign. If you haven’t yet thought about what the real goal of your campaign will be, this is a good time to hit pause and give it some real thought.
Are you trying to increase awareness of your brand? Are you trying to make sales? Are you trying to make connections and gain followers? Facebook provides options for these goals and more. You need to think about what you’re actually after so you can start off your campaign on the right foot.
Depending on what option you pick, Facebook will prompt you with a few more questions. For example, if you’re trying to drive traffic to your website, it will ask for your specific URL.
Configuring Your Audience Preferences
Following this step, you need to take the time to configure who your target audience is. You can do this for each advertisement that you set up.
This can be the part of Facebook’s advertising process that can have the steepest learning curve. It might take trying out several different target audience configurations before you land on the one that actually could benefit you and really take off.
You’ll want to narrow your focus down as much as possible. The more specific you can be, the better chance you’ll have at actually connecting with people using the Facebook platform. There are tools that the dashboard will provide that should help you with this task. Facebook will take all your selected preferences into consideration and attempt to give you an estimated reach number.
The audience you choose will also depend somewhat on what your goal is. Trying to drive traffic or push conversions will likely require a more specific audience than increasing general brand awareness would.
Set Your Budget
Last but not least, you’ll need to set your budget up. Handling marketing facebook wise can vary widely in price depending on how far-reaching you want your advertisement to be. Luckily, you can be in control of your budget and have a big say over your daily spending.
There are two different budget settings you can access via the Facebook Ad creator. You can either set a desired daily spend or a lifetime one. In the latter, you will choose the length of time that you want an ad to run and the amount of money you want to spend, and Facebook will give you the anticipated reach of that advertisement.
In the former, your ad can run continuously with no planned ending in sight. You will, however, be in control of how much you spend per day (and, therefore, how often the advertisement is popping up in people’s feeds).
Setting Up a Succesful Facebook Ad
It can be hard to get the word out about your business. Running a successful Facebook ad can help connect you with consumers and drive up your sales. If you’ve never run an ad on Facebook before, the above information can help.
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