Facebook Ads can be a powerful asset for your business. With almost 2.45 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the perfect place to get your brand in front of your target audience for a low cost. Run them correctly and you’ll reap the rewards of Facebook Advertising. Rush your ads or run them without the proper knowledge and you’ll risk pouring money down the drain.
So, if you’ve ever wondered how to get started with Facebook Ads and reap the rewards for your business, keep reading as I dive into this comprehensive guide teaching you everything you need to know to confidently kick start Facebook Ads for your business.
Stop boosting posts
Ever had Facebook pop up with a notification telling you that you could reach up to 1,318 people daily by boosting your post? Or perhaps Instagram has informed you that your recent post is doing 187% better than previous posts? These notifications are published to encourage you to ‘boost’ your post with Facebook advertising. But I’m here to tell you not to boost your posts. Seriously. Stop it.
Here’s why… boosting your post means they’ll be poorly optimised for real results. Sure, your boosted post will get tons of engagement but what about link clicks? What about conversions, retargeting, follow-up ads? When you boost posts on Facebook or Instagram, you aren’t leveraging the full power of Facebook Advertising.
Instead of boosting posts, you should set up a Business Manager account and make full use of the Ads Manager platform. From setting up your payment method to pixels and custom audiences, utilising the Ads Manager platform will ensure your ads have the best chance of success. So, wave goodbye to money-draining boosted posts and keep reading to learn how to set up your killer Ads Manager platform.
Or hire me to set it up for you and take the fuss out of Facebook Advertising all together…
Set up your Facebook Business Manager account
Before setting up a Facebook Ads Manager account, you will first need to get Business Manager for Facebook. Business Manager is a tool designed for managing your Facebook page, ad account and shop. You can have multiple ad accounts, users, and partners in your Business Manager account. This allows you to use it to manage multiple businesses or to partner with a Facebook Advertising Specialist.
To get started with Business Manager, head to the Business Manager website and log-in with your Facebook credentials.
When creating your account, enter your business name, your name, work email address and business details. You can then follow the steps for adding a page and advertising account to your Business Manager.
Adding a Page to your Business Manager account
When you add a Facebook Page to your Business Manager account, you’re claiming ownership of that Page. So, before adding a page you need to make sure that you have been an admin on that Page for longer than seven days. As a business owner, this shouldn’t be a problem because, by default, you should already own the Page and be a Page Admin!
To add a Page to your Business Manager:
- Go to Business settings.
- Below Accounts, click Pages.
- Click + Add.
- Select Add a Page.
- Select one of the options: “Claim a Page”, “Request Access to a Page” or “Create a New Page”
- Enter the Facebook Page name or URL for your chosen Page.
- Submit!
If your Page is linked to an Instagram business account, you should also add your Instagram business account to your Business Manager.
Adding an Ad Account to your Business Manager account
In your Business Manager, you can add ad accounts that you own and get access to ad accounts that other people or businesses own. You can add an account in three ways: Add an ad account, request access to an ad account, or create a new ad account.
To add an Ad Account to your Business Manager:
- Go to Business settings.
- Below Accounts, click Ad Accounts.
- Click + Add .
- Select one of the options: “Claim Ad Account”, “Request Access to an Ad Account” or “Create a New Ad Account”
- If you choose to request access or claim an ad account, enter the ad account ID.
- Submit!
Once you’ve added your Ad Account, you’ll then need to through a few different set-up elements to make sure your Ad Account is ready to go. You’ll need to give Facebook some additional account information and enter your payment details for advertising.
One important thing to note is that Facebook will ask you to enter your billing currency and timezone. Be careful at this stage and make sure you choose the right settings because there’s no changing this information once you’ve submitted it.
Struggling to set your Facebook Ad Account up? Reach out to me today to find out how I can help you get started!
Setting up your Facebook Ad Account
Your Facebook Ad Account is where the magic happens. Trust me. Using the Facebook Ad Manager will revolutionise your Facebook advertising efforts.
Let’s assume that you’ve already added your Facebook Ad Account and entered your billing details. What’s next? Now, it’s all about adding those final touches that will truly make your Facebook Advertising shine.
The first and most important thing you need to do is create a Facebook Pixel.
Create a Facebook Pixel
A Facebook Pixel is tracking code placed on your website. This code, the Pixel, will monitor your website activity. The Facebook Pixel allows you to track conversions, build targeted audience based on your customers and website visitors, and optimise your future ads using insights from on-site activity.
Essentially, the Facebook Pixel will be your best friend.
To add a Pixel to your website, navigate to Business Tools in the menu bar, then click Events Manager. Here, you can follow instructions for adding your Pixel data to your website by selecting the Add Data Source option.
Setting up a Pixel can be a super simple job and the value provided is unrivalled. You can either install the code manually or you can use one of Facebook’s partner integrations to easily add the code to your website.
Once your Pixel is installed, you can start adding Events.
Add Events to your Facebook Ad Manager
The work doesn’t stop at just adding your Pixel. Next, you need to definte and add your Events. You can use the Event setup tool to seamlessly set up standard events and parameters without the need to do any coding.
However, there are certain restrictions to using the Event setup tool. If your business is in one of the following industries, you will need to set up events manually: investment banking and brokerage, insurance, financial services, retail, credit union and commercial banking, credit, financing, mortgages, pharmaceutical and health.
The type of Events you will want to set up include: Leads, initiate checkout, purchases, subscribers, contacts. You can also use custom events to set up events outside of the standard Events offered by Facebook.
In short, you should set up Events for all of the conversion actions that you want to monitor on your website!
Set up Audience targeting
When it comes to sending out your Facebook Ads, you don’t want to send them to anyone and everyone. To make sure you get maximum impact out of your Facebook Ads, you need to set up targeted audience groups.
These groups should be based on your ideal customer and the different customer journey stages.
You can create custom audience based on website activity captured by your Pixel. For instance, you can choose to set up an Audience group that captures anyone who visited a specific page on your website in the past 30 days. You can then create Ads that specifically target anyone who falls into this Audience group.
Other custom audience you can create on Facebook include Audiences based on: Facebook or Instagram Page activity, Event action, video views, app usage and imported contact lists.
Once you have set up custom audiences, you also have the option to create “Lookalike audiences”. These are cold audiences that the Facebook algorithm deems as being similar to your chosen existing audience.
You can also create “cold audience” groups based on audience traits that are of interest to your business. These can be as simple as location, gender and age or they could be far more defined by targeting based on Interests and Demographics. For instance, if you are a wedding photographer, you can target people who have shown an interest in bridal magazines or who have recently changed their relationship status to Engaged on Facebook. The targeting options are virtually endless!
Creating your first Facebook Ad
So, you’ve defined your Events and set up your Audience groups. Now, it’s time to dive into creating your first Ad campaign!
Before doing this, I recommend you take some time to think about your goals and what you want to achieve from your Facebook Ads. You can then use this to inform which type of Ad Objective you want to use, or how you plan to portray your message through your ad copy and asset.
Facebook will offer you different Ad Types: carousel, single image, single video, slideshow, or collection. Get familiar with each of these ad types and test different ones to see which works best for your audience and your chosen ad campaign.
Choose an ad objective
When you create a new Facebook Ad campaign, you will be asked to select an objective. Remember how we said to think about your goals? This is where your goals come into play.
Your Ad Objective should be selected based on what you want to achieve. If you to get more Facebook Likes, choose the Engagement objective. Want people to submit their email address? Select Lead Generation.
There are 11 ad objectives in total. Not everyone objective will be applicable for your business but you should have a play around with the ones that are. Try different objectives depending on your ad goals and see how it influences your ad result. If you’re new to Facebook, I recommend starting with an Awareness or Engagement campaign objective so you can build brand familiarity and increase your Facebook Page following before you start pushing out ads asking viewers to spend money with you!
Choose your ad placements
In the Ad Set stage of creating an ad, you have the option to choose your ad placements. These refer to the places on the internet where your ad will appear. You can leave these at automatic or you can choose to manually exclude placements where you don’t want your ad to be shown.
Creating the perfect ad
There’s no hard and fast rule to creating Facebook ad campaigns. What works for one brand, may not work for another. Similarly, you may find a certain ad works great for promoting one of your services but tanks when you use it for a different service.
Testing
In order to create the perfect Facebook ad, you’ve got to test, test, test. This is my number one secret to creating winning Facebook Ads. Never be complacement and always approach your Facebook Ads with a curious mind.
Test different headlines, ad copy, images, videos, and audiences to find out what works best before you launch a full Facebook Ad campaign.
Ad copy
Before you create your first Facebook Ad think about who you are targeting and what they want or need. Use this information to create an advert that has a customer-first approach.
In your ad copy, hook them in with your opening line. This is the first line of text they need so it needs to capture their attention and make them want to read on (without being clickbait or spammy, of course). Throughout your ad copy, be human – problem solve, engage, entice, and connect.
Ad images and videos
Now, it’s time to think about your ad image or video.
Use eye-catching visuals and make sure these are harmonious with your website branding. When ad viewers visit your website they should be able to clearly tell that your ad and webite and aligned.
Facebook used to have a 20% text rule where text couldn’t take up more than 20% of the image. Although that rule no longer applies, it’s still a good idea to keep it in mind when creating ad images and videos that are visually appealing. Where suitable, ensure your image has a clear call to action and that it makes sense in isolation from your ad copy. Someone should be able to see your ad image (or video) and understand what the advert is promoting.
You can also resize or tailor your chosen asset to suit different platforms. This, for example, allows you to make your chosen asset portrait for Instagram stories. Make use of this feature to optimise your ad images and videos for each platform it’s being posted to.
Turn on tracking
Finally, when setting up your new Facebook Ad make sure you also turn on Pixel tracking and set UTM tags for tracking in Google Analytics. By ticking the Pixel box, you can make sure any collected data is fed back into Facebook to optimise your future ads.
Analysing your Facebook Ad results
You can’t just put your Facebook Ad live, close your eyes, cross your fingers and hope for the best. It doesn’t work that way. If you are the kind of person who publishes a Facebook Ad then immediately close the tab and refuse to look at it until it’s over, that’s probably part of the reason why your ads are tanking.
Reach and Impression
When running your Facebook Ads, the first thing you want to be aware of is how many people are being served your ads. That’s where Reach and Impressions come in. These two Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) show how many people see your ad.
- Reach: The number of people who saw your Ad e.g. if your Facebook ad was shown to 100 users, your reach would be 100
- Impressions: The number of times your ad was seen in total e.g. if your Facebook ad was shown to 100 users who each saw your ad twice, your impressions would be 200
These figures are great for determining how well your ad is performing on an awareness basis. The more people you are reaching, the higher your brand awareness will be for your advert.
With that said, your ad reach is relative to your audience size and budget. If you have a small audience or low ad budget, your reach will naturally be smaller. However, if you are running multiple ad variations, reach is a great way to determine which ad the algorithm determines as being more relevant to that audience.
Ad Frequency
The next KPI that you want to keep an eye on when running Facebook ads is Ad Frequency.
Ad Frequency refers to how often each user sees your ad. An Ad Frequency of 3 would be that each individual has seen your ad an average of three times.
Showing the same ad to same people multiple times can cause ad fatigue or can piss your audience off. This can cause users to either go blind to your ads and scroll by without interacting, or they could take direct action by clicking Hide Ad and marking your ad as repetitive. This will then negatively impact your ad quality and relevance score which, in turn, will lead to a higher CPC and CPM.
So make sure you keep an eye on your Ad Frequency. For a cold audience, I recommend keeping your Ad Frequency below 3. However, retargeting audiences can get away with having a higher Ad Frequency if those individuals are warm leads who are already bought in to you and your business.
Performance Metrics
The next few KPIs you will want to analyse all relate to your ad performance. This include engagement metrics such as Likes, Shares, Comments, Clicks, and Click Through Rate (CTR). These engagement metrics will help you better understand how ad viewers feel about your ad.
However, make sure you aren’t spending too much time focusing on the wrong metrics. If your ad is optimised for website traffic, then making sure you’re getting the high number of link clicks is more important than having lots of people like your photo.
The other performance metrics you want to keep an eye on are Conversion KPIs.
Remember those events we said you need to set up when installing your pixel? These will provide data for your Conversion KPIs, allowing you to see how well your ad converted. You can also set custom conversions for use in your Facebook ad reports.
Finally, you want to monitor metrics relating to ad spend. You need to make sure that your ad isn’t overspending its budget. If you’re putting money into Facebook ads, it’s important that those ads are generating more money for your business. Therefore, you need to check your ad spend by keeping an eye on your Cost, CPC and CPM metrics.
Oh… and a bonus tip relating to ad reporting! I always recommend cross-analysing your Facebook ad performance in Google Analytics.
If you are sending traffic to your website via Facebook Ads, you can use Google Analytics to analyse any referral traffic from your ads to determine how those users act once they’re on your website. This is great for making sure that your ads are fulfilling their purpose and that users remain engaged once they land on your website.
Without overwhelming you with too many hints, tips and must-do’s, that’s it! You should now have everything you need to get started with your first foray into Facebook Advertising. Good luck venturing into the world of Facebook Ads!
If you would like a consultation call to walk-through your first Facebook Ad with an expert, please reach out to me to book a Facebook Advertising consultation call. Alternatively, if you’d rather hand the reigns over to a Facebook Ads specialist, we can also look at working together on a Facebook Ads monthly management retainer!