Did you know that Facebook has roughly 2.9 billion monthly active users? This social network offers businesses an opportunity to reach millions of customers from all parts of the world.
What’s great about Facebook advertising is you can target customers based on location, behavior, and interest. You can also set your own budget and decide when and when not to run your ad. This increases your chances of reaching customers who are more likely to buy your product or service.
All You Need to Know About Facebook Advertising
Keep in mind you can use these techniques to advertise on Instagram and Facebook Messenger
This article will walk you through ways to advertise on Facebook. You’ll get an overview of Facebook advertising, the benefits, and the steps to create a Facebook ad.
What Are Facebook Ads, and How Do They Work?
Facebook ads are paid online advertisements created and run on the Facebook platform. These ads appear on the user’s sidebar or newsfeed. They target users based on their profile information, interests, location, and demographics.
Like Google advertising, Facebook ads utilize a pay-per-click (PPC) payment model where the advertiser pays the social network each time a user clicks on their ad. The advertiser can also specify how much they wish to spend on their Facebook ad campaign by setting their overall amount, daily budget, and even cost per result.
Depending on your marketing goals, Facebook ads can either redirect people on-site or off-site. This means that they can direct the user to your Facebook business page or website (off-site).
Types of Facebook Ads
Facebook ads are available in many formats and varieties. Some focus on promoting your page, while others drive attention to your page’s posts. Some also promote your website or messages to prospective customers.
Let’s explore the various types of Facebook ads.
Image Ads
Image ads are arguably the simplest and quickest to create. You simply need a static image highlighting your product, service, or brand. Image ads are great for increasing brand awareness but are unsuitable as advice and instructions or displaying multiple products.
Video Ads
Video ads utilize a single video to promote a product, service, or brand. This ad type is ideal for driving audience engagement and giving instructions on how to use a product or service.
The major downside to video ads is they are costly and time-consuming to create. This is especially true if you make your content from scratch rather than with free templates or graphics software.
The best Facebook video ads are less than 15 seconds. Long videos usually have lower audience engagement.
Carousel Ads
Carousel ads showcase multiple images and videos in one Facebook ad. Each image or video can have its link, headline, and description. Carousel ads are suitable for promoting a wide array of products and services. You can also use them to tell a story, highlight product benefits or describe a process split into multiple steps. Facebook allows up to 10 videos or images for carousel ads.
Poll Ads
Poll ads enable you to add a two-answer poll to an image or video. These ads appear on the users’ stories or newsfeeds for them to vote on. Poll ads are great for interacting with your target customers. You can also include a link in each poll option. Only you and the users who answer your poll can see the poll tally.
Collection Ads
Collection ads offer mobile users an online window-shopping experience whereby they can tap on one ad to view the entire product lineup. This ad type is available only on mobile devices, and it is an ideal advertising solution for businesses selling a wide range of products.
Collection ads are a more advanced alternative to carousel ads. They appear on the entire screen and offer advertisers more customization options.
Lead Ads
Lead ads come with a form or space attached. Like collection ads, these are available only on mobile devices. Lead ads are great for collecting customer contact information, gaining newsletter subscriptions, or getting users to sign up for a product trial. You can also use them to conduct market research.
Instant Experience Ads
Instant experience ads, formally known as canvas ads, load instantly when tapped. These ads are also available on mobile devices, and they appear on the entire screen to capture the user’s undivided attention.
Instant experience ads allow customers to perform multiple functions, from swiping through many images and videos to tilting the screen to zooming in and out. They are perfect for driving brand awareness and getting customers to buy your product or service.
Slideshow Ads
Slideshow ads consist of short video clips, static photos, or text on a slideshow. These ads are designed to consume less data and are ideal for slow internet connections. They are an excellent alternative to video ads.
Slideshow ads utilize motion, text, and sound to convey a message. They are easier to make than videos and are suitable for showing a process or narrative through sequential steps.
Messenger Ads
Messenger ads are a new ad type that appears on a user’s Facebook Messenger account. Their goal is to get customers to start a conversation with a business, which hopefully may lead to a sale.
Messenger ads may appear as sponsored messages, home section ads, or destination ads. Unlike other ad types, they have a call-to-action that reads “Send Message.” Messenger ads are great for encouraging user engagement.
Dynamic Ads
Dynamic ads promote your products and services to customers most likely to buy them. Customers who have previously interacted with your brand are targeted, for example visited your page or added your products to their shopping carts. These ads are great for reminding customers about their past actions with your brand. For example, you can use them to prompt customers to complete their purchases.
Stories Ads
Stories ads appear in the Stories section of Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. They usually appear between stories users watch.
Stories ads can come in an image, video, or carousel format. They are ideal for driving brand awareness and getting users to perform an action, for example, visit your website or shop.
Benefits of Facebook Advertising
What’s notable about Facebook advertising is it can work for both B2B and B2C businesses. This social network is not only used by end-users looking for funny and entertaining videos. Employers and business people also spend a proportionate amount of their time on it searching for news and information. In this section, we will explore the benefits of Facebook advertising.
Broad Audience Reach
Facebook has, undeniably, the largest user base compared to other social networks. Billions of people use this social network every day.
Besides having a large audience, the users of Facebook also span across many locations and demographics. The chances of reaching your target audience are high, regardless of their location and interest.
While it’s true that the older generation makes up a significant portion of Facebook, you can still find younger demographics between the ages of 18 to 35 years old.
More Targeting Options
Another benefit that makes Facebook ads stand out over traditional and other digital advertising solutions is the ability to micro-target your audience. Facebook’s targeting capabilities are deeper than other advertising platforms.
Facebook allows you to target customers based on interests, location, behavior, and demographics. You can also target them based on connections, age, languages, and past interactions with your business. With smart targeting, you should be able to find the users most likely to purchase your product or service.
Ability to Measure Performance
Facebook offers an extensive set of analytics and metrics for advertisers to measure their ad’s performance. This includes both on-site results such as engagement and ad reach to off-site ones like conversion rate and revenue. In the case of off-site analytics, you may need to add the Facebook pixel code to your website.
Here are a few of the ad analytics you’ll find on Facebook:
- Total ad cost
- Cost per click or action
- Engagement (link clicks, number of post shares, comments, likes, and reactions)
- Number of people reached (divided by gender, location, and age)
Custom Call-To-Action Button
With Facebook ads, you can add a call-to-action button to encourage your audience to perform the desired action. CTAs are effective because they tell the user what to do next. They encourage the user to keep engaging with your brand.
Facebook offers many CTA buttons that you can add to your ad. The most common include “Apply Now,” “Sign Up,” “Learn More,” “Book Now,” and “Download.”
Flexible Budget
Like Google advertising, Facebook ads are also very flexible with budgets. For example, you can set the maximum amount you wish to spend per day. Facebook also gives you an overview of your maximum total budget once your select the number of days you want your ad to run. Facebook never charges you more than your budget.
Steps to Create a Facebook Ad
To create a Facebook ad, you need to have a Facebook account and business page. If you don’t have an account, open one first and create a Facebook Page for your entity. Once open, proceed to create your Facebook ad campaign by following these steps:
1. Head to your Facebook Ads Manager account
Facebook Ads Manager is where you’ll create and manage your ad campaigns. It’s also where you’ll make changes to previous ad campaigns and view results and analytics. Once in your Ads Manager account, click the Campaigns tab and select “Create.”
2. Choose your marketing objective
Your next step will be to select your objective for the ad campaign. Facebook has 11 marketing objectives to choose from. Pick the one that aligns with your business goals.
- Brand Awareness
Tell more users about your brand.
- Reach
Get your ad to reach as many people in your target audience as possible.
- Engagement
Increase customer engagement with your Facebook Page and brand. For example, more page follows and more event attendances.
- Website Traffic
Drive traffic to your website.
- App Installs
Get the customer to install your app.
- Lead Generation
Acquire new leads and prospects for your business.
- Video Views
Get users to watch your videos.
- Conversions
Get customers to perform a specific action. For example, sign up for your service or purchase your product.
- Messages
Get more users to contact your business through Facebook Messenger.
- Catalog Sales
Connect your ad campaign to your product catalog to increase sales.
- Store Traffic
Get more customers to visit your brick-and-mortar store.
3. Give your ad campaign a name
This step will require you to name your ad campaign. You’ll then be required to state whether your ad falls under the Special Ad Category. Examples include those related to credit, politics, housing, and employment.
If you wish to create an A/B test, you can do so in this step. Simply tap the “Get Started” button and select the different ad campaigns and sets that will run with your Facebook Ad.
4. Set schedule and budget
Next up, you need to set up your budget, which is the maximum amount of money you wish to spend on the ad. You can either select a daily or lifetime budget. A lifetime budget refers to the amount you want to use over the entire ad campaign. The daily budget is the maximum amount spent per day.
As for the schedule, Facebook will require you to specify your ad’s start and stop date and time. You can take it a notch higher by setting your ad to run at specific times in the day. This option will allow your ad to run when your target audience is most likely to go online.
5. Set your preferred target audience
As you scroll down the Facebook Ads Manager, you’ll see that you need to build your preferred target audience. As mentioned above, Facebook allows you to target customers based on their location, interests, age, gender, and language. You can also set a custom audience of users who’ve previously interacted with your brand or business.
6. Choose placements options
At this stage, Facebook will require you to select the platforms where you want your ad to run. Facebook can run your ad on the Facebook social network, Messenger, Instagram, or Audience Network. You can also specify the device types and placement sections, for example, Stories, Messages section, News Feed, or in-stream.
7. Set cost controls and brand safety
Scroll further down to the cost controls and brand safety section. Here, you can choose to prevent your ad from appearing alongside sensitive or inappropriate content. Afterward, select your bidding type and strategy. You can also set a bid control.
8. Make and launch your Facebook ad
The final step will be to create your ad campaign. You’ll first need to select an ad format and then write the text and choose the media components for your ad. This is your time to be creative with how you want your ad campaign to look. Don’t forget to close with a call to action.
Once you finish creating the ad, click the “Publish” button to launch it. Facebook will place your ad under review to check whether it meets its advertising guidelines. Your ad will be ready to run in under 24 hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
We’ve put together a list of 12 frequently asked questions about Facebook ads to give you more insights into this advertising option.
1. Does Facebook advertising work?
Yes, it does. Facebook is the biggest social network in the world. It receives traffic from people from all walks of life. You should be able to reach your target audience regardless of their location, psychographics, or demographics.
2. Is my target audience on Facebook?
While it’s true that the older generation is more vocal on Facebook, you can still find users aged 18 to 35 years old. The users that you may struggle to find on Facebook are those below 18 years. Instagram and TikTok would be better advertising alternatives for this age group.
3. Do you need separate accounts to post ads on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram?
No, you don’t need separate accounts or different ads. Once you create your ad campaign, you can choose to run it on all three platforms.
4. What is Facebook retargeting?
Facebook retargeting enables you to target users who’ve previously interacted with your brand. For example, they could have visited your website, reacted to your posts, or contacted your business. This option allows you to target these specific people in your ad campaign.
5. What is audience building in Facebook advertising?
Audience building refers to connecting with the users most likely to engage with your brand and business. You can then nurture and categorize those connections and tailor your Facebook content to their interests.
6. What is the most common reason for Facebook to reject your ad?
The most common reason why Facebook rejects an ad is that its media component has too much text in it. Text-heavy images receive lower engagement than non-text images.
7. What is Facebook Pixel, and how does it work?
The Facebook pixel is a piece of code you add to your website to let the social network track conversions that arise from your ad campaigns. With the pixel, you can collect data on the number of users who visit your website from your ad.
8. What are Facebook’s automated rules?
Facebook automated rules allow you to automate tasks in your Facebook Ads Manager account. For example, you can create rules to change targets according to engagement levels or increase bids if an ad doesn’t reach enough users. You won’t have to make changes manually.
9. Which factors contribute to success with Facebook ads?
The things to focus on to ensure your Facebook ad is successful are:
- Your call-to-action
- Effective audience targeting
- The creativity and quality of your ads
- Your landing page
10. What is the click-through rate in Facebook advertising?
The click-through rate, abbreviated as CTR, is a metric that Facebook uses to measure the number of clicks to impressions. This metric is an overall measure of the percentage of people who click your ad.
11. Can I control where my Facebook ads appear?
No, you can’t control exactly where your Facebook ad appears. The most you can do is choose your target audience based on location and demographics and select placement positions. You can also decide when you want your ads to appear and set up brand safety to prevent your ads from appearing alongside inappropriate content.
12. What kind of images are ideal for Facebook ads?
Use high-quality images that don’t have a lot of text in them. Go for pictures with people in them or those highlighting your product or service. Facebook recommends an image size and shape of 1,200 pixels and an aspect ratio of 600 x 600 pixels.
Conclusion
Facebook advertising is a great way to reach millions of users from all parts of the world. You can target them based on multiple targeting capabilities offered on Facebook Ads Manager. With Facebook ads, you can also set your budget and schedule the day and time to run your ad.
Creating a Facebook ad doesn’t take much. You simply need to have a Facebook account and business page and then head to your Facebook Ads Manager. From there, the campaign creation process is pretty straightforward. Just set your specifications and enter the required information. Once you set everything up, choose your ad format and create your ad. Your final step will be to launch.
Key Points:
- What’s great about Facebook advertising is you can target customers based on location, behavior, and interest.
- You can also set your own budget and decide when and when not to run your ad.
- Keep in mind you can use these techniques to advertise on Instagram and Facebook MessengerThis article will walk you through ways to advertise on Facebook.
- What Are Facebook Ads, and How Do They Work?- Facebook ads are paid online advertisements created and run on the Facebook platform.
- These ads appear on the user’s sidebar or newsfeed.
- Ads are targeted based on user profile information, interests, location, and demographics.
- Like Google advertising, Facebook ads utilize a pay-per-click (PPC) payment model where the advertiser pays the social network each time a user clicks on their ad.
- Depending on your marketing goals, Facebook ads can either redirect people on-site or off-site.
- Image ads are arguably the simplest and quickest to create.
- You simply need a static image highlighting your product, service, or brand.
- The best Facebook video ads are less than 15 seconds.
- Carousel AdsCarousel ads showcase multiple images and videos in one Facebook ad.
- Facebook allows up to 10 videos or images for carousel ads.
- Poll ads enable you to add a two-answer poll to an image or video.
- Poll ads are great for interacting with your target customers.
- You can also include a link in each poll option.
- Collection ads offer mobile users an online window-shopping experience whereby they can tap on one ad to view the entire product lineup.
- Collection ads are a more advanced alternative to carousel ads; they appear on the entire screen and offer advertisers more customization options.
- Lead ads come with a form or space attached.
- Instant experience ads, formally known as canvas ads, load instantly when tapped.
- Instant experience ads allow customers to perform multiple functions, from swiping through many images and videos to tilting the screen to zooming in and out.
- Slideshow ads consist of short video clips, static photos, or text on a slideshow.
- Messenger ads may appear as sponsored messages, home section ads, or destination ads.
- Ads Stories ads appear in the Stories section of Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger and come in an image, video, or carousel format.
- Facebook has, undeniably, the largest user base compared to other social networks.
- The chances of reaching your target audience are high, regardless of their location and interest.
- Facebook allows you to target customers based on interests, location, behavior, and demographics.
- With smart targeting, you should be able to find the users most likely to purchase your product or service.
- Facebook offers an extensive set of analytics and metrics for advertisers to measure their ad’s performance including both on-site results such as engagement and ad reach to off-site ones like conversion rate and revenue.
- Facebook offers many CTA buttons that you can add to your ad.
- Facebook also gives you an overview of your maximum total budget once your select the number of days you want your ad to run.
- Facebook never charges you more than your budget.
Resources
Below, you’ll find a few resources to help you expand your knowledge and understanding of Facebook advertising.
Many of the links lead to search results, and that’s by design to give you the most popular and latest information every time you use this page.
Ad Examples
Finding the ideal advertisement for your products and services requires time and extensive testing. You would need to test various ad formats, ad copy, headlines, and designs.
Once you’ve established a baseline, you can run the ad and make adjustments to see if you’re getting better or worse results with each change.
The key is to initiate an ad that has potential. Observing where others have achieved success is one of the best ways.
So let’s take a look at search results for the most successful Facebook advertisements to understand what works and use that as a starting point.
Have a look at the latest search results for the most successful Facebook ads.
Advertising Services
Even though you may understand how Facebook advertising works, you may not have the time or desire to do it yourself. If that’s the case, many services will create and manage your campaigns for you.
You may want to spend a few minutes looking at available services to help you kick start your Facebook advertising campaign quickly and effectively.
Have a look at the latest search results for Facebook advertising services.
Books
Books are another source of information you can use to increase your knowledge related to Facebook advertising. Although you will get a strong foundation about advertising on Facebook, keep in mind changes are constant, and you may purchase an outdated book, so look for the latest releases to get the best results.
Another approach is to purchase a book to get a strong foundation and use online resources to keep up with the changes.
View the most recent books on Amazon related to Facebook advertising.
Courses
Taking a course is another option you can use to update your knowledge and skills related to Facebook advertising. I use this approach for many of my projects. I like using online courses because I’m more of a visual learner.
I like video tutorials because I can always review the information anytime. In addition, most courses give you lifetime access to the course.
Why not take a few minutes to see what courses are available and if any appeal to you.
Google’s search results related to courses for advertising on Facebook.
News
Whenever I’m researching a topic, I always include Google news as part of my research.
I like to keep up with updates as well as archive news stories. In addition, Facebook advertising is something you may want to explore in the news.
See Google’s news search results related to advertising on Facebook.
YouTube Videos
YouTube is an excellent site to find video tutorials. Many of them are priceless, and some are not worth the time it takes to watch them. Nevertheless, you can always tell whether the video is produced by a reputable publisher or if it’s low quality.
So why not take a few minutes to see what’s out there related to advertising on Facebook.
See the most recent videos related to Facebook advertising.
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