Facebook ads can be an effective channel for reaching the right customers, but only if you have a strong strategy in place. If you are new to Facebook ads, don't rush into creating your first campaign without fully understanding the risks and rewards of advertising on Facebook.
Before you launch your first Facebook ad campaign, here are six tips to keep in mind:
In this article
Part1. Define the purpose of your ad
This can be a long-form or short-form question. If a user is browsing Facebook and sees your ad, you want them to know why they should click on it. Is it an offer? If so, what are they getting in return? Is the ad simply a call to action? You may want to include a “Learn more” button that links back to your website so that users can learn more about whatever they need to know before taking the next steps.
There are 11 Facebook Ads campaign objectives to choose from, and you should choose the one that best aligns with your goals.
Awareness:
- Brand awareness - Show your advertisements to individuals who are most likely to recall them.
- Reach - Show your ad to as many people as possible
Consideration:
- Traffic - Send people to your website or app
- Engagement - Increase the number of times people see and interact with your ad.
- App installs - Advertise to individuals who are more likely than others to download and use your app.
- Video views - Increase the number of times people see and interact with your video
- Lead generation - Use forms, calls, or chats to obtain information from people eager in your business.
- Messages - Get more people to message you on Facebook Messenger
Conversion:
- Conversions - Advertise to people who have a higher likelihood of taking action, such as buying something or calling you from your website.
- Catalog sales -Show your potential customers ads for items in your catalog that match their interests, so they are more likely to buy from you.
- Store traffic - This allows you to use your Facebook page as a marketing platform. If you want to run store traffic ads on Facebook, include your shop information there.
Whatever the case, make sure you have a clear goal from start to finish to understand what exactly it is you are trying to accomplish for any given campaign.
Part2. Know your target audience
Before you create any ads, it's important to define who will see them. You'll want to think carefully about the type of person who would be interested in what you're offering and how they would respond when they see the ad. If you can't answer these questions, it's time to start considering different audiences.
But how do we begin defining a target audience? To start, let's look at the different terms used by advertisers:
Customer: The person who has already bought from your company. For example, if you sell coffee makers on Amazon and have an existing customer base from those sales (customers), then this would be the most relevant term for you when deciding who should see specific ads for new products or services that may interest them based on past purchases or interests shown through other online activity such as browsing history or social media engagement with similar content/products/services.
Prospect: A lead that has expressed interest in buying something, but has not yet purchased anything from your company. A prospect does not necessarily mean someone has signed up for an email list or asked for more info; keeping leads fresh is just as important as nurturing prospects into customers later down the road so don't forget that part!
Now that you know who you are targeting, it's time to create an avatar for your target customer. An avatar is a fictional character that represents your target customer. This will help you to better understand their needs and wants, and it will also make it easier to create targeted ads.
There are a few different ways to create an avatar:
1.) Customer profile: This is a simple way to gather information about your target customer. Start by creating a list of demographic information such as age, location, gender, education level, and income level. You can also include interests and behaviors, such as what they like to do for fun, what type of music they listen to, and what type of products they buy.
2.) Persona: A persona is very similar to a customer profile, but it takes things a step further by giving each target customer a name and backstory. This can be helpful if you are targeting a specific niche audience.
3.) Mind-map: If you want to get creative, you can create a mind-map of your target customer. This will allow you to brainstorm everything that you know about them and come up with new ideas.
Once you have created your avatar, make sure that you keep it in mind when creating your Facebook ad campaign. This will help to ensure that your ads are relevant and interesting to your target customer.
Part3. Prepare a decent image for your audience to click on
Images are the most important part of any ad. A good image will help your customers understand what it is that they're clicking on, and they may even want to share it with their friends. However, if your image is poor quality or irrelevant then, it won't do as well as it could have done.
You should start by picking a relevant image that shows off your product in the best light possible. If possible, try and get some type of testimonial from customers using your product so that other people can see how great your product really is!
If you don't have good images available yet, don't worry! You can always hire a professional photographer who knows what kind of shots work best for advertising purposes but even if this isn't something that suits every business, there are still plenty of free resources out there too like Unsplash which offers high-quality stock photography under Creative Commons licenses under various conditions such as attribution when used commercially, so make sure whatever method you choose fits within these guidelines!
Part4. Practice Your copywriting skills
You can have the best-developed ad in the world, but if it doesn't have strong copywriting, your ads won't work as well. It's important to know what you're getting into before spending time and money on Facebook ads.
The following are just some of the ways you can improve your copywriting skills:
- Read other people's ads and see how they write their copy
- Read books about writing persuasive copy.
Try writing your own copy. Then have someone read it and give feedback on what they like and what they don't like about it. Try to learn from their suggestions.
There are also many different ways to write copy for a Facebook ad. Some people like to use specific formulas for their ads, such as: AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action). This formula was developed by an American businessman named Claude C. Hopkins in 1898 and is still widely used today. If you're not sure which method is best for you, it might be worth trying a few different ones. Have someone read your ad and give their opinion on which method was the most effective at convincing them that they should click on your ad.
You can also hire a copywriter to help you with your ad. However, if you don't have the budget for it at this point in time or just want to try writing your own first before hiring someone else, there are many different apps and websites that will help you to create an ad copy.
Part5. Decide what type of ad format will you use
It is a carousel ad, or single image/video ad, or a combination of both?
If you are going to use a carousel ad, you need at least three images. If you're using a single image or video ads, then you only need one image or video.
As always, if your budget allows it, try to increase the number of ad sets that are running at once so as not to cannibalize each other's reach—it's better to have multiple ads winning than just one.
If you're running a single video ad for example and your budget is $100 per day, it's best practice to have to create multiple versions of this single video ad so that they don't cannibalize each other.
Part6. Plan your ad budget
You need to determine how much you're willing to spend on your Facebook ads. This will help you to create a budget and also to decide how often you want your ad to be shown.
The average Facebook ad spends between $5 and $10 per day. However, this can vary depending on the type of product or service that you're promoting, as well as the size of your target audience.
If you have a large target audience, it might be worth increasing your ad budget so that your ad is seen by more people. On the other hand, if you have a smaller target audience, you might want to decrease your ad budget so that you don't spend too much money on ads that aren't being seen by as many people.
It's also important to consider how often you want your ad to be shown. If you want your ad to be seen by as many people as possible, it's best to have it shown more than once. However, if you only want your ad to be shown to a select group of people, it's best to have it shown less often.
Both of these factors will help you to determine your Facebook ad spend.
The Bottom Line
If you're ready to get started with Facebook ads, we encourage you to put these tips into practice. I believe that they will help you make the most of your budget and achieve your goals, whether they be brand awareness, lead generation or sales.
