A Full Guide On How To Run Facebook Ads For Your Business

Running successful ad campaigns on Facebook can be the difference between your business merely surviving and thriving as they can help you increase brand awareness, boost leads and sales figures, and create engaging content that resonates with today's digital audience. 

Advertising on social media isn't rocket science, but it does require expertise to navigate the complexities of targeting options and creative best practices available today. You need a well-crafted strategy if you want your ads to deliver results. That's where this guide comes in! In this blog post, you'll receive a full handbook that'll take you step-by-step as you plan out your Facebook Ad strategy from start to finish, including how to structure audiences, optimize budgets, fine-tune creatives, generate leads, and track performance metrics along the way.

Get ready for an immersive dive into every aspect of running effective Facebook ads and get ready for smarter decisions with better ROI.

Why you should leverage Facebook Ad Campaigns for marketing success?

If you're not taking advantage of Facebook, then you're missing a tremendous opportunity to reach and engage your target audience and boost your sales. Here are the benefits of running Facebook Ads for all businesses: 

1. High Reach and Targeting Capabilities:

With over 2.7 billion monthly active users, Facebook offers a vast audience that can be targeted based on interests, demographics, behaviors, and location, which allows businesses to reach the right people for their products or services. 

Facebook Ads also provide businesses with precise targeting capabilities, allowing them to target the right audience with specific interests or behaviors. This level of specificity ensures that businesses are reaching the people who are most likely to be interested in their products or services, making their marketing efforts more effective and efficient. 

But, is targeting your audience really that important? Yes! By targeting your audience with a Facebook Ad campaign you can: 

• Save money: Targeting your audience ensures that you're not wasting money on people who are unlikely to be interested in your business. Facebook Ads provide many targeting options, so you can make sure your ads are seen by the people who are most likely to convert while avoiding irrelevant clicks that cost you money.

• Increase conversions: Targeting people who are more likely to be interested in your product or service increases the chances of converting them into paying customers. By showing them a message that resonates with them, you can encourage them to take action.

• Establish brand identity: By targeting specific people, you can create a consistent brand message that establishes your brand identity with them. This can lead to better recall and recognition, which ultimately results in more sales.

• Get better ROI: By targeting your audience, you can ensure that you're getting better results for your advertising spend, which leads to a better return on investment (ROI).

2. Cost-effective

Facebook offers a range of pricing options that are flexible and allow businesses to set their own budgets. Facebook Ads operates on an auction-based system, where businesses bid on ad space and the cost is based on factors such as audience targeting, ad placement, and competition

Facebook allows businesses to set a daily or lifetime budget for their ad campaigns, and businesses can choose to pay by cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM). This means that businesses can control exactly how much they're spending on their campaigns and can adjust their budgets accordingly based on the performance of their ads.

Additionally, Facebook Ads offer precise targeting capabilities, which means that businesses can show their ads to people who are most likely to be interested in their products or services, increasing the chances of conversion without spending unnecessary amounts.

Overall, businesses can create effective and budget-friendly Facebook Ads campaigns by targeting the right audience, setting realistic budgets, and regularly monitoring and optimizing their campaigns for better performance.

What’s the cost of Facebook Ads?

Facebook Ads cost can vary based on a number of factors such as the bidding strategy, competition, location, and audience targeting. Facebook Ads works on an auction-based system where advertisers bid to reach their target audience. The cost is based on factors such as bidding strategy, ad relevance score, target audience, ad placement, and overall competition for ad space.

In general, the cost of Facebook Ads can range from a few cents to several dollars per click or impression. However, the ultimate cost depends on many factors such as the type of campaign, the targeting method used, your targeting location, and the competition. The key is to optimize your ads and targeting to get the most out of your ad spend.

3. A/B Testing

A/B testing on Facebook Ads refers to the practice of creating different versions of an ad to test which version performs better with the target audience.

With A/B testing, businesses can create two or more versions of an ad, each with a slightly different variation such as the ad creative, ad copy, or target audience. The ad variations are then randomly distributed to the audience, and the performance of each version is measured to determine which performs better than the others.

By testing ad variants, businesses can gain valuable insights into what works and what doesn't, allowing them to optimize their campaigns for improved performance. This can help businesses save money, increase conversions, and improve their overall return on investment (ROI).

Facebook Ads includes built-in A/B testing features, allowing businesses to easily set up and run tests on their ad campaigns. The platform provides metrics on the performance of each ad variant, including click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and other important metrics. This data can then be used to inform future campaigns and optimize performance.

4. Measurable results

The platform offers measurable results for businesses that run ad campaigns on its platform. With its tracking and analytics tools, businesses can monitor and measure the performance of their campaigns in terms of reach, engagement, clicks, conversions, and more.

Facebook Ads Manager provides businesses with detailed metrics and analytics to track the performance of their ads. Through Ads Manager, businesses can see key metrics such as the number of impressions, clicks, engagement rate, cost per click/impression, and conversions. They can also view data on their target audience, including demographics and behaviors, to gain insights into how their ads are resonating with their target audience.

The Facebook pixel is another powerful tool that businesses can use to measure results. By placing the pixel on their website, businesses can track user behavior, such as page views, add-to-cart clicks, or purchases, that occur after a person clicks on their ad. This allows businesses to determine the effectiveness of their ads in terms of driving conversions and revenue.

How to run ads on Facebook? A step-by-step guide

1. Create a Facebook Ads Manager account

 If you haven't done so already, you need to create your ad account before you start setting up your campaigns. Here’s how you do it: 

• Go to https://www.facebook.com/business/help/163989940631572 

• Click "Create a New Ad Account".

• Enter the name of your business and choose the primary Facebook Business Page associated with the ad account.

• Enter your name and business email address.

• Enter your business details, including business address, website URL, and business category, and then click "Create Account".

• Once your account is set up, you can start creating your first ad campaign.

Note: You must have a personal Facebook account to set up a Facebook Ads Manager account for your business. Make sure to use a business email address to create your account, as this will allow you to assign multiple users to the account and avoid issues if someone leaves the company.

2. Choose your ad campaign objective

Select the objective of your campaign based on your business goals. The main type of objectives you can choose from are: 

• Awareness 

The Facebook ad objective "Awareness" is a marketing goal that allows advertisers to optimize their ads to reach as many people as possible within their target audience. The goal of this objective is to create brand awareness and generate interest in a company or product. Advertisers can use several sub-objectives under the Awareness objective such as Brand Awareness or Reach to increase brand awareness among their target audience.

The Awareness objective is suitable for businesses that want to introduce a new product, reach a new audience or generally increase brand awareness among their target audience through their Facebook page.

• Consideration

The Facebook ad objective "Consideration" is a marketing goal that focuses on encouraging users to take actions that will lead them to learn more about a business, product, or service. It is designed to drive traffic and engagement to a company's website or social media page. Advertisers can use several sub-objectives under the Consideration objective such as Traffic, App installs, Video views, Lead generation, and more, to promote different types of engagements with an audience in this objective.

The Consideration objective is suitable for businesses that want to increase engagement and drive traffic to their website or app, and it is useful for promoting blog articles or new products/services. It is also an excellent choice for businesses looking to generate leads through lead generation forms or other forms of user engagement.

• Conversion

The Facebook ad objective "Conversion" is a marketing goal that aims to get people to take specific actions on a website or app, such as making a purchase, adding a product to a cart, or completing a lead form. The objective is designed to drive conversions by targeting people who are most likely to take action and optimizing the ad toward that goal.

When setting up an ad campaign with the Conversion objective, advertisers can select from different conversion events such as purchase, add to cart, lead form submission, catalog sales store traffic, or custom-defined events. The objective requires the installation of the Facebook pixel on the website or app to effectively track conversions.

This objective also offers different optimization options that allow advertisers to focus on quality over quantity or vice versa. These include optimizing towards a conversion window, where Facebook will show the ad to people who are likely to convert within a specific time limit, or optimizing towards value, where Facebook shows the ads to people who are likely to make the most valuable purchases.

The Conversion objective is suitable for businesses that want to drive specific actions on their website or app, such as purchases or lead form submissions. It is also useful for businesses with a longer conversion cycle or high-value products, as it allows them to focus on quality leads that are more likely to convert rather than short-term engagement metrics.

3. Set your budget

Set your daily or lifetime budget for the campaign and choose your pricing model based on either cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-mile (CPM). Remember that the budget you set will be the maximum amount of money you wish to spend in a day or throughout your campaign. 

• Daily budget

A daily budget is the amount you are willing to spend on your campaign per day, and Facebook will automatically spread your budget evenly across each day of your campaign. This means that your ad will be delivered to your target audience throughout the day until your daily budget is exhausted.

Setting a daily budget allows you to have more control over your campaign spending and helps you to ensure that you stay within your advertising budget. It is also useful if you want to test different ad creatives or audiences, as you can easily set a low daily budget to test without worrying about overspending.

• Lifetime budget

A lifetime budget in a Facebook ad is the total amount of money you're willing to spend on your ad campaign for its entire duration. When creating a campaign, you have the option to choose a lifetime budget or a daily budget. If you choose the lifetime budget option, Facebook will automatically allocate your budget over the duration of your campaign.

For instance, if you have a two-week campaign with a $100-lifetime budget, Facebook will aim to spread this budget evenly throughout the campaign, ensuring that you don't go over budget. This means that if you have days where your ads perform better and generate more leads or conversions, Facebook will automatically adjust your daily budget to account for these changes.

Setting a lifetime budget helps you to plan your advertising spend in advance and control your overall spend. It simplifies ad optimization by helping you avoid overspending your set ad budget by constantly monitoring how much you've spent over the campaign duration.

• Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

CPC or "Cost Per Click" budget in a Facebook ad is a type of bidding strategy used in Facebook where the advertiser pays for each click on their ad. This means that every time a user clicks on your ad, you'll be charged a certain amount, which allows you to have more control over your ad budget.

When using the CPC bidding model, the advertiser sets a bid amount that they're willing to pay for each click on their ad (this is known as the maximum bid). Then, Facebook will auction off ad space to advertisers based on their ad relevance, user engagement, and relevance score. The advertiser with the highest bid amount for a particular action will win the auction and their ad will be displayed.

This type of bidding offers better ROI than CPM because you pay only for interested people that click on your ad instead of paying for those who watch your ad, regardless if they click or not. In this sense, it’s advisable to select CPC if you’re running a consideration or conversion campaign. 

• Cost-Per-Mile (CPM) or Cost Per 1k impressions

CPM or "Cost Per Mille" budget is a type of bidding strategy that allows advertisers to pay for impressions, or views of their ad, rather than clicks. With CPM bidding, the advertiser sets a bid for every thousand impressions that their ad receives.

When using CPM bidding, the advertiser's bid competes in an auction based on various factors such as ad relevance, engagement rate, target audience, ad placement, and overall competition for ad space. Advertisers looking for higher impressions set higher bids to secure ad space.

CPM can help you reach more people within your target audience at a lower cost than CPC, making it an effective budgeting method when looking to gain awareness about a brand or a new product launch. Facebook ads usually require around 10k-20k impressions before they start receiving engagements. This can be especially useful when launching a large-scale branding campaign to a vast audience.

Keep in mind, with CPM bidding, you'll be charged every time your ad appears in front of people, regardless of whether they interact with it.

**NOTE: Mile is latin for 1k

4. Customize your audience

In the ad set level, select "Custom Audiences." You can then create a new custom audience based on several criteria:

• Customer List: Upload a customer list containing email addresses, phone numbers, or Facebook UID to reach specific people.

• Website Traffic: Retarget people who have visited your website by placing the Facebook pixel on your website. You can then segment them based on specific page visits, and time spent on the site or exclude/prioritize certain site visitors.

• App Activity: Target people who have interacted with your app or a specific action within it.

• Offline Activity: Upload data from offline event attendance, such as store purchases, phone calls, or leads generated.

• Engagement: Target people who have engaged with your brand on your Facebook Business page, such as watching a video, reacting to a post, or following your Page.

• Lookalike Audiences: Utilize Facebook's algorithm to find people who are similar to those in your existing customer base, website traffic, or app activity.

You can then refine your audience using additional targeting options such as age, location, gender, interests, behaviors, connections, and more. This step helps specify your audience even further and reach a more refined audience.

Preview your audience to see the estimated size and potential reach of the audience. You can then adjust the targeting criteria to optimize the audience size.

5. Pick your Facebook ad placements

Facebook Ad placements refer to the areas on Facebook where your ad will be displayed. When setting up a Facebook advertising campaign, you can choose the ad placement options that work best.

There are several ad placement options to choose from, including:

• Facebook Feeds: Your ad will appear in the users' News Feed.

• Facebook Marketplace: Your ad will appear when users browse Marketplace.

• Facebook Video Feeds: Your ad will appear in users' feeds when they watch videos.

• Instagram Feeds: Your ad will display in the user's Instagram feed.

• Instagram Stories and Reels: Your ad will appear in between Instagram users' stories or reels. 

• Audience Network: Your ad will be delivered outside of Facebook and Instagram, on publisher sites or apps that are part of Facebook's network.

• Instant Articles: Your ad will appear in instant articles.

• Messenger Ads: Your ad will appear in the user's Messenger inbox.

• In-Stream Videos: Your ad will appear during a video that a user is watching.

• Sponsored Messages: This option is only offered to those advertisers who are using the messenger feature. Sponsored messages will appear directly in the user’s inbox alongside other messages.

• Apps and websites: This will allow you to display your ad campaign on external websites and apps

• In-Article: Your ad will appear in-between Instant Articles

By selecting specific ad placements for your ad campaign, you can target specific audiences effectively. It is advisable to select multiple placements to maximize your reach across the platform. However, the platform will optimize your ad delivery to areas where it will perform best as determined by your campaign objectives.

6. Create Facebook Ads

This is the creative and most fun part of the Facebook Ad campaign setup! Here you can select whether you’re going to use an existing post on your Facebook or Instagram page to create your ad or if you’re going to take things to the next level by creating an ad from scratch. 

If you’re going to select an existing post, just click on “Use Existing Post” and choose the post you want to promote. 

On the other hand, if you’re choosing to create the ad from scratch, here’s what you need to do:

• Pick the format

Facebook offers a variety of ad formats to choose from. The ad format you choose depends on your goal, target audience, and the type of business. Here are some common Facebook ad formats:

• Image Ads: An image ad is a basic ad format that includes a single image along with a text overlay, a call-to-action button, and optional additional information. This ad format is ideal for promoting products, highlighting a new release, or a special deal.

• Video Ads: Video ads use videos to showcase your brand, products, or services. You can add different captions and text, calls to action, and sounds.

• Carousel Ads: Carousel ads allow you to have multiple images or videos in one ad, allowing you to showcase multiple products, or highlight different features of a single product.

• Slideshow Ads: Slideshow ads allow you to create a video-like presentation with static images. It's an excellent alternative to video ads, where bandwidth is an issue.

• Collection Ads: Collection ads allow businesses to combine video, still images, and product links into one ad unit. Users can scroll through the ad and click on individual items to learn more or purchase.

• Instant Experience Ads: Instant Experience ads, formerly called Canvas ads, are designed to offer a full-screen, immersive mobile experience. It allows businesses to put together a visually stunning display with several forms of media, calls to action, and more.

• Sponsored Message Ads: Sponsored Message ads allow businesses to deliver personalized, targeted content to people who are already engaged with the business through Facebook Messenger.

By identifying your campaign objective and understanding your target audience, you can choose the right ad format that resonates with them and effectively achieves your campaign goals.

• Add visuals and copy

Adding visuals and copy to your Facebook Ad is crucial to creating an impactful and effective ad. Here are some tips for creating engaging visuals and compelling copy:

Visuals:

• Use high-quality, attention-grabbing visuals that are consistent with your brand's aesthetic. This can include photos, illustrations, videos, and animations.

• Make sure that your visuals are relevant to your target audience and campaign objective.

• Use contrasting colors and bold typography to capture people's attention as they scroll through their feeds.

• Test different visuals to see what resonates best with your audience.

Copy:

• Start with a clear and compelling headline that immediately communicates your ad's message.

• Use concise language to convey your message and avoid jargon or complex terms.

• Include a clear call-to-action (CTA) that encourages people to take action, such as "Learn More," "Shop Now," or "Sign Up."

• Use emotional triggers to connect with your audience, such as humor, empathy, or urgency.

• Test different copy variations to see what works best for your audience.

In general, remember to keep your visuals and copy simple, clear, and consistent with your brand's messaging. By doing so, you can create an effective Facebook ad that engages your audience and drives results.

Do you want to learn more about how to craft a high-converting copy for your Facebook Ad campaign? Click here!

7. Review and launch

Review your ad and campaign settings and click the launch button to publish your campaign. Once you do that, the Facebook Team will check your ad to make sure it follows the community guidelines and their Advertising Standards. Approval or disapproval of the Facebook Ad campaign usually takes up to 24 hours. 

8. Measure your results and adjust

Monitor the performance of your ad campaign regularly using Facebook's Ads Manager dashboard to make adjustments and optimize your ads for better results. 

However, we recommend that you don’t adjust your ad as soon as you see you’re not getting the desired results. Why? There’s something called the “Facebook Learning Phase” which is the period where the ad is being shown to the target audience and Facebook's algorithm is learning how to deliver the ad to get the best results possible. When you create a new ad campaign or make changes to an existing campaign, Facebook needs time to gather data on how well the ad is performing.

During the learning phase, Facebook is testing the ad, delivery system, audience selection and learns how people are reacting to it. Facebook measures the ad's performance based on the chosen optimization goal such as clicks, video views, app installs, or other actions set for the ad campaign.

In general, Facebook takes about 50 events that specify the ad's optimization goal delivered to the target audience for the learning phase to end. Events are crucial user actions, such as a link click, a video view, or an app install.

Once the algorithm has gathered enough data, the learning phase ends, and Facebook can adjust the delivery of the ad, optimize who it is shown to or adjust bidding and budget to improve performance.

Keep in mind that during the learning phase, the performance of the ad may not be as efficient as when it is in steady-state due to limited data. It is essential to let the ad run during the learning phase before making any significant changes to ensure its optimal performance. So, even though you can edit your ad, don’t do it till the learning phase ends! 

How to advertise on Facebook: Final Thoughts

Now that you know how to run Facebook Ads like an expert, it’s time to start leveraging this tool for your business! Businesses of all sizes have quickly realized the potential of reaching massive audiences through targeted Facebook ads. With over two billion monthly active Facebook users, Facebook offers an unmatched level of audience targeting that can drive impressive ROI. Facebook's powerful targeting algorithms enable businesses to reach audiences based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and more. Plus, with the platform's easy-to-use ad creation tools and affordable advertising costs, even small businesses can get in on the action. By using Facebook ads effectively, businesses can drive significant traffic, generate leads, and increase sales like never before. 

Definitely, businesses that are looking for cost-effective, targeted advertising must consider Facebook ads for their marketing pursuits! 

If you want to keep learning more about all things Facebook Ads, visit our blog section and if you’re looking for a lead generation machine that helps you keep track of the prospects you attract with your Facebook Ad Campaign, click here to learn how Dologale can help you!