If you’re interested in taking your Facebook account to the next level, it’s time to consider creating a Facebook Ad for your company. Facebook Ads are a great way to acquire more visibility for your business, track performance, and increase prospect reach.

One of the major advantages of using Facebook Advertising is that each ad campaign can be customized to fit your target audience. Therefore, it’s essential that you ask yourself some key questions to figure out which one is best for you.

First, what is your objective? Are you trying to drive more traffic to your site? Perhaps increase sales? Or maybe even enhance general brand awareness? Knowing your overall objective is a foundational component of creating a Facebook ad.

Select your Audiences

Next, select your audience for the specific ad you’re creating. Your audience can be narrowed down by age, location, gender, hobbies, interests, employment, language, etc. You can even create a custom audience if these parameters don’t match what you’re looking for. There are three types of audiences – core, lookalike, and targeted. They are exactly what they sound like.

• Core audiences are the default setting in Ads Manager. The Ads Manager is the hub for creating and managing your ads. With core audiences, you specify the characteristics you’d like in the audience (age, location, etc.) and Facebook will match people who meet those characteristics with your ad.
• Lookalike audiences are a neat tool to reach new people “who are likely to be interested in your business because they’re similar to your best existing customers.” Keep in mind that if you’re going with a lookalike audience, don’t get too specific because it will greatly narrow your results. And finally, targeted audiences are those that come from selected demographics.

Knowing your audience will help you decide where to run the ad, on what devices, and at what time. You can set automatic placements, so the ads will display in places where it’s most likely to perform best.  You also have the option to select the days and times you want to run the ad. Keep in mind, results can vary because this includes Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network.

Set a Budget

After you have chosen your objective and audience, it’s time to decide on a budget. The most common way to purchase ads for Facebook is through the Ads Manager. There are two types of budgets to choose from. Daily – which refers to the average amount you’ll spend on the ad each day or total – which refers to the amount you will spend during the lifetime of the ad.

You also set a bid – the maximum amount you’re willing to spend when someone sees your ad.  From there, you can pick a format. There are six styles to choose from:  photo, video, stories, messenger, carousel, slideshow, collection, and playable. Pick the one that accentuates your product or service best. We recommend picking a couple of styles first and test the other format options to see which one works best for your audience and ad.

Once you submit your ad with the above components, it goes to an ad auction.  In fact, billions of Facebook auctions occur daily. The winner of these auctions has the highest total value in terms of the bid, estimated action rates, and ad quality. Remember to make sure that your landing page is functional and the link is working. While you’re at it, don’t use more than 20% of the text on an ad image or include personal attributes.  Facebook will reject the ad if you don’t follow its ad policies. Familiarizing yourself with Facebook’s rules and policies will increase your chances of the ad being approved and viewed by potential visitors.

Track the Performance

When your ad is finally available for the world to see, it’s time to track its performance. You can learn a wealth of information about your audience based on engagement, reach, impressions, click-through-rate, cost per action, and conversions. Make note of what is going well and what can be improved upon.

Facebook ads aren’t as complicated as they appear to be. We hope these steps help you understand the fundamentals of creating an ad so that you can create one for your own business. If you have any questions regarding Facebook ads, feel free to contact us. You can also text us to receive marketing tips at 22828 and entering “Tomo360.”