Love it or hate it, Facebook is definitely here to stay and you shouldn’t shy away from using it.
Their advertising tools are user-friendly and adaptable to any industry and audience. Here are a few tips for you that I’ve learnt since utilising Facebook paid advertising and promoted posts…
Think about what you’re trying to achieve
Facebook offers 3 marketing objectives for you to choose from; awareness, consideration and conversion. These objectives will help you achieve your paid ad goals and tell Facebook exactly what you’re looking to gain from the ad.
Setting these correctly at the beginning will pay off in the end, as the ad set-up and metrics (see more information further down) will adhere to these settings to optimise your advert. So, make sure you spend time on your ad before going to Facebook so you know exactly what you’re hoping to achieve.
Who are you trying to reach?
Facebook is great for targeting a specific audience through their interests, demographics and even their location. Be sure to be as precise as possible here; the accurate your audience, the more likely your ad will show to the right people and this will, in turn, help your budget…
Decide on a budget and an optimum time to schedule your ad
There are two ways that you can set a budget on Facebook; daily or lifetime. A daily budget is what is says on the tin. You tell Facebook how much you’d like to spend per day and for how long, and they will distribute this cost every 24 hours for the duration of your ad.
Lifetime budgets are slightly different. You set a maximum amount that you’d like to spend over the duration of your ad and you can then choose which time of day and even what days your ad shows. This option gives you more control over when your ad is seen, fully optimising your budget.
Video or image?
Now the fun can begin. It’s all very well getting your targeting perfect, but if your ad isn’t designed to grab the attention of your audience as they scroll endlessly through their feed, then that times been pretty much wasted. Using an eye-catching video or image(s) could make all the difference as to whether your ad is engaged with or not.
With this, getting your caption right is important. Too long, and people likely won’t bother to read it. Too short, and you may not get your point across strongly enough. To quote Goldilocks, you need to get it juuust right.
Monitor the metrics in Ads Manager
Right, your amazingly targeted and beautifully eye-catching ad is out there popping up on Facebook feeds across the world (or wherever you set your targeted locations too)… What now?
Keep an eye in Adverts Manager on how your ad is doing. It can be a little overwhelming, but make sure you check your reach, click-through rate (CTR), impressions and whatever the main goal of your ad was, e.g. if your main goal was to gain site traffic, keep a close eye on the link clicks.
If you think your ads not performing as well as you hoped, there is the option to tweak. Amending the caption and images might make all the difference!
There are lots of parts to think about throughout the whole process of Facebook paid ads. Overall, the planning part is important to the general success, make sure you’re making the most of their targeting options and monitor it like your life depends on it.