A beginner’s guide: how to run a Facebook ad successfully
Fact: Facebook has 1.49 billion monthly active users, 40 million small biz pages and over 2 million advertisers. Needless to say, Facebook plays an integral part in producing what we are all chasing after: sales + brand awareness.
Regardless of whether you are a best-selling artist or one that has just created a Casetify collection, Facebook ads let you reach the right people because they pop up based on the interests of its users. In other words, it exposes your products to individuals that fit your demo and those most likely to become your customers.
So here comes the hard part: how do Facebook ads translate into sales without going over your marketing budget? Read on to find out.
How-to create Facebook ads
First things first, go to your Ads Manager. Here, you will gain access to everything you’ll need.
A Facebook ad consists of 4 main components: a campaign, ad account, an ad set, and then the ad itself. Follow along as we break down each section.
1. Campaign: what do you want to accomplish?
When creating a campaign, you need to lay the groundwork for your ad. This is where you define your objective. What kind of results do you want to see?
Is your goal to send people to your collection? Reach people near you? Get people to use a coupon code? Defining your overall goal will help you decide which option to pick.
Tip: We recommend choosing ‘promote your page’ in order to get more likes--this also means that your content will show up on user’s feeds every so often when you post. We also suggest trying out ‘send people to your website’.
2. Account info: analytics, currency and time zone
Once you settle on an objective, fill in your account info. All of your ads billing + reporting info will be recorded in the currency and time zone you select.
3. Ad set: choose an audience, set your budget, schedule and bid
Once you finish filling out your account info, you’re ready to move onto your ad set. This is where you can target your audience by location, demographics and interests/behaviors.
Location: You have the power to tell Facebook where to show your ad. Since your Casetify collection is an online store, we recommend targeting everyone in your country or even beyond.
Demographics: Ask yourself this: what type of audience do you design for? What’s their age? Male or female?
Interests/behaviors: Here is where you should think about what your target audience is into. This can literally cover any topic: sports, pets, fashion, beauty, you name it.
You can be as broad or as specific as you want. Again, go back to your goal: what are you trying to accomplish?
After you create your audience, you will then be shown the number of people in that audience, also known as the potential reach. This is the amount of users you can potentially target with your ad.
In terms of budget, you can either set a daily budget or a lifetime budget. The first option lets you define the max amount of money you will spend per day. The second lets you define the max amount of money you will spend during the lifetime of your ad.
Depending on how much you spend, your estimated daily reach (shown on the right hand side) will change. This number is the amount of people you can reach within the budget selected. The more you spend, the more people you will reach.
Next, you need to specify your schedule. You can either run your ad continuously or define a set start and end date.
Tip: We recommend starting with a small budget. Before investing a large amount, test what works and what doesn’t. Do different audiences yield different results? Try it out until you find your sweet spot and don’t be afraid to experiment.
4. Ad: how do you want your ad to look?
This is where you get to decide what users will actually see!
You can upload a single image or choose multiple. Our best piece of advice is to choose an image that grabs everyone’s attention. It needs to stand out but also align with what you want to communicate.
It’s a good idea to test 2 different visuals as a single image--see which works better and go from there.
Tip: Use lifestyle photos! If it makes sense with your brand, use photos of people because they’ve been proven to convert more. Show people using or holding your product!
Once you choose an image, it’s time to come up with your headline and text. A headline tells the user what the ad is about. Text tells the user more about the link so be clear about what you’re promoting.
Tip: ALWAYS include a call-to-action. The headline and description are valuable real estate and they should be able to convince the reader to click on your ad.
That’s it! You’re now ready to run an ad. If it doesn’t yield the desired results right away, don’t give up. Maybe you need to redefine your target audience or change location or even interests. Trust us when we say that success doesn’t happen overnight.
