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Jordan Steeves
November 19, 2023

How to Run Facebook Ads: Step-by-Step Guide to Advertising on Facebook

Welcome to our comprehensive guide on "How to Run Facebook Ads". This step-by-step guide is designed to help you navigate through the journey of advertising on Facebook. Whether you are a beginner or an established advertiser, this guide will serve as a resource to create effective ad campaigns, target the right audience, optimize for better results, and much more. Master the art of Facebook advertising with us!

Facebook Ads Manager

Facebook Ads Manager is an advanced dashboard that gives users a comprehensive view of all their advertising campaigns. It integrates features known as Ads Center offerings, which are split into four parts:
  • Summary: Provides a snapshot of your recent ad expenditure, ad performance, and key performance indicators including reach, post engagement, and link clicks. This section also contains automated suggestions to enhance high-performing posts.
  • All Ads: Particularly useful for businesses running multiple ads simultaneously, this section enables the viewing and editing of ad details such as the budget for any chosen ad. You can also pause or delete ads from this area.
  • Audiences: Displays the different audiences targeted by your ads, highlighting which ads have reached them. Modifications can be made based on this demographic information.
  • Automated Ads: Specifically applicable if you have created Automated Ads. Ideal for beginners and those looking for simplified ways to gain visibility. It cuts out the need for manual precision and showcases all of your Automated Ads along with a brief summary of recent results.
Running Facebook Ads: The necessary steps are as follows:
  1. Create an account with Facebook Ads Manager. You'll need a Facebook Business Page for this and also setting up a payment method to activate Ads Manager.
  2. Start creating your ad via the Facebook Ads Manager. A performance dashboard will be displayed, demonstrating all your campaigns, ad sets, and ads, including the results achieved for your Facebook page.
  3. Choose a goal for your campaign, such as increasing website traffic or raising brand awareness.
  4. Identify your audience considering attributes such as location, age, gender, language, relationship status, education, profession, financial status, and more.
  5. Set your budget either on a daily basis or as a lifetime budget, depending on whether you want your ad to run indefinitely or within a specified time frame.
  6. Design your ad. This could be a single image ad, multi-image ad, or text ad, subject to your primary goal.
  7. Monitor your ad’s performance metrics via Facebook Ads Manager and your marketing software. Analyzing metrics such as performance results, reach, frequency, and impressions offers a thorough evaluation.
  8. Create a report summarizing your ad's performance based on influential metrics and results. Facebook enables you to generate custom reports and even circulate them via email.
The cost of Facebook advertising varies, relying on the bidder's strategy and the ad's scope. Detailed tracking URLs can help measure full-funnel efficacy for your ads, allowing an estimation of the return on investment and reinforcing your overall Facebook marketing strategy.

How to Run Facebook Ads

Create an account

Begin the process of advertising through Facebook by creating an account with Facebook Ads Manager. This is your first step to effectively manage your social media marketing campaigns.

Start the process of creating an ad

Once you've set up an account, navigate to the Facebook Ads Manager dashboard. From here, select the option to start creating an ad.

Select an advertisement objective

The next step is to figure out the objective of your advertising campaign. This could vary from boosting your posts, promoting your page, sending people to your website, or increasing conversions.

Identify your target audience

Identify who you want to reach with your advertisement. You can choose your audience based on demographic characteristics like age, gender, location, and interests.

Allocate your budget

  • Decide how much you wish to spend on your advertising campaign.
  • You can opt for a daily budget or set a budget for the lifetime of the campaign.

Create the advertisement

In reference to your chosen objective and target audience, create an engaging ad. Use persuasive language and imagery to attract your desired audience.

Monitor your ad's performance

  • Regularly check the performance of your ad campaign through the Facebook Ads Manager.
  • Look at key metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and the cost per result.

Report on the performance of your Facebook ad

  • Finally, gather and analyze data on your ad’s performance.
  • Use this information to make informed decisions about future advertising campaigns, and report your findings to stakeholders.

How to Create Facebook Ads

If you're looking to create a Facebook ad that delivers tangible results, consider following these detailed tips.

  • Define your target audience and construct your ads for them. Avoid creating a one-size-fits-all ad, but rather focus on a specific audience that's most likely to become paying customers. Harness the power of Facebook's advanced targeting feature to include or exclude individuals based on apps they follow, events they've attended, or pages they like. For instance, Kylie Haack, despite being a real estate firm selling properties, specifically targets their ads to homeowners seeking property appraisals, not prospective buyers.
  • Title your ad with a catchy yet transparent headline. The headline is usually the first point of contact with your Facebook ad; if it doesn’t grab the audience's attention, it will negatively affect your ad's click-through rate and conversion. Be sure your headlines are not pushy but rather informative, conversational, and indicative of your product's advantages.
  • Avoid text-heavy visuals. According to Facebook, images with less than 20% text perform better. Overloaded text graphics can detract potential clients from your message. If necessary, use a longer ad caption or fewer words in a smaller font to maintain the appropriate text-to-image ratio.
  • Use straightforward and understandable language. The main purpose of ad copywriting is to clearly convey your offer, its benefits to the customer, and the next steps they should take.
  • Employ social proof in your ads. Enhance the credibility of your brand and offer by featuring reactions, comments, shares, and testimonials from previous clients in your ads. This indicates to your audience that individuals have engaged with your product or service satisfactorily.
  • Ensure congruence between your ad and its landing page. Misleading your audience by not carrying through the promise of your ad on your landing page would lead to increased bounce rates.
  • Include a clear call-to-action: Each ad should be clear about the action you want the audience to take after viewing it. Use direct call-to-action phrases like “Sign up,” “Follow,” “Download,” “Install the App,” and “Shop Now” to explicitly communicate this.
  • Execute A/B tests: To continually improve your ad campaigns, run A/B tests on all aspects of your ad. Create varying versions of the same ad and test them together to identify the version that performs best, be it in terms of likes, comments, shares, or conversions.

Using Facebook Ads Manager for Your Next Campaign

Following your comprehension of the technique to establish advertisements, the next phase involves constructing a personalized ad to help promote your brand on Facebook. Not only does this strategy enhance brand visibility, but it also significantly augments traffic generation and lead acquisition from your target prospects who utilize this platform.

Editor's note: Please note that this article was initially published in September 2019. However, it has since been revised and updated to achieve a more comprehensive and inclusive presentation of the topic.

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