Introduction
Facebook has an enormous reach. As many one out of every seven people use Facebook daily, which makes it a very attractive target for marketers. Also, their ad platform is relatively simple to use, however it’s difficult to use well.
Fact: A lot of people lose money on their Facebook ads.
Don’t let that dissuade you from using it. Facebook ads can also be remarkably profitable – if they are used correctly. However, most people don’t know how to best utilize it.
The documentation on Facebook’s page is long, elaborate, and complex. It takes hours just to make it through all of the instructional material, and it often leaves people even more confused than they were before they started reading it.
Indeed, there are a lot of different options, so it can be difficult to know which type of ad might work best for you. If you choose the wrong type, it could mean a lot of money wasted.
In this guide, you’re going to learn about some of the different ad types, where on the site they appear, and how to get the most out of each one.
So, let’s delve right into Facebook Ads so you can get started with your first ad as quickly as possible.
Understanding Facebook Ads
Facebook has a number of different ad placements and ad types. There isn’t a single type or placement that is best for every situation, so you may have to do some testing to find the right one for your needs.
Additionally, not all ad types are available in all placements. For example, you currently cannot place an ad for a Facebook app or an off-site website in the Mobile News Feed.
Here is a table that shows some of the different types of ads and their potential placements:
| Mobile News Feed | Desktop News Feed | Right Side Column | |
| Page Post Ads | YES | YES | YES |
| Page Like Ads | YES | YES | YES |
| Mobile App Install | YES | YES | |
| Facebook Apps | |||
| Domain Ads | YES | ||
| Sponsored Stories | YES | YES | YES |
Facebook has a section in their Desktop Help section that defines Facebook ads and tells a little about them.
Here’s what the page says:
What are Facebook Ads?
We strive to show ads that are relevant and interesting to you and your friends.
Here are the facts about Facebook Ads:
- Ads can appear in New Feed, on the right column, and on the Facebook log out Page.
- Ad content is sometimes paired with news about social actions that your friends have taken, like liking a page.
- Your friends might see news about the social actions you have taken in Facebook Ads. This news will only be shown to your confirmed friends and will adhere to applicable privacy settings you’ve set for your account. If a photo is used, it’s your profile photo and not a photo from your photo albums.
- Facebook doesn’t sell your info to advertisers.
- Facebook actively enforces policies that help protect your experience with third-party apps and ad networks.
Getting Started
The first thing you need to do is locate the Create Ad link on the left side of Facebook, after you’ve logged in. This is located in the menu underneath the “Create Page” category.
On the next page, Facebook will ask you “What’s your advertising objective?”
Here are your choices…
- Boosting your posts
- Promoting your Page
- Sending people to your website
- Increasing conversions on your website
- Get more installs of your app
- Increasing engagement with your app
- Reach more people who live near your business
- Get more people to attend your event
- Get people to take one of your offers
- Get more views of your video
If you mouse over each of these categories, it will tell you a little bit about that particular ad type so you can choose the right one for your purposes.
Facebook has a great instructional page that teaches you the basics of setting up a Facebook Ad. Here are the step-by-step directions they outline:
Choose your advertising objective
Go to www.facebook.com/ads/create to choose your advertising objective and start creating your ad.
What is an advertising objective?
Your advertising objective is what you want people to do when they see your ads. For example, to like your Page. When you choose an advertising objective, we’ll help you create ads that help you achieve that advertising objective. You can track how your ads are helping you achieve your advertising objective in ads manager.
Create your ad
Choose images for your ad and write the text for it. You’ll be able to see a preview of your ad on the right side.
Select Images for your Ad: Use up to 6 images to create more ads in your campaign at no extra cost.
The more images you select, the more you can use to figure out what is performing best and deliver that best one to achieve your objective.
Here you can find recommended Images sizes for Facebook Ads.
>> https://www.facebook.com/business/help/103816146375741
Learn more about choosing images for your ad.
Edit Text and Links
Edit the text and links for your ad. You’ll be able to see a preview of your ad on the right side.
The text limit for your headline and text will depend on what your advertising objective is. The character limit when you edit your text will ensure that the people you’re trying to reach will be able to see your entire message. You can learn more about the specific text limits for each ad product in the Ads Product Guide.
- Choose your audience:
After creating your ad, you’ll be able to identify the best audience to target.
- Choose your campaign, budget and schedule:
Name your campaign, select your budget, and set the schedule for your campaign.
- Set your bid and price:
Select your budget and set the schedule for your campaign. Unless you’ve chosen Advanced Options in the goals section, you’ll pay for impressions (CPM). These impressions will be optimized so your ad shows to the people most likely to help you reach your goal. For example, if you want more people to install your app, your ad will be shown to the people who are most likely to install your app.
After you name your campaign and select your budget and schedule, place your order or review your ad so you can start reaching your audience.
Category Types
Some of these categories have multiple types. For example, some ads can be text only, text and photo, or text and video. Here are the various ad types, along with their descriptions (The part in parentheses is added to further explain the text on the Facebook website.):
Page Likes
Create ads to build your audience on Facebook. (Helps you get more likes to your Facebook pages.)
Page Post Engagement
Create ads that boost your posts and increase likes, comments, shares, video plays and photo views. (Helps you to get your posts seen by more of your fans and the friends of your fans.)
Click to Website
Create ads to encourage people to visit your website. (Helps you get more visits to your blog or website.)
This type, also called a Domain Ad, is 100×72 pixels along with a 25 character link title and up to 90 characters of text.
Website Conversions
Create ads to promote specific actions for people to take on your website. You’ll need to use a conversion-tracking pixel to measure your results. (Helps you get more opt-ins, sales, etc.)
App Installs
Create ads to encourage people to install your app. (Helps you get more installs of your mobile app.)
An App Install ad can be found in the right column. The title of the post is the name of your app, and can be up to 25 characters. You can have an image that is 100×72 pixels along with 90 characters of text.
App Engagement
Create ads to get more activity on your Facebook app. (Helps you get more people to use your Facebook app.)
Event Responses
Create ads to promote your event. (Helps you get more people to attend a Facebook event.)
Offer Claims
Create ads to promote offers you created. You’ll need to use an offer you create on Facebook or create a new one right here. (Helps you get more people to claim the offers you create on the Facebook website. These are offers people would claim in your brick and mortar store or your online store.)
Text in Ads
As you create your ad, you need to keep text limits in mind. Most ads have specific limits for the number of characters you can have in your ad. If you go over that, your text will be truncated, meaning the last words will be cut off and your add will end with “…”
Titles can generally have up to 25 characters, and text blocks can have 90 characters. With so few characters allowed, you need to be sure absolutely every word in your ad is vital to the message you want to convey.
Choosing an Audience
Choosing your audience is one of the most critical elements of ad creation. If you don’t target properly, you’ll be wasting money daily.
(Age, Gender, Interest, Location etc. )
Be as specific as possible.
There are also Advanced Targeting Options that allow a bit more targeting:
(In relationship, workplace, education, etc.)
By selecting the demographics that are most likely to respond to your ad, you’ll save money and increase your response.
Remember, the more specific you are about your market, the fewer people will see your ad… but this is a good thing! You don’t want to reach millions of people. You want to reach the exact people who are most likely to respond to your ad.
Remember, you’re paying for impressions (CPM) with most advertising options. That means you pay for every single person who sees your ad, whether they act on it or not. Why pay for impressions from people who probably won’t be interested in what you have to offer?
Campaign Selection
You can either create a new campaign or add to an existing campaign. If this is your first ad, you’ll need to create a new campaign. Otherwise, you could just add the new ad to an existing campaign, however you’ll want to keep campaigns separate for different pages, products, websites, etc. so you can easily find specific ads later.
When you name your campaign, make sure it’s something you can easily remember. The campaign name will not be visible to anyone but you.
Campaign Scheduling
You can choose one of two options for scheduling:
- Run my campaign continuously starting today – This will run your ad constantly after it’s approved.
- Set a start date and end date – This will let you choose a specific timeframe for your ad. This is a good option if you want to run a limited time promotion.
Campaign Budget
How much you spend depends on your daily budget. You can choose a per day budget if you want your campaign to run continuously. If you want a campaign with a start and end date, you’ll choose a lifetime budget.
If you choose a daily budget, your ad will run each day until the budget is depleted for that day. If you choose a lifetime budget, the system will pace your campaign to account for that particular budget.
For more pricing information, see this page:
https://www.facebook.com/business/help/www/search/?query=Budgeting+
Sponsored Stories
Another type of Facebook ad is the “sponsored story”. There are a few different types of sponsored stories. These stories display your target’s friend’s name along with the face that the like a particular page. This boosts your ad’s credibility, because it’s a type of “social proof”. People tend to trust things their friends trust.
According to Facebook:
Sponsored Stories are shown to people who have an association with the topic of the targeted message.
All this basically means that Sponsored Stories will show up to the friends of people who have liked your page, responded to an event you’ve created, used your app, or in some way interacted with the page, event, app, etc. you’re trying to promote.
Premium Ads
In addition to standard ads, there are also premium ads that grab extra attention. Of course, this comes at a premium price, but it can be worth the additional cost if you have a product or service with wide appeal.
>> https://www.facebook.com/business/news/Premium-Video-Ads-on-Facebook
Because premium ads have less competition on the pages they are shown the command more attention.
Final Words
Facebook Ads definitely have a lot of different options to choose from. As expensive as they can be, optimizing them for ultimate performance is vital. Hopefully, you now have a more complex grasp on what it takes to choose the right ad type and create an ad that will perform well.
Remember these critical elements:
- Choose your target audience carefully. This is one of the most critical elements to any Facebook Ads campaign.
- Choose the right ad type for your purpose. This is called the “advertising objective”.
- You only get a set number of characters for your ad, so be sure to pack the most vital information into it.
- Experiment with various photos or videos to find one that really resonates with your core audience.
Not every Facebook campaign will be profitable. Even experts occasionally have flops. So never, put all of your eggs into one advertising basket. Instead, be sure to make Facebook a portion of your ad campaigns and not your sole promotional method.
If you use the tips in this guide, you’ll be on your way to ensuring most of your campaigns are profitable and successful.
