The world's largest social network, Facebook, is the perfect platform for effective marketing and advertising because it allows marketers to target people based on their demographics or interests, among other things. Facebook ads can appear in your newsfeed or side column, as well as the right-hand column of other websites through its "Audience Network" feature.
Ad Types
Facebook currently offers three different types of ads: Newsfeed Ads, Right Column Ads, and Offers, which are all shown in the screenshot below.
Newsfeed Ads - These are your standard advertisements that appear at the top or bottom of a Facebook news feed. They are typically used to generate awareness about a product or service, encourage people to like your page, or get people to install an app.
Right Column Ads - These are ads that appear on the right-hand side of Facebook pages. They are typically used for branding purposes rather than directly generating leads or sales.
Facebook Offers - A new form of ad which is used to generate leads or sales for your business. An offer ad contains a form that users must fill out in order to redeem the incentive you are offering them (e.g., free e-book, discount on products). It typically appears in the newsfeed with a call-to-action button and directed image (i.e., an image with text superimposed on it).
Read more: Top 5 Benefits of Facebook Advertisement for Your Business
Targeting Options
Marketers have several options when it comes to targeting their ads, including the ability to target specific demographics, interests, behaviors, or connections. Demographic targeting allows you to select the age range, gender, and location of your potential customers. Interests are based on activities people perform on Facebook (e.g., games they play, apps they use). Behaviors are based on the websites people visit (e.g., if someone visits an online shoe store, that person may receive ads related to shoes when visiting Facebook). Finally, connections allow you to target people who are friends of your current customers/clients or who have certain mutual friends with your customers/clients.
Pricing and Costs for Buying Ads on Facebook
The cost of Facebook ads varies depending on your bid for ad placement (i.e., the "cost per click" or "CPC"), the platform where you decide to place your ad (i.e., mobile, desktop), and the ad format you choose (i.e., link ads, photo ads, video ads).
For example, if you wanted to promote a post on desktop and mobile News Feeds during the month of October, your cost per 1,000 impressions would be around $4 - 5 for a link click an ad and around $2 - 3 for a photo ad. A video format, on the other hand, would cost around $13 - 15 for a link click ad and approximately $11 - 13 for a photo ad.
How to Create a Facebook Ad Campaign?
1. Create a Facebook Business Account
If you don't already have a personal account set up, create a Facebook business account. The advantage of this is that you'll be able to monitor your ad's performance from within the same dashboard as your other marketing campaigns.
2. Choose Your Ad Objective
Select either awareness or engagement when creating your ad campaign. If you're promoting a specific product or service, select "Conversions," which will allow you to track how many people visited your site after clicking on your ad.
3. Choose Your Ad Format and Create an Ad Using Facebook's Ads Manager
Choose either a photo or video ad and select your audience using Facebook's ads manager. You can then create your ad by uploading images or videos, writing a description of up to 135 characters, and specifying your target demographic.
4. Bid and Select Your Placement
You can set your bid for ad placement based on the amount that you want to pay per click or per impression (i.e., ad views). If you're promoting a link, photo, video, offer, page post, or canvas app ad, Facebook will suggest an optimal bid range. If you want to select your own bid, you can do so by entering the amount that you're willing to pay per click or impression for ad placement.
5. Monitor Your Ad Performance
You can view reports on how your ads are performing in real-time. Return on investment (ROI) is tracked automatically, and you can also choose to track specific metrics such as cost per click, number of clicks, and "likes" for a specific post.
6. Optimize Your Ads or Campaign for Better Results
You can use Facebook's A/B testing tools to create two different ads for the same objective and then compare which one is more successful by measuring their respective engagement rates and click-through rates.
To learn more about Facebook ads, consult a Facebook Ads Management in Hamilton.