Advertising on social media has become an essential tool for reaching a target audience effectively and relatively economically. Facebook is the world’s largest social platform and offers advertisers multiple options to promote their products or services.
Advertising on Facebook is a simple and cost-effective way to promote services or products to one of the largest audiences in the world.
Similar to advertising on Instagram or Twitter, advertising on Facebook is a good idea, as it offers an easy-to-use, affordable advertising platform with the potential to reach and impact billions of people.
How to Run a Facebook Advertising Campaign
First of all, it is not possible to run advertising campaigns on Facebook from a personal profile. You can only advertise from a page.
To create an ad account, you must click on the menu in the upper left corner (the icon with nine dots in a square shape) and select the “Ad” option.
By doing so, you’ll go to the Ads Manager where you’ll have all the options to set up and run advertising campaigns.
The first time you access it, Facebook takes you directly to campaign creation, without going through account setup. Just follow the steps indicated by the assistant, set up the campaign, and deactivate it, as it is necessary to complete this process to configure the account.
Once the campaign is created, you’ll be able to configure the account by adding the following information:
-Ad account name
-Currency
-Time zone
-Business name and address
-Billing information
Types of Facebook Ads
On the other hand, Facebook advertising is structured a bit differently from other online advertising platforms.
In this case, it is structured in three different hierarchical levels:
-Campaign: Campaigns set the objective and offer 11 different selectable types.
-Ad Set: A campaign can have several ad sets. This is the most complex level to configure, as it determines aspects such as schedule, budget, targeting, placement, optimization, and delivery.
-Ad: The ad is the part the audience sees and contains the message and call to action.
Each of these levels requires different settings. The most important points are the Campaign and the Ad Set.
Facebook Ad Formats:
Facebook offers a variety of ad formats, each with its own advantages and features. Here are some of the most popular formats:
-Image ads: Image ads are simple and effective. They allow you to display an attractive image along with descriptive text and a link to a website or landing page.
-Video ads: Video ads capture users’ attention and allow them to get to know the brand or product better. They can be short or longer videos and play automatically in the news feed.
-Carousel ads: Carousel ads allow you to display multiple images or videos in a single ad. This is ideal for showcasing a collection of products, highlighting features, or telling a story through images.
-Slideshow ads: Slideshow ads are a combination of images, videos, and text that play automatically. They are ideal for telling a visually appealing story and captivating the audience.
-Collection ads: Collection ads are ideal for showcasing products in an e-commerce business’s catalog. They allow users to explore multiple products within the same ad experience.
-Canvas ads: Canvas ads provide a full-screen experience on mobile devices. They allow you to combine images, videos, text, and interactive links to create an immersive experience.
Setting Up a Facebook Advertising Campaign
Before you start creating ads on Facebook, it’s important to set up an advertising campaign. This involves defining the campaign objectives, such as increasing brand visibility, generating conversions, or driving website traffic.
Facebook offers 11 preset objectives to suit the specific needs of each advertiser; just select the one that best fits what you’re looking for.
Once the objectives are set, you must create a target audience. Facebook allows you to segment your target audience based on various demographic criteria, interests, and behaviors.
Facebook’s advertising tool allows you to create fully customized segments based on specific actions taken by users who already know your business. For this option, you need to have the Facebook Pixel installed, and it allows you to create segments from customer lists, website traffic, content interactions, or product catalog interactions.
There is also the “Lookalike Audience” option, which allows you to create segments with traits, interests, and patterns similar to other Facebook pages.
Next, you must select the ad placement, that is, the places, devices, and platforms where the ad will be shown. By default, Facebook selects the “Advantage+ Placements” option, which shows the ad in all possible placements.
There is also the “Manual Placements” option, which allows you to manually configure where the ads are shown.
The next step is to set up “Ad Delivery Optimization”, which serves to improve the performance and results of the campaign.
With this step, the configuration of the campaign and ad sets is complete.
Setting Up a Facebook Ad
Finally, we move on to ad setup. This is the creative part that will impact the audience. At this point, you can:
-Select an existing ad: Facebook saves all the ads and campaigns you’ve created, and you can reactivate them.
-Create a new ad.
-Use Creative Hub ad templates: a tool that allows you to design ad templates.
To set up the ad, the first step is to select the format. Next, you must upload the graphic or media elements, add a copy (the ad text), a title, a description, a link, and a call to action.
Once all the ad fields are completed, you can “Confirm” or “Review.” It’s always better to review before confirming. Before publishing the ads, you should check that everything is properly set up; take your time and make sure every point is correct before launching.
Once the campaign or ad is launched, from the Facebook Ads Manager page you can analyze its performance. At this point, it’s advisable to check the campaign analytics to see if they are working or not, as well as to implement any necessary improvements.
Facebook advertising offers a wide range of ad formats to help businesses reach their target audience effectively. By leveraging these formats and adjusting advertising strategies according to business objectives, advertisers can achieve impactful results on the world’s largest platform.
