The new era of the digital age has brought about a new way of doing business. With almost everyone now owning a smartphone, things are more accessible with only a tap away. This is why businesses are also starting to shift the way they market their products – from traditional marketing using print and TV ads to digital content marketing using social media. This does not only makes their ads and digital marketing techniques effective but practical as well. And the best platform to do this? Facebook!

With over 2.7 billion active users to date, Facebook is the biggest social network worldwide. Zooming in to America’s landscape, 69% of Americans use Facebook actively With billions of people in your reach, Facebook Business marketing has never been so easy. With an accomplished Facebook ads checklist (discussed further below), you will be able to reach the right people for your business, deliver results that generate income, and many more.

Why Run a Facebook Ads Campaign?

Your ad campaign is as important as your organic social media marketing. Using Facebook for your marketing can be one of the best decisions you can make for your business. However, you need to create a Facebook social media account first. For starters, this platform can help you easily manage all the marketing essentials that you need. If you own an e-commerce business, I can assure you that this platform and its business page feature can help you get a customer.

1. Facebook Ads are affordable – Advertising on Facebook is considered one of the cheapest ways to advertise content. You can set a daily budget for your ad sets and test what is and isn’t working and then change them until they produce the results you are aiming for.
2. Facebook Ads offers excellent analytics – With the help of Facebook Pixel, you can track the exact number of clicks your ads got and how many of them turned into signing up to your mailing list or purchase. This does not only improve the business as a whole but also help you track your return on investment (ROI) or return on ad spend (ROAS). You can also see these analytics using Facebook ad manager.
3. Facebook Ads lets you target the right audience – Facebook’s comprehensive targeting option allows you to customize and reach your identified audience. You can also try experimenting on the options to discover a new audience you never thought you could target! Check their reactions to your Facebook advertising in order to improve.
4. Facebook Campaign is highly customizable – There are plenty of ad formats available to be used on Facebook – video, image, story, messenger, image carousel, canvas, to name a few. You can mix and match different ads to create a combination of content that will surely provide positive reactions to your audience. Remember that the format is one of the essential factors you should consider in targetting.
5. Facebook Ads comes in different Payment Method – Setting up a method to pay the Facebook campaigns you make has never been so easy. You can set up multiple credit/debit cards for starters in your ad account, in case one of your cards failed. You can also use PayPal to pay since it’s one of the universal payment methods available for almost everyone.

How to run Facebook Ads?

Here’s your Facebook marketing checklist to help you sort out your campaign using your Facebook ad account. Make sure to follow this Facebook ads checklist for a successful campaign.

1 . Create a Facebook Pixel. Facebook Pixel is a piece of code that you place on your website that lets you measure, optimize, and build audiences for your ad Facebook will do. Once this is set up, you can install another tool – Facebook Pixel Helper, a Chrome extension that helps you verify if the pixel is working properly, troubleshoot common errors, and improve pixel performance. Make sure to check your Facebook Advertising performance metrics every day as part of your advertising checklist.

2 . Choose your objectives. In Facebook Marketing, setting an objective is a great way to get started. Objectives will make sure that you identify the type of ad and create custom audiences to attain your ad objective. Facebook offers 11 marketing objectives based on what you want your ad to accomplish. It’s one of the best practices that a business manager should have. Here’s how they align with business goals:

• Brand awareness. Let users know about your brand by reaching more people that are interested in your brand.
• Reach. Expose your ad to as many people in your audience as possible. Cookies will play a great role in this goal as Facebook uses cookies too in order to give people the ad format or content that they want to see in their feed.
• Traffic. Drive traffic to a specific landing page or web page, application, or even Facebook Messenger conversation.
• Engagement. Reach a wider audience to increase the number of post engagements like Page Reactions and Comments, increase attendance at your event, or encourage people to claim a special offer by using a campaign.
• App installs. Get users to install your applications.
• Increase video views. Get more people to watch your videos and give reactions on Facebook or any other channels.
• Lead generation. Get new prospects into your contact us page or sales funnel.
• Get Messages. Encourage people to contact your business using Facebook Messenger or send them to a Contact Us page to initiate conversation.
• Increase Conversions. Get people to take a specific action on your website (like subscribe to your list or buy your product).
• Catalog sales. Connect your Facebook ads to your product catalog to show people ads for the products they are most likely to want to buy. (perfect for eCommerce)
• Increase Store traffic. Drive nearby customers to brick-and-mortar stores. Works for both online stores and physical stores.

3 . Target your audience. The most creative ad material is of no use if the wrong users are seeing it. That’s why it’s important that the correct audience be set up from the get-go. Facebook allows you to create a custom audience based on demographics – age, gender, location, language, and interests. You can also use lookalike audiences if you already have successful targets.

4 . Use multiple Facebook Ad formats. Using multiple ad formats allows you to experiment on which ad type is the best to appeal to your target audience. Listed below are the different ad types available on Facebook:

a. Photo ads – Photo ads with striking visuals and impact grab our attention when we are swiping or scrolling through our news feeds. According to this survey, images are more successful at driving clicks.

b. Video ads – The video format is a great way to advertise especially if you want to connect with your target audience. Just make sure to create a video ad that speaks directly to the needs and emotions of your target audience.

c. Story ads – More and more people are using Facebook Stories to collate images and texts depending on their current mood, without cluttering their Facebook Timelines.

d. Messenger ads – With Facebook’s option to create Messenger only (without a Facebook profile), you are able to reach a much wider audience. Facebook Messenger is also the most popular mobile messaging app in the United States.

e. Carousel ads – This format allows businesses to showcase multiple images or videos (with individual links) in a Facebook campaign. This format is perfect for those who wish to highlight multiple products while maintaining focus on each one.

f. Slideshow ads – This format allows you to create lightweight video-like ads that can play even on a slow internet connection.

g. Canvas Ads – Canvas ads format allows businesses to advertise through a mix of video, still images, text, and call-to-action buttons. From Facebook ads in the user’s News Feed, a single click will lead them to a fast loading ad in full screen. Click here to learn more about Facebook’s Canvas ads.

5 . Choose your Facebook ad placements. If you’re a new user and you are still experimenting on your target, the best option would be to use Automatic Placements. With this option, your ads will be placed across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network when they are likely to get the best results.

Otherwise, you can choose the locations in which your ads will appear with the following options:

• Device type: Mobile, desktop, or both.
• Platform: Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, or Messenger
• Placements: Feeds, Stories, in-stream (for videos), messages, in-article, and apps and sites (external to Facebook).
• Specific mobile devices and operating systems: iOS, Android, feature phones, or all devices.

6 . Set your budget and schedule. The amount you’re willing to spend on your Facebook ad campaign will define the schedule of your ads. You can set a daily or lifetime budget. You can also opt for bid controls which will cap the amount per action rather than the overall campaign.

An advanced budget option also allows you to customize when and where to spend your budget. You can opt to get charged for Impression or Page Like; run your ads all the time or on a schedule; and get results throughout your schedule (Standard) or as quickly as possible (Accelerated).

7 . Create your ad copy. Aside from captivating videos and pictures, a good ad set must also follow technical specifications like text description, image ad copy, visuals, headline, and call-to-action.

The recommended character lengths for your checklist are:

• Headline/Image copy – 25
• Link description – 30
• Text description or ad copy– 125

Your image can be in .jpeg or .png formats with an aspect ratio of 1.91:1 to 1:1 or the most recommended at 4:5. They should also be uploaded in the highest resolution possible.

8 . A/B Split Testing. Facebook ad A/B Split Testing allows you to try and compare different ad campaign strategies to determine which performs best. This will help you greatly in improving how you will design your future campaigns.

The kinds of variables available to change in an A/B test include:

• Creative – Comparing different ad images, text, or creative types to know which one appeals most to your target audience.
• Audience – Comparing how effective your ads are at reaching different audiences or demographics. You might consider comparing a custom audience with an interest-based one.
• Delivery Optimization – Comparing campaigns with and without Campaign Budget Optimization enabled to measure its impact on performance
• Placements – Comparing placement types when reaching your audience. For example, comparing automatic placements with specifically chosen ad placements.
• Product Set – Comparing different product sets as configured in your Ads Manager assets. For example, choosing two different product sets to use when running product set ads on Facebook.

9 . Analyzing your data and strategizing future ad campaigns. Facebook Page Insights and Ads Manager allow you to see the data and analyze how your ad performed. Usually, you measure this via Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like:

• total conversion rates (lead generation, sales, website traffic);
• frequency
• return on ad spend
• cost-per-click
• click-through rate
• cost-per-action

Analyzing your customer data will help you strategize for effective ad campaigns in the future.

Bottomline

Facebook is considered as one of the top advertising channels online with digital ad spending making up 51% of United States’ ad spending. To support this, the table below shows a steady increase in Facebook’s revenue with advertising revenue as its top revenue driver. Last year, their advertising revenue amounted to close to 69.7 billion U.S. dollars whereas payments and other fees revenues amounted to 1.04 billion U.S. dollars.

This is how effective social media marketing on Facebook is. Your content is in great hands if you choose to take your campaign on your Facebook page. Facebook Marketing should be on the top of your checklist when it comes to your marketing checklist. So if you’re wondering if Facebook ads work, the numbers mentioned above can attest to that. As long as you also invest time and effort in mastering how to create the right ads and reaching the right customer, Facebook advertising is the up and coming marketing strategy for most business – from small to large scale. Otherwise, you can hire companies that can do the job for you!