Facebook Ads

Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

What is Facebook Ads?

Facebook Ads is the native advertising (paid media) platform offered and developed on Facebook. Advertising across Facebook’s properties is done on a self-serve basis. The ads platform is designed to give everyone the ability to advertise to anyone on Facebook, Instagram, and the Audience Network. It enables businesses of all sizes to advertise with ease and accuracy. They can reach people with exceptional scale, as there is the ability to reach over 1.8 billion people.

When leveraging the ads platform, you are reaching real people, as people are the truest representations of themselves on the internet on Facebook. Being able to advertise to real people with accuracy is a substantial benefit to marketers. Those real people can be reached across desktop and mobile, and they can also be reached at each stage of the purchase journey. Marketers can reach people at any point with a brand awareness message, with a message to consider purchasing, or a direct conversion message.

Any business of any size can grow its business on the ad platform. An advertiser can launch an ad in less than two minutes with just a credit card. For instance, a local shopkeeper can launch an ad to reach people in their area with a special offer. Conversely a multi-market FMCG brand can reach millions of people interested in their hair care product – across all of Europe – in just a few clicks.

Formats

Marketers can use an array of ad formats to meet their marketing objectives. These ad formats are designed to work at certain stages of the marketing funnel and fulfill the marketer’s objectives.

• Video Ads. These ads put video front and center in feeds.
• Image Ads. These ads allow you to use static images to highlight the offering.
• Link Ads. These ads allow an advertiser to input a URL that people will visit once they click the ad.
• Carousel Ads. Carousel Ads allow advertisers to upload multiple images and users can scroll across them.
• Dynamic Ads. These adshelp you to promote relevant products to shoppers browsing your product catalog on your website or mobile app.
• Lead Ads. These adsallow people on mobile to complete forms with just a couple of taps, making it incredibly easy for people to send you their
• App Ads. These allow advertisers to drive new installs to your app or engage existing users.
• Event Ads. Advertisers can get people to ‘attend’ or respond to their Facebook Event.
• Lead Ads. These ads allow people on mobile to complete forms with just a couple of taps, making it incredibly easy for people to send you their information.
• App Ads. These allow advertisers to drive new installs to your app or engage existing users.
• Event Ads. Advertisers can get people to ‘attend’ or respond to their Facebook Event.

Here is a look at where ads can be delivered, in order to encourage users to engage with your objective and ad format.

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Audience Network (third-party apps and mobile websites approved by Facebook)
• Messenger

The same people can be reached across all placements in the same campaign for several objectives.

Ad Campaign Structure

When building a campaign on Facebook, it should be noted that there is a three-tier structure to preparing ads on the Facebook ads platform. These are:

1. Campaign Level. Objectives are set to determine what you want to accomplish with an ad.
2. Ad Set Level. You select the audience you want to target, where you want to place your ads, what amount of budget you wish to spend, and also the time schedule of the ads.
3. Ad Level. You select the ad format you wish to use, and then you select either Facebook Page or Instagram Profile, where the ads will come from, and the link you wish to send people to.

Within a campaign there can be as many ad sets as you wish. There can also be as many ads as you wish in an ad set, but it is best practice to include no more than six ads in an ad set. Too many ads in an ad set means there are too many ads competing for the same audience, and it will impact delivery negatively.

Ad Campaign Objectives

Before you build an ad campaign, you need to decide what marketing objective you wish to address. As you can see here, the objectives are set against each stage of the marketing funnel.

For the awareness stage, you can run ads that optimize for brand awareness or reach.

For the consideration stage, you can select to drive traffic to a destination on or off Facebook. You can select to increase engagement of posts and ads. You can also get app installs, increase video views, get video views, and collect leads. Selecting ‘Messages’ will drive people to open conversations with the business in Messenger.

For the bottom of the marketing funnel – the conversion stage – you can increase conversions on your website, promote products in your catalog, and get people to visit your store.

Be sure to figure out what you want to get out of your campaign, as that will dictate what objective you select here. For example, if you wanted to reach new people who aren’t your customers, you would select ‘Reach’ in the awareness stage.

When you are creating ads, you have the option to include various CTA buttons with your ad formats. Each CTA specifies a specific action, and that action should be aligned with your marketing objective.

For example, if you want people to purchase an item from your online shop, you would select the ‘Shop Now’ call to action. If you want someone to install your app, you would select ‘Install Now’. Examples of CTA buttons include:

• Shop Now
• Book Now
• Learn More
• Sign Up
• Download
• Watch More
• Contact Us
• Apply Now
• Subscribe
• Get Quote
• Get Directions
• Like Page
• Call Now
• Install Now
• Use App
• Listen Now