Facebook ads are a great way to reach a highly targeted audience with a specialized message. However, getting started with Facebook ads can be a bit intimidating. While there are several options as well as best practices for Facebook ads, here is a brief guide to get you started with choosing a destination as well as ad type.
Facebook Ad Destinations
Before you get started, you first have to select what you would like to advertise. Facebook offers several options. You can advertise an external URL such as your website, a Facebook page, an app, or an event.
Facebook Ad Types
If you choose to advertise a Facebook page, app, or event, you will then have three options for types of ads.
1. Get More Likes – the first type of Facebook ad allows you to “build a bigger audience.” With the “get more likes” ads, your ad is focused on your page and growing your likes.
This option allows you to write your own ad copy, but the title of the ad is the same as your page name and cannot be changed. The title is still limited to 25 characters, so if your page name is longer than that, the ad will only display the first 25 characters of your page name.
2. Promote Page Posts – the second type of Facebook ad allows you to “get people to see and engage with your important message.” If you select this option, you can choose a specific post that you would like a larger audience to see.
Promoted posts have been around since June of 2012, however, this option is different. Previously, promoted posts were only shown to people who already like your page. Now, however, you can designate a specific audience.
This option is great if your goal is to increase engagement, but is not the best option if you are trying to grow your audience.
3. See Advanced Options – the final option for Facebook ads allows you to “configure advanced creative and pricing options, such as bidding for clicks (CPC). If you select this option, the initial setup is much like the previous two options, however, you have more say in how you want to bid your ad.
Facebook ads use a bidding system to determine which ads get shown. Whether or not your ad reaches your intended audience depends on how much you are willing to pay to have it shown in comparison to how much other pages are willing to pay. If your bid is much lower than other bids, your ad will not be shown as frequently or at the most opportune times.
Facebook offers three bidding options: Optimizing for engagement, optimizing for clicks (CPC), and optimizing for impressions (CPM).
If you choose optimizing for clicks, your ad will be charged each time someone clicks on your ad. This option is nice because you only get charged if people engage with your post. However, if you have a well-targeted and well-designed ad, you can often get more clicks for less money if you choose one of the other options.
The other two options (engagement and impressions) both charge based on impressions. The first option, optimizing for engagement, automatically selects your bid based on your competition to get you the most engagement. The second option, optimizing for impressions, allows you to set the bid per thousand impressions. This is a good option if your goal is simply to increase brand awareness. You can set exactly how much you want to pay and how many impressions you want.
There is a lot more you can do with Facebook ads. This is only a brief introduction to get you started.
