Once you have gone through the process of making a Facebook page for
your company or brand, you are going to want to create a Facebook
advertisement to get more traffic to the page itself.
Luckily, Facebook has its own built-in ad making program, so sponsoring
your Facebook page is nothing short of easy.
With Facebook Ads, two things that you can be sure to do with your
customized advertisement is:
✓ Find the perfect target audience for your company or brand
✓ Connect and communicate better with people who are already
viewing your website
Let’s take a closer look at what this means.
Finding The Right Audience
With Facebook Ads, there are three categories of audiences used to define
viewers of your Facebook page:
✓ Core Audiences
✓ Custom Audiences
✓ Lookalike Audiences
What is a Core Audience?
Simply put, a Core Audience is the body of people who are most likely to
take in interest in your company or brand based upon attributes such as:
✓ Age
✓ Location
✓ Gender
✓ Interests
✓ Behaviors
If you are looking to advertise a surf shop, you do not want to make an ad
directed at people who live hundreds of miles from the beach. Using the
Facebook Ad Manager, you can determine what the Core Audience for your
situation is likely to be.
What about a Custom Audience?
The word “custom” in Custom Audience might be a little misleading here,
but what it is basically referring to is the body of people that have already
shown some form of interest in your company or brand.
These are people that you cannot afford to skip over in the advertising
process. For instance, say most of your internet traffic comes from your
website or app usage. By taking the user data from those who have viewed
your website previously, you can easily connect with these customers, so
that they are likely to return in the future.
And Lookalike Audience?
This is sort of a marriage of both Custom and Core Audiences. It is an
audience that is based upon the types of people that have already viewed
your Facebook page.
If your brand is attracting a large amount of women between the ages of
eighteen to twenty-four, then it is likely that reaching out to other women
of the same age range will peak some interests.
Creating An Ad
When you are ready to make your Facebook Ad, go ahead and go to
www.facebook.com/ads/create
For this process, you’ll need to make a Facebook Ads account, but it is as
easy as making a few clicks on a mouse.
Objectives
The first thing asked of you upon making an advertisement on Facebook
will be to choose a marketing objective. This boils down to a number of
options including:
✓ Brand Awareness (reaching out to those most likely to be naturally
interested in your Facebook page)
Once you know what the objective for your ad is going to be, it is time to
go ahead and pick the target audience that you spent so much time just
learning about.
The first thing that you’ll have to do with your audience search is find the
right location. Your target location can be as broad as say the entire United
States, or as meticulous as marking a specific town or city.
You can also choose from people who live in a certain area, that have
recently traveled through a certain area, or are currently traveling in a
certain area.
Next you may choose from a specific age range, from as low as 13 to as
high as 65+. You may even choose from different genders, languages, or
search from any other keyword that may cross your mind. You are also
given the option to exclude a certain keyword from your search if you
choose.
Placements
You can choose whether or not you would like your advertisements
released automatically, or in certain places or formats.
If you choose to edit your own placements, you can choose whether the
app is available on Facebook, Instagram, mobile devices, certain operating
systems, and other advanced options.
Budgeting Done Right
Finally, you’ll be able to decide how much you are willing to spend, per
day, on advertisement. If you are a starting business, and cannot afford to
spend more than five dollars a day on running Facebook ads, then that is
okay.
You may also choose a start and end date for your ad if it is based on an
specific event, and there are plenty of advanced options for you to ensure
you are not paying more than what you need to for the advertisement.
The Ad Itself
Making the advertisement does not require more work than you would
expect. It can be done by simply uploading a picture or video, choosing the
format of the ad, writing a description, and providing a link if you so wish.
Some Quick Tips About Ads
Advertising is a tricky business, so do not dive right into the Facebook ads
creation page before looking into a few of these pointers.
✓ Connect with your audience; it is not enough to show them an ad,
you have to push them on the brand as a whole
✓ Learn what you can remove from your advertisement; this will save
money on your budget without adding the risk of losing viewers
Appeal to the emotions of your audience; make them feel something
when they look at your ad
✓ Create a strategy; DO NOT just make a bunch of different ads,
hoping that some of them will work
✓ Use text, but not too much text, because you do not want to
overwhelm the reader with words
