How to use facebook advertising to grow your business

Facebook is one of the largest and most popular social media platforms with over 2.9 billion monthly active users (2021). Because of those numbers, it has become a popular advertising platform for businesses to reach their target audience. The data that Meta collects from Instagram and Facebook creates a valuable pool of knowledge that businesses and advertisers need to access.

Running successful Facebook ads requires strategy, planning, and continuous optimization to ensure you are getting the most out of your advertising budget. In this article, we will discuss the key steps to successfully run Facebook ads.

Define Your Advertising Goals

The first step in running successful Facebook ads is to answer the question: What do you want to achieve with your Facebook ads? A rule of thumb for setting goals is to make sure they are SMART. This accronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

Let’s apply this to Hypothetical Company, they are a Spa and Resort company. They sell packages in weekend and week-long formats. They also sell their products like bath-bombs, salts, lotions, and creams.

Specific: What is the goal – Boost Sales of week-long packages and products.

Measurable: How will we know if we’re succeeding – Percentage of sales will be the metric used to determine if the Facebook Ad campaign is working.

Achievable: Is this a goal we can actual reach – Both of these sales offerings are known by customers but lack exposure. Boosting their notoriety through Facebook Ads would help put them in a better spotlight.

Relevant: Is this goal important to the big picture of the business – Hypothetical Company has a great line of at home products, boosting their sales would help bring people into the Spa. Week-long packages offer the highest level of recovery and reset for customers.

Time-Bound: How long will this take to achieve the end goal – In a 6 month period we should see the necessary increases in sales for both products and week-long packages.

It is important to have a clear understanding of your goals and objectives to create effective ads that align with your business objectives.

Identify Your Target Audience

The next step is to identify your target audience. Who are you trying to reach with your Facebook ads? Facebook provides a range of targeting options that allow you to reach specific audiences.

There are 3 key categories of targeting you can use with Facebook Ads

Core audiences: Based on demographics, behaviors, and location

Custom audiences: Which allows you to reconnect with people who have already interacted with your business.

Lookalike audiences: Which allows you to target people similar to your best customers but who may not know about your business yet.

It is important to target all 3 of these categories with different strategies. For Hypothetical Company, the core audience is professional women aged 30 -55, and young professionals aged 25 – 35. Hypothetical will reconnect with customers who recently purchased by offering an upgrade fee for purchasers of week-end packages, and free shipping if you add more products to your order. Example Spa Inc, a competitor, has a great following but less offerings. Hypothetical company will target their customers as well.

By understanding the ways in which you can target audiences on Facebook, you can create more relevant and engaging ads that resonate with your audience.

Create Engaging Ad Content

Your ad content is what will capture your audience’s attention and persuade them to take action. You should experiment with different ad formats, such as video ads, carousel ads, and collection ads, to see what resonates best with your audience.

A Collection Ad features a large photo or video at the top of the ad, and then small product images underneath. When a customer clicks the ad, it funnels them to a place where they can make a purchase.

Hypothetical decided that the best ad type for core audiences is a Tik Tok style video of a spa suite, highlighting the workspace area and views. Collection Ads will be used for products.

It is important to experiment with your Facebook ads to see what resonates best with your different audiences. Facebook Ads Manager offers A/B testing, which allows you to test different elements of your ads to see which version performs better.

Set Up Your Ad Campaign

Once you have defined your goals, identified your target audience, and created your ad content, it’s time to set up your ad campaign. Facebook Ads Manager is the platform where you can create and manage your ad campaigns. You will need to choose your ad objective, select your target audience, set your budget, and choose your ad placement. You can also choose to run your ads on Instagram, Messenger, or the Audience Network, which are all part of the Facebook advertising ecosystem.

Hypothetical Company decides that Facebook and Instagram are the best places for their ads to be seen by their target audiences.

Monitor and Optimize Your Ad Performance

After you have launched your ad campaign, it is important to monitor and optimize its performance regularly. You can use Facebook Ads Manager to track key metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and cost per conversion.

This data can help you identify areas where you can optimize your ads to improve their performance. For example, if you notice that your ad is not generating many clicks, you may need to revise your ad copy or adjust your targeting.

Hypothetical Company has put together a small team to oversea their Facebook Ad campaign.

Keep Up with Facebook's Advertising Policies

Facebook has strict advertising policies that all advertisers must follow. These policies cover a range of topics, including prohibited content, targeting options, and ad formats.

It is important to stay up to date with these policies to ensure that your ads comply with Facebook’s guidelines. Failure to comply with Facebook’s policies can result in your ads being disapproved or your account being suspended.

Continuously Refine Your Targeting

Targeting is a critical element of successful Facebook ads. As you monitor your ad performance, you may discover that certain targeting options are not performing as well as others. For example, you may find that a specific age group or location is not responding to your ads. In these cases, you may need to adjust your targeting to reach a more relevant audience.

Conclusion

Facebook Advertising should be a necessary element of a comapny’s digital marketing strategy. It allows you to target multiple audiences at once, test the success or failure of different ads, and offers you access to its millions of users. Use Facebook Ads Manager to set your budget and set your target audiences.

If you are going at it alone start here on Facebook Ads Manager. If you want to discuss your business Let us know here.