The 1.2.3s for Launching Your Facebook Ad Campaign

Are you looking for new ways to reach potential customers online? Are you ready to stop being afraid of Facebook Ad campaigns?

These simple steps will get you up and running in no time, no matter how small your budget might be.

Start with Your Facebook Business Page

1. Make sure you have an official Facebook Business Page.
2. Have plenty of content, nicely designed graphics and a professional look already on your page.
3. If you haven’t already done so claim your official Facebook URL, which you can do so here: https://www.facebook.com/username

Here is an example of a nicely designed page header and thumbnail:

Setting Your Facebook Ad Up for Success

1. Determine your ideal target market for the ads you will be creating. (This could be your existing tried and true customer base demographic or, if you are launching a new product or service, a new demographic entirely.)
2. Determine where they live, what interests they have, where do they currently shop/spend their money, etc. (You can even target fans of others in your industry.)
3. Get creative images and copy for your ads created based on your research completed in items 1 and 2.

Facebook allows you to choose very specific demographics and interests as shown by this example below:

Campaign Objective and Facebook Ad Types

1. Choose your campaign goals. (It is best to determine your objectives up front as it helps measure your ROI.)
2. If driving people to your website make sure you choose a landing page with a clear call to action.
3. Facebook offers two types of ads: newsfeed ads and right hand column ads. Experiment with both to see which ones perform best for your product / service.

What You Need to Know About Facebook Ads

1. The Facebook advertising platform will let you run multiple ads at the same time. Run several simultaneously and delete the ones that are not performing.
2. Throw in a wild card ad with an image you would not have typically picked to see how it performs. (There are many sites that offer images at a relatively low price, so you don’t necessarily need to hire a graphic artist.)
3. Experiment with your ads by switching up the images with some featuring short text and some longer text. You can use up to six images per ad set.

Note: For each ad set you can either set a daily budget or a lifetime budget, and the time frame you want the ad set to run.

Assessing Facebook Ad Campaign Performance

1.  Test, test and more testing! (Consider running a contest in conjunction with your ads.)
2. You most likely will see results of which ads are performing best immediately through the ad campaign management platform.
3. Be ready for a surprise. The ad you think will get the most clicks vs. what actually does.

Example Facebook ad campaign report:

Don’t expect perfect results the first time out of the gate. Facebook Advertising involves testing, refining and more testing until you hit your optimal results.

Last, but not least, don’t hesitate to hire a professional to help with images or copy. A little bit of money and education can go a long way toward success. Want to know more about social media marketing for small business? Download our eBook.

Have you been running any Facebook ads? What were the results? Let’s discuss.

Learn more on this important topic at one of the largest digital marketing conferences for 2015!

Melanie Neal

Melanie Neal is a Marketing Strategist and Founder of Zella Ruby Media. She develops engaging integrated marketing campaigns to help businesses reach their ideal audiences. She is also a speaker and founder of The Dallas Entrepreneurs Meetup group.

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