How Do Facebook Ads Work? A Quick Guide On How To Use Facebook Ads To Drive Results. 

Facebook ads can be amazing for businesses and brands to gain sales, increase reach and even get in front of retailers. But if you’re not familiar with using them, it can seem complicated and hard to handle.

Whilst it’s true that skills and experience are definitely important when it comes to Facebook ads, as there can be a lot of trial and error when you’re starting out, they don’t have to be scary.

Here’s an overview of how Facebook Ads work and how you can use them for your business.

Understanding Facebook Ads

There are a few different types of adverts and formats you can use on Facebook. You can promote your page, posts, or your website and can use video, image, multi-image (known as carousel ads or slideshow ads), product-based ads and lead form ads.

Facebook Ads can be used for awareness, consideration/engagement or conversions. You have the ability to target your audience based on:

• location
• demographics
• profile information – including their interests, relationship status, connections, education and workplace.

After creating an ad, you set a budget, either for the lifetime of a campaign or a daily one, and “bid” for each click or thousand impressions that your ad will receive. The bidding depends on what competitors are bidding on in the same areas as you, your minimum budgets and who you’re targeting. It sometimes takes a little testing and tweaking to find the right formula for your business.

Whether you offer a product or a service, you can use Facebook ads. You might just need to think a little about what ad format you use and how to advertise.

Once you’ve set up your ad, it goes through to Facebook for approval. They’ll use a mixture of AI and human testing to ensure it meets their terms of service. You’ll be notified when your ad goes live.

What You Need To Think About With Facebook Ads

With Facebook Ads, you usually want to use attractive images or videos alongside copy that converts and works. They need to be hi-res and sized correctly. Think about the incentive and what would motivate a buyer to click through and sign up or purchase. Don’t just make it a cut and dry hard sell.

Think about who you’re targeting and who your existing customers are too. If the main people buying your products or services are Gen Z women, then it makes sense to target your advertising to that audience when you start out. You might think that you should target a different audience to bring in new customers, but that isn’t always the case.

To optimise results, you should also install Facebook pixel on your website too. This collects data that helps you to track conversions from Facebook ads, optimise them, build future ads and remarket to people who have visited your site in the past.

You can use broad or detailed interest targeting – it makes sense to test these and see which work for you. Broad target can seem like a great way to reach a wider audience, but the likelihood is that you’ll spend more and gain less from this method. Detailed targeting is just what it sounds like and can be great for niching down on your target audience and generating more sales.

Familiarise yourself with Facebook’s best practices and advertising rules. Some content, and industries, are prohibited from using Facebook advertising. There are some things you can’t say in a Facebook ad too. You also need to be careful with using text in images as too much will mean your advert won’t be approved. It’s worth getting to grips with the rules first so that you’re not wasting your time.

You also need to keep an eye on your ads and how they’re performing, whether they’re converting and what impact they’re having on sales. You may have to change up some things as you go along to maximise your advertising.

We Can Help!

Sounds like a lot of work? Put your Facebook advertising in our hands to achieve your business goals, and get in touch today!