The Ultimate Guide To Facebook Ads & Generating ROI

Chapter 1: Why Facebook Advertising?

Facebook offers the most creative way to engage your existing customers and discover high-quality leads for your business. For businesses, it’s a lead-generation machine that helps you build your brand and reach out to the right people at the right time. However, the social networking platform has made some drastic changes to its core algorithm, making it difficult for businesses to connect with users organically. So much so that businesses have reported substantial drops in organic reach they previously enjoyed. Well, is there a way to overcome this challenge and get the most out of your Facebook activities?

Yes, actually. Facebook gives you a host of powerful options to target the most relevant audience. The level of layered targeting available for Facebook Ads can specifically target those who are truly interested in your products or services. Imagine what this means for your business and marketing strategy at large. You only pay to reach people who share some kind of interest in your business. Sounds great right?

It’s one thing to read about the amazing results people have generated using Facebook Ads, but it's a whole different ball game to understand different types of ads and deploy them on your own. Now, before we take you through the host of ad types and targeting techniques, let us quickly give you the reason why you should be using Facebook for ads.

Facebook Ads are Relatively Cheap and Effective

Not many in the past would have predicted that Facebook would dominate the digital landscape as it does today, let alone become such a prominent platform for advertising. With over 2.9 billion monthly users worldwide, Facebook has become an integral part of everyone’s lives. If you are planning on building your brand’s presence or reaching out to your target audience on social media, Facebook should definitely be on that list.

In a study published in 2019, it was revealed that Facebook ad revenue reached a staggering £2.6 billion in the UK. With Facebook Ad revenue showing a steady rise, study after study keeps surfacing about how people are discovering new products on the platform.

Just like the millions of marketers who make thousands of pounds running Facebook Ads, you can also win big, provided that you know how to make things work.

Facebook Offers a Super-easy Set-up

From big corporations to small local businesses, Facebook is the go-to platform for advertising these days. Why? For one thing, you can set up your Facebook campaign in no time and start generating actual results for your business needs. If you set up the campaign with great attention to detail, you will start seeing ROI instantly. The best part about using Facebook ads is that you can set up your business manager account on the go. More importantly, the platform gives you the freedom to experiment with different ad types until you find the perfect strategy. Also, you can start generating clicks for as low as £0.10.

Reaching the Most Relevant Audience

According to a recent IAB Europe and Eastwick Communications study, 47% of consumers reported that Facebook was their primary source of inspiration when it came to making shopping decisions. This percentage is the highest among any other social media platform. The same survey also revealed that 43% of respondents said they purchased items they first encountered on Facebook, showing the platform's influence on consumer buying behaviour.

As you probably know by now, Facebook is arguably one of the most famous social media platforms out there. So it shouldn’t be a surprise why Facebook Ads is such a great platform to reach the most relevant audience. Facebook offers the most multi-faceted type of advertising options where you can target users based on various indicators including behaviour on the landing page, engagement metrics, and demographic breakdown. The platform injects the much-needed data granularity into advertising that you won’t find elsewhere. Drawing on such a layered range of metrics can help you to start generating tangible ROI from your Facebook ads.

Create Super Customisable Ads Campaigns

Facebook advertising is all about delivering the most customised experience for your target. Taking customisation to the next level, the 'Optimize Text per Person' feature now allows Facebook to fine-tune your ad's headlines, descriptions, and captions, ensuring each viewer receives a message tailored just for them. Activate this feature with a simple click in your ad setup, and watch your engagement grow as Facebook optimises your messaging in real-time. Think of it as having a personal assistant who knows exactly what your audience likes, tweaking your message for optimal engagement. It’s as simple as flipping a switch during ad setup, and voila, you're on autopilot, ready to capture hearts and minds. Embrace this feature and effortlessly watch your ads become more relevant and compelling.

Example: You’re running a campaign for a seasonal sale, with the headline “Big Winter Sale” and the description “Save up to 50% on all outerwear.” With “Optimise Text per Person” enabled, Facebook might present the description before the headline to some users if it predicts that leading with the discount will be more compelling to them. This dynamic adjustment aims to increase engagement by tailoring the ad’s presentation to individual preferences.

Unlike other advertising platforms, Facebook lets you tailor the ad experience just how users want. With a host of ad formats to choose from, you can keep experimenting until you find the right format. Having said that, remember the times when crafting an ad image felt like walking a tightrope, balancing just enough text to convey your message without tipping over the 20% rule? Breathe easy; those days are behind us. Facebook has lifted the restriction, opening the doors to creative freedom. However, a word to the wise: ads with minimal text still reign supreme in performance. While you're free to express more with words, remember that a clear, focused message often speaks volumes.

Example: A non-profit organisation creates an ad featuring a powerful image overlaid with more than 20% text, including a compelling quote and call to action. Previously, this might have been rejected or penalised. Now, the ad runs without issue, though the organisation is mindful that keeping text concise could still enhance performance based on Facebook's recommendations.

From creating engaging videos to using creative copies that pique the curiosity of the target audience, the ad format also lets you choose what fits your business goal. Expanding our arsenal, Instagram Reels Ads (which is also owned by Facebook) now offer a dynamic new way to engage audiences, allowing advertisers to create captivating, full-screen videos that capture the spirit of their brand in moments. These 30-second, interactive snippets are your ticket to engaging with people beyond your follower list, in an undeniably popular format. With no special requirements to get started, it's an open invitation to experiment with creative, attention-grabbing content that speaks the language of your brand. Dive into Reels ads and tap into a world where your message meets the moment.

Example: A clothing brand wants to promote its summer collection. They create a 30-second, engaging Reel showcasing their clothing line in various summer settings. This Reel ad, set between other non-sponsored Reels, allows users to like, comment, and even share this ad, increasing the brand’s visibility beyond its current followers and leveraging the engaging format of Reels to capture attention.

If you’re entirely new to the ad types, we will take you through the whole range of ad formats so that you can identify the perfect campaign objective for advertising.

See the screenshot below:

As you can see, there are 6 different Facebook campaign objectives you can select for your specific business goal. These objectives include awareness, traffic, engagement, leads, app promotion, and sales. More importantly, you can tailor your creative, optimise landing page elements and fix any technical issues that may hold your campaign back. Enjoy the power of customisable features like Target audience, bidding techniques and delivery optimisation.

Having said that, with the latest update, choosing your campaign objective has been simplified even further. Now, the streamlined objectives align more closely with your marketing goals, making it easier to select the right path from the outset. In our journey through Facebook Ads, we've seen how choosing the right campaign objective can pivot your strategy towards success.

For a recent campaign, we chose the objective of "sales" for an e-commerce client, and it made it easy for us to reach our targets. More specifically, it allowed us to maximise sales and conversions on the website. You can see proof of this in the screenshot below:

Now, Facebook Ads Manager welcomes you with a streamlined selection of objectives, making your decision process smoother than ever. Whether your aim is brand awareness, driving traffic, increasing engagement, generating leads, promoting an app, or boosting sales, the simplified menu has you covered. No sweat if you're running campaigns with the 'old' objectives; they're still on track and need no adjustments. This update ensures your marketing goals are met with precision, without the hassle of second-guessing your objective choice.

Example: Imagine you’re launching a new product and your primary goal is to generate buzz around it. Under the streamlined objectives, you would choose "Awareness" to maximise the number of people who learn about your product. In practice, when setting up your campaign in Ads Manager, you simply select "Awareness" and the system guides you through the most effective setup to reach as many eyes as possible.

The Addition of Automated App Ads

Another interesting new feature update is particularly exciting for app advertisers. Introducing the Automated App Ads (AAA), which marks a new era of efficiency. By harnessing the power of machine learning, AAAs streamline the campaign creation process, focusing on delivering the best possible results with minimal manual input. You're now equipped to launch campaigns faster, test creative combinations effortlessly, and reach your audience more effectively. Though they come with certain formats and targeting limitations, AAAs represent a significant step towards smarter, more automated app advertising on Facebook.

Example: A mobile game developer wants to promote their new game. They set up an Automated App Ad, providing multiple images and video clips of the game in action, along with several catchy headlines and descriptions. Facebook’s algorithm automatically tests different combinations of these elements and optimises ad delivery based on which versions perform best, targeting relevant audiences across supported regions and languages without manual ad set adjustments.

Access Brand-new Features Every Month

Facebook is known for bringing about constant changes to its platform to improve the user experience for advertisers and users. Providing value to users is the sole reason why Facebook has witnessed so much growth over the years. One such instance is the response to Apple's iOS 14.5 update, which essentially limits the collection of iOS user data collection, as users can now opt in or out. This in turn means there is a severe lack of data for advertisers to go off of. To combat this, the social media platform rolled out new performance, reporting, and measurement features including:

• Aggregated Event Measurement for iOS14 users
• View-through attribution which is set to become a default feature
• Consideration of all advertiser-associated URLs

We’ve seen Facebook introduce a variety of powerful features including carousel ads for Instagram Stories and separate categories for dynamic ads. All these new features are testimony to what Facebook is doing to help people advertise better on the platform. The new updates are designed to make the platform more versatile and advertiser-friendly.

Facebook is essentially asking all of us to adapt to the platform professionally, so you tap into the powers of social media marketing. If you want to learn Facebook ads like a professional, first you need to set up a Facebook Business Manager account. Once you’ve done that, you can create your first campaign on Facebook. But don’t worry, we will help you get there with our actionable guide.

Chapter 2: Setting Up Your First Facebook Ads Account

If you’ve ever felt disoriented while trying to grasp the basics of Facebook Ads, then you’ve come to the right place. Let’s start by giving you a step-by-step guide to setting up your Facebook ads account. Also, if you’re torn between Facebook Business Manager and Facebook Ads Manager, we will clear things up for you.

Understanding How Business Manager Works

Business Manager is created and used by advertisers to manage their Facebook pages and ad accounts. This powerful tool will help you assign management roles for individuals on your Facebook page or ad account, allowing you to manage who can access your pages or who should be removed. It also allows you to collaborate with agencies so you can get their assistance to manage your ad campaigns effectively.

Keep all your ad accounts and users in a single business manager account. Let’s show you how to create your first campaign using the business manager. To create a campaign, your business manager needs to be the manager of at least one Facebook page. You can easily do this by adding a Facebook page to your business manager.

• Head over to your business manager settings
• Click accounts and then pages
• Look for Add Page “CTA” in the pages column and click on it
• Now you can either claim a page, request access to a page or create a new page
• To request access or claim a page, dial in your Facebook page name or URL
• If select the request access or claim an ad account option, enter your ad account ID

Before you get started with advertising, you will be asked to provide account information and credit card details for the payment process of your ad.

Setting Up your Ad Account Details

Setting up your payment method is the first step towards pushing your campaign live. Once your ad account is set up, you won’t have to make any changes to it until you decide to change the payment mode or create a new ad account. We will show you step-by-step how to set it up correctly.

Let’s navigate to our ad account settings and set this up!

Head to your Business Manager and then click on “Ad Accounts” found under “Accounts”. Now fill up all fields with details like company names, addresses, and all the important information.

Business Manager Screenshot below:

Now Facebook will let you select your billing currency and specific timezone. Make sure you’re fully sure about the details you enter as you won’t get a chance to edit it once your ad account is set up. After entering your company information, you need to enter your billing information.

How To Set Up Your Billing And Payment Details

Next up, you need to simply add a payment method and you’re well on your way to setting up your first Facebook campaign. Click on Ad account settings and then on payment settings. This is where you can enter your payment method information. You’re now on the billing page.

• Set up new payment methods
• Make changes to the existing set-up
• Set up your account spending limit
• Check your next bill

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Here’s how you can add a payment method to your new account:
Click on the “Add Payment Method” button. Now select the method you want to add. Fill up all the necessary information and click continue to proceed.

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Facebook offers a good deal of flexibility to advertisers with payment options like credit/debit cards, PayPal and direct debit. Additionally, you can use gift cards for pre-payment or use an existing balance in Ads Manager.

Top Tip: Add alternative payment options once you start running full-fledged campaigns. If you set this up, you will forever remove the risk of Facebook stopping your campaigns due to credit card expiry. When a well-performing ad has to be stopped due to a card billing failure, then it could adversely affect your campaign. The sudden halt to a campaign could derail the ad learning process. Now, if you set up an alternative payment method, the Facebook billing process will continue to work properly in the event of primary credit card billing failure.

Making Edits To Your Payment Options

To make any changes to your payment methods, just click on “Edit Payment Methods”. Choose the primary option from the multiple options you’ve entered. Always keep in mind that you can’t delete your primary source, so make sure to add another payment as your primary before trying to remove your current method.

How Often Do You Get Billed by Facebook Ads?

Facebook Ads will bill you according to the settings you chose when setting up your billing and payment details. You can select a monthly or weekly recurring payment option, or you can opt for a one-time payment per campaign. The billing threshold essentially means that you will be charged every time your ad spend reaches a set threshold.

These thresholds don’t have any direct impact on your advertising campaigns; they just affect how often you’ll be charged. The big advantage of having a high threshold is that you’ll have to deal with fewer invoices. If you want to change your threshold or have problems with billing, you can contact Facebook support. Remember, the threshold you set up doesn’t affect your advertising campaigns in any way. It’s just a simple value that determines how often you’re billed. Plus, if you set a high threshold, you will have to deal with fewer bills.

Set Up Account Spending Limit

You can all always stay in control of your ad costs by setting up an account spending limit. The idea is to have Facebook stop your campaign every time you reach the account spending limit.

Ad account spending limits can be super handy when you’re working with agencies. For instance, when you want to make sure that your Facebook Ads Agency doesn’t spend more than a specific amount of money, you could just set the account spending limit to be on the safe side. You may want to set it up to a reasonable amount so you won’t have to update it too often. Also, keep in mind that all your accounts could get paused for 15-20 minutes every time you reach the account spending limit.

Facebook Ad Account Limits

While Facebook offers a whole range of advertising options, it does come with limits of its own. And it’s essential to know its limitations so you always know what you’re dealing with.

• You can only add up to 25 ad accounts in the Facebook Ads Manager
• An ad account on average can only contain 25 users
• An ad account can only archive 5,000 ads

Keep Reviewing Your Notification Settings

You need to keep up to speed with every update that appears on the advertising platform. Facebook notifications will always keep you on your toes and inform you about the latest changes to the platform. Depending on how you want to be bombarded with an avalanche of notifications from Facebook, you can change the frequency of the notification.

Here’s what you need to do to edit your notification settings:

• Head over to your ad account settings
• Click on the “Notifications” button
• You can add or remove the events for which you need notifications

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Review Your Ad Account Roles

So you have been creating and managing your ads for some time, and now it’s time for you to collaborate with other people. This is where you can assign and manage account roles for users, but keep in mind that with recent changes and updates, some terms and roles used within the Business Account have been changed.

Screenshot below:

You can invite people to start collaborating and as an admin, can either give them full access or partial access. But otherwise, once you complete filling out all the details and inviting all the necessary people, you’re just a few clicks away from launching your new campaign.

Chapter 3: Creating Your Facebook Ads Campaign

With this chapter, we will give a point-by-point breakdown of everything necessary to create and manage your first Facebook Ad campaign. By the end of it, you will know how to make the most of Facebook Ads Manager, set up new campaigns, create new ad sets, understand and deploy ad bids, accurately target your audience and measure your campaign’s progress. Also, we will be showing you how to A/B test your campaign. So keep reading.

Getting Your Head around Ads Manager

In essence, there are three ways to get to the Ads Manager.

1. Click on this link to go straight to the Ads Manager account (You may want to bookmark this one for quicker access)
2. Click on the drop-down located in the top right corner of your Facebook page and click on the “Business Manager”
3. Install Facebook’s Ads Manager app to start managing your campaigns on the fly. If you’ve ever logged into Facebook’s Ads Manager, you may be familiar with these three tabs, namely, account overview, campaigns, Ad sets and Ads.

Screenshot of Ads Manager:

As you start to navigate the interface, you will see a whole range of tools that you can use to leverage your advertising. From detailed reporting to a custom audience, you find all the tools in the top left corner where it says, Ads Manager. Now hover over the ads manager to find all your account activities. You need a solid understanding of how to navigate the ads manager interface.

Setting Up Your First Ad Campaign

To create your first campaign you should head over to the campaigns tab where you need to click on the green “create” icon to custom-build your campaign step by step.

Screenshot below:

Much of what follows is pretty straightforward, for instance, once you’ve clicked on the “create campaign” button, you will be taken to this page. Yeah, this may look a bit confusing for a beginner at first, but hang in there as we will guide you through everything.

Choose Your Campaign Objective

Your Facebook advertising is only as good as how well your campaign objective aligns with your business goal. If your marketing goal is to establish your brand’s presence across the social media platform, you need to select brand awareness. Now if you want to drive traffic to a landing page, then you should select conversions.

There are a few different other campaign objectives that you could think about pursuing, but these are just examples to give you an idea:

• Awareness: Increase people’s awareness of your brand and products.
• Traffic: Drive more visits to your website or landing page.
• Engagement: Generate more likes, shares, comments, and post engagements.
• App promotion: Get more downloads for your mobile app.
• Sales: Increase sales through your campaign
• Leads: Generate leads and sign-ups for your business.

Tips For Selecting Your Campaign Objective

You must spend time identifying the right campaign objective as it determines the types of options you can use for advertising. From ad formats to bidding strategies, setting up the relevant objective will help you optimise your campaign accordingly. So for this example, we’re taking conversion as the objective.

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Name Your Campaign

Once you’ve set up the campaign objective, you need to give your campaign a name. Here’s where you can get a bit creative and come up with names that will help you track your campaigns effectively. The idea is to be able to organise your campaigns with ease especially as you start running multiple campaigns.

Top Tip: Make sure to enter a date range of the campaign in your campaign. Depending on your business goal, you can include these various elements in your campaign name.

• Client name/website name
• Location/target audience
• Creative format/design
• Facebook page name

Following a consistent naming convention will streamline your tracking process and ad reporting. When you select a campaign objective, you have the option to run a split test.

See the Screenshot Below:

Running a split test for campaigns will give you the data necessary to measure the performance level of your campaign, allowing you to make key changes to your campaign.

Target the Right Audience

Facebook advertising is all about detailed targeting. It lets you target your audience based on the details you enter. We will show you how to do that later on in this article, but for now, let’s look at how to create and manage your ad sets. If you look back, you may remember seeing ads manager screenshots showing campaign tabs, ad set tabs and so on.

Ads and ad sets are set in your campaign. Ads contain the whole range of creatives and copy whereas ad sets contain details like specific audiences and budgets. So let’s start building your custom audience.

At the audience creation stage, Facebook offers two options:

• Build a brand-new Facebook target audience
• Deploy a pre-saved audience

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As you continue to expand your reach, Facebook's estimated daily reach metric indicates the size of your audience. Leverage "Likes" and "Interests" from users on Facebook so that you can adjust your target demographic perfectly for what your business is aiming to achieve.

Defining and setting up a target audience is central to generating the desired outcome for your campaign. For advanced audience creation, we will touch on the custom audience and lookalike audience at a later stage in our guide.

Setting Your Ad Placement

Facebook ads are set to automatic placements, meaning that your ad is shown on Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network. Placements are optimised to give you the best results. You also have the option to edit out your placement if you feel that a specific type works better for you.

Here are the types of placements available for advertisers:

Placements on Facebook

• Feed
• Marketplace
• Instant Articles
• Instream Videos
• Stories

Placements on Audience Network

• Native, Banner and Interstitial
• In-stream videos

Placements on Instagram

• Feed
• Stories

Placements on Messenger

• Inbox
• Sponsored Messages

Check out the screenshot below:

Top Tip: How do you select the ideal placement for your campaign if this is your first time setting up a campaign? Well, it’s recommended that you opt for automatic placements. Now if you happen to run an exclusive campaign for your website and you have a poorly optimised website, you should unselect mobile newsfeed. We’ve brought you the list of ad placement options so that you get an idea of what might work better for your campaign.

• For the brand awareness and engagement campaigns select a combination of Facebook and Instagram
• For campaigns based on video views, use Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network.
• For driving website traffic use the combination of Facebook and Audience network
• For conversion campaigns, use Facebook and Audience Network.

Set up Your First Facebook Ads

Spend some extra time perfecting your ads so that you choose the right ad type and use the most relevant creatives and copy. At this stage, there are two ways to go about it: Use the Facebook page post you’ve created or create a new ad.

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Chapter 4: Guide to Facebook Ad Types

In this chapter, we’re going to explore the whole array of Facebook Ad types. By the end of the chapter, you will be equipped with the knowledge necessary to identify the right Facebook Ad type and manage it like a professional.
So let’s go through each of these ad types and learn the best practices.

Driving Traffic To Your Website

Website or landing page traffic is one of the primary reasons why most people spend money on Facebook advertising. Each traffic-based advertising campaign is aimed at persuading users to visit your website and take profitable action. So let’s see how Facebook ads can be used to drive traffic.

Link Click Ads

Arguably the most popular ad type on Facebook, Link Click Ads work like a charm for driving website traffic. This ad type is designed to drive users to your website or landing page. The ad type is compatible with various placements including, mobile newsfeed, desktop newsfeed and Instagram. Plus, this ad type can also generate “Likes” for your ad campaign. All you have to do is respond to the comments on the ad posts to improve the engagement rate.

Ad Specifications:

Image size: 1200 x 628 pixels
Ad copy text count: 90 Characters
Headline limit: 25 characters
Link description: 30 Characters

See the screenshot below:

Video Ads

Facebook Video Ads are another form of Link Click Ads – just that instead of a still image, your ad features a video.

Ad Specifications

Ad copy text limit: 90 characters
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 to 9:16
You can play videos in a loop
Maximum Video duration of 120 minutes

Fact: the best-performing video ads tend to be around 15-30 seconds

Facebook Page Posts

Facebook gives you the chance to boost the posts you publish on your Facebook page. With a click on “Boost Post,” you’re well on your way to targeting your audience and bidding options to advertise your post across the platform.

Image size: 1200 x 628 pixels
Ad text: Unlimited
Headline limit: 25 characters
Link description: 30 characters

It’s worth noting that your boosted post will look like your ordinary Facebook post. You can spot one by seeing the sponsored sign on top of the ad.

Check out the screenshot below:

Generating Sales And Leads

If you are selling multiple products, Facebook offers you the option to display them in a single ad. The platform has even introduced ad types that ensure users stay on the platform and engage longer with your product or services. These ad types make for a great user experience, save up your time and help you obtain quality leads.

Carousel Ads

The carousel ad type can display up to 10 product images or videos in a single ad.

If you’re an eCommerce website owner trying to promote lots of products, carousel ads will offer you a great option. Plus, this ad type will let you find out what works for your advertising strategy and generates optimal engagement among users.

Image size: 1080 x 1080 or 600 x 600 pixels
Ad copy text: 90 Characters
Headline: 25 Characters
Link description limit: 30 Characters

Screenshot below:

Facebook Lead Ads

Lead ads are the most effective means of generating high-quality leads at reasonable rates. This is Facebook’s most user-friendly ad type as it allows users to sign up or download your content without leaving Facebook for a third-party platform. And you know the rule of marketing: the fewer the clicks to achieve a goal, the better the user experience, and the more likely they are to convert.

Image size: 1,200 x 628 pixels
Ad copy limit: 90 characters
Headline: 25 characters
Link description: 30 characters

For your Lead ad to be approved, you need to have a privacy policy and website URL.

Generating Likes And Engagement For Your Page

What do you intend to get out of your Facebook ads campaign? Is it Likes, brand exposure, or engagement? Facebook reduced the organic reach of page posts back in 2012 when it implemented changes to its News Feed algorithm. The algorithm change was meant to prioritise personal connections and interactions over the business and promotional content. This caused a dramatic drop in the number of people who were seeing posts from Pages on their news feeds—a decrease of more than 50%.

This initial change is what caused page owners to invest in ads more heavily and get us to where we are now. The Likes and Engagement objectives on Facebook help you broaden the reach of your organic posts. That said, let’s look at the different options available for doing just that.

Page Like Ads

If you want to increase page likes for your Facebook page, look no further than the Page Like ads. This ad type is ready to be featured in all types of placements. It can show a call to action to trigger an instant action from your target audience.

Now, while targeting an audience, make sure to prioritise quality over quantity as you need to target those interested in your product or service. Additionally, use a compelling image so it resonates with your target audience.

Screenshot below:

Page Post Video Ads

As always, video advertising generates the most amount of engagement for your posts. In general, video content has an intrinsic capacity to engage your audience better and for a longer period. You can retarget visitors based on the amount of time they spend watching your video.

Ad copy: 90 characters
Aspect Ratios: 16:9 to 9:16
File size: upload up to 4 GB
Video can be 120 minutes long

Top Tip: Target your audience based on their choice of language.

While running Facebook ads, you must stop making assumptions about the language your target may be using. Let’s say you’re a British person who just moved to Japan and now you’re getting bombarded with Facebook ads in the Japanese language. Well, this is a typical case of using wrong language targeting. These ads don’t mean anything to you because you probably don’t speak the Japanese language yet.

Now, from the perspective of an advertiser, this incident can easily be avoided with better language targeting. As you probably know by now, Facebook is equipped with a host of advertising options you can use to achieve business goals. We recommend you experiment with formats that best suit your business model.

See the screenshot below:

Chapter 5: Creating Ad Creatives and Copy

Even as you read this, you probably have got another tab open where you are looking for a cute pug on Facebook. Well, you’re not alone. There are millions of others looking for something different on the platform.

This trend also presents a huge opportunity for people to advertise on Facebook. Of course, sometimes, Facebook ads can be a form of puzzle where you need to combine all the key pieces to make them work together. From design creatives to compelling copy, you need to get the basic things in place. First up, we will show how to set up your ad creative, followed by a breakdown of creating the right ad copy.

Setting Up Your Ad Creative

In the campaign creation phase, you can select between several types of ad creatives, depending on your campaign objective. During the campaign creation process, you will have the option to choose from a variety of ad creatives depending on what you wish to achieve.

Your goal should be to experiment with different types of creatives until you find the format that works for your specific business need.

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When it comes to the selecting image for your ad, Facebook gives you 3 options:

– Upload a photo from your computer
– Browse through the library and reuse the image you had uploaded
– Browse the free stock images gallery

Facebook has partnered with Shutterstock to bring you thousands of royalty-free, stock images that can spice up the quality of your ad campaign and give it a creative edge. While you’re running a campaign make sure to update the images so that creatives don’t look repetitive. Having a collection of free images at your disposal will help you keep your creativity fresh and appealing.

Now, you should always go easy on using the stock images as they are free for all Facebook users and they have probably been featured in ads a lot of times before. This is why it’s important to create your own set of graphics for your Facebook ads. Stock images are good but use them sparingly.

Tips for Perfecting Your Ad Creative

Here are a bunch of design hacks that will help you create high-performing ads. And the thing with high-performing ads is, they will make it possible for you to generate clicks at a low cost per click.

Experiment with Multiple Designs and Formats

In advertising, simply assuming things is not good enough. You must test and verify at every turn. Test the ad design and the target audience you’re reaching out to. Always keep in mind that consumer behaviour changes constantly. When you create a campaign, spend an extra amount of time creating 4 separate designs and make sure to split-test each of them.

For instance, create ads carrying two different images with the same ad text. Find out which version of your ad works better and why. In essence, this is A/B testing your ads.

Check out the screenshot below:

Create Buyer Persona

Every customer you target on Facebook is unique and has their own pain points. If you can craft a buyer persona, you can not only improve the ad experience but provide a better customer experience.

Filter down each customer type based on variables like age group, profession, pain points, and goals. Once your buyer persona is ready, you can tailor your ad design and copy using customers’ pain points.

Publish Social Proof

Including social proof in your ad campaign can influence the buying behaviour of users. Social proof works as an endorsement of your product and services, meaning that people who previously bought your products would recommend them to others. Testimonials will inject much-needed credibility into your ad campaign.

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Writing Engaging Facebook Ads Copy

Every time you think of Facebook ads, a set of graphics comes to your mind. While images are central to the success of your campaign, ad copy is just as important. A well-written ad copy can convince your audience to click through to your landing page. The copy you create should work as a guide for users, telling them what they should do or where they should go to get what they need.

First up, your ad copy must grab the attention of the audience and then persuade them to take the desired action.

To write the ad copy you need to fill up a few fields at the campaign creation level:

Ad text – You can enter up to 90 characters
Headline – 25 characters
Link description – Up to 90 characters

The best way to start is by creating multiple headlines and descriptions for ad campaigns. Having multiple copies at the ready will avoid the trouble of improvising at the time of campaign creation.

Here are some proven tips for writing your Facebook ad copy:

Narrow Down Your Audience Before Writing Ad Copy

Crafting effective Facebook ads can be difficult, especially when you’re attempting to promote something. People are more likely to engage with ad copy which isn't overly promotional; therefore, you need to determine who actually cares about the products or services your business offers. Fortunately, Facebook has a range of tools and demographic data at your disposal so that you can narrow down precisely who should see each advertisement – maximising its credibility and effectiveness in the process.

For example, you can detail target people under the age of 30, living in Liverpool, who are also interested in fitness. Now you can tailor your content to connect with this audience.

Combine Copy and Graphics

Facebook is giving you a golden chance to connect with your audience at a relatively low budget and you need to make the best out of it. So make sure that your copy is aligned with the creative you’re trying to promote. If your creativity doesn’t gel well with your copy, it can create a jarring experience for users. These types of copies will just go past Facebook users without being noticed.

Focus on Your Call-to-Action

All high-performing Facebook ads come with a laser-focused CTA. Whether you’re building brand awareness, generating leads, or selling products, you need to include a clear call to action. The last thing you want is to confuse Facebook users with a disjointed ad copy. As soon as they see your ad copy, they should know where to click and go. For instance, if you’re selling phone cases, your ad creative should contain a “Shop Now” call-to-action button.

Use Numbers and Stats in Your Ad Copy

If you’re selling a specific product through your Facebook ad, let people know how much it costs. For instance, if there’s a deal up for grabs, people want to know much they can save. If anything can produce an instant impact, it’s numbers. Display the key figures in the ad copy, and see your ad generate lots of clicks and traffic.

Alright, now that you know how to set up your ad creative and copy, put your thinking cap on and get creative!

Chapter 6: Selecting the Right Bidding and Optimising Your Ad

In this chapter, we're helping you navigate Facebook’s campaign and set up your budget. While it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of ad data, Facebook’s campaign creation is pretty straightforward. So, don't worry, we’ll guide you through the step-by-step process of selecting the right bidding and optimising your ad accordingly.

Understanding the Structure of Ads Manager

You can break Facebook’s campaign structure into three levels:

• Campaign
• Ad Set
• Ad

As you learned earlier in the guide, a campaign can carry multiple ad sets, each having a unique objective. A campaign is basically a springboard for better organising your advertising activities on a single platform. As long as you know which objective to choose, you should do just fine.

A Facebook ad set usually comprises multiple ads and it gives a host of options including detailed targeting, scheduling and bidding techniques. Ad sets are where you can conduct multiple A/B testing and store different variations of ads.

You can think of the Facebook ad as the starting point of your campaign. A campaign will only carry a single objective (For example-driving website traffic). At the ad sets level, you can set a budget or even schedule each of the ads separately.

For instance, ad sets let you create separate audience segments. Now, each of these ad sets can contain multiple ads comprising its own set of images and copy. You will have the option to bid, target audiences, and select creatives for each ad.

Setting Up Your Campaign Budget

Picking the right budget for your campaign is critical to your success. The first step of the “Budget & Schedule” setup is to assign a budget for your campaign.

Facebook gives you two budgeting options:

(Selecting a relevant bidding strategy is key to running successful campaigns. Before you can get the campaign underway you need to assign a budget.)

Daily Budget

This is a specific amount you set up so Facebook can spend it on delivering your ad. You’re essentially telling Facebook to run ads for a set amount of money. Facebook will optimise your budget proportionally to run your campaign throughout the day. Depending on the competition and various other factors, Facebook will auto-optimise your ad to convert better.

Life Time Budget

Facebook will internally divide the campaign budget and distribute it proportionally based on campaign dates. At the time of selecting a lifetime budget, you will be asked to enter the campaign dates. This way Facebook can calculate the ad spend for each day and distribute it evenly over the campaign's lifetime.

Selecting Ad Delivery Optimisation

Once your ad campaign’s budget is all set, you can opt for the Ad Delivery Optimisation feature.

How does selecting Ad Delivery Optimisation help?

This optimisation feature lets Facebook understand what your exact business goals are. For instance, if your goal is to drive traffic to your landing page, you need to optimise your ad for link clicks. If landing page conversion is your desired outcome, you need to choose conversion as the objective.

Understanding Facebook Ads Bidding

When you get on Facebook’s advertising platform, you’re also locking horns with thousands of other advertisers. Some of these advertisers may be scrambling it out for the same target audience you want to reach. Facebook ad bidding is actually an auction-based system where anyone who gets the right combination of the quality bid, ad relevance score, and engagement rate wins the race.

Should You Choose Manual or Automatic Bidding?

If you are just getting started with Facebook’s advertising platform and are not quite confident about going about things on your own, you should choose automatic bidding. Facebook will take care of the bidding process and you won’t have to worry about anything.

Now if you want to have greater control over your ad’s budget spend, you should select manual bidding. Keep in mind that a basic understanding of bidding techniques is a prerequisite for running manual bidding on your own. Even if you’re not quite sure about the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for a click, Facebook will recommend bid amounts that you can use to make up your mind. Always make the point of tweaking the pre-set manual bid suggested by Facebook. These bid ranges should be used as a reference point.

Facebook also lets you schedule your ads so that you can reach your audience in the right place at the right time.

Top Tip: Use Cost-cap Bidding to maximise budgets. The cost-cap bidding strategy gives advertisers the option to choose "Maximum Cost Per Action" or "Cost Per Impression" based on exactly what you’re willing to pay for results. Let’s say you’re trying to get a high-quality sign up for your product, but you’re working with a shoestring budget, setting up a budget cap will make sure that you don’t waste your money on low-quality engagement.

Chapter 7: Retargeting with Facebook Ads

Finding it hard to convert your visitors into buyers? With the ‘shopping cart abandonment’ rate on the rise and people leaving your website to never return, it’s quickly becoming imperative for businesses to find a way around this problem.

What’s going on with your advertising? Is it something you said in the copy that ruffles their feathers? Or maybe it’s the pricing of the services or products. You can never be careful enough about how you set up and manage your marketing campaign. Because digital marketers stand to lose lots of users if a campaign doesn’t strike the right chord, it has become all the more important to use " Facebook Remarketing" to win back people who may otherwise never return to your business of their own accord.

Statistics show that retargeting users who left your landing page without taking the desired action, are more likely to convert when they see you again on their Facebook feed. Whether you’re just starting with Facebook ads or trying to improve your conversion rate, you should explore retargeting to achieve the best effects.

So let’s find out how you incorporate the Facebook Retargeting technique into your marketing strategy.

What’s Retargeting in Facebook Ads?

Despite your campaign's consistent website traffic, you're still not able to convert those visitors into patrons. Facebook Retargeting is a method of producing and managing ad campaigns by focusing on former site guests. With the use of tracking pixels, you can identify and retarget these users who left your page– granting you an extra shot at persuading them towards valuable actions.

Don't be deceived - retargeting isn't about chasing the hesitant visitor; it is instead about understanding your audience's true preferences and desires so that you can better speak to them. Before you start this process, however, first understand how custom audiences and Facebook pixel work.

Understanding Your Custom Audience and Facebook Pixel

The best part about Facebook Retargeting ads is that you can target your audience based on a variety of layered behavioural metrics of visitors.

• Visitors who spend a certain amount of time on a landing page
• People who haven’t visited your site in a while
• Users who visited a particular page on your website

Yes, you can define your target audience using all types of metrics and reconnect with people who have previously shown some interest in your products or services. This is the sole purpose of creating a "Custom Audience" as it will help you figure out who you are targeting.

You can create a Custom Audience through various options like customer files, website traffic, app activity, and engagement. We will be specifically exploring the website traffic option as it will let you use a pixel.

Now, a pixel is essentially a tracking code that helps you track visitor behaviour and subsequently retarget them on their Facebook feed. To start tracking, all you need to do is copy and paste the pixel code on your website. If you’re a website owner, you may already be familiar with installing analytics code and, aside from a few tweaks here and there. It’s basically very similar to that process.

Select the website traffic option where you want to tailor your targeting. Let’s say you want to target people who visited a specific product page on your website, you can include the webpage URL and retarget anyone who landed on it. Make sure to give a name to your audience and write a description of the task.

Once your audience is populated, you can either integrate your pixel through a third-party platform such as Shopify or you can manually copy and paste the pixel code onto your website. Facebook offers an easy guide for installing its pixel and testing its functionality.

Facebook also allows marketers to track specific user actions on their websites by using event codes. By implementing event codes you can monitor actions like visitors clicking on tabs or adding products to the shopping cart.

Note that Facebook says that the pixel activation may take up to 20 minutes. Of course, you can work with a host of variables and make many technical tweaks to Facebook campaigns. Such unmatched freedom to experiment is part of the reason why marketers love advertising on Facebook. It essentially enables them to target exactly who they want, at the budget of their choice and, more importantly, get the best out of their ad spend.

Getting the Best out of Your Retargeting Campaign

You have probably stumbled upon an ad that felt like it was specifically designed for you, haven’t you? You checked out an online store and clicked on an item before leaving the website. A few hours later you find an ad in your Facebook feed about the same product you were looking at on the website before. Most Facebook users have the same story to share.

So what happens next? Upon seeing the ad, some return to the site and end up buying the product while others simply get irked by seeing the product again. Your job as a marketer is to identify their desires and target them with ads that can rekindle their interest and potentially turn them into buyers. This is what makes Facebook ads so unique, in that they let you fine-tune your campaigns. However, the success of your Facebook campaign is by and large determined by how well you define your custom audience.

Once you properly identify and define your audience you will be better equipped to connect with them. If you are an online store that makes hip t-shirts for teenagers, you want to create your ads with copy and design that connect with your target audience.

For instance, your chic t-shirts intended for teenagers wouldn’t perform well with middle-aged men. So, while creating copy and creatives for your Facebook ad, research as much as possible about your custom audience. The better your understanding of their demographics, interests, likes/dislikes and trends, the more relevant your ads will be...

Even if you have no detailed plans for segregating your website traffic, you can still tap into retargeting techniques and drive sales. After all, you can use remarketing to measure results and understand what’s working and what isn’t.

Why You Should Invest Your Time and Money in Facebook Retargeting

Irrespective of the size of the business they are trying to promote, marketers see Facebook as the ultimate platform to attain desired results in a short period. The infinite possibilities and functionalities of Facebook ads make it instantly preferable to most other marketing platforms.

Running a Facebook Retargeting campaign based on the real needs and tastes of a Custom Audience goes a long way in improving the conversion rate of visitors into customers. Of course, you shouldn’t simply funnel money into Facebook without conducting proper research or defining your Custom Audience.

When deployed by experienced and certified specialists, retargeting campaigns can help to turn all your bounced traffic into buyers and loyal customers. Our certified Facebook marketers at Mr Digital have helped many businesses grow way beyond their owners’ expectations in this way.

Every campaign you create is different. Of course, we can teach you all the hacks in the world to manage your campaign. However, no one knows your audience or business better than you. So do your research, follow the best practices and you will be well on your way to growing your business on Facebook.

Enhancing Campaign Precision with Meta's Latest Updates

While we are on the subject of targeting audiences and getting better results, this update by Meta is worth considering. Meta has rolled out a set of exciting updates to their Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns, specifically designed to empower marketers like you with deeper insights into your audience and enhanced targeting options. These updates are all about fine-tuning your aim to reach those who have shown a keen interest in your offerings but haven't crossed the line into making a purchase yet.

One standout feature is the introduction of the "engaged customers audience segment." This nifty tool lets you zoom in on individuals who are already familiar with your brand and have interacted with your products or services. Think of it as having a magnifying glass that helps you focus your marketing efforts on people who are just a nudge away from becoming paying customers.

The real game-changer here is how Meta is simplifying the way we measure conversions. Moving away from traditional metrics, the platform is now embracing 'key events' as a more streamlined approach. This alignment not only clears up any confusion but also paves the way for a seamless integration with Google Ads, ensuring that your ad campaigns are measured accurately across the board.

But that's not all – with the new "Demographics by Audience Segments" feature in Ads Manager, you can now dive deep into your campaign results, breaking down the data by new customers, existing customers, and those engaged but yet-to-buy individuals. This level of insight is crucial for optimising your campaigns and steering them towards true success.

So, whether you're looking to refine your audience targeting or gain more clarity on your campaign performance, Meta's latest updates are here to elevate your advertising strategy to new heights.