A Step-By-Step Guide To Creating A Facebook Advert

Facebook Adverts

This article has been written to give you a step-by-step guide to creating a Facebook Advert.

The first thing you need to do is click on the Facebook setting tab at the top right hand corner of the platform and select “Create Adverts”: note it does not matter if you are on your own personal page or on a specific brand page, if you have more than one brand page you will select which page the advert is refers to later (see figure 1).

Step 1

Figure 1: Step 1 to creating a Facebook advert.

Once you have clicked on the advert, you will be given 9 campaign objective options (see figure 2):

  • Boost your post.
  • Promote your page.
  • Send people to your website.
  • Increase conversions to your website.
  • Get Installs of your app.
  • Increase engagement in your app.
  • Raise attendance at your event.
  • Get people to claim your offer.
  • Get video views.
Figure 2: Step 2 to creating a Facebook advert.

Figure 2: Step 2 to creating a Facebook advert.

If your objective is to sell a product or service I would recommend using the “Send people to your website” option: more specifically it should go to the e-commerce page of the product or service you are trying sell. There are some who may argue that the link should go straight to the checkout point because of the need to reduce the number of clicks a consumer may experience. I would agree if the proposition was a simple one, if however there needs to be some form of selection (colour, size etc) and/or registration then the e-commerce page would be best, it would also allow you to do some ‘up-selling’.

Once you have made this decision Facebook will ask you to provide a URL for the webpage in question (See figure 3).

Figure 3: Step 3 to creating a Facebook advert.

Figure 3: Step 3 to creating a Facebook advert.

You will then be asked to give the campaign a name. If you are going to create a number of adverts for different pages then it is best to develop some form of logic that makes it easy to distinguish what it refers to. I always use Date (yymm) + Facebook Page Name + Campaign Name: this will help you in linking it back to the client and the time it was run. If you are doing for your own brand / business then there is no need to include the Facebook Page Name (unless you have a number of them): see figure 4.

Figure 4: Step 4 in creating a Facebook advert.

Figure 4: Step 4 in creating a Facebook advert.

The next important step in creating a Facebook advert is to identify and target your desired market segments. Facebook starts by asking you to determine the location(s) that you want the advert to appear in. You must then decide on age, gender and languages. This can be extended into:

• Relationships (Interested in and relationship status).
• Education (Level, fields of study, schools/universities and undergraduate years).
• Work (employers, job titles and industries).
• Ethnic affinity (this is US centric only).
• Generation (this is US centric only).
• Parents (targeting parents only).
• Politic (US only).
• Life events (it includes things like anniversaries, new jobs, etc).

You then need to select ‘interests’, this is the most important element in the targeting phase as it will determine the number of people the advert will reach. The behaviour segment is also for the US only, it targets people based on their purchase behaviour or intent, device usage and more. The connections segment will allow you to reach people who have a specific kind of connection to your Page, app or event. This will narrow your audience to include only people with that specific connection who also meet the other targeting categories that you’ve selected.

Your final selection will be deciding on the placement:

• Mobile News Feed
• All mobile devices
• Only when connected to Wi-Fi
• Desktop News Feed
• Desktop Right Column
• Audience Network: the Audience Network uses the same mobile device and connection options as Mobile News Feed.

Figure 5: Step 5 to creating a Facebook advert.

Figure 5: Step 5 to creating a Facebook advert.

When you create an advert you will have to decide on a budget. This can be set as a day rate or a lifetime budget. You can then run it continuously or have a start and end date. You should also consider how the advert is optimised: you can choose to bid for your objective, clicks or impressions. Your choice determines how you pay and who your advert is served to. For example, when you optimise your bid for the Page like objective, you’ll be charged when your advert is served to people within your audience who are more inclined to like your Page. The options are:

• Clicks to Website: Facebook will serve your adverts to people who are more likely to click from your adverts to your website.
• Clicks: Facebook will serve your adverts to people who might click on your advert (CPC).
• Daily unique reach: Facebook will serve your advert to people up to once per day.
• Impressions: Facebook will serve your adverts to people as many times as possible (CPM).

You can even set the schedule of your adverts for specific hours and days of the week.

Figure 6: Step 6 to creating a Facebook advert.

Figure 6: Step 6 to creating a Facebook advert.

You now need to decide on your ‘advert’: i.e., what message and/or image you wish to use. You will also be able to decide which page this advert should appear on (this is important if you are looking after more than one page). When you create your advert you must follow the guidelines set by Facebook (Ad Guidelines). One point that I must make is, make sure your advert is does not contain more than 20% of text. As an example, the advert shown in figure 7 was rejected because it contains more than 20% of text.

Figure 7: Step 7 in creating a Facebook advert.

Figure 7: Step 7 in creating a Facebook advert.

The last two phases of creating a Facebook advert is selecting your payment methods and contact details.

Figure 8: Step 8 in creating a Facebook advert.

Figure 8: Step 8 in creating a Facebook advert.

Figure 9: Step 9 in creating a Facebook advert.

Figure 9: Step 9 in creating a Facebook advert.

 

Once you have set up your Facebook advert you can monitor the progress at any time by viewing the details of your campaign (see Figure 10):

Figure 10: Monitoring your Facebook advert.

Figure 10: Monitoring your Facebook advert.

 

This analysis was based on a campaign by XPERT Health, for more information about this charity please visit their site.

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Dr Alan Shaw is a Senior Lecturer and Marketing consultant focusing on a range of sectors. His main interests are in strategy development, social marketing, digital marketing, advertising, consumer behaviour and marketing application.
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