How Do Facebook Ads Work
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Social media marketing is a great way to help you reach your target audience and raise your conversion rates. To effectively accomplish this, you must know how to use popular social media promotional tools like Facebook Ads to reach your desired audience, bring in impressive leads to your sales team, and earn a great return on investment. Explore how the Facebook Ads feature works and how to target your ads accordingly.
What Is a Facebook Ad?
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A Facebook advertisement is promotional content displayed on this social media site. Facebook Ads are typically targeted toward your specific audience and current followers. Creating a great Facebook ad involves conducting careful research on your audience so that you can target your content pieces to your audience based on factors like demographics, regular user activity, and device usage.
Social media marketing is an effective way to target your audience based on their likes and interests. Facebook Ads has micro-targeting features that let you pinpoint which audience you’d like your messaging to reach. This means you must strategize which type of Facebook ad to use and the audience that’s most likely to benefit from your products to ensure you’re investing your advertising budget wisely.
What Are the Different Types of Facebook Ads?
The reactions to certain Facebook ads vary among audiences. The different types of Facebook ads include:
- Image ads
- Video ads
- Carousel ads
- Slideshow ads
- Collection ads
- Lead ads
- Dynamic ads
- Messenger ads
- Playable ads
How Much Does it Cost?
The cost of Facebook Ads depends on various factors like your budget, the audience you’d like to reach, how much creativity to use, and how long you run it. You can spend however much you’d like on Facebook Ads. When you purchase an ad, you’ll create it and submit your bid amount to Facebook’s ad auction.
This auction chooses from several other ads and picks which to showcase on certain audience’s timelines. Facebook reviews the quality and content of your ad and will show it to audiences who are most likely to interact and engage with it. You’re in control of your bid and the maximum amount you’re willing to pay.
Where Does it Appear?
Facebook may display your ad for an amount lower than your maximum bid and will charge nothing higher than that number. It will analyze your bid’s value based on these factors:
- Your bid amount
- The quality and relevance of your ad
- How likely Facebook believes people will take action after viewing your ad
Facebook adds up these factors to get your value amount and will compare it to others. It will then display the ad that contains the highest value. Your ad will then successfully reach your target audience and be seen by many different viewers who will gain the most value from your product. It’ll appear on their timelines, stories, and other locations your audience visits on the site.
What Are the Key Steps to Create One?
Follow these steps to effectively create a great Facebook ad:
- Set your objective- The Facebook Ads Manager will ask you to choose your campaign’s objective. You’ll select categories like brand awareness, reach, website traffic, engagement, app installs, video views, lead generation, messages, conversions, and catalog sales.
- Choose your audience- You’ll then select your target audience. It’s best to experiment with different targeting options until you find the perfect one for your business.
- Create your ad- Work with your creative team to build an ad catered toward your objective and target audience. Facebook will provide suggestions for certain ad types based on those two factors. Use captivating images and copy to engage users and help your content go viral.
- Monitor your metrics- While your ads run, regularly review them to see how well they’re performing. Use both your marketing software and Facebook Ad Manager to keep an eye on your ad’s performance. This helps you understand what you’re doing right and which improvements to make.
How To Target Facebook Ads
Follow these steps to learn how to properly target your ads on Facebook:
1. Understand Your Ad Targeting Options
Facebook Ads lets you choose which audience you’d like your ads to reach and speak directly to. If you already have buyer personas set up for your audience, you should have a better idea of where and how to target your ads. Facebook allows you to target users according to their:
- Interests
- Age
- Connections
- Languages
- Relationship status
- Location
- Gender
- Workplaces
- Education
2. Consider Targeting Ads by Category
You’ll also have an option to target ads to your audience based on general categories that a large number of audience members may be interested in. This is called broad category targeting and includes categories like “expecting parents,” “gardening,” and “birthday in one week.” Though these categories allow you to reach a wider audience, it’s less likely they’ll purchase your product since the category you’re targeting isn’t specific enough and may not appeal directly to them.
3. Use Precise Interest Targeting
This form of targeting is much more detailed and lets you target your audience based on the likes and interests featured on their profiles. When you choose to target precise interests, Facebook tells you the size of the audience and also gives suggestions for other common likes and interests to target.
It’s best to target more specific terms and interests by carefully researching your target audience to better understand which media outlets they use, the products they purchase, and who they follow on social media. This helps you target smaller audiences with specific interests directly related to your product to increase the likelihood of them making a purchase.
As you build your Facebook Ads campaign, try to avoid targeting the most popular and general interests, as many others are bidding on these as well, which makes it more difficult for your ads to be seen. An experienced marketing professional can help you carefully research your audience to find more specific and detailed interests to better target and get your ad in front of certain audience segments.
