Facebook currently captures nearly 23% of digital ad spending worldwide, and for good reason. Through sophisticated targeting options, it remains unmatched in audience reach for all types of advertisers.
Because Facebook owns Instagram, the social media conglomerate offers some of the best ways to reach customers at all stages of the marketing funnel. Facebook ads for small business can be tailored to generate awareness, consideration and conversion.
If you haven’t gotten started with Facebook advertising, you’re missing a clear opportunity for lead generation and overall revenue growth. Our Instagram and Facebook guide will walk you through the power of Facebook advertising and how to get started setting up campaigns.
Understanding Facebook Ads for Small Business
Facebook offers a cost-effective way for small businesses to advertise among corporate and enterprise-level companies. While traditional media placements like print magazines cost around $30 to reach 1,000 people, Facebook ads cost only $0.25 per 1,000 views.
Even with a small advertising budget, you can use Facebook ads to dominate competition both large and small. Your budget may only allow for short-burst campaigns, but Facebook offers analytics and integrations that help you maximize each campaign.
Using Facebook, you can set up A/B testing to identify your ad creative that’s most engaging and cost-effective. You can also use a Facebook Pixel to set up remarketing campaigns and move users from consideration to conversion.
Facebook advertising gives you the tools you need to target your audience throughout the entire marketing funnel. It also lets you experiment with a variety of ad types to see what works best for your business. Depending on your goals, you can choose to advertise using imagery, video, product collections and more.
Should I Place Ads on Facebook or Instagram?
Despite Facebook’s detailed targeting and cost-effective campaigns, it’s pointless to run ads without a strategy in place first. Developing your social media marketing strategy will help you determine whether your campaigns are best served as Facebook vs. Instagram ads.
First, ask yourself where your audience currently interacts online. Many media companies and organizations find success on Facebook, while B2C and entertainment companies see enhanced success on Instagram.
In general, Instagram skews younger and entertainment-based content is more successful, while Facebook content leans more educational and informative.
If you’re advertising on Instagram, you won’t be able to use as many different ad formats as Facebook. Instagram offers a single image, carousel, video and story ads. Facebook ads can include placements on the Messenger app as well as its broad network of mobile apps.
Develop a social media marketing strategy that includes your goals, audience personas and content promotion plan.
Developing Facebook Ads to Meet Business Goals
After you have a social media strategy in place, you can move toward mapping your campaigns. Facebook advertising for small businesses should always be focused on overarching business goals. What are the numbers you need to meet each quarter?
Let’s say you have a Q1 goal to gain 300 new customers. This is the overarching goal that should drive your campaigns, but it shouldn’t be the individual objective for each ad. Instead, you’ll need to develop a series of campaigns that work toward achieving the goal.
For example, your first campaign objective should be increasing audience awareness. You can create campaigns focused on reach and views to make sure as many people in your audience see your ad. For awareness ads, you may want to use a single image or video that incorporates your branding. Ideally, potential customers will see your ad and begin to develop a connection with what you offer.
The next step in a traditional marketing funnel is moving your customers to the consideration phase. Depending on your industry and goals, consideration might look like site traffic, app installs or lead generation. In this phase, your ad should be moving customers to interact with your brand in some way, even if they don’t convert yet.
After awareness and consideration, your customers are primed for conversion. Through a conversion ad, you should be driving your leads toward making a purchase or other action. Conversion ads can help achieve sales goals, such as a Q1 goal to gain 300 new customers.
Setting up a Facebook or Instagram Ad
If you’re new to Facebook advertising, campaign setup through the Ads Manager can get confusing fast. It’s important to take it each step at a time to make sure you’re thinking through all the ad requirements.
Campaign Goal and Objective
Your first step in ad setup is determining a campaign goal and objective. Facebook makes it easy to align your campaign with a traditional marketing funnel, separating campaigns by Awareness, Consideration and Conversion.
Consider the broad business goals you’ve set in your social media strategy and make sure each campaign aligns with your objectives.
Budget and Targeting
Next, set up the campaign budget and targeting. Facebook targeting is where you can dive deep into your customer personas to create a specific audience. Some examples of the targeting that Facebook offers include:
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Education Level
- Life Events (Marriage, Moving, Graduation, etc.)
- Political Affiliation
- Employer
- Interests
- Device Usage
It’s important to understand the type of targeting you should use before you get started in the Ads Manager. Otherwise, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and include options that make your audience less specific.
After choosing your targeting, you can set a budget each day or throughout the lifetime of your campaign.
Placements
After you’ve set your budget, Facebook will let you customize your ad placements. This step is where you can choose to advertise only on Instagram or take advantage of all the platforms Facebook has to offer.
Ad Creative
The last step of the campaign setup is importing your ad creative. Along with targeting, developing your ad creative is just as important for reaching audiences and meeting your goals.
If you’re using an image ad on Facebook, keep in mind that Facebook won’t let it run if it contains 20% or more of text.
Evaluating the Benefits of Facebook Ads
After you’ve set up Facebook ads for small business, it’s time to optimize and evaluate. Digital advertising is never a “set it and forget it” strategy as there are always areas to improve.
While Facebook is a powerful tool for advertising, it involves a lot of work toward strategy, setup, creative development and more. Contact us today for help maximizing your social media marketing and advertising.
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