Boosted posts, ads manager, power editor; are you confused yet?! When it comes to advertising on Facebook, the options can feel endless, overwhelming and complicated.
To help you create better performing Facebook ads, I have pulled together some information on what each of the ad types are and how you can get the most out of them.
Boosted Posts
Boosted posts are posts that you have published on your Facebook Page that you want to get more visibility or engagement on.
Boosted posts can be used to get more people to engage with your Facebook Page, to get increased views on a blog post, or to promote something you are doing like a webinar or a sales offer.
You can set the budget on a Boosted post and run it for a maximum of 7 days. After the Boosted Post expires, you can set it up to run again. You can choose a custom audience, people who like your page, and or friends of people who like your page. It’s a simple way to set up a quick and effortless Facebook ad.
Facebook Ad Manager vs Power Editor
Once you decide that you want to step into the land of Facebook advertising, you have two choices: Facebook Ad Manager or Power Editor. Power Editor is the better way to go every single time but the ad manager has a place, too.
Facebook Ad Manager is a simple way to set up your Facebook ads and will work well for creating quick and easy ones. But, if you want a larger text field and access to tracking and retargeting pixels then Power Editor is the way to go. Just keep in mind that for Power Editor to work correctly, you must use the Google Chrome browser.
Regardless of the way you choose to advertise, there are six criteria you need to think through in order to get the best outcome for your ad.
Step One: Objective
What is the objective of your ad? Is it to drive traffic? Build awareness? Acquire likes? Build List? Understand the objective of your ad before you begin so you can create a better performing ad.
Step Two: Budget
How much do you want to spend to meet your objective? What is the cost per outcome you are looking to attain? Do you want to spend $1.00 per like or lead, or would you rather spend $0.50?
Remember, lower isn’t always better.
Sometimes, the higher priced leads are better long term leads. But, you need to know what your budget is and what you expect to get from it in order to evaluate how your ad is doing.
Step Three: Audience
Who is the audience you want to attract? Is it people who are on your list? Is it other people’s pages? And if so, whose? Is it people who go to your website?
Once you have a better understanding of who your audience is, you can then isolate them into specific groups that you can measure performance around.
Tracking the outcome of your Facebook ads is important: you can’t tweak what you don’t measure. Click To TweetSpend $1 on ten, highly targeted audiences before you spend $10 on one massive audience that isn’t segregated. You’ll get much more out of that data and will see better results.
Step Four: Creative
What graphic image are you going to use? Are there two or three that you can test in order to measure which one works best?
Creative matters because the visual image is often what attracts people to your ad. Test, tweak and perfect your imagery selection. If you aren’t naturally creative, choose two or three images that resonate with you and push those out to your close friends or colleagues to get their opinion.
Step Five: Copy
What is the compelling copy for your ad? Don’t be weak — instead, be clear, concise and have copy that converts. If your copy is poorly written, people won’t click on your ad and that is a problem.
Know what your headline is and what the rest of the copy should be, too. Again – test and perfect! If you do this for two or three days, and you track the results, you will know very quickly what’s working and what isn’t.
Step Six: Landing Page
I have had ads convert for a cost of $0.47 per lead and ads convert for $6 per lead. I have had landing pages convert at 30%, and others at 90%. You have to pay attention to your landing page when you are selling or list building because if your landing page is weak, your conversion rate will be low.
There is a LOT to consider when you are using Facebook ads. This is how I look at it: you need to look at the results all the time in order to know what is and what is not working.
What is the most confusing thing for you about Facebook ads? Leave your response in the comments below and I’ll try to address those in a future post or on one of my Facebook Live videos!
4 thoughts on “6 Steps to Better Facebook Ads”
Hey Lisa,
I think the trickiest part for me is converting people once they get to the landing page. My travel photos grab them and I think the ad does as well (I probably could use more work on the copy there too) but it’s getting the conversions once they get to the landing page. One recent example, I ran an ad for my book for a couple of days (to test and not spend a lot of money). I spent about $13 and sold only 1 book. My thought is that maybe I shouldn’t focus on trying to sell them a book at that first interaction but rather get them on my list and then sell to the list that way. Have you noticed people having much success using FB ads to sell their books or would you recommend a different approach for that particular objective? Thanks!
I agree Tawanna, build list, establish relationship and THEN sell something that is of value to your audience. However, you can target a list that already knows you with an ad designed to sell something. Just don’t target everyone.
Hi Lisa!
What would you recommend the same Facebook kind of ads for an event?
Thank you!
Louise
Yes, I would – in fact I’m doing this with my October 3 event – Money, Mindset and Marketing