15 Steps To Get You Started Using Targeting With Facebook Ads

I see many comments online all the time about how mean Facebook has become since its not free to get your content out anymore. Remember that Facebook is an Ad Agency; they are a public company and selling Ads is one of their revenue models. So here are 15 steps to get you started using targeting with Facebook Ads.

If you have a business, you should know by now that you can’t offer everything for free. I mean, how will you pay the bills?

My overall strategy for Facebook Advertising is to increase targeted traffic to my site. The important word here is “targeted.” Facebook makes this super easy. Then get them to subscribe to my newsletter where I can talk to them and have a conversation, do a survey and give them exactly what they need.

Also, when they are on your list, you can always remind them to Like your FB page.

So all my Like campaigns target a particular country and a particular interest. I choose the countries that I know my audience exists, but are not familiar with my page/services. Initially I did pure Like Campaigns, but now I’ll do campaigns that encourage them to click on a Facebook Post that will take them to my site to build traffic, knowing that if I target correctly, the propensity for them to join my mailing list or return later is very high.

Also, when I target people who do not currently Like the Page, they see a “Like” button inserted by Facebook on the ad, so they may like the page outside of the original intention of the ad.

 

 

I do one country at a time as its easier to measure and Facebook prefers it that way, so the ads work better. It may cost a bit more since I have to do each country, but that works well.

I normally run a Like campaign for just under $100 then stop it and let organic Likes take over. What you will find is that the friends of the folks who Like your page will follow since they trust their friends. It is imperative that you watch the Ad like a hawk initially so you can adjust the bids up or down so it starts to be shown to visitors. Once it starts going, still watch it as most times, the bid lowers and you want to lower your offer as well. Remember you can pause the Ad at any time, analyze, make changes and re-start it. Go to Facebook.com/ads and then click on the ad. Look over on the right hand side you will see a box similar to the one below. Click on the On button to toggle on/off.

 

 

Remember to set a daily budget; I usually set $5, so my ad runs for 20 days if I make it to $100. Of course you can adjust your budget accordingly.

You can run a specific campaign that basically just says “Like my page” with a photo that you know will appeal to your audience. You can choose I think up to five photos and look at the stats (https://www.facebook.com/help/787469977969222/). Stop the ones that are not performing and stick with the ones that are doing well.

So, if you have an eco travel site, you may say “Click Like If You Like Turtles,” or something you know your audience loves. Facebook will approve/disapprove the ads, so you won’t have to worry about it not being an appropriate message. Or you can drive people who do not Like your page currently to a particular post on your page, that will take them to your site and hope that they will like your page since they do not currently do so.

Then use a photo that’s appealing to them, maybe a turtle crossing the road, on the beach, swimming, etc.

Facebook has a tool that you can use to check the 20% text content. Go to https://www.facebook.com/help/468870969814641, read this section and there is a link to the tool.

Facebook Help files for Ads, really tells you all you need to get started. The advanced stuff takes trial and error and lots of reading to get it right, but the results are worth it.

I strongly encourage that you create some sort of product/service, this way you can keep your acquisition cost low and get your prospects to try your product/service.

If you are just starting out, concentrate on building a targeted quality audience based on demographics (country, age, marital status, gender) and then geography and interests. You can even target people whom you know like other pages. e.g. target people who like national geographic magazine’s Facebook page since more than likely they like traveling to cool place.

Steps To Take To Create an Ad to Promote Your Page.

1. Go to www.facebook.com/ads
2. Choose Create Ad
3. Choose the “Promote Your Page” option; it will then ask you to choose the page you wish to promote. Choose the page from the dropdown if you have multiple pages. Of course if you want to do other campaigns you can do that as well.

   

4. Give the campaign a name after Facebook loads your page into its active memory. There is context sensitive Hep all along the way to help you.
5. Now there is some advanced stuff here, but just stick to the basics for now (so skip the piece about Create Custom Audiences [BTW, when you start using this part, you will be awed!]
6. Set up your Locations (you are better off just using one country per ad; it just works better and is more manageable and measurable), Age, Gender, Languages and Interests and Behavior. As you tailor your audience, Facebook tells you how large it is on the right hand side (Audience Definition). So you can see if you need to adjust items to make it better. As its a Promote Page Campaign, its going to people who have not yet Liked your page, but you can change that of course.
7. In Interests, you can find out the name of the page you know your users like and type it here. Not all pages are indexed by Facebook, so you may not see it show up, just try another one until you find one that is indexed. They say they are working on this, but the’ve been working on it forever :-). Don’t be despaired.
8. Really take a look at your Facebook Insights for your Page to determine what your users are doing and what you want to target in terms of Interests.

   

   

9. Set a Budget; start with $5/day. You can also set a lifetime budget as well. Choose what works for you.
10. Schedule your ads; start right away or at a specific time

    

11. Chose Optimize for Page Likes, the default
12. Pricing, Decide how much you want to pay as your acquisition cost; FB will always choose something high, just adjust as your pocket can afford. Remember that you’ve set a daily budget, so once you hit that your ads will stop running, but you can always tweak it as you go along. So if you’re doing well and your budget hits, you may want to increase the budget or just wait for the next day for it to start over. Experiment with this part once your ad is running to see what is working. Some people have seen great results using the “Get the most likes at the best price – You will be charged for impressions” option. I have too, but experiment.

    

13. Leave Ad scheduling and delivery type; FB will figure that out.
14. Choose the images for your Ads by clicking on the image under the Select Images words; you can choose up to six images and Facebook will tell you which ones are doing best, then you just shut off the other Ads and use that one. Then add your marketing message to get users to visit and Like your page.
15. Once you are happy with the images and then entire Ad overall, click Place Your Order button. And then Facebook will get back to you once your Ad is approved.

 

 

So basically two thoughts here:

1). Run a specific campaign to gain targeted Likes for your page as you may want that so you can be in the runnings for campaigns from brands, etc.
2). Run a specific campaign to get targeted people to your site via a Facebook post [campaigns to Facebook.com are cheaper than to your own blog), join your mailing list, read your posts, then invite them to Like your page once you start communicating with them.

Test, test, test. Each campaign will be different, they may not all be stellar, but keep at it.

Let me know if you all have any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them here so that all may benefit.