Over the past decade, Facebook has evolved from a simple social sharing network to the leading global platform for connectivity, communication, and of course, consumers. At any given moment, there are more than 200 million small businesses worldwide using Facebook ads to reach customers. As a result, Facebook advertising is a predominant method for marketing on the social platform, designed to connect organizations to their target audience.
From collecting leads for your business to increasing conversions on your website, Facebook PPC has quickly become the gold standard for social media advertising. If you’re interested in getting involved with Facebook ads but don’t know where to start, this ultimate guide is for you.
The Basics: What is Facebook PPC?
‘PPC’ is short for pay-per-click, a payment model used by Facebook’s Ads Manager and other online advertising platforms, like Google Ads. While using PPC, an advertiser pays a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. Since most online ad platforms bill on a cost-per-click (CPC) model, the term PPC has become relatively synonymous with online and social ads in general.
Facebook PPC is an integral part of a social media marketing strategy that, when operated correctly, produces a significant bang for your buck. Aside from a PPC payment model, you can also set Facebook ads to bill based on a set number of ad impressions. So whether you’d like to pay on a per-click or an impression basis, it can be established using Facebook Ads Manager.
Why Invest in Facebook Ads Manager?
Now you might be wondering what makes Facebook PPC worth it. For one, Facebook logs 1.84 billion daily active users on average. Moreover, this number has increased over 11% year-over-year, showing that the public interest in Facebook isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
Additionally, when users log onto Facebook, they spend a considerable amount of time there. The average American adult spends 38 minutes daily on Facebook, with a younger demographic of 16 to 24-years-old logging approximately 3 hours per day on social media. Aside from the evident attention on Facebook daily, Facebook Ads Manager also allows advertisers to hyper-target users by location, demographics, age, behavior, and more, for more reliable engagement.
Lastly, it’s important to remember that as a social network, Facebook has become pay-to-play. Organic reach on Facebook has steadily declined in recent years. Non-boosted or non-sponsored posts will likely become lost in the shuffle of a user’s newsfeed. If your target audience is on Facebook—which they probably are—Facebook PPC is the way to get their attention.
How Much Do Facebook Ads Cost?
If Facebook ads feel like a significant investment right now, rest assured that your first ad campaign does not need to be costly. The Buffer team, a social media tool, ran a daily budget of just $5, reached 787 new people, and received nine page-likes in one day. Of course, this is not to say that these results are guaranteed or that $5 alone will help you reach your goals. However, it shows that it’s possible to start with a small investment in Facebook Ads Manager.
In the budget settings of Facebook Ads Manager, you can control several essential financial decisions, including how much you want to spend on an ad, when you want to spend it, and how long you want the ad to run. Facebook suggests a $20 daily budget by default. However, you can set whatever budget you’d like. Your next choice is choosing a ‘daily’ or ‘lifetime’ budget.
- Daily Budget: The amount you set is the maximum you can spend in one day.
- Lifetime Budget: The amount you set is the maximum you can spend throughout the ad’s lifetime.
A daily budget spends a determined amount each day. A lifetime budget is spent throughout your selected dates. You’ll need to specify a start and end date, as well as a budget for your campaign.
How to Create a Facebook Ad in a Few Easy Steps
Creating a successful Facebook ad is not as cut and dry as setting a budget. This is where many small businesses tap into the help of a trusted marketing agency. The necessary Facebook post formatting for your ad relies on the type of campaign you plan to run. Before you can move ahead with a new Facebook ad, it’s essential to select the objective.
Facebook Ads Manager supports 11 objectives for Facebook ads:
- Boost a post
- Promote a Page
- Direct people to a website
- Increase conversions on a website
- Promote installs of an app
- Encourage engagement in an app
- Target people near a business
- Raise attendance at an event
- Encourage people to claim an offer
- Elicit video views
- Gain leads for a business
You can start a new ad by clicking on the green ‘Create Advert’ button on your ads dashboard. Next, choose one of your Facebook Pages or enter its URL into Ads Manager and give your campaign a name. From here, you’ll be able to choose between the above 11 objectives, select your audience, set your budget, and create the ad itself.
Once you’ve selected your objective, audience, and budget, here’s a general refresher to create each ad objective.
1. Boost a Post
Most Facebook ads will require a creative, boosted post ad that uses an existing, organically published post as the creative. After you’ve selected ‘boost your post’ as an objective, you’ll be able to toggle between which of your recent posts you’d like to boost.
Then, use Ad Preview to see how your boosted post will look on different locations on Facebook:
- Desktop News Feed
- Mobile News Feed
- Desktop Right Column
Lastly, use Ad Preview to select any locations you’d rather not have your ad appear. For instance, if you’d prefer your ad is only served to desktop users, you can uncheck ‘Mobile News Feed.’
2. Promote a Page
To promote a page, you’ll need to set all the ad’s creative elements, including the photo and text. You can upload a new image for photos, select from a stock image collection, or browse pictures used on previous ads. Alternatively, you can upload a series of three to seven photos to use as a slideshow video or upload a standalone video as your creative.
While Facebook no longer penalizes for poor aesthetics (more than 20% text overlays on images or videos), it’s still a good practice to be lighter than heavier on text within the creative. From here, customize the 90 characters that show as the update above the ad by clicking the ‘Text’ box to edit.
The next step brings you to the Ad Editor, where you can preview your ad and select where it is to be posted on Facebook. Under ‘Advanced Options,’ you can also add a headline for Desktop, set where the visitor will click through to, and track conversions.
3. Direct Visitors to a Website
When you direct people to a website, you can use a single image, multiple images, or video. Then add a headline, description, and call-to-action (CTA) for your ad. Choosing various images creates a carousel (which we’ll touch on more soon), so each photo has a headline and description. You can even add a separate link to each image in a carousel to direct traffic to various areas of your website.
If you choose a multiple image option, you can also select Facebook to display the best-performing image first. Then, at the end of your carousel, you can choose to have Facebook add an additional slide with your Page’s profile picture and a call-to-action as well. From here, you can preview in the Ad Editor and select where you’d like the ad to be served.
4. Increase Conversions on a Website
After inserting the URL you would like to promote, an ad to increase your website’s conversions requires creative, similar to the objectives above. As with directing people to a website, you can choose between a single image, multiple images, or a video.
The following steps are also the same as the objective above:
- Draft a headline
- Add description
- Choose a CTA
- Select where you’d like the ad to appear
5. Promote Installs of an App
To promote installs of an app, you’ll need to be sure the app is registered on Facebook’s developer site first. Then select the app to promote by either typing the name into the search bar or pasting a URL from the iOS App Store or Google Play Store. After naming the ad campaign, setting an audience and budget, you’ll have the choice to add creative—either a single image, video or multiple images.
The majority of the following steps will feel familiar from here. First, customize a headline and text. Then, preview your ad. Bear in mind, app install ads only appear on mobile devices. Next, you can link directly to a particular screen in the app using ‘deep links.’
Once you complete the above steps, choose from a list of CTA buttons:
- Book Now
- Download
- Install Now
- Learn More
- Listen Now
- Play Game
- Shop Now
- Sign Up
- Use App
- Watch More
- Watch Video
6. Encourage Engagement in an App
To run an ad that promotes engagement in an app, the first few steps will be the same as promoting installs:
- Select the app
- Name the campaign
- Set an audience and budget
- Designate the creatives
- Customize headline and text
However, the ‘deep links’ used to promote app engagement might differ from what you used for app installs. With installs, you’re likely directing traffic to a sign-up or installation page. Instead, you might want to link to specific links within the app with increasing engagement, like daily bonuses or a weekly queue.
7. Target People Near a Business
Once you’ve selected the “Reach people near you” objective and named your campaign, the next step is to set an audience. Unlike the above options, this objective will ask you to select from a specific area on a map, and the platform will then target the ad towards users in that area. After defining the area and setting a mile radius, you can move on to set your budget, establish creatives, and designate CTAs.
Localized ads have four different CTA options:
- Like Page
- Call Now
- Learn More
- Send Message
8. Raise Attendance at an Event
Where “Reach people near you” will ask you to set your audience on a map, “Raise attendance” will default to a segment near the location of your event. Once the audience (and appropriate location) is set and your budget is created, you can move on to the ad itself. Ads Manager will automatically use the main image for the event as the suggested creative, as these ads can only use one image. However, you can still upload multiple photos and create up to six ads to test which works best.
From here, the majority of the PPC ad is automatically populated by the Facebook event, including the time, date, location, event title, and CTA. For additional personalization, advertisers can customize the text above the ad and implement pixel tracking.
9. Encourage People to Claim an Offer
The “Get people to claim your offer” ad is unique, mainly because business owners can create offers directly through their Facebook Page using the “Offer” link above the text editor. Once in Ads Manager, you can promote an offer similar to how you would boost a post. The creative will likely already be set for you, so you can update the text if you feel necessary.
Toggle to Ad Preview to see how the offer promotion will look on both desktop and mobile. If you’d like, you can also add pixel tracking to monitor the status of the ad.
10. Elicit Video Views
To promote video views, you can upload a new video to share or boost a post on your page that includes a video. If you don’t want to use a pre-filmed video, you can upload a series of three to seven images to play as a slideshow. Once the video (or slideshow) is selected, you can update the ad by personalizing the text that displays above the video.
What sets video ads apart from other ads is that they do not include a CTA button by default. However, if you’d like to have a button, there are a few choices to pick from, including:
- Book Now
- Download
- Learn More
- Shop Now
- Sign Up
- Watch More
If you do select a button option, you will need to customize the website URL, display URL, headline, and link description.
11. Gain Leads for a Business
Creating a Facebook PPC ad to collect leads is similar to creating ads for the above objectives. You’ll need to select an audience and budget, designate a creative, and update any headings or text. However, where other ads have CTA buttons that link to your page or website, a Facebook lead ad will bring a user to a lead form.
You can link to a form with one of six buttons:
- Apply Now
- Download
- Get Quote
- Learn More
- Sign Up
- Subscribe
Once you’ve selected a button, you can move along to the lead form itself. If you previously created a lead form, you can attach it here. Alternatively, you can create a new one within the Ads Manager.
The steps to create a new Facebook Lead Form include:
- Choosing a name for the form
- Setting the primary language
- Selecting which information you’d like to receive, such as full name, email, phone number, relationship status, and more
- Adding up to three optional, open-ended questions to judge buyer intent
Facebook Post Formatting (Sizes for Facebook Ad Images)
As you can tell, all Facebook PPC ads utilize some form of creative. Image sizes for Facebook advertising will vary depending on the format of the post. Ads Manager offers four main ad formats, each with different technical requirements.
Sizes to keep in mind for each post type include:
- Single Image Ads: 1,200 x 628 pixels
- Single Video Ads: Thumbnail image of 1,200 x 675 pixels, the maximum file size of 2.3 GB
- Carousel Ads: 1,080 x 1,080 pixels
- Slideshow Ads: 1,280 x 720 pixels
As a general word of advice, opt for bright imagery with a clear focus. Likewise, ensure the image is contextually relevant to the ad. Of course, depending on your industry, the subject of your image may vary. However, as a general rule of thumb, images of real people tend to perform well.
Seek Help Creating Facebook Ads that Convert
From Instagram SEO to Facebook PPC ads, the internet provides social platforms to channel advertising efforts. With a solid understanding of social media marketing best practices, you can begin to use these channels to your benefit. Contact Fort Lauderdale-based marketing agency Bullseye Strategy today if you want help lifting your Facebook PPC efforts off the ground.
