More than 2 billion people use Facebook every month, so whatever your business target audience is, you can be sure to find it on one of the group's platforms.
Now that you know the reasons why you should include Facebook in your digital marketing strategy, let's discover how to launch Facebook Ads campaigns step by step.
#0 Basics
#1 Choose the objective of your campaign
#2 Choose the audience to reach with your campaign
#3 Choose the placement of your ad
#4 Define your campaign budget
#5 Choose the format of your ads
#6 Launch your campaign
#7 Measure the performance of your ads
#0 Basics
By way of introduction, let's take a look at the three parts that make up Facebook Ads:
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Campaign: This is the umbrella concept for the whole process. Targeting and payment method are decided at this point.
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AdSet: This is a set of ads, a campaign can have one or several ads. Decisions related to the AdSet are audience, placement, duration and budget.
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Ads: These are the ads themselves; the format, the creative and the message.
Campaigns, audiences, ads, budgets and other elements are managed from the Ads Manager: Facebook's ads tool within the Business Manager, which is the space that encompasses all types of business-related management.
In addition to the Ads Manager there are also other tools such as the Event Manager for the pixel or the Catalog Manager for everything related to product feeds and catalogues. As we said, they are all included in the Facebook Business Manager, and from there it is divided into 6 major tools:
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Catalog Manager: This is Facebook's catalogue manager. It allows you to upload your product inventory, create product sets for your campaigns, configure Instagram Shopping, create dynamic ad campaigns (or Dynamic Ads), etc.
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Creative Hub: Recommended for creating mockups of ads before publishing them and testing creatives according to placement (which is the term used to refer to the location of the ad within the platform, whether in the Feed or Timeline or in Stories) and sizes.
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Ads Manager: This is the main tool for managing Facebook campaigns. This is where you choose campaign budgets, objectives, audiences, formats and implement your advertising strategies.
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Business Settings: Allows you to set up your business. It allows you to give access to users, make the link with the pages you want to advertise on, and something very important: enter the details of the bank card for campaign payments.
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Events Manager: This tool allows us to extract the pixel code for installation, as well as the codes to track (measure and follow) the events we want. Either "Page view" (the base code that is throughout the website), or other more specific ones such as "View Content", "Add to cart, "Purchase" and others that are not so generic such as "Complete Registration" or "Lead".
Now that we know the basics of running a Facebook Ads campaign, let's look at the first step.
#1 Choose the objective of your campaign
In order to correctly create Facebook Ads campaigns you must be clear about the objective you want to achieve. On Facebook there are different types of objectives depending on the degree of interaction you want the audience to have.
Awareness
These are the most upper funnel objectives and serve to raise brand awareness.
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Brand awareness: Getting more people to discover your brand and become potential customers who think about your product or service at the time of purchase.
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Reach: Show the ad to as many users as possible, within your audience.
Consideration
This type of objective is used when we want to increase the interaction that people have with the brand.
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Traffic: Increase visitors to your website, app or Messenger conversation.
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Engagement: Get more people to follow your page or interact with your content (comments, likes, shares...).
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App Installs: Increase downloads of your brand's app through direct links in your Ads to the App Store and Google Play Store.
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Video Views: Show your brand's videos to people who are more interested in your content.
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Lead Generation (LeadGen): Establish connections with potential customers (leads) to drive conversions. Simplify connections with those interested in your brand.
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Messaging: Encourage people to interact with your brand through conversations in Messages.
Conversion
These are the lowest objectives in the funnel, leaving loyalty aside, and aim to get more people to take action.
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Conversions: Convert users who discover you into final customers. Get them to carry out specific actions such as buying, adding to cart, downloading the application...
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Catalog sales: Increase sales from your website or Facebook application, for example on Instagram Shopping. Add your product catalogue to Facebook, open an online shop and create the campaign. Through Dynamic Product Ads (DPA) we manage to show the right product and target the right user at the right time.
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Visits to the shop: Reduce the separation between online and offline processes by taking your audience from the Internet to physical shops. Achieve in-store visits, sales or other valuable in-store actions. Several additional requirements are needed, e.g. having the shop registered in your Business Manager and validated by Facebook.
#2 Choose the audience to reach with your campaign
Once you have defined the objective of your Facebook Ads campaign, the next step is to define the audience you want to impact. There are three types of audiences.
Core Audiences
Also known as prospecting or interest audiences. Define your target audience according to different parameters: location, demographics, interests, behaviours and connections.
Lookalike Audiences
It is called similar audiences. It is an effective way to bring your brand closer to people with similar characteristics to your current customers.
Custom Audiences
These are personalized audiences. They allow you to re-engage customers who already know your brand. Do you know the importance of the conversion pixel or SDK in the case of app campaigns? These codes allow us to deliver ads to people who have already interacted online with a brand. This practice is known as retargeting.
#3 Choose the placement of your ad
Choosing the placement of your Ads is one of the most important steps of your Facebook Ads campaign. There are a multitude of placements between the different Facebook platforms: Feed, Stories, Search, Messages, Apps...
Feed
Within the Facebook, Instagram and Messenger Feeds, we find different options: Facebook News Feed, Instagram Feed, Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Video Feeds, Facebook Right Column, Instagram "Explore" section or Messenger Inbox.
Stories
In this case the choice depends on the platform: Facebook, Instagram or Messenger.
In-stream video
The two options for video formats are: Facebook in-stream videos or IGTV videos.
Search
Facebook search results are another option for placing your Facebook Ads campaign.
Messages
Sponsored messages can also be placed in the Messenger application, let's see how:
In the article
Facebook also allows you to place ads in your Instant Articles.
Apps
There are different types of placements in the Facebook Audience Network. The options in applications are native ads, banner ads, interstitial ads or reward videos.
#4 Define your campaign budget
Just as there are different types of Facebook Ads campaigns, there are also different buying types for your brand's campaign.
Auction purchase
Allows ads to run on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network. Based on budget, audience and the content of your Ads, the auction delivers your ad to the people most likely to engage with it. Always for the price of your bid or less.
Purchase of range and frequency
In this case, Facebook gives you the possibility to deliver ads in a predictable and controlled way at a fixed price. Plan all the details in advance: how many people you want to see the ad and how often. Ads can run on Facebook and Instagram, and only with some specific campaign objectives also on Audience Network.
Facebook offers brands a wide variety of formats, placements and targets to run an Ads campaign. Before launching your campaign, consider the design specifications and technical requirements for each format.
These are the formats available for Facebook Ads:
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Photo: A simple and clear format that includes attractive images and text.
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Video: Use images, sound and movement to promote your brand.
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Stories: A customisable experience that you can use to engage people with your content.
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Messenger: Allow people to start conversations with your company.
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Carousel: Display up to ten images or videos in a single ad, each with its own link.
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Slideshow: An advertising format composed of motion, sound and text, similar to video ads.
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Collection: Allows you to discover, explore and purchase items and services through a "gallery" of images.
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Playable ads: Offers people an interactive preview of the application prior to downloading.
Don't forget to review the technical specifications of each of the formats in our Social Media Ad Formats Guide 2023.
Once you have established the objective of your Facebook Ads campaign, the audience, the placement, the budget and the format with which to impact your target audience, it's time to create and launch the ads.
Do you know the best creative practices to make your Facebook ads more engaging? Vertical videos, images with little text, multiple images in the format per sequence, movement in the ads, boost calls to action? Check out all the recommendations before launching your campaign!
Example of dynamic ad campaigns launched through the MiM Shoes product catalogue and our Feeds solution.
#7 Measure the performance of your ads
Once the campaign has been launched, it is essential to continuously monitor the performance of the Ads to know if the results set by the objectives are being achieved. Knowing how to take advantage of marketing reports to maximise the ROAS of the campaign will allow you to convert the data collected into applicable insights. In the event that this does not happen, measuring the performance allows us to modify what is not working or, in the worst case, to pause the campaign completely.
If you have Adsmurai Marketing Platform contracted, you can analyse the performance of your campaign. Our Reporting & Monitoring tool allows you to obtain valuable information from your campaign metrics.
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Analyse the data grouped in dynamic tables (line of business, country, platform...).
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Compare data across the different platforms you are using for your campaign.
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Measure the execution of your strategy with equivalent KPIs and attribution windows across all channels.
