How To Make A Facebook Ad

Facebook advertising is 'pretty good'...if you have an awesome offer. I've had some promotions that were resounding successes; but 10 times more of them flopped...but that's businesses.

I'm putting this post together as a step by step introduction to facebook advertising mainly for those of you who have thought about it, but never tried, but also for those of you who have run some promotions on facebook, there might be some ideas for you as well.

Lets begin at the beginning:

Anyone with a facebook account can create facebook ads. However, you can not promote personal facebook profiles only facebook pages. So if you're still running your business from a personal account, you should look to create a 'page'...but that's another post.

To Begin:

Click "Promote With An Ad" on the upper right hand side of your page. This will take you to the facebook advertising page.

Starting at the top; from here you can choose to advertise your facebook page (when you click on the arrow it will show you all of the pages you are an admin of) and it will also give you the option to select an 'external URL', maybe your website or blog.

The advertising procedure is the same whether you choose a facebook page or an external link, the choice is yours.

If you choose 'external URL' it will ask you where you want facebook to send your audience by entering your URL.

Once you've made your decision, make sure that 'facebook ads' is selected, not 'sponsored stories'. Sponsored stories is a new feature that facebook have recently added and we're not worrying about them today.

Destination Tab:

If you chose to advertise your facebook page then you will be asked where you want facebook to send people when they click your ad. Never send people to your 'wall', create a 'welcome' page or an 'opt in' page, depending on your offer and send them there.

Title:

If it's your page, it will be automatically generated, if it's an external URL, then simply enter the name of your site.

Body:

The body is the text for your ad. You have 135 characters to dazzle the pants of people and get them clicking, so get straight to the point! Use some of the 25 'power words' I gave you last week and create some energy!

25 Powerful Words That Guarantee Increased Sales

Image:

You can put almost any image you like in there (copyright rules apply). I've tried a few different styles, by having pictures of people by themselves, couples, people doing stuff...but the most successful campaigns that I've run have all been with my logo.

Next comes the fun stuff - Targeting.

First thing you do is select your country or countries if you want to run a huge campaign, but for the sake of this exercise let's just pick one.

You can then choose to have your ad show up all around the country, or by state or even city. For a personal training program, lets just go by city, so just begin typing it in and then select the best one from what facebook provides.

Demographics:

Next, select the age range that you want your ad to appear in front of by considering your target market. You should already have a pretty good idea who you want to see your ad and you can choose an exact age, but put some leeway either side. If you're target market is 40 year old people, perhaps select 37-43.

Then of course you can choose male or female or 'all'.

Likes And Interests:

This is the part that can make or break your promotion. Now that you know where and who your target market is, it's time to really narrow them down.

Facebook gets the the information for this section form what people have in there profile and their 'Likes'. For example, if you 'Like' the TV show 'The Biggest Loser', facebook knows this and will use it against you...so to speak.

If you're targeting 40 year old over weight women, you have to think like an over weight 40 year old woman. What do they like, besides iced coffees and banana bread?

For me, I'd be inclined to think that a 40 year old woman that is likely to want to hire a personal trainer, is probably already working out to some capacity or "likes' some kind of health and fitness magazine.

I was just fooling around with the ad I'm creating as we're going along and put in 'Oxygen Magazine', 'Gym', 'Working out', 'personal training' and narrowed down my audience considerably.

Facebook gives you a running tally on the side what your potential audience will be for your ad based on the information you're giving them and in this situation...less is more.

You want to know that every one of the people that you've narrowed your ad down to is a potential client. Don't skimp on this section, this is what defines a successful facebook advertising campaign from a flop.

Connections on Facebook:

If you're advertising a 'Page', just tick the box that says "Only people who are NOT fans of ...."

Advanced Demographics:

Here you can target people by their birthday, sexual preference, language they speak and even their relationship status.

Education And Work:

You could assume that the people who can afford your services are college grads if you want to and select those or you can go by where they work. You might target a large bank for example or department store...it' up to you, but remember that these people will have had of put that information into facebook and not too many people ad their place of employment.

Campaigns, Pricing and Scheduling:

Name your campaign: Call it whatever you like as long as if your doing several campaigns at the same time you know which is which.

Budget:

Now we get to the nitty gritty. I've run campaigns on as little as $5 a day to test my advertising material. This is completely up to you and your accountant, but I would run a small test trial first to tweak your ad before you go throwing all of your marketing budget into Zuckerberg's pockets.

Schedule Your Campaign.

Run it when people are awake, or at work, or more likely to click, or more importantly, click and BUY. Also by time...run your first promotion for 48 hours. Set the date and time on the little calender and double check it. If you screw it up and your ad runs for 48 days, facebook won't say anything until they debit your credit card and you're broke!

Pricing:

CPM Or CPC...That is the question:

CPM is Cost Per Thousand Impressions

CPC is Cost Per Click

CPM might sound like the way to go, but trust me, facebook can pound out some CPM! I once ran an ad that I'd narrowed down to 2000 people and I thought, "I could make a killing on CPM with this one"...Nope! Facebook managed to destroy my trial daily budget of $5 in about 3 hours...that was about 17 thousand page views in 3 hours to 2000 people and not one sale! Astounding.

CPC means you only pay when people click your ad. CPC will appear to be more expensive, but 9 times out of 10, a click is someone who is interested and your landing page is now in play. Facebook works hard to get your ad clicked on, so it will still get a lot of impressions. If it's not getting clicks though, it will lose favor and or the price will go up. This simply means your ads no good, time to rework.

Facebook will calculate how much this is going to cost you, either CPM or CPC. Again, don't be fooled by the apparent cheaper alternative to CPM; trial your ad with both for at least 48 hours each and monitor the response. The analytics that facebook provides you are very thorough and you can easily see which is giving you the better ROI (Return On Investment).

Go with the bids that facebook suggest. You can bid higher if you're confident that your landing page will convert the prospects; if you bid lower, there is less chance that your ad will be displayed as you'll be outbid by competitors.

This facebook page has some great ideas: Facebook Ads

Have you ever run facebook ads? Do you have an incredible success or disastrous story to share? Any more hints and tips? Love to read your comments below and as always, please whack the icons at the top to share on facebook and twitter!

PS. In case you're wondering, the word facebook appears 31 times in this article...too much?

Ben

Additional Reading:
How To Make A Facebook Page
How To Add A Facebook Like Button To Your Blogger Blog
102 Fitness And Personal Training Blog Post Ideas