A beginner’s guide to Facebook advertising

Advertising on Facebook has grown over 680% since 2010 and has become one of the most efficient platforms to reach out to targeted audiences. If you have not considered the use of Facebook advertising in your marketing arsenal, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful tools available. Here are 6 things you need to know about setting up a Facebook ad campaign. 1. Create a Facebook Business Page First things first: before you can advertise on Facebook, you must have a Facebook Business Page. Log in to your Facebook account and, on the news feed page, click on Create a Page from the left column. Choose the category of your Page that best describes the nature of your business. 2. Define your Facebook ads goals Facebook offers a variety of advertisement options to choose from, depending on your business needs. It’s important to create goals for your ads so that you are sure you’re spending your money wisely while achieving your business goals. 3. Choose an objective for your campaign Now that you have a Facebook ad goal in mind, translate those goals into objectives for your campaign. For instance, if you want to drive more visitors to your business website, your Facebook ad objective is to “Send” people to your website, but if you want to increase your number of social media followers you would choose the objective to “Promote” your Page. From your Page, click on Create ads and choose an objective to get started. 4. Target your audience This is the step where most businesses fail at Facebook advertising. Target your ads based on location, age, gender, language, interests, and behavior to target your audience group. Once you’ve chosen your target audience, you can decide how much money you want to spend, and choose the time to run your ad. 5. Customize your ad You can customize your ad to encourage people to click-thru to your content. This process is equally as important as audience targeting. The text is only 90 characters long, so make sure your copy portrays what the content is about. Then choose where you want your Facebook ad to show from four options - the news feed, mobile news feed, right column, or audience network. 6. Place your order The last step is to click on the Place Order button to submit your ad to Facebook for review. You’ll receive an email from Facebook once your ad has been reviewed and approved and is ready to launch. Facebook advertising requires effective planning, testing, and measuring. You need to experiment in order to find the campaign that works best for your business.