Facebook Ads: Everything You Need to Know About Them
Facebook is probably the biggest social media platform. Billions of people are using this – 2.98 billion to be precise. This is an excellent way for your business to reach out to people. Setting up a Facebook ad might be easy, but making an effective ad campaign isn’t so easy. Even though it’s impossible to know all about Facebook ads in one single post, we’ve tried our best to create a condensed post that will touch various aspects.
Table of Contents
- Types of Ads
- Choosing the Perfect Ad Type
- Why Facebook Ads Are So Effective
- How to Create an Ad on Facebook
- Ideal Dimensions
- Best Practices
- The Key Element of a Good Ad
Types of Facebook Ads
According to Facebook Business Help Centre, there are five types of ads that you can put on Facebook. Here is the list:
Image
These types of ads only use images for advertising. They’re not the most effective type.
Video
This is probably the best type of ad that exists out there. Yes, these can be hard to produce, but they are worth it. Marketers experiment with different types of marketing strategies. When these marketers were asked to compare Google Ads to video ads, 68% of marketers reported a higher ROI for the video ads.Thus, they’re much more effective than the usual ad types are. You can learn more about video ads from Facebook Business Help Centre.
Carousel
These, according to some experts, are even better for marketing than videos are. But what exactly are they?
Consider them as multiple single-image ads put in one post. In a nutshell, they’re a form of multi-image ads with CTAs. According to Digiday, VDL found that carousels lead to a twenty percent recall compared to the fourteen percent recall with typical singe-image ads. You can learn more about Carousel from Facebook Business Help Centre.
Instant Experience
This is the full-screen window that the user will be interacting with once they tap on your ad on a smartphone. Instant experience is almost like an interactive website that pops up once users tap on your ad. This is pretty good if you want to get a lot to your audience. The downside of this is that it uses up some data. Slower loading speed could mean potential customers going back before this ad even loads. You can learn more about Instant Experience from Facebook Business Help Centre.
Collection
This is similar to the Carousel. What’s different with this is that the user will be taken to an Instant Experience ad after interacting with this. You can learn more about Collection from Facebook Business Help Centre.
How to Choose the Perfect Ad Type for You
If you’re confused as to which ad type you should use, don’ be. After going through this section, you’ll be crystal clear on which type of ad is perfect for your business. Depending on your needs and budget, you have to pick the right ad type. We’ll help you decide the right type of ad type for you. Many factors come into play when deciding the perfect ad type for you and your business – from your target audience to your marketing goals. However, broadly, here are the scenarios that each ad type can be used for:
Image
This is good for getting a concise message to your audience and for brand awareness.
Video
This is ideal for consumers who are not deep in the sales funnel. Perfect for just before generating leads.
Carousel
This one is for those potential customers who are in the middle of the sales funnel.
Instant Experience
Instant experience is perfect for consumers deep down the sales funnel.
Collection
This is great for getting consumers to convert. This is for consumers who are at the bottom of the sales funnel.
Why Facebook Ads Are So Effective
What separates traditional marketing from social media marketing is personalized ads. Social media platforms record their users’ data – from what content they like to what sort of things they buy. They then use this data to make highly targeted ads that target the perfect audience. In short, your business will only be seen by the right people – those who might be interested in your business. From there on, lead generation can help you in turning them into customers. If you don’t know about lead generation, read this article on Using Digital Marketing for Lead Generation. With the data of around 3 billion people, lack data is never a problem. So, you can target your ideal target audience with these.
How to Advertise on Facebook
Knowing what Facebook ads are and which ad type is perfect for you isn’t enough. You need to be able to start a Facebook campaign and run these ads. Of course, a lot more goes into creating an effective ad. That is what digital marketing agencies are for. But if you’re just looking to get started with Facebook ads, here’s your guide:
- Go to Ads Manager
- Set your payment method
- Save the changes
Click here to go to the Ads Manager.
From there on, you can mess with the following stuff:
Objectives
You can set your objectives for your ads in detail under this. Your goal for running Facebook ads might be different from those of other businesses. Whether your goal is just brand awareness or making sales, you can make your ads accordingly.
Here are some of the objectives that you can choose from:
- Brand awareness
- Reach
- Website traffic
- Lead generation
- Making sales
Target Audience
2.98 billion People mean data, and it means a lot of it. Facebook has almost everything about its users. Whether your ad is targeted for Gen Z or boomers, males or females, or anything else, you can do so. The following data is some of the valuable data Facebook gathers which you can use in your ad campaign:
- Age
- Religion
- Ethnicity
- Address
- Location
- Education
- Relationship Status
This is some of the concrete stuff; stuff that can be represented through facts and figures. Some other things can’t be measured, but Facebook keeps that data. Some of this data includes what a user:
- Saves
- Likes
- Buys
- Uses
Budget
You can set the budget for your ads according to your needs. Facebook will charge you accordingly. Do keep in mind that to run ads on Facebook, you’re going to have to have a business account – not a personal one. If you haven’t done so before creating an ad, do so now.
Ideal Dimensions for a Facebook Post/ Ad
Almost every social media platform has different dimensions for its posts. If you want your ad to be perfect, you should use the perfect dimensions as recommended. You want to be using a 1080 x 1080 pixels image for your post. For an in-depth guide, go to the next section.
Best Practices for Facebook Ads
You must know by now that a lot goes into creating an effective ad. It is more than just clicking a few buttons and getting started. Here are some things that Facebook recommends you can do to give your Facebook ads the boost they need.
Image Recommendations
| File Type | PNG / JPG |
| Ratio | 1.91:1 to 1:1 |
| Resolution | 1080 x 1080 px |
Text Recommendations
| Primary Text Length | 125 Characters |
| Headline Length | 40 Characters |
| Paragraph Length | 30 Characters |
Other Recommendations
| File Size | 25 MB |
| Minimum Width | 600 px |
| Minimum Height | 600 px |
| Aspect Ratio Tolerance | 3% |
The Key to Making Effective Facebook Ads
Here’s the thing. No matter how many articles and how-to guides you read, you won’t get good at making ads that work without having experience. That takes time—a lot of it. The most important part is setting the right target audience. If you want people to become your customers, you need to get to the right audience. After all, the ultimate goal is to get people to convert. Sending your message to people who aren’t interested will only waste your time. That’s why knowing and reaching the right target audience is so important.
Bottom Line
Creating Facebook ads is, by no means, an easy task. It is easy to create one but hard to create an effective ad campaign that converts. If you know how to use Facebook ads properly, you can use them to your benefit. The sheer amount of data, combined with the ability to choose your target audience (with details), makes Facebook ads a great way for you to expand your business. That’s why you can create brand awareness, increase traffic to your site, make sales or do anything with these. The most important thing is to know your target audience. If you do so, you will be able to use Facebook ads effectively.
Worrying about the content of Facebook Ads? BP4u Solutions provides SEO-optimized content writing for Facebook Ads or website development services for the digital marketing of your business. For more info Contact us!