Facebook has changed the way people communicate, access information, and share experiences. Since its rise in 2007, the platform has more daily users than any other social media company.
For companies who want to engage with the public, Facebook is a great channel to generate leads and convert customers.
In the third quarter of 2019, Facebook had an average of 1.632 billion global daily active users.
Source: Facebook
What are Facebook ads for small businesses?
With this amount of daily traffic, it’s no wonder small businesses use Facebook to market their products. It’s a simple way to engage with potential customers and generate word-of-mouth advertising. Advertising on Facebook is just like creating a normal post. For a small fee, Facebook will promote the post for you. This means that other people who haven’t liked your business page will also see the post on their newsfeeds.
How to create Facebook ads as a small business owner
To get started with Facebook advertising, follow these steps.
1. Create a Facebook business page and ad account.
Before you can advertise on Facebook, you’ll need to create a page for your business. For the best results, you’ll need to add as much information about your business as you can. This includes a description of the business, your business hours, and your location (if it applies). You’ll also have to add a logo or profile picture. Once the page is ready, you can sign up for an ad account using the Ad Manager.
2. Add the Facebook pixel to your website.
Facebook gives companies the ability to add a retargeting pixel to their websites. Before starting the ad campaign, you should include the pixel code to the backend of your website. The pixel will help you track your campaign’s performance and understand your audience for future ads.
Facebook allows you to track different events like views, search results, wish lists, carts, and checkouts. You can also track specific audience behavior. To do this, simply select Facebook Ad Manager and follow their step-by-step details under the Facebook Pixel menu.
3. Choose your ad campaign’s objective.
Before you can post your first Facebook ad, you’ll need to set the objective of the campaign. Facebook has three types of objectives. These include:
- Awareness – For companies starting out with Facebook ads, they should start with an Awareness campaign. This helps get the word out to other users about your company’s product and services.
- Consideration – Once people know about your company, you can start building trust with your audience using a Consideration campaign. These usually contain content that provides additional information about your products or services.
- Conversion – Using the Facebook pixel, you’ll now know which users continue to engage with your content. You can start a conversion campaign that targets these users to turn them into loyal buying customers.
4. Define your audience preferences.
Facebook gives you the tools to define what your ideal target audience is. By defining your ideal customer, you can help Facebook improve how they target ads to other users. Facebook enables you to specify demographics, location, interests, connections, and behaviors. The better you define your audience, the greater your engagement will be.
5. Create and post your ad.
Using the “Edit Placements” option will allow you to set your advertising budget, schedule your posts, and choose your viewing platforms. Viewing platforms include feeds, suggested videos, instant articles, stories, or Facebook Marketplace. You can also choose to optimize the ad for desktop or mobile devices and decide which ad format you prefer.
How to measure the success of your Facebook ad campaign
The Facebook Pixel code will help you track all ad activity from the platform to your site. You’ll be able to see which ads drove the most traffic to your site. You can also track what your conversion rates are from Facebook ads. To track your engagement, you can use the built-in analytics that Facebook provides with Ad Manager.
Does it really matter?
Facebook is one of the best marketing channels available to small businesses. Running a campaign is affordable and it could help with organic conversions. People who like your ads will share them with their friends and followers, creating a wider reach.
What now?
To start advertising on Facebook is quick and easy. The platform has a wide variety of tools that help small businesses engage with their customers. To get started, you’ll need to have a business page, to define your audience, and to set an objective for your campaigns. You can then schedule your ads and Facebook will promote them to the relevant users.
Facebook ad campaigns should also follow the same principles that other channels use, so consider reading this blog post about creating engaging content before getting started.