Ads Manager Campaigns

 

 

When setting up a paid Facebook ad, there are a lot of boxes to check. Are you targeting the right people? Did you choose the right bidding model for your ad? Are you running the right type of ad. It can get a little confusing.

If you need to get it in front of a lot of people to introduce a new product, announce an event, or just spread awareness about who you are and what you do, it’s time to invest in paid advertising. So here is a basic 7 step guideline to setting up a Facebook Campaign.

How to run campaigns using Facebook Ads Manager

1. Set a campaign objective
2. Set a conversion location and choose a performance goal
3. Set a budget and a schedule
4. Build an audience
5. Choose a platform ad placement
6. Build your ad creative
7. Review campaigns and publish

The Ads Manager divides new campaigns into three tiers: 

1. Campaigns. Set the overall objective for your campaign, such as conversions, website clicks, or engagement. Choose a campaign name that reflects this goal.
2. Ad sets. Select your target audience—the people who you want to display your ads in front of. You can create several ad sets per campaign and assign different budgets to each. If your overall goal is to drive conversions, for example, you might assign 60% of the campaign budget to an ad set targeting women and the other 40% to an ad set targeting men. 
3. Ads. This is where you’ll produce your ad creative. Again, you can have several ads per ad set. Experiment to see which Facebook ad formats work best for your audience.

1. Set a campaign objective

The first stage in creating a Facebook ads campaign is to select “Create campaign” by clicking on the bright green create button in the top left corner. Then, choose an objective. This is the overarching goal of your entire campaign and impacts who the advertising algorithm shows your ads to. 

Options include:

• Brand awareness
• Traffic
• Engagement (i.e., video views or page likes)
• Lead generation
• App promotion
• Sales

2. Set a conversion location and choose a performance goal

Next, name your campaign, declare if you fall into what Meta calls “special ad categories,” decide if you’d like to do any A/B testing, and choose whether you want to use Meta’s “Advantage campaign budget” spending feature.

Then, Ads Manager will prompt you to choose where you’d like to drive people, like your business’s Facebook page, your website, or your app.

You’ll select a conversion location for the campaign objectives including engagement, traffic, sales, and leads, but not for app promotion or awareness.

Then, set a performance goal (like maximising the number of conversions) and set up a Meta pixel, if prompted.

3. Set a budget and schedule

Many new advertisers are cautious about going over their ad budget. Combat this by setting start and end dates for your campaigns, then selecting one of the following budgeting options: 

• Daily budget. 
• Lifetime budget. The total you want to spend over the entire campaign’s duration. Your day-to-day ad spend may fluctuate, since Facebook’s algorithm will spend portions of the budget when it deems best. 

4. Build an audience

Next, define the type of person whom you want to see your campaign, using one of the following options.

Custom audiences

If you’re starting your Facebook advertising strategy from scratch, build a saved audience. Add the demographics and traits your target market shares, such as their:

• Gender
• Age
• Location
• Language 
• Hobbies and interests

You’ll see the estimated audience size in the right-hand column. Go broad to begin with, and get more specific with your ad targeting once you begin collecting data. 

After two weeks, you might find that people aged 50 to 60 respond better to your campaigns than those aged 40 to 50. In that case, it would make sense to re-optimise your campaigns, either by removing the low-performing age bracket or dividing the ad set into two—with the better performing one receiving more budget. 

Lookalike audiences 

A lookalike audience is a group of people who share similar traits to an existing list. The algorithm will find Facebook users to target in future campaigns who share traits with your existing customers. 

Choose how close of a match you want the new audience to be. A 1% lookalike is most similar to your existing customer list, whereas a 10% overlap expands the pool to create a bigger audience. 

Retargeted audiences

With the pixel installed on your website, Facebook already knows who’s been looking at your products. Include these people in a retargeting audience.

5. Choose a platform ad placement

Facebook Ads Manager allows businesses to promote products and services across both Facebook and Instagram. Choose which platform you want to advertise on under the Placements tab of Ads Manager. 

Automatic placement is checked by default. With this setting, the advertising algorithm chooses which placements will meet your goal best, maximising the budget you have available. It’s a good place to start if you’re unsure which platforms or placements will work most for your audience. 

Alternatively, manually select platforms and placements. Choose from:

• Facebook: Feed, Marketplace, video feeds, right column, Facebook Stories, in-stream videos, instant articles, search results, and Messenger 
• Instagram: Feed, Explore page, Instagram Shop, Stories, Reels, and in-stream videos
• Audience Network: External apps and websites that “rent” advertising space to Facebook

6. Build your ad creative

Arguably, the most important part of your Facebook advertising strategy is the ad creative. How your adverts look has a major impact on the likelihood of users completing your goal. People won’t engage with an advert that doesn’t grab their attention in a crowded feed. 

Options include:

• Video ads
• Single image ads
• Carousel ads
• Canvas ads

Whichever format you choose, preview your ad creative before setting the campaign live. Facebook ad specs differ from device to device. Creatives need to look visually appealing across tablets, desktops, and mobile phones.

7. Review campaigns and publish 

Before publishing your new Facebook ad campaign, review the information you’ve added so far. Images, videos, and ad copywriting should convey a compelling message to the Facebook users you’ll reach with the campaign.

If you’re happy with each element, submit the campaign for approval. It can take up to 24 hours for Facebook to review and approve the ad, though it’s typically much sooner—within a few hours.