Facebook, without a doubt, is the world’s largest and most popular social media platform. It has 27 billion monthly active users which gives businesses and startups countless opportunities to reach new audience, and expand their company’s reach. Devising a sound strategy can help you capitalize on this million dollar opportunity. 

For people without experience, Facebook marketing could be staggering. However, the first step is to understand the tools available on Facebook. 

What Is Facebook Marketing?

Facebook marketing is the act of promoting a brand, and maintaining its presence on Facebook. It can include both: organic posts and interactions, or paid (boosted) posts. 

Facebook marketing includes the following:

• Facebook ads
• Business pages
• Facebook groups
• Facebook marketplace

Should you Use Facebook Marketing?

It does not matter whether you are working on a limited budget, but your competition is pouring in dollars on Facebook marketing, sound strategy is the key of Facebook marketing. 

Facebook is home to more than 90 million businesses. According to an estimate, about 17 percent of Facebook users made an account to connect with different brands. It means about 4.6 billion Facebook users are there for interacting with brands and products. What’s more, with the current pandemic, a growing number of people across the globe are turning to social media platforms to find information about any product they are interested in purchasing. Thus, Facebook provides you a golden opportunity to connect, interact and grow your market without having to spend a fortune on tangible shops, conventional marketing and things of sorts.
Recently, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new Facebook feature: Facebook Shop, which will allow sellers to directly sell their products to the customers without the need for external links and sources. 

Types of Facebook Ads

Facebook offers four types of ad:

Image Ads

You can advertise your product by using image format in the Facebook News Feed. 

Choose an attractive image of the product that will encourage people to take an interest in your brand. An eye-catching picture shows your brand personality.

Choose from JPG or PNG. Make sure the headline does not exceed 40 characters. Be concise as you have a limit of 125 characters for the main message.

Video Ads

Video ads let you show off your product, brand or service through a video.  You can either use the Ads Manager or boost a post comprising a video present on your Facebook Page. 

Videos help you to show off your product, services and even testimonials creatively. Make sure the video sends the message clearly, lest you should lose your customers. It should be impressive, and convey exactly what you want the people to see.

Carousel Ads

The carousel ads format allows you to show two or more images in a single ad. You can also show videos in this format. Each image or video will have a different headline, description and link. By featuring multiple products that link to different landing pages, your website get a greater exposure. People scroll through a wide array of images to see what the brand has to offer. Carousel ads have proven to be effective in increasing sales. It has been estimated that carousel ads can increase traffic by 20 to 30 percent in just three months.

But carousel ads are not for every type of business. For instance, a real estate organization might not attract as many in house visits.

Collection Ads

Collection ads is another type of advertising option Facebook offers. It lets people move from the discovery stage to the purchase in a seamless and immersive manner. Every collection ad features a primary image or video, and is accompanied by four smaller images below in a grid like layout. 

Image collections are suitable for displaying products in your website. But collection ads come with a limit of small headline and a125 character primary image. You cannot divulge much details with collection ads. 

Which Ad Type Should you Choose?

It largely depends on your campaign goal and the amount of money you are willing to spend on the slot. Facebook has not set any cost for Facebook Ads. Thus, you can easily accommodate your advertisements within your budget, and as your business grows, you can invest more in Facebook marketing.

Steps to Start Facebook Marketing

For starters, you need a Facebook Page for your business. If you do not already have one, I suggest you get working on it. This will be the primary point of interaction for your audience. 

Facebook pages have an immense impact on prospective purchasers. They go through the reviews, page ratings and comments to get an insight about the opinion of followers, and old buyers.

But how will you lead people to your page? You got that right! Through Facebook Ads.

Access Ads Manager

First, you need to access Ads Manager. You can create, manage and track your campaigns through Ads Manager.

Choose Your Ad Objective

Why are you opting for marketing? What do you aim to achieve from your campaign? There are three categories you can choose from:

Awareness Objectives

You want to increase brand awareness and reach a bigger market.

Consideration Goals

You want to get people to think about your business and seek more information, ultimately leading to increased traffic on your website and page. It could also include increased engagement, app installs, video views, lead generation and higher number of messages.

Conversion Goals

Maybe you want more conversions. It means you want visitors to turn into purchasers. Your objective can also include more catalog sales, and increased store traffic. 

Click the green “Create” button and choose your goal

Naming Your Campaign

Naming helps to keep a track of the campaign within the Ads Manager. Afterwards, confirm if you want to test different versions of the ad with one another by using A/B testing. It is optional and you can opt for it at any stage of the campaign. 

Setting Your Budget and Schedule 

Selecting the page you are going to promote is crucial. Usually it is the primary Facebook page, or website link. You can then set a monthly or weekly budget for the campaign and determine the date you want to begin the campaign. 

Choosing Your Market Audience

You can build the audience according to gender, age, language and location. You can also customize the audience as per user behaviors and interests to increase the chances of reaching more people.

Selecting Your Ad Placements

Determine where you would like your ad to appear. For newbies, it is best to select “automatic placements” to let Facebook decide which should be the best options, and where you are most likely to get maximum traction.

If you have a better knowhow, then you can customize the placement based on multiple elements, such as device type, social media platform, or operating system, etc.

Create Your Facebook Ad

Lastly, choose the ad format you want to go for, type in the ad copy, and upload your images or videos. Once you are satisfied with the ad, click the “Publish” button to go live.

Congratulations, you have finally created your first Facebook Ad!!

Conclusion

Facebook ads is a great way for reaching a bigger audience. You can access anyone from any corner of the world, without having to spend a fortune. However, understanding the options could be a bit daunting for the newbies, and the above mentioned steps can help you get a head start regarding Facebook ads.