Don’t waste your time on Facebook Ads if you don’t have a strategy. So many businesses spend money on these adds with no clearly defined goals. You might as well just throw your money out the window of a speeding car. If you don’t have a clear plan you will see little results. Take some time to ask yourself a few questions before you begin!
5 Questions To Ask Before You Start A Facebook Ad Campaign
Why are you considering running a Facebook Ad?
Initially you must define your objective. It is essential that you understand which type of Facebook Ad will best match your marketing needs, and to do that you must have clear goals. Facebook breaks down the objectives for you into three main categories.
Awareness
Objectives that generate interest in your product or service.
Consideration
Objectives that get people to start thinking about your business and look for more information about it.
Conversion
Objectives that encourage people interested in your business to purchase or use your product or service.
Below is asamplelist of specific goals that you may want to consider for your advertising campaign.
Who is your target audience?
After you determine your objective for the Facebook Ad, you will need to decide your target audience by selecting various attributes.
- What locations will you target?
- Is there a specific gender?
- Do you know the age range?
- Should you consider relationship status?
- What interests should they have?
- Will you consider their education or current job title?
- Do you want to reach people based on other factors?
Facebook offers a vast amount of targeting options. If you want more information than review Facebook’s Targeting Overview section.
What Ad format are you going to use?
Facebook allows you to use various formats. You should put some thought into how your brand and brand name will be clearly communicated. Will you be using an image or perhaps a video?
Your ad can also be placed in different positions on Facebook. This is typically based on your advertising choices. You are best to review the Facebook Ads Guide to ensure that your ad is compliant to their specifications.
The following design recommendations are from the Facebook Ads Site. They do review your ad before it runs and may not publish it if you breach these guidelines.
Design Recommendations
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Recommended image size: 1,200 x 628 pixels
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Image ratio: 1.9:1
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Text: 90 characters
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Headline: 25 characters
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Link description: 30 characters
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Your image should include minimal text. See how the amount of text in your ad image will impact the reach of your ad.
What is your budget?
You can choose between two different types of budget for your Facebook Ad campaign.
A daily ad budget: This option limits your choices and requires more monitoring and maintenance on your part. You are unable to choose what time or day you want your ad to run.
A lifetime ad budget: This option allows you to set a start and end date. It also allows you to set the budget you plan on spending in that period of time. This allows you to add to your budget and to extend the time you want to run your ad.
It’s important to keep in mind that other choices you make will also affect your costs. The size of your target audience can really affect your budget spend.
For more information on Facebook Ad Budgeting, review these resources:
Budget, Bidding, Scheduling & Charges
Daily Budget vs. Lifetime Budget in Facebook Ads
How Will You Evaluate Your Ad’s Performance? 
If you are going to invest in a Facebook Ad campaign then it is essential to evaluate the results. You should focus on measuring the reach and frequency of your ad campaign across devices, applications and browsers. You need to know how many people saw your ad and what behaviour occurred as a result.
Clicks and likes are not always the ideal way to measure how your ad performed. When you understand the analytics and Facebook insights, you will be able to create more effective ads.
Beginners Guide To Facebook Advertising
The 7 Must-Measure Facebook Ad Analytics to Increase Your ROI
Facebook Releases New Guide to Help Advertisers Maximize Video Ad Performance
Analyse Your Campaign’s Performance
It’s important to remember that every business is different and Facebook ads are not a “one size fits all” deal.
Every company has to have an individualized approach to marketing, and every company needs an individualized ad campaign on Facebook.
Retail businesses can other a terrific discount and have success with simply promoting a post on Facebook. Other companies that just can’t give a super deal need to put put more thought into an ad campaign.
While Facebook Ads Manager is helpful in providing a step-by-step process to help you set-up your ad, I would recommend that you review the resources I have included in this article.
The more informed you are, the more successful your ad campaign will be.
Sa
ndi Booth is the CEO, web developer, content strategist, graphic designer, social media manager and trainer at Cktechconnect Inc. located in Chatham-Kent, Ontario. Sandi’s creative style and dedication to clients has ensured that Cktechconnect has become the online marketing company it is today. Since its inception in 2009 Cktechconnect Inc. has helped dozens of businesses and professionals around the world with focused, successful, dynamic multimedia marketing campaigns.
Join Sandi on Twitter – @cktechsandi
Lori English says:
Sandi,
Thank You for writing this beautiful article. I really know that Lori’s Little Lessons will eventually as soon as possible get to this point of contention, I am tying up some loose and will try to test someone my own first. Thanks for the article and your wonderful business. Always a pleasure to know you and your kind heart.
Lori English
cktech says:
Hi Lori,
Thanks so much for taking the time to read and comment. Really appreciate your motivating posts and support. Hope this article helps when the time arrives. Sandi
DigitalSasi says:
I agree with this statement ‘Clicks and likes are not always the ideal way to measure how your ad performed’. That is exactly why the first step should be to define your objective. Facebook insights provides all the data required to analyze if the desired objectives were reached.
cktech says:
Thanks for your feedback. Totally agree – Sandi