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Quick steps to help you run an easy Facebook ad for your small business
Facebook is an ultra-powerful platform for small businesses to advertise their products and services. When you scroll on Facebook and Instagram, you’ve probably seen dozens of advertisements on your feed and story. Have you noticed that, most of the time, these are products and services that you probably are interested in as well?
Facebook works by collecting people’s behaviors on their platforms so that businesses can advertise their products and services to very specific people. While some people oppose this system, there is no doubt that it is incredibly useful for small businesses. It brings businesses closer to potential customers, and customers to products they would like.
One of the best features of Facebook ads is that while it has many functions, it is also fairly easy to make. No, you don’t need skills in marketing or advertising – though they would be helpful – to make Facebook ads! Here are the steps in running an easy Facebook ad for your small business.
Make a Facebook page
If you haven’t already made a page for your business, then you should. To maximize the features of Facebook ads, make an Instagram account for your business as well. Oftentimes, Facebook ads are automatically shown on Instagram as well.
Using your computer, go to your Facebook page and click “Promote” which is on the left side on your screen.
Choose your objective
At this point, Facebook will show you a variety of objectives for your ad. Do you want to get more website visitors? Boost a post? Or promote your page? There are many options to choose from, but choose the one that works best for the advertisement you have in mind.
Say, for example, that you own a cleaning service and you want to advertise a previous post you published. Choose Boost a Post. Facebook will then display your posts, and then click the one you want to promote.
Select a goal
This is the part where creating an ad begins. The topmost section shows your Goal. You can choose automatic, or you can try getting more messages or engagement. It’s entirely up to you. For a cleaning service that wants to get more bookings, getting more messages may be the best option.
Select a button
Buttons can be in the form of “Learn More”, “Send Message”, or other short phrases, depending on the objective of your ad. This is also called your Call to Action – after looking at your advertisement, this is the action that a customer would take if he or she is interested in your services. Choose the button that best describes what you want your customers to do when they click your ad.
Choose an audience
Along with an appealing image or poster, choosing the proper audience is the secret to increasing your Return on Investment or ROI in advertising. You can select pre-configured audiences such as people who like your age, these people plus their friends, people in your local area, and so forth. You can also make your own audience from a specific area, in a specific age group, and with certain interests. It really depends on the kind of audience you are targeting. For a cleaning company owner, he or she can make an audience that consists of parents in their locality who are interested in home cleaning. If you don’t know which audience to select, try making two ads with the same elements (the objective, visuals, goal, etc.), but with different audiences. That way, you can test which audience works better.
Specify the duration of your ad and your budget
If you just plan on testing an ad, let it roll for 3-4 days, and then see the results. If it’s doing well and gathering high returns, like if it’s amassing high engagement or lots of messages, then extend it for another two to three weeks. There’s no rule for this, but when your ad starts to lose conversions, it’s time to change your audience or visuals. However, ads do fluctuate in effectiveness. It can perform badly one day and do well the next. So when you notice that your ad isn’t performing as well as it usually does, give it 3-4 days and observe before you make any adjustments.
Budgeting your ad is arbitrary, however, the minimum amount is a mere dollar per day. You can definitely increase this amount to see more results. If you’re just starting out, marketers usually set aside 5-12% of the company’s revenue for advertising. For small businesses, $120 a month on an ad is a good starting point. Once you start scaling up your business and marketing efforts, you can then increase your budget for ads.
What to do once you’ve published your ad
Observe your ad for 3-4 days. You should be gaining momentum within that time frame, but if you aren’t getting enough messages, clicks, or engagement, then it’s time to tweak your ad. Don’t waste time – time is money! Start with the budget, increase it by 2 dollars per day. You can also try boosting another post, or choosing another audience. In any case, only tweak one aspect of your ad at a time and observe for 3-4 days in order to get to the root of the inefficiency.
If you are getting a good amount of conversions, good job! Let your ad roll for two to three more weeks, and then update it. You wouldn’t want your audience to see the same ad over and over again. When it’s time to change your ad, try other ad objectives and maximize the tools that Facebook has to help you market and advertise your products and services.