Facebook Ads : How does it really work? Complete guide 2022
For those who want to have a detailed view of the Facebook Ads service.
In just a few years, social advertising has become a major acquisition lever. Simply because it is one of the most effective paid channels in terms of lead generation and customer conversions. That’s why the global budget for social media advertising is expected to double in the next five years.
In this category, Facebook ads top the list. Nearly 95% of social network marketers consider Facebook to be the platform that generates the most return on investment. That said, paid campaigns are particularly effective and work equally well in B2B and B2C.
But with Facebook ads now firmly established on the web, you’re wondering if it’s too late to get involved. As Facebook continues to grow, both in terms of users and markets, you can jump on the bandwagon and make the most of the world’s most popular social network.
Here I offer a comprehensive guide to making the most of this ever-changing machine.
What are Facebook ads really?
The term “Facebook Ads” refers to the advertising network made available to advertisers by the social network Facebook. Exactly like AdWords for Google. In addition, it is a system that promotes the relevance and quality of ads, as well as an extremely precise targeting of the people that advertisers want to reach.
In short, Facebook Ads are ads that are displayed on Facebook and on partner sites (and applications). This allows advertisers to benefit from the power of the world’s most popular social network, to which users connect en massively, at any time of the day (when they wake up, on the move, at work, in front of the TV…) and from any type of medium (computer, smartphone or tablet).
Facebook Ads arrived in 2007 and allowed the platform (whose registration and use are free) to become profitable.
Take a look here.
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Why launching an advertising campaign on Facebook?
For the simple reason that it is the most effective way to reach a large audience on the world’s leading social network.
As you probably know: the organic reach of posts is gradually decreasing. And, it took another hit with Facebook’s algorithm update in early 2018. At this rate, no one can say what it will be like in a year or two, or even five. Nor if organic reach won’t be completely gone at some point.
In order to prepare yourself for all eventualities, I advise you to turn to paid acquisitions. Because, they are more efficient due to the different evolutions brought by Facebook to its advertising mechanism. Provided you know how to use them: targeting, creation of personalized audiences, etc. By using these campaigns, it is possible that you can obtain very consequent incomes from your activity…
Note: in 2017, 5 million businesses launched at least one Facebook Ads campaign, a figure that almost doubled in one year (they were 3 million in 2016). Forbes estimates that number at 6 million.
Optimizing Facebook Ads: 8 Best Practices
To help you see beyond the simple launch of an ad, here are some best practices to apply without moderation to boost your Facebook Ads campaigns.
1. Define your target
Any Facebook ad campaign requires careful targeting. Start by clearly defining the people you want to reach, based on as many criteria as possible.
Then segment your campaigns. This is an essential step that leads you to send personalized messages to the different categories of audiences you are targeting. If you send the same ad to all of your segments, you risk sending an impersonal message that won’t reach anyone, or that will send you unqualified leads.
On the other hand, a targeted ad, tailored to a particular segment, will probably generate fewer visitors, but they will be much more qualified, and therefore likely to convert into customers with less effort… and at a lower cost.
2. Build your ad well
Facebook ads look very similar. So make sure your ads are composed of:
- A teaser: the introductory text above the image or video,
- A creative design (the visual),
- A title (which appears under the creative),
- A description (under the title),
- A link (under the description),
- And a CTA (to the right of the link).
Make sure all these elements are present and optimized.
3. Putting visuals in ads
Creating a visual ad is essential for both your strategy and your positioning in the user’s News Feed. Visual content is handled better by Facebook’s algorithm. Most importantly, an image is easier to remember — and share — than textual content. Because, a visual takes much less time to look at than a text.
Be sure to always include a visual in your campaigns.
4. Choose the right billing model
Facebook offers two billing models :
- CPC (cost per click): In the first case, you pay each time a user clicks on your ad: this is pay per performance.
- CPM (cost per thousand, or impressions): You only pay when your ad has been displayed a thousand times: this is pay per display.
The former is less expensive than the latter. Choose the model that best suits your needs, from a cost effectiveness perspective.
If you want to know more, do your own research.
Let’s take the following example:
You have 30€ to spend. The CPC is 3€ and the CPM is 10€. Which model should you choose?
You know that you can have 10 clicks via a CPC campaign (Calculation: 30 / 3 = 10) and 3000 impressions for a CPM campaign (30 / 10 x 1000 = 3000).
For your CPM campaign to be more interesting than a CPC campaign, the click rate of your campaign must be higher than 0.33% (Calculation: 10 / 3000 x 100, i.e. the number of CPC clicks divided by the number of total impressions.
So how do you know if your campaign will have a sufficient click-through rate to be profitable?
The answer is very simple: you can’t know without testing!
Smart tip :
Choose the billing model that you feel is most appropriate for the content you’re going to share, let the campaign run for a few days to get a better idea of the click-through rate and adjust if necessary.
5. Optimization : Relevance Score
Like Google, Facebook likes ads that add value to its users. Even if it means disturbing them in their daily surfing time, it might as well be with ads that meet their needs. With this in mind, the network has implemented a “relevance score” similar to the AdRank found in AdWords, which influences how Facebook will treat your ads in terms of visibility.
The idea is to have as high a relevance score as possible, and thus create Facebook Ads campaigns that are well targeted enough to make users happy and click on your links.
6. Choosing the right ad placements
Social networking giant Facebook gives you the ability to choose where you want your ads to appear on users’ pages.
- In the right column. This is the traditional format par excellence, to the right of the News Feed. This position offers lower CPCs. A clear value proposition, a well-placed CTA, relevant content and an attractive visual ensure that Facebook Ads campaigns located here are effective.
- In the News Feed. This is the most effective location, as the ads appear directly in users’ News Feed and capture their full attention. Because they are similar to standard ads, they are generally perceived as less intrusive, which tends to increase the potential click-through rate.
But beware: this location is subject to a high relevance score. Note that this location exists at two levels: on desktop and on mobile.
- In Instant Articles. Ads are displayed in Instant Articles on mobile (Facebook application and Messenger).
- In embedded or suggested videos. Facebook video ads can appear in two places: inside Live and On Demand videos, or between videos suggested by the network.
- In the marketplace. Particularly useful for merchants, ads appear in the Facebook Marketplace (on the homepage of the mobile app or while browsing).
Your Facebook ads can also appear outside of Facebook. This is called ad placement. With this option, they’re displayed on Instagram (in the News Feed or in Stories), Messenger (in the home tab or as sponsored posts) or on a whole bunch of websites and mobile apps in the Audience Network (banner, native or interstitial formats).
Note that Facebook checks the “automatic placement” option by default. But you can select your priority placements yourself, especially to remove what does not work (after several days of campaign).
7. Using Custom Audiences
They allow you to target people who know (or are already in contact with) your company on the network. They can also come from different sources:
- Your own customer lists,
- Engagements,
- Traffic to your website,
- Facebook’s mobile application, etc.
Once created, you can then target very specifically with your Facebook ads.
The more targeted your ads are, the more likely you are to reach the right people, the more likely they are to click on your links. This will increase your click-through rates, thus the relevance of your ads, etc.
From a custom audience, it is also possible to create a similar audience, i.e. an audience that resembles the people already in contact with your company on the network. This option ensures even more effective targeting: based on several criteria, you send your messages or offers to users who, because they have a similar profile to your existing customers (for example), could be more easily converted.
8. Choose your Ad type
One of the great things about Facebook Ads is the variety of ad formats available. Technically, you can do just about anything you want. Here are some of the most relevant examples:
- Sponsored posts (already existing organic posts that are promoted through advertising).
- Photo ads (great for enticing users with attractive visuals).
- Video ads (which are becoming more and more popular with users: more than 8 million are watched every day (source).
- Multi-product ads, in the form of carousels (to highlight several products, services or publications in the same ad, with the possibility for the user to click on individual links).
- Targeted local ads (to direct your prospects to your physical store in a given area).
- Offers (ads focused on one-time promotional offers, valid only on Facebook).
- Retargeting ads (which “follow” identified people in their web journey). They run on the Audience Network.
- Event-based ads (to promote a specific event).
- Dynamic ads (inspired by Google Shopping, they display the most relevant product/service according to the users who view them).
- Mobile application ads (which send the user directly to the store where they can download the application being advertised).
Note that each of these formats benefits from the advantages of personalized audience targeting.
9. Measuring the performance of Facebook ad campaigns
Creating Facebook ads is one thing. But you’ll quickly realize that it’s just the beginning of a very long journey in your Facebook campaigns. From there, you can (and should) measure the effectiveness of your ad campaigns to make sure they’re meeting their goals while staying within budget, and therefore with a positive ROI.
Note
You can measure click-through rate, conversion rate, cost per conversion, etc.
This allows you to instantly modify them to be more effective. Facebook provides two tools for this: the ad manager (also available in a mobile app) and the activity manager.
Remember to always test
It’s impossible to improve your Facebook ads without regular testing. Used in the field of web marketing, A/B testing is essential to evaluate the most effective combinations and to verify if this version of your ad works better than another with target X or Y.
Get to the point
Remember that you are on a social network and that users’ attention span is counted in seconds. It will only take one look for a user to get an idea of the value of your ad.
So make sure you get to the point: keep your message short, to the point and relevant. And don’t forget that a majority of users view Facebook from a mobile device, so you need to be sure that the message will display correctly and in its entirety.
Optimize your landing pages
The user’s click on an ad is just one step. You might think the hard part is done, but it’s not: the rest of the buying journey must be in line with the value proposition. It would be a shame if an ad for shampoo sent the user to a page dedicated to flat screen TVs!
Make a real value proposition
Differentiate between a proposition that is clicked on and an ad that is ignored.
1. Make it clear that you are the best provider of a specific service (but that’s not enough to convince).
2. On the other hand, a promotional offer, a discount coupon, a quantified argument, a demonstration proposal, these are all incentives likely to seduce your targets.
3. Remember to add a relevant call-to-action, otherwise all these efforts will be useless.
Remember : Take a look here.
Our page is not monetized because we are not part of the list of 31 countries allowed by Medium. So, to support us, you can either buy one of our services via our affiliate links, or just pay us a coffee.
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