If you are convinced about the added value of advertising on Facebook and if you know the costs of advertising on Facebook now it’s time to actually start making an ad! Here is a step-by-step explanation for starting Facebook Ads. All right, let’s get started with your first Facebook Ad:

Firstly, Go to Advertise on Facebook, you can do that from the top menu.

And then, create an advertiser account.

You will arrive at an overview page with all kinds of information about the steps:

• Creating your Facebook Page
• Making contact with people
• Attract attention to high-quality content

To the right, a menu with ‘How it works’ and ‘Frequently asked questions’. Both pages provide an explanation and the green button to create an advertisement. Click on the green button to ‘create an advertisement’.

Step 1: Create your campaign

What do you use Facebook Ads for? Facebook offers many options, which are: traffic to your website, traffic to your Facebook page, traffic to your app, interaction on Facebook.  See the explanation for each point:

Send people to your website

Traffic to your website. Useful if you want more quality traffic from a certain target group with a certain background or interest.

Stimulate conversions on your website

Traffic on your website must do something. Conversions, in the form of a contact form, purchase, download or request for quotation. With a pixel on your site, Facebook can send you traffic that converts earlier. Usually better than just traffic.

Promote your messages

100% of your fans used to see the message from your Facebook page. Now that’s 2% on average, up to 20% for quality pages. With this goal, you can buy it back. I only recommend this if you really have a goal with your Facebook messages.

Promote your page

For ‘like it’. Shown as ‘your friends Anna and Mona liked this page’. So it’s for increasing your Facebook reach, but beware, the 2% is decreasing.

Generate your app’s installations

If you choose to do this, you’ll also have enough budget to have someone else do your Facebook ads. More important than advertising your app is to make sure that users are satisfied with your app. More difficult than you think (which apps do you use, besides social media, mail, news, and weather?).

Increase engagement with your app

Ensures repeat traffic to your app.

Generate more visitors for your event

A very interesting option for pub owners, organizers, bands that arrange their own gigs and anyone who wants to get people on their feet.

Generate claims from offers

With Facebook, you can create an offer that your fans can claim. Interesting for shops to generate traffic to the shop and for big brands.

Increase the number of video views

For more viewers of your video. What purpose does your video support?

Step 2: create your ads

No, you’re still on the same page, but scrolling through to the most interesting part of Facebook Ads: your target group. Facebook throws that under your advertising set. So what about that? This is the structure of your campaign. Let me give you an example of Bert, an ice cream manufacturer. Bert has 2 ice creams: strawberry and chocolate. That’s why Bert has created a Strawberry campaign and a Chocolate campaign. Now, teenagers and those in their twenties both enjoy flavors. That’s why Bert makes advertising set for both campaigns for teenagers and twenty-somethings. Then you get 4 advertising campaigns, because of 4 target groups in total, 2 per ice cream. Sounds too simple? Translate it into your own products and target groups.

The question that Facebook has been wanting to ask you all along. Actually, it’s quite simple:

• a budget per day, in a specific period or continuously. Or:
• A specific budget for a specific period.

You can’t (yet) say: specific budget for a month or week, you have to click on the data yourself.

Minimum budget: 1 euro per day.

My advice: that’s good for your wallet, but it gives you almost nothing. Not only a few clicks, likes or conversions but also little data. And that means that you can’t optimize much on your ads (so: try out different pictures and texts, and start using the ad that costs the least and yields the most).

The options further including advanced options :

Optimize for: There it is again! So now you can change your target here again.

Prices

Generate most website clicks for the best price or set the amount that a click to your website is worth to you. The first option is really not that bad (not like Google Adwords), and makes it easier. You can then focus on the quality of your ads. The second option is, just like Google Adwords, an auction: you enter the maximum value that – in this case, a click – is worth you. You don’t always pay for it. A handy trick is to be on the high side here (but not over your own limit of course!) so that Facebook takes your bidding more often (because of the chance of more turnover) but you don’t always pay for it (because it depends on all kinds of factors). Too difficult? Choose the first option.

Advertising planning

Times and days of the week. Yes, that’s useful for religious beliefs (not on Sundays!), Wednesday Meatloaf Day (only for sale on Wednesdays), Installing Apps (at home and at work, but not while traveling).

Display Type

OK, this is really advanced. 2 options: Standard view and Accelerated view. You can speed up if you really want to make up your budget as quickly as possible. This is done at events and when you want to reach your goal quickly. You’ll need a manual bid for that, though.

Advertising set name

Step 3: Create your ad

And then, after your goal, target group, and budget, you can finally make your message: your Facebook ad! With another mountain of options:

What material do you want to use in your ad?

An image or a video in your ad: you can upload it yourself, from your Facebook page or Facebook’s stock photos. Facebook already retrieves one image for your website as standard.

Multiple photos in one ad

Facebook automatically chooses the best one for you. Provides (according to Facebook) 30-50% lower costs per conversion and 20-30% lower costs per click. The carousel effect can be used to show more products, more details and to tell an entire story.

What text and links do you want to use? Images uploaded? Then the further content:

Linking a Facebook page (or making it fast): then it looks like the ad comes from your Facebook page, but the ad does link to your site. A social trick.

Header (25 characters): attract attention, address your target group, ask a question, give value, link to the image, keep it short.

Text (90 characters): shorter than a tweet! Give a reason to click, offer value, give a call-to-action, make it interesting.

Action button (optional): On a Facebook page you can put an action button. Handy. You can include this button in your advertisement. 

CONCLUSION

These best Facebook Ads practices & strategies for 2020 will certainly help you get on the right track for the year. These ideas will also ensure that your brand is in the best position. So, as you apply these practices and strategies or hire a digital marketing agency to do so for you, you can feel confident in producing promising results.