Your Facebook Ads Roadmap: How do I get started with Facebook Ads?
Whenever I ask what my audience’s top question is with Facebook Ads, they usually say, “I just don’t even know where to start.”
If you’re thinking:
Facebook Ads are too complicated for me
I’ll never learn how to use Facebook Ads
I don’t have time to learn how to run Facebook Ads
I’m here to tell you, your concerns are valid. BUT they also don’t need to be true.
Let’s shift your mindset around Facebook Ads.
NOTE: There is a lot of information out there on Facebook advertising, most of it is designed to sell you something, and a lot of it is repetitive. It’s quite easy to get lost in the ocean of advice and tips, and even more confusing when ‘experts’ contradict each other. I’ll do my best to provide some insights into what worked for me and point out where things can get confusing.
Let’s create a Facebook Ads roadmap.
It can be daunting to consider running Facebook Ads when you don’t break down the steps you need to take.
1. Understand and define the main goal you want to achieve with Facebook Ads
In order to create a successful Facebook Marketing Campaign, you first need to understand the goal you want to achieve with your ads.
Trying to get more likes for your page?
Trying to get more people to sign up for your email list?
Trying to sell a physical product or digital service?
You can do all of these things using Facebook ads, but it's important that you know what you're trying to accomplish with your ad campaign, otherwise you won't be able to reach your goals.
Here are some examples of businesses that I've worked with and helped them define their goals, then we created ads based on their needs:
1. A beauty e-commerce store wanting to gauge interest in their business and build brand awareness > we chose a brand awareness campaign objective.
2. A business educator wanting to get more sign-ups for their free masterclass > we chose a lead conversion campaign objective.
3. DFY service provider wanting to grow their email list > we chose a lead generation campaign objective.
2. Figure out who your target customer is
What demographic is your target audience? Gender, age, region, etc.
What are their interests?
What are their online behaviours?
Where do they hang out online?
To really hone in on your target audience, you can create a persona. A persona is a fictitious representation of your target customer — it could be a single individual or a group of individuals with similar interests, characteristics, and goals. The point of a persona is to give you something tangible to focus on when creating ads. It helps you get inside the head of your customer and imagine how they're thinking and feeling — which is key when it comes to writing ads that will resonate with them.
List out your persona's basic characteristics, interests, likes, dislikes, frustrations and common actions.
3. Decide on a budget that works for you
This is a tricky part for a lot of entrepreneurs. It’s important to consider what the value of a result is to you, then you can work backwards to create your budget.
Let’s say the value of a new email subscriber to a business owner is $5 and they have a goal to have 100 email subscribers at the end of the month. That means their advertising spend would be $500.
If you don’t know the value of a result to you, then I suggest spending at least $10 a day to figure out what your average cost per result is. That way you can begin to better understand how much your full advertising budget should be to reach your goals.
4. Create your advertising copy and visuals with your target audience in mind
It's easy to get caught up in all the numbers and statistics when you're starting out with Facebook ads. But it's also important to remember that these ads are meant to grab people's attention.
Tailor your message in your advertisements to speak to your target audience’s interests. Always include a variety of advertisements so Facebook is able to optimize your campaign. Include short-form copy, long-form copy, graphics, videos, and carousels. Using graphics that are half image and half text is a great way for you to get across your message quickly and succinctly.
5. Consider the customer journey
Before you begin your campaign, make sure you have the right elements in place. For example, if you’re directing your audience to a landing page, make sure the landing page is easy to navigate on mobile. If you’re directing your audience to your Instagram page, make sure your account is relevant and active.
You want to envision the customer journey from beginning to end and make sure it is seamless. This way your audience will become loyal customers or clients.
As you begin to build a following in your email list or on social media through advertising, don't forget about keeping up the relationships you have with those followers and creating new ones by extending your reach through paid advertising. It's easy to lose sight of the fact that social media marketing is about building relationships that turn into customers, rather than just throwing ads out there without any regard for the people viewing them. But once you have the formula down for creating a successful ad campaign on Facebook, it doesn't take long before you're turning those visitors into customers.