What is the best strategy for Facebook ads?

Facebook ads can be a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes to reach potential customers. With over 2 billion monthly active users on Facebook, there is a huge audience to tap into. However, with so many options and variables to consider, determining the best strategy for Facebook ads can be challenging.

Should I use Facebook ads for my business?

The short answer is yes! Here are some key reasons why Facebook ads are worth considering for your business:

Massive reach – Facebook has an enormous built-in audience of over 2 billion monthly active users from all demographics.

Targeting options – Detailed targeting tools allow you to zero in on your exact target audience based on location, interests, behaviors and more.
Measurable results – Facebook ads manager provides clear analytics on impressions, clicks, conversions and more.
Affordable – Facebook ads can be very affordable, especially when targeting a specific niche audience.

Quick setup – You can create and launch Facebook ad campaigns in less than a day to start.

The huge reach, precise targeting, measurable results and affordability of Facebook ads make them an excellent investment for businesses looking to acquire new customers, increase brand awareness, and drive website traffic or online sales.

How do Facebook ads work?

Facebook ads work by promoting your posts, pages, or website to people who are most likely to be interested in your business based on their profile data and online activity. There are three main components to a Facebook ad:

Ad creative – The visuals, copy, links and content that make up your ad. This includes images, videos, headlines and descriptions. The more engaging and eye-catching your creative is, the better.
Target audience – The specific group of Facebook users you want your ad to reach based on demographics, interests, behaviors and more. Targeting the right audience increases the chances of engagement and conversion.
Ad placement – Where your ads will be shown on Facebook. You can choose to place them in the News Feed, right column, Instagram Stories and more. Different placements work better for different goals.

Once your ad creative, target audience and placements are set, your ads will be displayed to the users most likely to find them relevant and appealing. Users can then click on your ads to learn more or take an intended action like visiting your website.

What are the objectives for Facebook ads?

Facebook ads can help you achieve a variety of business goals. The main objectives include:

Brand awareness – Increase brand visibility and reach new audiences.

Website traffic – Drive more visitors to your website.
Engagement – Get more post likes, comments, shares and follows.
Conversions – Encourage users to sign up, purchase or take other desired actions.

App installs – Get more users to install and use your mobile app.
Video views – Increase viewership for your video content.

The objective you choose will inform your overall Facebook ads strategy, so it’s important to have a clear goal in mind from the start. All of the major objectives are achievable with the right targeting, creative and placement.

How to create effective Facebook ad creative

Your ad creative includes all the visual and copy elements that users see when your ads are served. Creating compelling, attention-grabbing creative is crucial for boosting engagement and clicks. Follow these tips:

Use high-quality, eye-catching visuals like vibrant images and video.
Focus creative on benefits and emotions vs just showcasing features.

Ensure any text is clear, concise and engaging – highlight value.
Create multiple ad variations to test different messages.
Always include a strong call-to-action so users know what to do next.

Ensure compliance with Facebook’s ad policies and requirements.

The ad preview tool can help refine your creative prior to launching your campaign live. Creating multiple ad variations will allow you to test different creative approaches as well.

Ad creative examples

Here are some examples of effective, benefit-focused Facebook ad creative from brands:

Apple focuses on the utility benefits of using an iPad for work in their imagery and copy.
Starbucks highlights the emotional experience of enjoying their coffee at home with family.
Nike ties their messaging to inspirational achievement by promoting sports apparel.

Tying your creative closely to your brand identity and objectives will make them as impactful as possible.

How to target your Facebook ads

One of the major benefits of Facebook advertising is the ability to target your ads with precision using Facebook detailed targeting options. Key targeting tactics include:

Core audience – Target a broad group similar to your current audience or customer base to drive new leads.

Lookalike audiences – Reach new users who share qualities with your existing customers.
Interest targeting – Focus on users who have shown interest in topics related to your business.
Behavior targeting – Target based on purchase history, search habits and other behaviors.

Location targeting – Serve ads to users in specific cities, states or countries.
Custom audiences – Build tailored audiences from your existing customer lists and site visitors.

Layering these targeting strategies together will allow you to hone in on the users most likely to engage with your brand. You can optimize and update targeting over time based on performance.

Targeting tips

Keep these tips in mind when setting up your ad targeting:

Start broader if you want to increase reach, or more narrow to drive conversions from warm leads.
Try combining interest, behavior and demographic targeting for the best results.

Watch your audience size estimates to make sure your targeting isn’t too narrow.
Organize audiences into separate ad sets to test targeting approaches.

How to choose the right Facebook ad placements

Where your ads appear on Facebook can significantly influence results. Facebook offers a variety of potential ad placements, including:

Placement	Overview
News Feed	Appears in the middle of the news feed on desktop and mobile. Strong visibility and engagement.
Instagram Feed	Appears in Instagram feeds. Great for visual media and reaching younger users.
Stories	Appears between stories on Facebook and Instagram. Vertical, full-screen and immersive.
Marketplace	Reaches users browsing Marketplace. Works well for ecommerce product ads.
Right Column	Displays on the right side of Facebook on desktop. Appears while browsing.
Instant Articles	Shows within Instant Article content. Readers are immersed in content.

Consider your campaign objective, budget, target audience and creative when deciding on placement. You can choose automatic placements or select specific placements to control where ads appear.

Placement tips

News feed tends to perform well for most objectives due to high visibility.
Use Instagram feed ads to reach younger demographics who use Instagram more.

Test multiple placements against each other to see what works.
Adjust placements if you are not seeing relevant users for your target audience.

How much do Facebook ads cost?

Facebook ads can cost as little or as much as you choose to spend. You set a total daily or lifetime budget for your campaign and pay only when users see or click your ads. Actual costs depend on several factors:

Bid strategy – Optimize for conversions or clicks within your target budget.
Audience targeting – Narrower targeting means fewer bid opportunities.
Ad placements – Different placements have varying levels of supply and demand.

Landing page quality – Better landing experiences improve conversion rates.
Ad competition – More advertisers can increase costs to win bids.
Time of year – Major holidays tend to increase demands and costs for limited ad space.

Closely monitor your spending across campaigns to optimize your ad budget and ensure profitable customer acquisition costs. Improving ad relevance also keeps costs in check.

Estimating Facebook ad costs

Facebook’s Ad Planner tool provides estimates on potential reach, frequency and cost based on your targeting and placements. Some typical CPM estimates:

Highly targeted niche audience – $5 to $30 CPM

Broad targeting in major markets – $1 to $5 CPM
Lookalike audiences similar to customers – $10 to $40 CPM

Start with a daily budget of $25 to $50 while testing and optimize from there. Most advertisers invest 15% to 30% of monthly ad spend on Facebook.

How to measure and optimize Facebook ad performance

Facebook provides in-depth reporting and analytics so you can monitor the performance of your campaigns. Important metrics to analyze include:

Reach – Total number of unique users who saw your ads.
Frequency – How often your ads were served to users on average.

Clicks – Number of ad clicks.
CTR – Click-through rate, or clicks divided by impressions.
CPC – Cost per click.

CPM – Cost per 1,000 impressions.
Conversions – Count of desired goal actions or conversions.
CPL – Cost per conversion.

ROAS – Return on ad spend from revenue driven.

Monitor and compare metrics across ad sets and creative to see what is working. Use that insight to optimize your bids, budgets, targeting and placements. Improving campaign performance over time yields more conversions for your ad budget.

Optimization tips

Increase bids and budget for better performing placements and audiences.

Pause poor performing ads and replace creative.
Refine targeting to user types and interests driving conversions.
Watch for frequency oversaturation indicating too narrow of targeting.

Schedule ads during peak user engagement times for the target market.

Conclusion

Developing an effective Facebook ads strategy requires identifying your business objectives, creating compelling ad creative, precision targeting, choosing relevant placements, optimizing for conversions and continually testing for improved performance. Mastering Facebook advertising best practices takes time, but the high returns in increased brand awareness, website traffic and sales make it well worth the investment for most businesses.

With a clear strategy tailored to your goals and audience, Facebook’s advertising platform provides a level of affordable reach and targeting that is unparalleled. The data and optimization tools further empower advertisers to refine their approach and maximize their ad spending. If you are considering Facebook advertising for your business, start small, track results diligently and expand your efforts over time.