What Type of Facebook Ads Should I Run?
Whether you’re starting to invest more resources in social media advertising or are simply taking an analysis of your current advertising strategy, it’s important to know which Facebook ads will help you reach your business goals, and which are not the right fit your marketing strategy.
Deciding to advertise on Facebook is only the first step – there are eleven marketing objectives to choose from when setting up your advertisement, and each determines how Facebook will deliver the ad to your audience. Reach campaigns are great for branding and will have more impressions than a conversion campaign, but a conversion campaign will likely beat your reach ad when it comes to driving form fills or inbox inquiries.
Remember, there are no “bad” ad objectives, only smart and… we’ll say less smart, options.
How To Start Facebook Advertising
Step away from Ads Manager and break out your old school pen and paper. Pull up your latest pitch deck. Talk with your coworkers.
Start by determining your business objectives, and then create a list of KPIs you’d like to measure that align with those business goals. Make sure they are measurable.
Some general goals that apply across industries include brand awareness, lead generation, customer service and retention, and traffic. Increase your leads by x percentage, improve customer retention by x percentage, measure brand awareness, reach metrics, etc.
Choosing Your Ad Creative
Don’t be afraid to experiment here. This is part of what makes social media advertising so great; there are several different creative and placement options that allow you to customize where your advertisement is shown and what format performs the best for your unique business.
If you haven’t dabbled much in Facebook advertising yet, start with a single image or video. Craft your copy carefully and see how your ad performs. If you’ve been around the block a time or two, consider A/B testing ad types. Pitch a collection ad up against a carousel. Reevaluate your position on video versus Instant Experience.
Remember to customize your ads for various placements selected. Your Instagram ads should be formatted for the Instagram platform and your Stories placements should have appropriately sized graphics.
Types of Facebook Ads
Engagement: This ad type is great for businesses who produce great quantities of content or are looking to measurably increase their post engagement, event responses, or page likes. Keep in mind, this ad type is for business owners interested in getting their content in front of consumer eyes, not for converting them.
Brand Awareness: Brand awareness campaigns help increase name recognition and will be served to customers in your audience who are most likely to pay attention to your ads. Optimize your ad for recall lift and look in your reporting to see how many potential customers would remember seeing your advertisement after a certain time period has passed. This is a great KPI to measure for this objective!
Reach: Choosing the Reach objective will help you reach the maximum number of potential customers based on your chosen targeting. You can control how often they see your ad, which is crucial if you’re interested in changing brand perception or building brand awareness.
Traffic: Trying to get people to your site? The Traffic objective could be the right choice for you! You can also send customers to your app or start a conversation with them in Messenger. Make sure that Google Analytics is set up and your ads are tagged correctly to measure any changes in traffic before and after implementing this ad objective.
App Installs: Is your product app-based? Use this objective to send people to the app store so they can download your product. You’ll also need to register your app and link your ad account to your app.
Video Views: Make no mistake, video continues to grow in popularity. Utilize this ad objective on Facebook to show customers special “unseen” footage, behind-the-scenes content, consumer testimonials, or exciting product launches.
Lead Generation: With Lead Generation advertisements on Facebook, you’ll be able to collect important customer information without forcing leads to convert off of Facebook. This is a great option for pushing special offers and/or building your email list.
Messages: Do you offer customer support through Messenger? Can your product or service be secured over a chat system? Using the Messages objective allows customers to complete purchases or ask questions about your product.
Store Traffic: Brick and mortar stores, rejoice! You can drive foot traffic to your local store by showing ads to people who are already in the area. If you have more than one location, this objective allows customization of local information for each store address, so you can ensure each advertisement has localized content.
Conversions: Using the Facebook Pixel, the Conversion objective gets consumers to take valuable actions on your site – whatever that may mean for your business. From making a purchase to calling for directions, you can create custom conversions that apply to your business.
Catalog Sales: Create your online catalog and deliver advertisements that show customers items they’re interested in. Build it and they will come!
Which Ad Objective is Right for Me?
It depends on your unique business objectives. Once you have your defined business objectives and KPIs, you’ll be able to test different objectives, placements, and creative to find the combination that works best for you.
If you’re not sure where to start, the team at Mark Thomas Media has a team of social experts ready to jump in and help. Give us a call or contact us online and let us know how we can help you be successful in your social media advertising efforts.
