The Annual Retail Trade Survey of the Census Bureau reported an increase of 43 percent in e-commerce sales from 2019 to 2020. The figure is equivalent to $244.2 billion, from $571.2 billion in sales in 2019 to $815.4 billion in 2020!
Increasing online activity by consumers played a significant role in this development. But businesses also needed to connect with their target audience through digital marketing.
They needed to optimize their websites and use social media marketing to reach their customers. Social media adoption in the United States reached 72 percent or seven out of 10 Americans in 2021. They use these platforms to connect, share information, entertain themselves, and engage with news content.
So, it’s a great opportunity for businesses to reach their target market through digital and social media platforms like Facebook. But, gaining visibility on the platform does not come cheap. To be at par with your competitors, you need to run paid ads or pay to advertise on Facebook. Or do you?
Why Choose Facebook Advertising?
Apart from search engine optimization, email marketing, organic social media strategy, and a sound web design, one should not neglect the power of a Facebook ads campaign.
With billions of active Facebook users on the platform each day and precise targeting techniques available to reach them directly – there’s no better way for businesses to market their products than by utilizing this crucial tool. Without it, organic traffic is virtually impossible to generate in any meaningful capacity.
Creating a Facebook page and investing in a Facebook Ads campaign is undeniably worth it. They are an exceptional approach to finding new consumers and expanding your business. With Facebook Ads, you can target individuals based on various characteristics such as age, gender, location, or interests. You can also focus on people who have already interacted with your website or posts on the platform!
You can also check for the latest social media trends and take advantage of them. Paid advertising on the platform can help increase website visitors and visibility and raise brand awareness.
Benefits Of Facebook Ads Campaigns For Businesses
Running an ad campaign on Facebook offers numerous benefits for businesses. Here are some of them:
Customizable Ads and Audiences
When crafting a Facebook ad, you can generate custom audiences for each highly customizable ad campaign. You have an expansive reach to potential buyers due to the ability to target them based on location, age, interests, and hobbies.
Moreover, the versatility of Facebook Ads features allows for creativity in your advertisement design which will be showcased across Instagram and beyond via their display network – it’s a winning combination!
With Facebook Ads, you can experiment with an array of customizable ad formats and placements to determine the most effective combinations that will catch your target audience’s attention.
For instance, contrast video versus still images or discern which placements perform better for conversions- like on Facebook’s newsfeeds or Instagram Stories. Although it may require some time to test different options, this process’s payoff is worth every second!
Drives Traffic from Active Users
Facebook unveiled that 1.96 billion users actively engaged on their social media platform daily in the first quarter of 2022. As one of the largest networks, this has drastically shifted how businesses approach advertising – in America, 51 percent of total ad spend was funneled into digital advertisements.
By obtaining Instagram in 2012, Facebook Ads have been exposed to an even broader array of demographics. With the most recent updates on Instagram’s shopping tabs, this blend of platforms offers your brand maximum visibility and reach among users.
Thus, if you’re uncertain whether or not to invest in Facebook ads, many marketers firmly believe it is a successful approach that will yield positive results.
Facilitates Tracking and Measurement
As a marketer, knowing how much you’re getting for your money is important. Fortunately, advertising on Facebook and its network presents a considerable advantage: the ability to measure and track results easily. To successfully do this, install Meta pixel on your website so that you can monitor your ads’ performance in real time.
You can measure and streamline your Facebook ad campaigns by utilizing Meta Pixel. Moreover, installing a Meta Pixel to your website is advantageous since it allows audience building based on the profiles of those visiting the site.
Facebook makes it effortless to measure the success of your campaigns by providing detailed reports and analytics. No more guesswork or assumptions are needed – you can conveniently access conversion rates and other metrics within Facebook Ads Manager. All that’s left for you is to review the data and decide on an action plan!
Use metrics to assess your weekly reach, post engagement, and page likes. Uncover what posts have the most success and gain profound insight into clicks, conversions, and sales.
In addition, you will be able to uncover a vast wealth of data beyond just these basics – so get ready for an abundance of invaluable information that can help take your business further than ever before.
Remarketing to Connect with Customers
Remarketing allows you to reconnect with your target market, as users that have previously visited your website will be shown ads from you. This is significant because the first time someone views your business or homepage, they may take a look and not go beyond that point; this makes sense since they have yet to learn who you are, nor do they trust you. Remarketing in the future increases the potential of converting those people into customers.
You need more than just one touchpoint for your message to reach its peak potential. People must observe your brand anywhere from three to seven times before they’ll decide on what action needs to be taken.
Grow Your Customer Base
Are you running a Facebook business page? It might shock you that only a small portion of your followers view what you post. It sounds farfetched, but unfortunately, it’s true; Facebook has been diminishing the visibility of commercial pages in news feeds for some time now, and this algorithm change is producing dissatisfaction among entrepreneurs worldwide.
Utilizing Facebook to promote your business requires you to use ads if you expect customers to be aware of it. You don’t need an extravagant budget, but surely a bit of money is necessary. While the cost might seem high at first glance, the return on investment will be well worth it once you have perfected targeting and ad creation. Even with small budgets for advertising, Facebook Ads can provide fantastic results!
Add Call-To-Action Buttons
The power of a good CTA (call-to-action) button in digital ads cannot be understated. It doesn’t just tell your audience where to go but actively encourages them to take the desired action.
This could mean going straight to your website or simply clicking on blog posts you’ve written – whatever result you’re aiming for can easily be achieved by adding such a feature! With this simple addition, you’ll notice an incredible boost in ad performance that will significantly benefit your business. Additionally, consumers often require additional information before deciding.
By leveraging Facebook ads, you can easily drive website traffic; yet other options are also available. The current CTA buttons include Contact, Book Now, Sign Up, Apply Now, Download, and Learn More – giving you the perfect way to connect with potential customers!
How To Create Facebook Ads
Before you launch your Facebook ad campaign, you must decide precisely what goal you are trying to accomplish. This will help determine the best ad campaign objective for your needs and expectations.
For example, if you want more downloads of your mobile application with the aid of Facebook Ads, then you can set a metric of at least 100 downloads per month. If you opt for lead generation through email list growth instead of that goal as an alternative term of success, you should consider this before launching any campaign!
Setting up measurable goals ahead of time will ensure that every penny spent on ads yields maximum results! Here are the things you need to do when creating Facebook ads.
Set Up a Facebook Ads Manager Account
If you’re looking to get your ads running on Facebook, you need to set up your Facebook Ads Manager. You also need to be creative in crafting ad campaigns that will be sure to bring success. Advertising with Facebook Ads Manager is simple.
All you need to do is have an admin, editor, or advertiser role on someone else’s Facebook Page or create your own for the corresponding ad account and ad account id. If there are any pages you wish to advertise for, ask the Page admin to assign a suitable role, such as administrator, editor, or advertiser. Lastly, remember to set up a valid payment method when ready.
Set an Objective for the Ad Campaigns
Setting an objective is essential to the success of your ad campaigns. The objective allows Facebook to create an ideal target audience for you and optimize the campaign according to your goal – lead generation, website visits, conversions, engagement, etc.
As you plan your ad campaign, there are multiple paths depending on the desired outcome. These objectives are divided into three primary groups: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion.
For example, select from options within the Awareness category if you want to boost brand awareness towards your product or service. Opt for items in the Consideration group to get prospects to start exploring more about what you’re offering. Lastly, when seeking conversions — purchases or utilizing a certain item – take advantage of goals belonging under Conversions!
Choose the Audience
Crafting a well-defined audience is essential for the success of your Facebook Ads campaigns since it will facilitate proper Facebook ad placements. You can tailor your target audience based on location, age, gender, languages spoken, interests, and behaviors – all of which should be considered when designing an effective ad campaign.
Decide the Budget
When deciding on a budget for your Facebook campaign, ensure the allocated amount is the peak sum you would like to spend. You should also consider the Facebook ads cost before finalizing the campaign budget. You can decide your financial plan per day or as an entire quantity for the campaign.
- Daily Budget – Setting a daily budget ensures you spend within your ad limit. Once Facebook has the criteria set for who and where to show the ad, it won’t be long until your target audience sees it. When that ad’s budget is used up, the advertisement will stop running for the remainder of that particular day; it’ll begin again when tomorrow rolls around!
- Lifetime Budget – A lifetime budget ensures your ad campaign is in the best of hands. All you need to do is provide Facebook with the maximum amount and end date; afterward, it’ll automatically adjust its spending according to which ads deliver better performance results. Once this pre-allocated sum has been exhausted outright, your campaign will end – no fuss or hassle involved!
Pick the Ad Format
With eight distinct ad formats, you will surely find one that works for your needs. Your ads should be compatible with all devices and connection speeds – from a single image ad or video format to more detailed multi-image designs, the possibilities are endless!
- Photo Ads – Images may be the most elementary ad format, yet their capacity to influence consumers is remarkable. These unassuming advertisements can drastically alter ad types and placements with just one picture.
- Video Ads – Using Facebook video ads allows you to stand out from the crowd and effectively promote your product or service. Due to its motion, a single ad can make an even more striking impression on news feeds than other types of content!
- Carousel Ads – You can use up to 10 images or videos in one advertisement with a carousel ad. These ads highlight multiple products or services and showcase imagery and video simultaneously.
- Slideshow Ads – A slideshow ad is ideal if you’re short on time or don’t know how to create videos. With just a few images, it’ll quickly turn into an eye-catching slideshow that captures your audience’s attention!
- Messenger Ads – You can use the power of the Facebook Messenger app to deliver your message directly to its intended audience with this ad format.
- Collection Ads – Collection ads are ideal for mobile devices, enabling users to discover and purchase products easily.
- Stories Ads – These ads appear when someone is checking their Stories on Instagram, Facebook, or Messenger. Creatively speaking, you have a wide array of options with these types of ads.
- Playable Ads: Playable ads allow users to experience an app before investing.
Place an Order
Clicking on the Publish button will start the review process for the ad. Facebook will review it thoroughly to ensure it does not violate their community rules while meeting Facebook ad specs. As soon as you complete this step, expect an email from them confirming its activation within 24 hours!
Manage and Monitor the Facebook Ad
You should monitor your ad performance and modify it in Ads Manager. You can also compare the performance of one version of the ad with another one. It’s best to incorporate the feedback into your Facebook advertising strategy. You also get to make certain that your ad is being distributed economically in this way. Make all the modifications and adjustments with ease when utilizing Ads Manager!
How To Run a Facebook Ad Campaign for Free
Advertising on Facebook isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Instead, the expenses depend on your bidding model and strategy. The amount you shell out for ads may vary depending on the month, day of the week, time of day, and location. Like an auction house where conditions can change at any moment that you cannot control–Facebook advertising is similar in this manner. So, you cannot predict the amount you’ll pay for your advertising campaign.
But there are ways for you to run free Facebook ads. Here are some of these ways.
Create a Facebook Page
Creating a Facebook Business page allows you to grow your business, as people can like and follow your company’s page without sending a connection request. As soon as someone finds their way to your page, they can see all of the available information – giving them an insight into what makes your online store so great! To help optimize it for success, make sure you upload the following:
- A stunning cover image
- Your logo or brand image for use on the profile picture
- An informative description about who you are and what services/products customers can find in-store
- Contact information – including email addresses and phone numbers if applicable
- A call-to-action button encourages people to take action by clicking through
Run a Live Stream
As social media progresses, live shopping is rapidly becoming a prominent trend. Facebook anticipates accumulating more than $500 billion in revenue from global live streaming by 2023!
When you go Live on Facebook, all your followers will receive an instant notification so they won’t miss out, and everyone browsing your business page will also see the icon for watching your stream LIVE. To make it even better, various formats are available for streaming. These formats include tutorials, step-by-step demonstrations, question-and-answer sessions with clients or consumers, collaborations with micro-influencers, or partnering vendors – creating tremendous opportunities like never before!
Share Helpful Content
You can enhance your Facebook Page by giving away helpful and free content to followers. The social media posts could include instructions on using a product or showcasing an image of one of your satisfied customers using it!
And don’t forget timing is everything when posting on Facebook. You want the posts to be seen, not buried underneath other recent content posted when they sign in – so make sure you post accordingly!
Create a Facebook Shop
You can create a Facebook shop to transform your product catalog into an online shopping experience. It allows your customers to view and shop for items in real-time, with photos, descriptions, and pricing information — without ever having to leave the comfort of their own homes.
Sell on the Facebook Marketplace
With Facebook’s commerce options, brands can provide local shoppers with a convenient shopping experience like never before! Buyers can now browse items in their area right on Facebook and purchase them for home delivery. This is similar to browsing through virtual stores known as ‘Facebook Shops,’ but it allows you to shop even closer to home – making it easier!
Join Community Groups
Take advantage of Facebook groups to reach local communities! Advertise your online store on these networks for free – and remember to give customers something special as an incentive. How about a generous discount on their first purchase or complimentary shipping? With this promotion, you can ensure that your ad campaign successfully drives sales and increases brand awareness.
Facebook ad campaign for free is possible, but it requires effort and creativity to get the most out of your investment. From setting up an Ads Manager account to creating ads that capture attention and convert leads, there are many steps involved in this process. With careful planning and execution of strategies, you can increase brand awareness and drive sales even when running a tight budget! Take advantage of these tips today to launch effective Facebook ad campaigns without breaking the bank!
