calvin gilbert

Creating an ad on Facebook is really easy. Here is a quick primer to get you started.

Step 1: Visit Facebook Ads

Step 2: Click on the green button “Create an Ad”

Step 3: A new page will load and the first option will be designing the ad

Choose the ad destination (#1 in the image below). This can be an external url, a page, an event or even a place.

If you choose a page on Facebook it will force the title and cannot be changed. If you want to run an ad for a website, enter the name and choose suggest an ad (#2 in the photo). Suggesting will pull a website’s title, body and image. From there you can alter it as needed. At the bottom you will see a preview of your ad (#3 in the photo).

Once you are happy with the ad, move on to targeting.

Step 4: Choose a location

You can target almost anywhere in the world on Facebook. For my delicious Moxie ad, I want to target Maine. You can filter down to specific cities and choose a mile radius around them if needed. Facebook does not limit you to one state at a time. This ad could run in Maine and New Hampshire if Desired.

Step 5: Choose Demographics

Make sure your ad is targeting the appropriate gender and age group. If you are trying to sell a product designed for middle aged women, why on earth would you target a 24 year old male?

Step 6: Choose Likes & Interests

Here you can choose things to target. For instance: if you are running an ad for a gym, you may want to target people that like weightlifting, running, or exercising.

Step 7: Choose Connections

Facebook gives you the option of targeting people already connected to a page, event or place. This is a way to run an ad targeting people that already support your brand.

Step 8: Advanced Demographics

Here you can show the ad on someones birthday, target singles, or even someone that speaks french.

Step 9: Education and Work

With this option you can target high school students or people with some college experience. It will even let you select a school to target, so if you want to run an ad and only show it to harvard student, Facebook will let you.

Step 10: Reviewing how many users will be targeted

Over on the far right side (inside the red circle) Facebook will show you how many users will see your ad. In my Moxie ad, it will be targeting 3,280 Moxie drinkers from Maine. If you feel this number is too low or too large in some cases, go back through the targeting and change some stuff. Try adding cities or altering the age range to get an ideal targeting group.

Once you are satisfied with the ad, right below that is your payment strategy.

Step 11: Name your campaign and set a budget

You can place this ad in an existing campaign or create a new one entirely. If you want to change this later, Facebook will let you do that too. Next, decide how much you want to pay. You can have the ad run for $5/day, but I prefer the lifetime budget option. Basically, you enter the max amount you want to spend on the campaign and Facebook will determine how much to spend each day. I have noticed Facebook will ramp up how many times your ad is served to make sure it meets the budget.

Step 12: Selecting how long to run the ad

Here you can select when to run the ad. Be careful not to choose “Run my campaign continuously” if you have the spend $$ daily option. As an example: If you run an ad for $25/day and your computer crashes, you will have to pay for the ad until you can get back on Facebook.

Step 13: Price Bidding

If you notice in the red circle below, Facebook is suggesting a bid of $0.88 per click. You are committing up to $0.88 for someone to click on your ad. Facebook looks at all the ads available and will show the one with the highest bid. Depending on who you are targeting and the location, this number could be really high like $5.00 or really low like $0.18.

If I do not like my suggested bid, I will go back and alter the text and demographics until it is lower. Bidding too low will also cause your ad to never be seen.

After hitting “Place Order”, your ad will be submitted and Facebook will review it prior to being shown to users.

Tags: ads, advertising, facebook