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Module 1: Getting Started With FB Ads

 

 

 

Chapter 1: How To Get Started With Facebook Ads 

In this first chapter, you’ll learn the basics of Facebook Ads and how you  can get started with advertising on Facebook. You’ve probably read a lot of  success stories on the Internet of marketers spending a few hundred  dollars and earning tens of thousands in return.  

That sounds like a crazy return on investment (ROI), right? Well, not really.  With Facebook Ads, it’s possible to replicate these successful marketers’ techniques so you too can experience an extraordinary ROI! 

There’s no denying the fact that when it comes to marketing and  advertising your business on social media, Facebook is the way to go. With  over 2 billion users logging in to Facebook every month from all corners of  the globe, Facebook is king of social media. Whether you want to reach  people in your town or city or people on the other side of the world, it’s  possible with Facebook ads.  

What Exactly Are Facebook Ads? 

If you scroll down your Facebook news feed, you’ll most probably see a  post which says Sponsored or Suggested Post on it. Or if you’re on a  desktop computer, you’ll see ads on the right side of your screen. You’ll  even see in-stream video ads while you’re watching a video on Facebook. 

Also, you’ll see ads or sponsored messages on Facebook Messenger,  Instagram, and the Audience Network. These adverts are known as  Facebook ads.  

Individuals, small businesses, and large corporations pay Facebook billions  of dollars a year to show their ads to Facebook users. And it’s not  surprising because compared to other platforms, Facebook gives their advertisers the best bang for their buck. 

Why Should You Advertise On Facebook Ads? 

Before I show you how you can get started with Facebook ads, let me go  through a few reasons why you should consider investing in this platform.  

1. Your potential customers and clients are all on Facebook. 

Well, maybe not all. But some, if not most of them, will be on Facebook. Not everyone likes Facebook, but everyone who’s ever heard of this thing  called the Internet will have heard of Facebook. Whether you’re looking to  target people in your location or another continent, it’s very easy to do so  on Facebook.  

2. Hyper-targeting is a Facebook Ads specialty. 

When you sign up for a Facebook account, you give Facebook a wealth of  information about yourself. Advertisers can then target you based on the information you provide. Other advertising platforms don’t come anywhere  near Facebook ads’ targeting options. 

For instance, you can target people based on their location, their hobbies,  their favorite sports teams, their language, their education, their life status,  their work, their finances, their travel preferences, and so much more.  

3. Facebook ads won’t get you bankrupt. 

Unless, of course, you give Facebook all your money. But that’s not a very  wise business decision, is it? With Facebook ads, you can spend a few  dollars each day, and Facebook is not going to complain about it. 

If you compare the amount that you’ll spend advertising on Google  Adwords, Bing ads, native ads, banner ads, billboard or newspaper  advertising, you’re literally going to save a fortune on Facebook! With the  amount you’ll save, you’ll be able to reach even more of your target market,  that is, you can quickly scale your budget and get in front of more people.  

4. You can measure your Facebook ads results. 

You’re not going to be playing the guessing game with Facebook ads. The  platform is very transparent, and you can see how many impressions,  clicks, and conversions your ads are receiving in real-time. To be able to  measure your results, you do need to add the Facebook pixel to your  website.  

This snippet of code is all you need to track important activities on your  website – who’s buying, who’s signed up to your list, who’s visited and  bounced off your site without doing anything, etc. 

 

5. Facebook advertising can grow your website traffic and foot traffic,  too. 

With Facebook ads, you can direct people to do anything you want. For  example, if you want them to visit your site, simply include the right call of  action to your ad. If you want them to drop by your physical store, let them  know. If you make your ad enticing enough and give people what they want  (by addressing their pain points), then you make it easy for them to follow  your call to action.  

6. You can quickly get your brand in front of many people. 

It’s possible to get your ad in front of all 2 billion+ Facebook users. You just  need to have very deep pockets. Of course, not everyone will be interested  in your brand, and what you do so this may lead to high costs. In Facebook  ads, the goal is to get in front of the right audience, not just any audience.  

With the right audience, people will be more receptive to what you’re  offering. They’ll engage more with your ad, and this will lead to lower  Facebook ad costs.  

7. Facebook ads is more effective than organic Facebook marketing. 

In the old days, you could simply put up a new Facebook page, and pay a few bucks to have people like your page. When you publish a new post on your page, a huge percentage of your fans and followers see your update  in their news feeds. Today, it’s a different story.  

With so many friends and so many pages and groups Facebook users join,  the news feed has become crowded, and organic reach has dropped 

significantly. If you want to reach your target audience, it’s best to just pay  Facebook instead of needlessly twiddling your thumbs waiting for your fans  and followers to like your new post.  

How To Get Started With Facebook Ads 

Just like most things in life, there’s a steep learning curve that comes with  Facebook ads too. Let’s take it one step at a time so you don’t become  confused as doing so will lead to money down the drain. 

Step 1. Determine Your Goals 

Before you get started with Facebook ads, you need to know the goals you  want to accomplish with your adverts because that’s going to be your goal  post. You’re going to be aiming for that, and you will set up your ads in  such a way that your goals will be met. 

Some example goals are: 

• Do you want people to like your page?  

• Do you want people to click through to your website?  

• Do you want people to join your mailing list?  

• Do you want people to attend an event?  

• Do you want people to buy your product or try it out for free?  • Do you want people to download your mobile app? 

Determining your goals will help you create the most suitable ad for your  audience. On Facebook Ads, these are the different goals or campaign objectives you can choose:

(The different campaign objectives available in Facebook Ads) 

As you can see in the screenshot above, the objectives are divided into 3 categories: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion. 

I’ll discuss each objective here: 

1. Awareness – this objective is great if you want to reach out to cold  audiences or people who haven’t interacted with your brand or website  yet. You can choose between two options: 

a. Brand Awareness – you can increase people’s awareness of your  brand  

b. Reach – you can reach the most number of people in your  audience with this objective

2. Consideration – this objective is great if you want people to start  thinking about your brand or your business and encourage them to know  more about what you can do for them. You can choose from 6 options: 

a. Traffic – choose this objective if you want people to visit your  website or increase engagement with your mobile app. 

b. App Installs – if you want people to download and install your  mobile app, this is the objective you should choose. 

c. Engagement – if you want to boost your Facebook posts, promote  your Facebook Page, get people to claim an offer on your Page,  and get more people to attend an event on your Page, then you  need to choose this objective. 

d. Video Views – to get more awareness about your brand, you can  create a video ad that showcases behind the scenes stories or  customer testimonials. 

e. Lead Generation – if you want to get leads or email addresses  from people interested in your business, then use this objective.  The Lead Generation objective makes it very easy for prospects to  sign up for your service.  

f. Messages – get people to send your business messages on  Facebook messenger and even Instagram. This objective will help  your business to answer questions from prospects, generate more  leads and drive more transactions.

3. Conversion – conversion ads encourage interested people to buy your  product or subscribe to your service. You can choose from 3 different  options: 

a. Conversions – if you want to send people to your website,  Facebook app or mobile app, use this objective. To maximize,  track and measure your conversions, you will need to install the  Facebook pixel on your website. 

b. Catalog Sales – to use this objective, you will need to create a  catalog to show off your inventory. Once you have this setup, you  can then create ads that will automatically show items from your  catalog based on your target audience. 

c. Store Visits – if you’re running an offline business, that is, you  have a brick and mortar store, then you can use this objective to  get more people to visit and shop in your store.  

Step 2. Know Your Audience 

Now that you have defined your goals, you need to know your audience.  Who are you hoping to target with your Facebook ads? 

• Do you want to target women, men or both? 

• Is your product or service going to be a fit for single or married  people? 

• Are 20-30-year-old sports fans going to be your target? • Do you want to get the attention of people who like classical music in  New York? 

• Are you going to be selling your products just in the US or do you  intend to ship to Europe, Asia and the rest of the world?

 

As we’ve mentioned before, there are literally more than 2 billion people  you can target on Facebook right now. You just need to find a certain group  of people who will benefit the most from your product. 

If you don’t know your audience, if you’re going to target just about anyone,  it can lead to astronomical advertising costs for you. So before you start  creating your ads, at least have an idea of who will be most interested in  what you have to offer.  

Creating a customer persona is great for this purpose. Not only will you get  to save a lot of money, but you’ll also get better results with the right target  audience. 

Step 3. Know Your Budget 

No matter how big or small your marketing budget is, Facebook ads will  help you out. Even if you’ve only got $1 to $2 to spend on ads each day,  you can still get your ads in front of a few hundred or a few thousand  people. Of course, this will depend on your targeting, your ad placements, and your overall ad strategy.  

In the beginning, expect to lose money while you optimize your ad sets.  You can spend $5 on different adverts every day and see which one  converts the best. You will do a lot of testing.  

Trial and error is the name of the game. But when you find the winner,  you’re going to be winning big. And your $5/day budget is going to be a  thing of the past. 

Getting started with Facebook Ads might seem difficult at first, but once you  get the hang of social media’s number one advertising platform, you’re in  for a ride.  

Read the next chapter to know more about the Facebook Ads Manager and  how you can start using it to grow your business. 

 

Chapter 2: Getting To Know The Facebook  Ads Manager 

In this chapter, you will learn how the Facebook Ads Manager works. I will  walk you through the different sections and I will also include screenshots  to make it easier for you to find your way around the Ads Manager. 

What Is The Facebook Ads Manager? 

The Facebook Ads Manager is your ad campaign command center for all  your Facebook ads, Instagram ads, or Audience Network ads. It is where  you go to create new ads, edit and manage your existing ads, view your ad  reports, manage your Facebook pixel events, your billing info, and so much  more.  

In addition to accessing your Ads Manager on a desktop computer, you can  also access your ads using the official Facebook Ads Manager mobile app.  You can download this on both Google Play Store and the Apple App Store  for free. The mobile app allows you to: 

• Create new ads 

• Track your ads performance 

• Edit and manage current ads 

• Edit ad budgets and schedules 

• Receive push notifications  

It’s important to mention here that with Ads Manager, you can only manage  1 ad account. If you want to manage more than 1 ad account, you will need  to create a Facebook Business Manager account. So if you have clients or 

you need to keep your ad accounts separate (like one ad account for each  business), then you need the Facebook Business Manager. 

How To Access The Facebook Ads Manager  

Accessing the Facebook Ads Manager is quite simple. Here’s how: Step 1. Log in to your Facebook account. 

Step 2. On the blue top navigation bar, you can you can see the white  triangular arrow. Click on this arrow and then click Create Ads (see image  below).  

(How to access the Ads Manager from your Facebook account) 

Step 3. Facebook will set up your Ads Manager. You will see this on your  screen while you wait (don’t worry it won’t take more than a few seconds).

(Your Facebook Ads Manager set up screen) 

Step 4. When Facebook is finished setting up your Ads Manager, your  screen will show something like this: 

(Your Facebook Ads Manager home screen) 

Now that you know how to access the Facebook Ads Manager, let me  show you how you can create your first Facebook ad.

How To Create An Advert On The Facebook Ads Manager 

When you’re ready to create an ad, simply follow the steps I’ve outlined in  the previous section to access the Facebook Ads Manager. In the Ads  Manager, you have to go through 3 different levels – the campaign level,  the ad set level, and the ad level.  

Level 1 - Campaign Level 

In Chapter 1, I mentioned you should have a goal in mind before you set up  your Facebook ads. When choosing from any of 11 objectives below, keep  your goal in mind and choose the most suitable objective from the list: 

1. Brand awareness 

2. Reach 

3. Traffic 

4. Engagement 

5. App installs 

6. Video views 

7. Lead generation 

8. Messages 

9. Conversions 

10. Catalog sales 

11. Store visits 

Once you’ve chosen your marketing objective, your Campaign name will  be your objective. In this example, I selected the Traffic objective,  therefore, my Campaign name is Traffic. You can edit the Campaign name  as you see fit.

(The default Campaign name is the marketing objective you’ve chosen) 

As you can see near the bottom of the screenshot above, you can edit your  budget at the Campaign level.  

When you’re ready to proceed, click on the the blue Set up ad account  button. You will then be directed to this page: 

(Set up your ad account in the Facebook Ads Manager)

 

Setting up your ad account is very straightforward. Simply select your  country from the list, then your currency, and lastly, your time zone. Click  Continue. Now we go to the second level. 

Level 2 – Ad Set Level 

In the Ad Set level, the options that will appear will depend on your chosen  objective. If you want, you can always go back to the Campaign level and  change the objective so you can see the different options. But the three options that are present in the Ad Set level of ALL campaigns are the  following: 

• Audience 

• Placements 

• Budget & schedule 

For this chapter, I am using Traffic as my campaign objective. These are  the options available for Traffic campaigns at the Ad Set level:

(The options available at the Ad Set level for Traffic campaigns) 

At this point, you should fill out the different sections with information  relevant to your specific campaign. If you’re using a Traffic campaign like  I’m doing in this example, here’s more information on the different settings  you need to define at the Ad Set level: 

• Traffic – choose whether you want people to go to your website, your  app, or to send you a message on Messenger 

• Offer – if you’re running a promotion in your business, you can create  an offer that people can save and receive reminders about. 

• Audience – this is where you define who you want to show your ads  to. You can either create a new audience, use a saved audience, or  create a custom audience composed of people who have interacted  with your business either online or offline. 

• Placements – you can choose to have Facebook decide the  placements automatically or choose yourself manually. It’s best to  choose manual placements so you can decide whether you want to  show your ads on desktop, mobile, right column, Instagram, Audience  Network, or Messenger. Manual placement gives you control over  your ads. 

• Budget and schedule – in this section, you can decide whether you  want to use a daily budget or a lifetime budget. Facebook will give  you an estimate of your total weekly spend.

 

Level 3 – Ad Level 

The options you see at the Ad level will depend on your Campaign  objective. If you choose Brand Awareness as your objective, you will see  different options at the Ad Level. If you choose Conversions, you will see a  different set of options.  

Since we chose Traffic as our ad objective in this chapter, these are the  options available at the Ad level: 

(The options available at the Ad level for Traffic campaigns) 

At the Ad level for Traffic campaigns, you will need to specify the following  details: 

• Identity – choose your Facebook page or Instagram account  

• Format – choose how you want your ad to look. As you can see in the screenshot, you can choose from Carousel, Single Image, Single 

Video, Slideshow or Collection ad formats. If you chose mobile  placements at the Ad Set level, you could even add a full-screen  landing page for your ad for a more immersive experience for those  who engaged with your ad. 

• Links – this is where you write down the text, images or videos for  your ad. You can also view your ad preview here so you can see  what your ad looks like based on the placements you chose at the Ad  Set level.  

You can play around with the different settings until you’re happy with how  your advert looks like. When you’re ready to publish, hit the green Confirm button.  

(Click Confirm when you’re ready to place your order) 

A Quick Tour Of All Tools On The Facebook Ads Manager 

To access all the tools on your Ads Manager, click on Ads Manager at the  top left corner. You will then see the Ads Manager Menu as you see below.  If you don’t see the same image, make sure you click on All Tools at the  bottom:

(The Ads Manager Menu) 

As you can see in the screenshot, the Ads Manager menu is divided into  six columns.  

1. Frequently Used column – this column contains a link to 4 of your  most frequently used tools in the Ads Manager 

2. Plan column – in this column you can access Audience Insights and  Creative Hub 

• Audience Insights – this is where you create hyper-targeted  audiences. Facebook gives you a lot of data to play with, and you  can target people based on their location, interests, and behaviors. 

• Creative Hub – if you’re not ready to pay for real ads, but you  want to see how it would look like to your audience, simply go to  Creative Hub and create mockups for your ads. This is also where  you can check the percentage of text in images you’re going to  use in your ads. If there’s too much text on your image, your  advert’s reach may be affected.

3. Create & Manage column – in this column, you have access to 6  different tools, such as: 

• Business Manager – this is simply a link to the Facebook  Business Manager where you can manage multiple ad accounts in  one place 

• Ads Manager – this is where you create your Facebook ads (I  already gave an overview of how to create ads in the previous  section of this chapter) 

• Power Editor – in the Power Editor, you can import and export  ads as well as bulk-edit your work 

• Page posts – you can create new posts here. You can also create  posts by going to your page. In this menu, you can choose  whether to use your newly created post as an ad or have it  published to your page as well. 

• App dashboard – if you are a Facebook app developer, you can  create and manage settings for your apps in your app dashboard 

• Automated rules – with automated rules, you have more control  over your hands. You no longer need to check your campaigns  daily. You can just set up automated rules that will notify or update  you when there are changes in your campaigns, ad sets, or ads.  

4. Measure & Report column – in this column, you can track and  measure your ads and your events. The tools in this column are:

• Ads Reporting – you can create and export reports in Ads  Manager to see your most important ad metrics. You can also  schedule reports to be emailed to you directly. 

• Analytics – this tool will help you analyze data from your  Facebook pages as well as the pixel installed on your website 

• Events Manager – this tool allows you to create and manage your  Facebook pixel, offline events, app events, add custom  

conversions and partner integrations.  

5. Assets column – in this section, you have easy access to important  assets that you have used or will be using to create your ads, these  include:  

• Audiences – this tool will help you create and manage custom  audiences, lookalike audiences, and saved audiences 

• Images – this tool will allow you to upload and manage images for  your pages and ads 

• Catalogs – if you have a store with many products, you can add  and manage your inventory here 

6. Settings column - you can access three tools in this column. These are: 

• Settings – you can access your ad account settings here, your  pages, your payment settings, and your email and Facebook  notifications.

• Business settings – if you have Business Manager set up, this is  where you manage your ad accounts, pages, and the people who  work on them. 

• Billing – you can manage your payment settings here, and you  can see all the billing transactions that have ever occurred in your  ad account 

Need Help Navigating Your Facebook Ads Manager? 

If you’re afraid of getting lost in the Ads Manager maze, don’t be. If you  need help with anything, you can simply type your query on the search  bar. Alternatively, you can also click on the Help button in the upper right  corner of your screen, and the Advertiser Help Center will appear on your  screen.  

Here’s where you find these useful tools:

(Use the search bar and the Help Center if you need help with the Ads Manager) 

Final Thoughts On The Ads Manager 

I hope this chapter has helped you get to know more about the Facebook  Ads Manager and how you can get started creating your first Facebook  advert. In the next chapter, I will discuss and compare Facebook Ads with  Boosted Posts. See you there!

 

Chapter 3: Facebook Ads vs. Boosted Posts 

In the first two chapters of this Facebook Ads Domination series, I  discussed Facebook Ads and the Facebook Ads Manager in great detail. I  talked about how and why you should get started with Facebook Ads.  

There are so many benefits to creating an ad using the Ads Manager.  However, it does have a steep learning curve attached to it. If you want to  know a faster and easier way to get your first very first advert launched,  then you need to consider boosting a post.  

In the third chapter of this series, I will contrast and compare Facebook Ads  versus Boosted Posts so you can decide which method is best for your  business goals. But before I do this, I’ll introduce you to Boosted Posts first  and show you how it works.  

Also, at this point, I would assume you already have a Facebook page  created for your business. If you don’t have one yet, please take the time to  create one now. You can always edit your page settings later on.  

Let’s begin! 

What Are Facebook Boosted Posts? 

If you are a Facebook page admin, you won’t miss the blue Boost Post button that appears in every single post on your page. If you don’t see that  button anywhere on your timeline, then you’re probably not a page admin.  Make sure you are one so you can follow the steps I’ve written down in this  chapter. 

Boosted posts are quite literally published posts on your Facebook page  that you boost or promote to your followers or another target audience.  Your posts appear on your page timeline so if anyone checks out your  page, they’ll be able to see all your posts, both boosted and non-boosted. 

If you’re wondering why you need to boost a post to people who already  like your page, then read on for the explanation. 

A few years ago, posts published on a fan page were immediately seen by  people who liked and followed that page. This lead to a lot of free organic  traffic and engagement levels were very good (think 80-90% of fans  engaging with every post!). However, in recent years, organic reach has  been declining steadily.  

In fact, many page owners are reporting that their organic engagement has  plummeted to 1-5% per post! This basically means that if you have 10,000  followers, only a few hundred people will see your post. If you have a  million followers, a few thousand people will see your post and engage with  it.  

This is why page likes are mainly a vanity metric nowadays. It looks good  on your page but if only a small percentage of your fans see your posts,  then why bother paying for page likes? If you want to increase the chances  of your followers seeing your all-important post, then you should consider  boosting your post instead.

How To Boost A Facebook Post 

First, you’ll need to go to your Facebook page. Then look for the post you  want to boost. At the bottom right corner of your post, you’ll see a blue  button that says Boost Post. Click on this button (see image below). 

 (Click the Boost Post button to boost your post) 

Unlike the seemingly complicated Facebook Ads Manager interface that I  showed you in Chapter 2, the Boost Post interface is relatively simple and  straightforward:

(The Boost Post options) 

When boosting a post, you have fewer options to choose from unlike with  Facebook Ads. Here are the options you can change: 

1. Objective – you can choose if you want to get more engagement (reactions, comments, shares), get people to visit your website, or  receive messages from your target audience. 

2. Call to action button – you can choose to have no button, or you  can use Shop Now, Book Now, Learn More, Sign Up, Send Message,  or Send WhatsApp Message.  

3. Audience – you can choose people through targeting, people who  like your page, and people who like your page plus their friends.  

4. Budget and Duration – you can choose your daily budget for the  duration of your campaign. The minimum budget is $1 a day.

5. Tracking conversions – you can use the Facebook pixel to track  your conversions. You need to have the pixel installed on your  website so you can use this feature. 

6. Payment – you can define the currency you’d like to use for your  payment here as well as the ad account you’re going to be paying  from (you’ll have multiple options if your Facebook page is connected to your Business Manager)  

When you’re ready to boost your post, simply click on the Boost Post button and Facebook will then start promoting your post.  

Now that you know how Boosted Posts and Facebook Ads work  (remember Chapters 1 and 2), it’s time to compare the two so you can  make an educated decision when it’s time for you to do some content  promotion on Facebook. 

Key Differences Between Boosted Posts and Facebook Ads  

Whether you’re in the Boosted Posts camp or you’re a firm believer of Facebook Ads, both have their advantages and advantages. In this section,  we’re going to be looking at key features. 

1. Campaign Objective  

• Boosted posts - choose between 3 objectives (engagement, traffic,  messages)  

• Ads - choose up to 11 campaign objectives (brand awareness, reach,  traffic, engagement, app installs, video views, lead generation,  messages, conversions, catalog sales, and store visits).

 

2. Budget Control  

• Boosted posts – you can only choose your total budget  • Ads – you can choose your daily or lifetime budget  

3. Ad Scheduling  

• Boosted posts – when you boost your post, the ad will start right  away. You can’t schedule it, but you can set an end date.  • Ads - you can set a start and end date for your ads so if you’re going  away on vacation, you can plan your ads in advance and have it run  even while you’re away. 

4. Audience Targeting  

• Boosted posts – you can choose audience targeting, but it’s very  limited. For instance, you can’t target people by their language, and you can’t add a connection type. You can target people who liked  your page and their network of friends as well. 

• Ads – you can hyper-target with Facebook ads. You can use custom  audiences, lookalike audiences, you can target by language, you can  add connection types. There’s even an option to let Facebook  automatically expand your interests if it thinks people outside of your  audience will engage with your ad. 

5. Geographic Targeting – you can target specific locations with both boosted  posts and ads. 

6. Age and Gender Targeting – you can target both age and gender of your  audience with both boosted posts and ads.

7. Interest and Behavior Targeting - you can target your audience’s interests  and behaviors with both boosted posts and ads. 

8. Language Targeting 

• Boosted posts – you cannot target your audience’s language with  boosted posts 

• Ads – yes, you can target languages with ads 

9. Ad Placement  

• Boosted posts – your post will only appear on both desktop and mobile news feeds. You can’t choose just desktop or just mobile. • Ads – you have full control over where you want your ads to appear.  You can choose to have them appear just on desktop news feeds, or  just on mobile news feeds, Instagram, audience network, column,  instant articles, and so much more.  

10. Dark Post  

• Boosted post – no, you can’t create a dark post with boosted posts. A  boosted post has to be published and will appear on your page’s  timeline. 

• Ads – yes, you can create a post solely for use in an ad, and you can  choose not to have it shown on your page timeline 

11. Ad Delivery  

• Boosted post – you can’t adjust how you want your ads delivered

• Ads – you can choose between standard and accelerated delivery.  You need to set a bid cap though to use accelerated delivery which is  useful for time-sensitive promotions. 

12. Instagram Ads  

• Boosted post – no, you can’t boost your Facebook post on Instagram • Ads – yes, you can choose to show your ads on Instagram by making  sure it’s ticked in the Placements section  

13. Audience Network Ads 

• Boosted post – no, you can’t boost your Facebook post on the  Audience Network 

• Ads – yes, you can choose to show your ads in the Audience  Network by making sure it’s ticked in the Placements section  

14. Right Column Ads  

• Boosted post – no, you can’t show your boosted post in the right  column on desktop computers  

• Ads – yes, you can choose to show your ads in the right column on  desktop computers.  

15. Retargeting  

• Boosted post – no, you cannot retarget people  

• Ads – yes, you just need to make sure the Facebook pixel is installed  on your website and is working properly 

 

When To Use Boosted Posts Instead Of Ads 

There’s a lot of advantage to using Facebook Ads, but in certain scenarios,  Boosted Posts will work just as well, at a much faster rate at that. Here’s  when it’s best to use Boosted Posts: 

1. If you have a post that’s already receiving good organic engagement,  then you may want to consider boosting it. If the people who saw your  post organically are interacting with it, that is, they’re liking, sharing and  commenting on it, then chances those who did not see your post in their  news feeds will find it interesting too! 

2. If your post is informational, that is, you’re not selling anything on it, then  people would be more receptive to your boosted post. If you’re selling  something, then it’s best to use Facebook Ads as you have more  options over the format of your ads. 

3. If you don’t have much time and you don’t want to learn the complexities  of Facebook Ads Manager, then boosting a post is your best option. 

With that being said, boosting posts is, quite simply put, for beginners. If  you truly want more bang for your buck, then you have really have no  choice but to dive in and learn how the Facebook Ads Manager works.  

When To Use Facebook Ads Instead Of Boosted Posts 

Generally speaking, Facebook Ads are a much better option that Boosted  Posts simply because it offers advertisers full control over their ads. 

 

The Ads Manager will allow you to split test every single aspect of your  campaign. It’s so much more flexible, and in the end, your campaign will be  so much more profitable.  

You can hyper-target your audience and reach even more people who  have the same characteristics as your winning audience (you do this by  creating a lookalike audience – something you can’t do on boosted posts).  

Creating custom audiences is easy and thanks to the audience insight tool  you can research the best demographics who might be a fit for your  product or service.  

With Facebook Ads, you have many different kinds of campaign objectives  to choose from. With Boosted Posts, you’ve only got a few options. Since  you’re spending money either way, it’s best just to go all the way in and use  Facebook Ads.  

If you think it’s beyond your skills or it’s too technical, you can always hire  an agency or a consultant to help you out with your Facebook Ads  campaign.  

Final Words 

Boosted Posts works great on its own and is great for beginners who are  just starting out with paid promotion. However, it gives you very little control  over your ads and may not be a very cost-effective option for your  business.  

If you want complete control over how your ads run and determine the best  possible adverts that will convert with your preselected audience, then you 

need Facebook Ads. Granted, learning how to manage Facebook Ads is  not an easy job but it will be worth it in the end especially once you find the  right combination of a high-converting advert and target audience.  

While Facebook Ads and Boosted Posts are great promotion vehicles,  there are still so many other things to consider. In the next chapter, you’re  going to learn how to optimize your Facebook Ad design because first  impressions do matter, especially to cold audiences.

 

Chapter 4: How To Optimize Your Facebook  Ad Design 

In the earlier chapters of this Facebook Ads Domination series, you learned  all about the technical aspects of Facebook Ads. In this chapter, you’re  going to be learning about how to optimize your Facebook ad design  because if you don’t, you might just as well be throwing your money away.  

Try not to get lost in the technical aspects of creating your ad because  designing your ad and making sure it gets noticed by your target audience  is just as equally important. 

Why You Should Optimize Your Facebook Ad Design 

Before I answer this question, I’d like you to think about the last time you  were scrolling on Facebook. In what instances did you stop scrolling to take  a look at an ad that appeared on your feed? 

Was it because the Page name was familiar? Or was it because the image  they used was eye-catching? Or did the headline somehow grab your  attention? Or was it maybe because they used a video that told the brand’s  story in the first few seconds?  

Whatever it was, it was effective enough to get you to stop scrolling your  feed. And the people behind the advert surely thought about how they can  get people like you, as a part of their target audience, to pay attention to  their ad. They made sure to optimize their ad design so that their advert  won’t go unnoticed and ignored. 

The example I gave is just one of the possible answers to the question  above. Here are a few more reasons why you should optimize your  Facebook ad design: 

1. Good design makes your target audience engage with your brand.  You need to optimize your Facebook ad design so that people in your  target audience will engage with your ad and do whatever it is you want  them to do so you can meet your campaign objective. If you want them  to download a free eBook, your ad design should encourage that and  get people to download your stuff. 

2. Your design communicates your brand. If your design looks elegant  and luxurious, then people are going to associate your brand with being  an elegant and luxurious brand. If your design is fun, then people are  going to think of you as a fun-loving brand.  

3. Good design makes you more visible to people. If you’ve ever come  across a unique ad that’s gone viral or that’s been shared by many,  many people, then you can understand why good design makes your  brand highly visible. The more unique and engaging your ad design is,  the more people will share your ad. Remember that getting excellent  organic reach on a paid advert helps lower your ad costs.  

4. Good design drives conversions. Don’t ever underestimate the power  of good design. When you have a well-designed advert with compelling  design, it speaks directly to the people viewing your ad. If they see  themselves in your design, they’ll be more willing to follow your call to  action.  

For instance, if you were a grandmother and you see an ad with a  heartwarming image of a child getting a hug from his grandma, wouldn’t 

you be compelled to follow the ad’s call to action? If the ad was selling a  child’s handmade sweater, wouldn’t you want to click on the Buy Now  button so you can buy that sweater for your grandkid? 

5. Good design reinforces your ad’s message. It’s important to truly  understand what this point means. Some advertisers only care about  having a nice image on their ad. Some only care about the message  because they believe it’s more important than their ad graphics.  

However, an advert that uses an eye-catching image AND conveys a  message that resonates with the target will result in more conversions.  Continuity is important in advertising. If your message and your image  complement each other, you’ve got the recipe for success.  

Now that you know why ad optimization is important let’s now discuss how  you can optimize your Facebook ad design. 

How To Optimize Your Facebook Ad Design 

There are many factors you need to look at if you want to optimize your  Facebook ad design. As we mentioned in the previous section, your  message and your accompanying graphic should work well together.  Psychology also plays a huge role in design so I’ll be talking about that a bit  in this section, too.  

1) Use Great Visuals 

When you use eye-catching and attractive visuals or graphics, people are  more likely to stop scrolling their news feed to take a closer look at your ad.  If you use lackluster or boring graphics that don’t stand out from people’s 

crowded news feeds, then expect to NOT get a lot of engagement on your  ad. 

Also, it’s important to note here that Facebook doesn’t like too much text on  images. When you upload the images for your ad, their algorithm will check  the images for text. Having too much text will affect the delivery of your ad  so make sure you pass this requirement.  

Here are a few tips to make sure you use the right visuals for your ad: 

• Use high-quality images - some stock images are great, but most  are overused. If you have original images that showcase your brand  and your customers, then use that. People love authentic and original  images; stock imagery often looks fake, and most savvy Facebook  users can spot cheesy stock images right away. Most will probably  skip your ad and just continue scrolling down their news feeds.  

• Use original graphics – this option is a bit pricey, but if you want to  really stand out, you can hire a graphic designer to create original  graphics for your ad. This way you know your ad will be unique and  may increase the probability of people engaging and sharing your ad  with their friends. 

• Use close-up photos of people’s faces – an image of a person  projects an emotional connection with the audience. Don’t just use  any image with a person on it though. A photo showing a smiling,  friendly face up close may work wonders for your ad. Don’t you find  yourself smiling whenever you see a happy person in a photo? 

If you’re promoting a more somber event, however, then you need to  find the right imagery. You may not want to use a happy picture if  you’re promoting something like a funeral home (but of course this  depends on your audience and how you position your advert).  

• Use location-specific images – if you are promoting a local  business, you should use images which showcase your city or your  state. For example, if you’re promoting a business in Paris, France,  you can probably use an image with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop.  People who recognize the Eiffel Tower will know your ad is related to  France. 

• Use visual contrast or filters – using the right contrast and filter for  your images are very useful. There’s a reason why filters on  Instagram are so popular – people love them. Just make sure you  don’t overdo it though. Too much contrast and filter may convey the  wrong message to your audience – and that message is they’re  looking at an ad made by an amateur. 

• Use carousel ads if possible - carousel ads are awesome if you  have excellent and high-quality images. You can create a theme or a  story with just a few connected images, and carousel ads are perfect  for this reason. When used correctly, carousel ads create an effect  similar to that of a panoramic shot. Take a look at this example from  Facebook. Wouldn’t you say it’s eye-catching?

(

4 images in a carousel ad made to look like a panorama. Image Source: Facebook.com)

 

2) Have An Excellent Value Proposition 

Now that you captured your audience’s attention thanks to the excellent  graphics you used in your ad, they’re going to be curious about what you’re  offering them.  

This is where value proposition comes in. You have to convince your  reader that they’re going to get awesome value from choosing your brand  over your competitors.  

For instance, if you’re promoting a gym membership, you should make it  clear in your ad that you’re offering something of really high value for a  fraction of the price. You can say that for the first 100 customers who take  advantage of your offer, they’re going to get an 80% discount on their gym  membership.  

Who wouldn’t love that, right? 

In your ad, you can list down what is included in their membership so they  can decide right away that your offer is too good to pass up. And let’s not  forget to mention the scarcity mentioned in the ad. Telling them the offer is  only good for the first 100 people will spur them into action! 

So where do people find your awesome value proposition? In the headline  and the description of your ad, of course. This is why when writing your  ad’s text, you have to make sure the headline will grab your reader’s  attention.  

Here’s how to write a great headline that puts your offer in the  limelight: 

• Mention the pain point you’re solving – if you’re solving a problem,  say it in the headline. Don’t make your audience look for it in the  description. People only have a few seconds for your ad – make the  most of it by telling them what they want to read! 

• Ask questions – when you ask a question in your headline, people’s  involuntary reaction is to answer it in their minds. Some may dismiss  it, but more often than not, if you ask the right kind of question,  people will stop scrolling enough to answer your question in their  mind.  

• Add a little humor – a funny and witty headline is catchy, there’s no  denying that. A headline that gets a reaction from your audience is a  great advertising tool so try to think of something witty that will make  your reader smile, even for just a second. 

 

• Use language your audience will understand – if you’re targeting a  specific group of people, know their language. If you’re targeting  anime lovers, you may want to use some references to anime.  Basically, try to get your audience’s attention and their trust by letting  them know you speak their language.  

Once you’ve got your headline down, you can then put the rest of the  details in your ad description. Keep your description short and to the point.  You don’t want people to read an essay – it will just turn them off your  brand – and they’ll continue scrolling down their feed.  

In your ad description, include social proof and testimonials. If you’ve got  customer reviews, pick the best ones and use it in your ad. If you’ve got a  lot of users or customers, mention that too. 

3) Have A Clear Call To Action 

Even if you have the most attractive imagery used in your ad and the most  engaging headline ever written, if you don’t have a clear call to action  people are going to be confused by what you want them to do.  

If you want to get conversions, then you need a clear call to action on your  ad. You’re paying Facebook for your ads, therefore you want to make sure  you’re getting the most out of your investment.  

For example, if your goal is to have people download a PDF, then make it  clear in your ad that you’re going give them access to a PDF that’s going to  solve some pain point for them. If you want them to buy products from your  store, make it easy for them to do so. 

 

Final Words  

Optimizing your Facebook ad design is an important part of your ad  campaign. With the right audience and the right ad design, you can have a  very successful Facebook ad campaign.  

In the next chapter, I’m going to be showing you how your advert can gain  maximum exposure by using custom targeted audiences. Stay tuned!

 

Chapter 5: Gain Maximum Exposure Using  Custom Targeted Audiences 

In this chapter, you will learn all about custom audiences and lookalike  audiences and how you can target these two audiences to gain maximum  exposure on Facebook. To begin with, let’s define what custom audiences  and lookalike audiences mean. 

What Is A Custom Audience? 

A custom audience in Facebook is composed of a group of people who  have interacted with your business either on Facebook, other online  platforms and even offline. Targeting such a group usually results in higher  conversions for businesses because these are people who are already  familiar with your brand. They’re not total strangers to your business. These  people are what we call a ‘warm’ or ‘hot’ audience.  

The typical audience you create at the Ad Set level (we’ll refer to this as  the default targeting system) can be targeted using their location, age,  gender, languages, interests, connections, and more.  

While this default targeting system is very comprehensive by itself, the  Custom Audience feature allows advertisers to reach people you can’t  target with the normal settings you find in the Audience tab in Ads  Manager. 

 

The 5 Types Of Custom Audiences You Can Create On  Facebook 

Here’s a screenshot of the different types of custom audiences you can  target with your Facebook ads: 

(The different types of custom audiences you can target with Facebook ads)

1. Customer file 

If you collect email address from your blog subscribers, then you have a  mailing list. You can upload your list to Facebook, and it will look for your  subscribers’ Facebook accounts. You can also directly import from  MailChimp. 

If you don’t have a mailing list, but you have a customer file of your  subscribers which include any of the following details – email address,  phone number, name, date of birth, gender, age, Facebook user ID, city,  zip code, and more – then Facebook can also use these to look up your  customers’ Facebook accounts and add them to your custom audience. 

2. Website traffic 

To create an audience from people who have visited and took specific  actions on your website, you need to have the Facebook pixel installed on  your site. Installing the pixel isn’t really complicated.  

However, to make sure there are no errors, ask assistance from someone  who knows how to install the pixel. Also, to get usable data, wait for at least  30 days so that Facebook can get a more accurate read and create a  bigger audience size for your custom audience.  

3. App activity 

If you have an app or game linked to your account, you can create a  custom audience of people who have launched, or took specific actions, on  your app or game.  

4. Offline activity 

You can target people who have interacted with your business in-store, by  telephone, or via other offline means.

 

5. Engagement 

The engagement option allows you to target people who have engaged  with your content on either Instagram or Facebook. This includes people  who have watched your videos, opened or completed one of your lead  forms, opened your collection or canvas ad and interacted with your  events.  

In any of the custom audience options above, Facebook guarantees that  the process is secure and that your customers’ details will be kept private.  This means that you won’t be able to see the individual profiles of your  custom audience. 

What Is A Lookalike Audience? 

A lookalike audience is an audience that has similar characteristics to  another existing audience. Facebook has an active user base of 2 billion  people that logs onto the platform each month. Their algorithm is so  advanced it can detect and scope out people who are similar to your first  group.  

It will look for patterns and characteristics that your first group has in  common and create a second group of very similar users who most  probably have not interacted with your business before.  

You can create a lookalike audience based on a customer list, a custom  audience, your Facebook conversion pixel, or people who like your page.  

For example, if you’ve got a custom audience of 20-25 year-old single  females based in the United States who like Pokemon, you can create a 

lookalike of that audience by targeting the same demographic of women in  Australia or the United Kingdom or wherever else you want.  

Here’s a screenshot of the information you’d need to create a lookalike  audience: 

 

(Create a lookalike audience in just a few steps) 

Facebook does the hard work for you. All you have to do is just basically  select the audience source, the new location, the number of lookalike  audiences you want to create and select the audience size. That’s it – just  wait a short while, and you’ll have your lookalike audience in no time at all!  

How To Use Custom And Lookalike Audiences To Get More  Conversions  

There are quite a number of different strategies you can employ to get  more conversions for your business. However, the fastest way you can 

possibly get more sales and leads is by using a combination of custom and  lookalike ludiences.  

As we have mentioned earlier in this chapter, custom audiences are people  who are already familiar with your brand. They may already like and trust  you, and thus would be more willing to sign up or buy your products and  services.  

Here are a few techniques to try and get more conversions for your  business: 

1. Get In Touch With Old Customers 

If your business is new on Facebook and you want to get more social proof  by having people who know your business like your Facebook page, you  can try setting up a campaign that targets everyone who’s ever done  business with you. You can upload your mailing list, subscriber or customer  database and Facebook will then match their info with their Facebook  profiles.  

Once you have your custom audience set up, you can then start an  Engagement campaign and have your existing customers like your page.  Make sure your advert clearly identifies who you are so that they can  recognize you.  

It’s important to note here that Page Likes are mainly a vanity metric  nowadays. Organic engagement from page fans and followers are  shockingly low, however, having a ‘warm’ audience liking your page is  beneficial for 2 reasons:

• The numbers look good on your page (again, vanity metric), and • It translates to lower conversion costs.  

Facebook experts agree that it seems to be a common trend to have lower  conversion costs when targeting a page’s fans. Yes, you still need to pay  Facebook to reach all your fans but it’s not going to be expensive (results  may vary from page to page so please take this advice with caution).  

The reason this strategy usually leads to lower conversion costs is because  ‘warm’ page fans are more likely to click through or engage with your ads  since they already know and trust you. 

Once you’ve racked up a nice number of page likes, you can then create a  second advert offering them a sweet deal – something like a loyalty  discount for returning customers.  

People love discounts! If they’ve had a good experience with your  business in the past, chances are they’ll be more likely to take you up on  your offer.  

When you see good results on this initial campaign, you can then create a  lookalike audience and target even more people with the same  characteristics as your original custom audience! 

Take note this strategy is just one of many. You can even forego the Page  Likes campaign and just go straight to targeting your custom audience with  the loyalty offer. It’s really all up to you – and your budget!

 

2. Offer New Products or Upgrades To Existing Customers 

Customer segmentation plays a huge role in this strategy. Simply put, if you  sell several products, you’d need to create one list for each product. Yes,  it’s going to take a lot of work upfront, however, when it’s time to create  those ads, your job will be much easier.  

Here’s an example: 

Say you are selling ten products (products A to J). For each product you  sell, you keep a list of all the customers who bought each product. In a few  months, you release an updated product, say version 2.0 of Product A. It’s  not an entirely new product, but it has significant upgrades to version 1.0.  

If you’re selling version 2.0 at $100, you can set up a Facebook ad  campaign targeting those who bought version 1.0 and offer the new version  at a huge discount (for example, a 50% discount).  

You then set up a separate advert targeting those who did not buy Product  A but bought products B to J and offer version 2.0 at the original $100 price  (or maybe give them a small discount for being a past customer). 

The key takeaway here is that the more specific your audience, the more  you can create ads that speak directly to them and address their pain  points. Lumping everyone into the same group will not only lead to fewer  people engaging with your ad but will also lead to higher conversion costs.  The more targeted your audience, the more engaged they would be, and  the lower your conversion costs. 

 

To get even more conversions, create a lookalike audience for each of your  custom audiences. This means that if you have 10 Custom Audiences  based on each product (Products A to J), then you can create 10 Lookalike  Audiences. This strategy is especially useful if your products are geared towards different markets or different industries.  

3. Target Subscribers Who Never Read Your Emails 

People receive so many emails from marketers and companies all the time. We hear marketers say this popular phrase all the time – the money is in the list. But if people are getting a barrage of emails every single day,  chances are your emails (and everyone not on their contact list) goes into  the Spam folder or some other folder they will never open.  

But with Facebook Ads, you have a new channel to reach them. You can  upload your mailing list and create an ad targeted specifically to your  subscribers.  

Offer them something enticing or maybe just let them know about your new  blog post and how it can be of value to them. You just need to be creative  to get your brand in front of them so they’ll remember you when they need  your products or services. 

It’s true that the money is still in the list – you just need to pay Facebook a  little bit more so you can reach those who choose to ignore your emails.  

A Word Of Advice On Custom Audiences  

We hope by now you can see just how powerful custom audiences and  lookalike audiences are. But don’t be trigger happy – don’t think you can 

use stolen Facebook data and target people who’ve never signed up to  your list. If you do this, you can get into a lot of trouble with Facebook, and  possibly get your account banned! 

Before you create any custom audience, you’d need to make sure of the  following: 

1. You have permission from your customers or mailing list to use their  data. This means you can’t create a custom audience using data you’ve  bought from a third-party especially unscrupulous marketers. This basically goes against the premise of custom audiences which is people  who have interacted with your business before.  

2. The people in your custom audience have not opted out or unsubscribed  from your mailing list. If people opted out of your list, it means they don’t  want to receive any more communication from you. They don’t want to  receive your emails, your newsletters, and they don’t want to look at  your Facebook Ads.  

If you don’t follow these rules, your ad account could get banned. Getting  banned is probably one of the worst things that can happen to any  business especially if your target audience lives and breathes on  Facebook. So make sure you don’t go against the rules when targeting  custom audiences!

 

Chapter 6: How To Use Retarget Marketing  With Facebook 

We are pretty sure in this day and age, you’ve been retargeted or  remarketed by various advertisers on Facebook. Imagine this scenario:  you’re looking at nice sweaters on a random website, and moments later  you go on Facebook.  

While checking out your news feed, you see an advert for the nice  sweaters you’ve browsed earlier. Think it’s a coincidence? Nope, that’s  Facebook retarget marketing in action, and it’s what we’re going to be  discussing in depth here in the 6th chapter of the Facebook Ads Domination  series.  

The Facebook Pixel’s Role In Retarget Marketing 

To set up a retarget marketing campaign and reap it’s virtually unlimited  possibilities for your business, you need to install the Facebook Pixel on  your website. If you don’t have a website, you can’t launch a retargeting  campaign.  

Don’t worry if this sounds too technical for you – you can easily hire a web  developer or designer to build your website and have them install your  Facebook pixel on it.  

What Is The Facebook Pixel? 

The Facebook pixel is basically a small piece of code that you need to  insert into your website’s heading. It’s just a few lines of code, but it can  add a lot to your businesses’ bottom line! 

Going back to the scenario we described in the introduction, here’s what  happened:  

That website had Facebook’s code installed, and when you visited their  site, it left a cookie (not a real cookie, mind you, but a small piece of code)  on your browser that allowed the website to track the actions you take on  their site.  

If the site owners have set up their pixel to track specific events like clicking  a button or visiting a specific page, then they can also track if you do any of  these tagged events.  

In your particular case, they probably tagged you as someone who visited  the site but did not purchase anything and added you to their custom  audience for retargeting later on Facebook. Hence, the sweater ad you  saw. 

Why You Should Set Up The Pixel Asap 

The Facebook pixel is so powerful that experts suggest you set it up even if  you have no immediate plans of advertising on Facebook. This is to allow  your pixel to gather your site visitors’ data so when you’re finally ready to pay for ads, you can add your pixel data to your custom audience.  

And just like we’ve covered in Chapter 5, targeting a custom audience (or  people who’ve interacted with your business before) is so much easier than  targeting a ‘cold’ audience or those who probably have never heard of you  before. 

Here are five reasons why you need to set up the pixel on your website as  soon as possible: 

1. Track your site visitors. 

You can use the pixel to track your website visitors and the actions they are  doing on your site. Armed with this information, you can segment your  visitors into different custom audiences. 

For instance, you can create a custom audience of people who’ve been on  your website but have not purchased anything. You can create a second  custom audience of people who added your products to their cart but did  not purchase. And lastly, you can create a third audience of people who  successfully bought something from you. 

2. You can monitor and optimize your Facebook ad campaigns.  

When you optimize your ads, you’re better able to create ad campaigns  that result in better ROI or return on investment for you. You’re no longer  blindly hoping for someone to click on your ad, rather you have real data to  back you up, and you can then make informed decisions on the best way to  move forward with your ad campaigns. With the pixel, you can see which  ads are performing best with which audiences. 

3. Installing the pixel is free.  

You don’t have to pay Facebook to install their pixel. However, when the  time comes for you to utilize the pixel data, then you need to pay  Facebook. But just like we’ve mentioned quite a few times in this series,  your pixel data is from a warm audience, so these people are not total  strangers to your brand. You really have nothing to lose if you install the 

pixel (unless you pay a developer to install the code for you!) and  everything to gain thanks to better audience targeting.  

4. You can easily track standard or custom events on your website.  

The facebook pixel is divided into two parts. The first one is the base code  which you install into your website’s global header – this means that ALL  pages on your website will be tracked by the pixel. The second code is the  events code which you can add to specific pages on your website.  

For example, if you want to track people who’ve signed up to your mailing  list, you can add an event code for this. If you want to track people who  clicked on the ‘add to cart’ button you can add an event code for this as  well. If you want to track people who purchased something, you can add an  event code on your thank you or product delivery page.  

5. The Facebook pixel is not limited to a single device or IP address.  

If your website visitor logs onto Facebook from a new computer or a new  mobile device, it’s able to accurately track that user’s activities. This is why  even if your website visitors checked your site on their desktop computer when they open Facebook on a mobile device or a tablet, they'd still be  able to see your ads! 

As you can see, the Facebook pixel is very powerful. The ability to track  and determine a user’s habits across your website is an advertising  weapon you can leverage with Facebook ads. If you want to maximize your  ad spend and get more conversions, then install the pixel as soon as you  read this chapter. 

If you are running an e-commerce store, the Facebook pixel will help you  reach your business goals faster at a much smaller ad spend than if you  advertise on other platforms. You have practically nothing to lose and  everything to gain by adding just a few lines of code to your website! 

How To Create Your Facebook Pixel 

Creating the pixel is very easy. You just need to go to your Facebook Ads  Manager (we showed you how to do this in Chapter 2) and look for the  Pixels tool. Note that you can only create one pixel per ad account.  

Here’s a screenshot to help refresh your memory: 

(How to access the Pixels tool in Facebook Ads Manager) 

You will then see this on your screen:

 

(Install your pixel code onscreen guide) 

Follow the onscreen instructions carefully. Once you have the pixel set up  on your website, you will then be able to create custom audiences and  lookalike audiences based on your website’s pixel data. 

How To Apply Pixel Data For Retarget Marketing 

Now that you know just how powerful the combination of Facebook pixel  and retarget marketing is, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of just how you can  take advantage and leverage your audience data.  

In the previous chapter (Chapter 5: Gain Maximum Exposure Using  Custom Targeted Audiences), we covered custom audiences and lookalike 

audiences in great detail. In this section of this 6th chapter, we will just  quickly show you a sample application on how you can leverage your pixel  data for retargeting. 

Create A Custom Audience Of People Who Have Visited Your Website 

The pixel keeps a record of people who have been on your website in the  past 180 days or 6 months. To target this audience, here’s what you need  to do: 

1. Go to Ads Manager Menu, go to the Assets column, then click on  Audiences.  

(How to access the Audiences asset in Facebook Ads Manager) 

2. Click on the blue Create a Custom Audience button. 

(Click on the blue Create a Custom Audience button) 

3. Select Website Traffic like you see below:

 

(Click on Website Traffic)  

4. You can choose whether to target people who meet any or all of your  criteria.

 

(Choose any or all people who meet your criteria) 

5. Choose whether you want to target all website visitors, people who  visited specific web pages, or target them by time spent on your website.  

 

(Choose from any of the 3 website visitors category) 

6. If you want to target a combination of any of these audiences or exclude  some, you can do so by clicking on Include more or Exclude. 

 

(Include more or exclude more people from your audience) 

7. When you’re done setting up the details of your custom audience, you  then need to create an Audience Name. Make sure it’s something you  can easily remember so when you’re creating your ads you can identify  the right audience.  

 

(Name your audience) 

8. If you’re happy with your custom audience, hit the Create Audience button to finalize your audience. 

 

(Hit the Create Audience button when you’re done) 

The targeting options on Facebook’s custom audiences are really extensive. No other platform can compete with the level of targeting you  can do with your Facebook ads thanks to the pixel. If you’re still on the  fence whether it’s worth taking the time to install such code on your  website, then you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. Tap into your  audience’s behaviors and target them using the all-powerful pixel today! 

Facebook Retarget Marketing Versus Google Remarketing 

Facebook is not the only platform that retargets site visitors. It’s not the only  game in town to do that, but there’s no doubt that it’s one of the most  powerful due to the hyper-targeting options you can do on Facebook. The  top alternative to Facebook remarketing is Google remarketing.  

Google remarketing works almost the same way as Facebook remarketing.  Where Facebook remarketing ads are limited to Facebook, Google  remarketing can follow you all around the web! For instance, if you read an  article on Website 1, when you go Websites 2 and 3, you’ll see an ad for 

Website 1 on these websites even though Websites 2 and 3 are totally  unrelated to Website 1!  

The Google equivalent of the Facebook pixel is known as the ‘Google  remarketing tag.’ It’s not a fancy name, but it’s easier for beginners to  understand exactly what that code does. It works basically the same way  as the Facebook pixel wherein the tag or code is placed on pages you want  to track.  

When a site visitor lands on a ‘cookied’ page, it enables Google to follow  you around the web which is why you’re able to see Website 1 ads even  though you’ve long since left that site. 

What most marketers love about Google remarketing is that the click through rates are much higher which results in a lower cost per click or  action. Of course, the same thing is happening with Facebook retargeting.  

And the reason for this is because with remarketing, whether it be on  Google or Facebook, you’re targeting people who have already interacted  with your brand or your website. These people already know you – you just  need to make sure that your ads reminds them of who you are.  

The main thing Google remarketing has over Facebook is that Google’s  Display Network is quite vast. So you can pretty much have your ad follow  people around the web for as long as your budget allows you to! Of course,  this might not be the most sensible thing to do.  

After all, if people have been seeing your ad constantly for the past few  days and they’re not taking any action, it might mean they’re not interested.  They could also develop this thing called ‘ad blindness.’

The key takeaway here is that whether you use Facebook or Google for  remarketing to warm audiences, you need to create ads that will help them  remember your brand. Create something outstanding, something they can  relate to. Don’t follow them with boring ads that don’t really speak out to  them and address their pain points.  

Final Thoughts About Retarget Marketing 

There’s no doubt that retarget marketing is a very powerful tool in any  serious marketer’s arsenal. However, if you want to have consistently high  conversions, you’d also need to change up your ads from time to time.  

Keep your ads fresh and relevant so you don’t annoy your potential  customers. Keep in mind that annoyed users mean no sales for your  business. 

 

Chapter 7 - Split Testing Your Facebook Ads  For Optimum Performance 

Split testing ads have a lot of benefits, however, most advertisers won’t  bother split testing their ads. Why? Because it’s a lot of work and it’s  expensive. But are the results not worth it though? Let’s find out together in  the 7th chapter of this Facebook Ads Domination series! 

What Is Split Testing? 

(Split testing in action. Image Source: Facebook.com) 

Split testing, also referred to as A/B testing, is testing 2 or more ad  elements against each to find the best converting one. It’s a lengthy  process especially if you want to test all elements in your advert – from the  images to the headline, description, placements, call to action, and more. 

Successful marketers and advertisers on Facebook will tell you that their  secret to success is split testing their ads. By split testing, they are able to eliminate ads that don’t result in good conversion numbers. By the end of  

their tests, the highest converting ads are used when they scale their  advertising and target a bigger audience.  

For instance, if you have three different audiences and you want to see  which audience is going to convert best for your ad, you can do a three way split test. This means you show the same ad to Audience 1, Audience  2 and Audience 3. After a period of time, you then look at the data  Facebook gives you and you’re able to determine which audience  responded best to that ad.  

With that knowledge, you can then create a lookalike audience to target  other people with similar characteristics as the winning audience. So if  Audience 1 won the split test, you could create a lookalike audience of Audience 1. This not only increases your probability of success but you  know with 100% certainty that that specific advert is optimized for a  particular audience.  

What Are The Benefits Of Split Testing? 

Split testing will undeniably benefit those who have the budget to burn  through in the early stages of a campaign. Most adverts won’t convert – that’s money down the drain. You may split test a lot of adverts, and you  may not find a winning ad set until the 101st ad you launch.  

That essentially means you paid for the first 100 ads for nothing. But is that  really the truth? Of course not. It just means you’ve sifted through the dirt to 

find the pot of gold at the end! In most cases, the winning ad set can easily  pay for all the failed ads!  

So, here are some of the benefits of split testing and why you should start  implementing this in your Facebook ads right away: 

1. There’s no guesswork involved – only pure, hard facts. 

With split testing, you’re eliminating many reasons for why your ad isn’t  successful. It’s sort of like a checklist. Ads 1 to 100 failed, but Ad 101 is  smashing success. So you literally just crossed off 100 poor-converting  variations of your ad. Split testing also allows you to optimize your ad – you  

already know the elements that are not converting so you’re not going to  use it in the next iteration of your ad.  

2. Your results are both credible and tangible. 

Who would say 100 failed adverts is not credible? You’ve spent all that  money just to arrive at the end of the proverbial rainbow where the pot of  gold is. If someone asks you why your campaign was successful, you can  easily say, “Oh, it’s because I removed all the low-converting elements in  my ad and used only the highest converting elements to make one super  successful ad.” After so many failed tests, you can pinpoint the exact recipe  for your success! 

3. It’s a very smart investment. 

Most naysayers will say split testing is like giving Facebook free cash.  While it may be true in the beginning, just one successful campaign can  pay off all your failed adverts. But what if you don’t ever find a successful  campaign? 

There are unlimited possibilities when it comes to split testing. Maybe you  just haven’t found the right combination of good ad design and target  audience. For example, if you’re promoting a lady’s t-shirt and you’re  promoting to an audience consisting of men, then it’s probably not  surprising you’re getting very low conversions.  

Split testing is only a smart investment when you’ve thought all possible  angles thoroughly. Going in blind is not smart at all – have a solid  campaign plan to help you find that winning ad set sooner rather than later. 

4. You will learn a lot about your audience.  

Once you know what makes an audience tick or makes them motivated to  follow the call to action in your ad, you can try to offer similar products and  services and expect to get good results.  

For instance, you know that a particular type of headline and image works  best with a particular audience to get them to buy Product A. You can then  use similar elements in a future advert and try to hook in the same  audience sometime in the future to buy a product similar to Product A.  

There’s really a lot of possibilities you can explore once you get to know  what your winning target audience likes!  

Best Practices In Split Testing  

There is an infinite number of possibilities with which you can carry out your  split testing. However, for all split tests, there are some things in common  which usually lead to successful tests. Here are some best practices for  split testing:

 

1. Start testing vastly different elements at the beginning of your  campaign. 

At the start, you don’t want to test one element’s variation only. What you  want to do is to try and cover all possible bases, so you can get an overall  sense of what’s working for your audience. Start with broad variables first  

and for each successful split test where one advert clearly comes out on  top, use that element to narrow down your ad sets and do further split  testing.  

For instance, if you’re looking for the optimum age group to target, you may  want to test first an age group of 18-30-year-olds and then 30-50-year-olds.  Once you have the winner for this test, you can then refine your experiment  to look for a narrower age range.  

If, for example, the winner was the 18-30-year-old group, then in your next  split test, you can target users from 18-22, 23-26, and 27-30.  

This method not only saves you money, but it also saves you time as  testing multiple specific variations at once may take you anywhere from  several days to a few weeks to get reliable data.  

2. Change only one element and keep everything else the same. 

This information is important because if you change many elements or  variables in a split test, then you won’t know which variable caused your ad  to fail or succeed. The process of elimination is helpful as you go through  each element and cross out those non-performing or non-converting  variables.

As an example, you can run the same advert to 2 different audiences.  You’ll use the same image, headline, ad copy, and call to action, however,  the first audience will be 18-25-year-old women in relationships while the  second audience will be 18-25-year-old single women. If one of the  audiences come out on top, then you know which audience group to target  in your next ad campaign.  

3. Run your split test ads for at least 3-4 days. 

Facebook recommends letting your split tests run between 3 and 14 days.  Running tests for only 1-2 days may not produce data sufficient enough to  determine a clear winner, and a 2-week test is just far too long and  inefficient for your budget. The benefit of letting ads run for a few days is  you can see which particular times of day your audience is engaging with  your ad. You can then keep this factor in mind when optimizing your ad.  

4. Have a sufficient budget in mind. 

Before you begin your tests, you should have a defined budget in mind  otherwise you run the risk of losing a fortune on Facebook ads. The bigger  the audience size, the bigger the budget you need to allocate. The  important thing to note here is that your budget should allow Facebook to  conduct the split test effectively and produce a convincing winner. 

 

When setting up your ads, Facebook will give you a suggested budget, but oftentimes, this can be quite expensive. Most Facebook ads experts say  you can start with a $5/day budget for each ad set. 

 

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04.03.2021

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