Producing valuable content and making it freely available through Landing Pages is an excellent way to generate Leads, attract the right people to your business, and facilitate sales.
However, many start-up companies find this task difficult nd sometimes time consuming.
And that is not a lie: it is always good to keep in mind that a Content Marketing strategy works much better thinking in the long term.
Either way, companies that are beginning to use the Internet to generate business can accelerate results and stand out from the competition, especially in a competitive market.
Advertising on the internet is a way to shorten that path and reach the right Leads faster .
Many of our clients have achieved good results in sponsored campaigns on Facebook Ads , currently the largest social network in the world.
Some important data:
- More than 1.8 billion people use Facebook every month.
- One in five minutes spent by Americans on mobile devices are on Facebook or Instagram.
- 500 million Instagram users use the app every month.
Do you want to generate Likes or sales? Start generating real results with our free eBook: Introduction to Facebook Marketing :
What is Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads is a robust paid advertising system that offers many possibilities of formats and segmentations for companies to advertise within the social network.
Have you seen those posts that appear on your timeline with a “sponsored” caption? They are contents promoted within the platform and that were promoted by that fanpage .
The Facebook ad platform offers different formats and business objectives for the advertiser, from "Likes" on the page, generation of Leads to confirmation of presence at events.
Why advertise on Facebook Ads
Advertising on Facebook is a way to increase your company's reach on the social network and generate more business with a highly customizable and controllable investment. This means that you only invest as much as you can and as much as you want.
In addition, the complex algorithm of Facebook today does not guarantee that all your posts will be seen by all your followers. On average, only 1% of your fans will view your posts.
And, in addition, advertising on Facebook allows your business to reach people who have not yet followed your page.
In summary, some advantages of advertising on Facebook are:
- Find people easily: You can choose your audience based on demographics, behaviors, or contact information.
- Grab audience attention: Ad formats are engaging, flexible, and work across all devices and connection speeds.
- Analyze Results: Ad reporting tools show you how your ads affected your business in visual, easy-to-read monthly reports.
In this post we are going to do a tutorial on how to get started. If you want to know more, we recommend reading the eBook of 25 practical optimizations in Facebook Ads .
Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads
When we talk about buying ads, it is common to think of Google Ads (formerly called Google AdWords). This is Google's pioneering sponsored links tool.
A question that we frequently receive is which of these two networks produces better results, that is, which one is worth investing more in.
We understand that both are important and that they work in a complementary way. In short, Google Ads is great at capturing demand that's already there, while Facebook is great at generating demand.
The great advantage of Google Ads is that users are actually searching for that subject. This guarantees a significantly higher response rate and usually attracts users who are more prepared to buy.
On the other hand, users who do not yet know that they have a problem will not search on the subject. As a consequence, they are not reachable via sponsored links.
Therefore, the main idea to use Facebook Ads is to attract potential customers who are still in very early stages of preparation and interest for the purchase.
In addition, the user on Facebook may like the company's page and be nurtured for a while, to gain more confidence in the company's ability and remember it when the time comes to purchase.
Profile targeting is another type of need that Facebook excels at: For Facebook ads, it's possible to be detailed in your targeting and attract the perfect audience for your business.
Therefore, both networks offer optimal benefits and the budget can be balanced for the types of results that are proposed as a priority for your company.
How to create an ad account on Facebook
The ad account is a tool that will allow you to manage your campaigns and charges for the ads on your pages.
Follow the steps below to create your account:
1. Access your Business Manager.
2. Click on “create account”.
3. Write the name of your company.
4. Create your business profile.
Your ad account is ready! Now you can create new pages or take over management of an existing page.
For that, click on “business manager settings” in the upper right corner.
5. Next, click on “pages” in the side menu.
Finally, click on one of the “add new pages” options. Follow the steps of the chosen option and you're done!
Define payment formats
You have the option to choose between various payment methods in the Facebook ad account. Follow the steps below to define them:
- In your Ads account, click on “payments”.
- Click on “add payment method”
- Select the country of collection and the currency. Click “continue”.
- Complete with your credit card information and you will be ready to create the ads.
Define ad objectives
Before starting to advertise, it is necessary to think specifically about what the company expects with this action. Have fairly clear goals and objectives.
Among the great objectives that can be explored on Facebook, we can mention:
Branding / general communications
If your company changed the logo, launched a new product or service or did any action whose objective is to inform, communicate something to the user, generate recognition, strengthen a desired image or position; you definitely have a valuable tool in Facebook Ads.
Some examples of actions: changes in schedules or attractions in an establishment, acquisition of a new company or technology, expiration of an award, price changes, etc.
This type of action is not so common in small and medium-sized companies and one of its big problems is, generally, that the impact is only measured by the number of views. This does not allow for a precise calculation of the return on investment.
The return is intangible. This is negative for those who have a limited budget and need to obtain a return from each channel in which they invest.
create audience
It usually takes a long time to build an audience on social media.
Many efforts are needed in relationships and the production of quality content so that, in time, your company manages to conquer a relevant base of "fans" or "followers".
However, when this base is conquered, the benefits are enormous.
After all, it is a permanent asset of the company, that is, a relevant channel that will always be accessible without any price and allows the company to communicate with the potential client over time, by working on the position of reference of the company in the head of the client.
For companies that have a blog and/or produce eBooks and webinars, these bases always work very well to communicate the launches to the readers, who in turn, fulfill the role of disclosing to their friends.
Purchasing Facebook Ads is one way to significantly speed up the audience building process. With relatively small investments, ads work as a catalyst and help increase organic growth.
That way, start-up companies have an opportunity to increase their reach and establish their position quickly.
Impact and link your audience
Facebook currently uses a machine learning algorithm that is based on different factors to filter what to display for each user. That's why only a small percentage of your total fans will see your posts organically (without being paid).
Having campaigns in Facebook Ads is an alternative to have an impact on a larger portion of those people who already like your page, generate a link between these people and have your posts displayed to them.
Promover Landing Pages
Producing relevant content and making it available on Landing Pages is a great way to attract the right people to your business and facilitate your sales.
However, this task can be difficult for companies that are just starting out on the internet. It is necessary to make a consistent effort so that the brand begins to be found and recognized.
Therefore, using ads to promote Landing Pages may be one of the most important objectives. Mainly, to quickly increase the visitors of your Landing Pages and generate many more leads.
How is the structure of a Facebook ad account organized?
Let's start with the structure of the campaigns. Facebook Ads has three levels: campaigns, ad set, and ads.
These divisions allow ads to be better targeted to each specific group, have more control over budget and schedule, and more easily analyze results.
Next we are going to see each level of that structure in more detail.
Campaign
Choose a specific objective for the campaign.
This can be increasing the number of "likes" on your page, directing visitors to your site, generating a link to a publication, etc.
ad set
In each campaign you can create different ad sets, according to the segment you want to reach.
For example: a campaign to generate clicks on your site can have one set of ads for people in Bogotá and another for people in Barranquilla.
A specific budget and schedule can be determined for each ad group. This allows greater control by the user.
Adverts
At the level of the ads it is possible to make variations of texts, images, links, etc.
In addition to that, the launches (CPC values – cost per click – or CPM – cost per thousand impressions) and other characteristics of the target audience are defined here.
Types of Facebook Ads
There are different types of ads and each one has its goals. From the final result, you must create the campaign.
This setting makes it easy for the user to create their ads and achieve their goals.
Next we will talk a little about each of them:
brand recognition
It's meant to reach people who are more likely to pay attention to your ads and increase your brand awareness.
Reach
Show your ad to as many people as possible.
Traffic
This ad type sends more people to a destination on or off Facebook.
It is an especially relevant alternative, since you have the possibility of sending the public reached by the ad to your site or also to your Landing Pages, increasing the traffic on those pages.
Bond
It gets more people to see and link to your post or page. The link can include comments, post shares, likes, event entries, and offer achievements.
Application installation
Send people to the store where they can buy your app.
video views
Promote videos to increase awareness of your brand.
Generate records (Facebook Lead Ads)
The ad that collects registration information from people interested in your business works as follows: the user clicks on the ad banner and is directed to a Landing Page outside of Facebook, where they fill in the information in exchange for a product. or service.
But from this functionality, it is also possible to create so-called Leads Ads , in which the user impacted by the ad does not have to leave the social network to make the conversion.
When the user clicks on the ad, a form appears that is pre-filled with their public Facebook information, such as name and email on the same platform, so that the user converts in a few clicks.
It is a functionality that facilitates conversions on mobile devices, where typing is less friendly than on a desktop computer, which greatly improves the lead's experience with your company.
To create a campaign with Lead Ads, it is necessary to have a privacy policy page in accrdance with the terms of Facebook so that it is available in the ad.
conversions
It makes people take actions on your site or app, like adding payment information or making a purchase. You need to use the Facebook pixel or app events to track and measure conversions.
Product Catalog Sales
Create ads that automatically display products from your catalog, based on your target audience. It is necessary to create a personal catalog to be able to create this type of campaign.
Visits to the establishment
It promotes several commercial points among the people who are close to the place. To create a campaign using store visits, you need to set up your business locations in Business Manager.
How to Create Campaigns, Ad Sets, and Facebook Ads
The Facebook Ads Manager is a tool that allows you to perform various actions quickly, such as creating, editing, duplicating campaigns and making bulk changes.
To access Power Editor from your business account, follow these steps:
1. Click on “Business Manager” in the upper left corner and then on “Power Editor”.
2. Then just choose which of the levels you want and click on "create campaign", "Create Set of Ads" or "Create Ad".
3. You can choose how to create advertising campaigns.
Then, define the characteristics according to the level and type of ad chosen.
Promote Posts
In addition to the alternatives mentioned above, Facebook also presents the " Promote Post " option, which allows you to make ads directly from the posts.
Just enter the company page and under each of the publications, you will see the "Promote Publication" button.
It is necessary to choose the target. It can be: people who like the page and their friends or a specific audience (it is possible to define the location, age, gender and interests).
After that, choose the time during which the post will be promoted, define its budget and voila: you're done!
Determine your audience
Choosing your audience and offering relevant content to them are keys to a successful Facebook Ads strategy.
Facebook currently has various audience determination criteria, such as age, gender, interests, location, behaviors, demographic data, etc.
It is important to use these criteria to create an audience that truly resembles your customers and followers.
To determine your audience, go to the top menu and click on “Audiences”.
There it is possible to choose between "Custom audiences" (people who have already shown interest in your company or product), "Similar audiences" (people who are similar to the audience that is already of interest to you) and "Saved audiences" (addressing options frequent for easy reuse).
Understand payment systems
More and more Facebook seeks that the user should not understand or worry about the payment format.
The automatic formats that in the past left a lot to be desired in terms of performance, today are no longer outdated and can be used without major complications.
There are two payment options: CPM and CPC . CPM means that your business pays a fixed amount for every thousand people who view the ad.
Already with the CPC, your company does not pay according to the number of previews but for each click. Ads are pre-configured to be billed via CPM (except that your business clicks for advanced options either at the top or bottom of the ad editing screen).
We recommend in most cases to publish one version with CPM and another with CPC. So it is possible to see, according to the click rate, precisely which is the most lucrative model for your ad.
How the price works
The ads work in the form of an auction. When a user accesses the network, there is an ad request that matches her profile and the auction winners appear for the user.
Like any auction, therefore, sometimes you pay more and sometimes you pay less.
This means that some ads have little competition and are sold at a lower price, while for others, the competition is high and so is the price.
Auto-launching has gotten better at adapting to your company's budget, but if you're heavily invested in measurement and performance and want to use manual launching, there are a few things worth understanding about ad logic.
analyze measurements
Ads management panel
The ads management panel offers some very important measures for ads.
To guarantee a good cost per click (CPC), it is very important to track the click rate, the current launch and how much of the budget is being consumed daily.
These are the three items that most clearly indicate whether something in the campaign itself should be altered.
However, we recommend that your company doesn't limit itself to the result of the ads: analyze the cost per Lead or cost per objective expected and the general impact that the ads are having on your company.
track the audience
RD Station Marketing , software created by us, shows the number of visitors and Leads that come from Facebook, not only through campaigns but also through redirection to the site through other links.
Our software also allows you to analyze the quality of the Leads that were generated via Facebook and if they later became opportunities and customers.
This gives a much more complete measurement than any other tool. With the software, it is also possible to send email campaigns and segmented nutrition for users who come from there.
Likewise, there are other questions that should be looked at in more detail: if the ad is from a Facebook page, how has the number of people who "liked" a page been growing? And does the integration data of the "fans" with the page remain constant? Is segmentation attracting engaged people?
This information is important because attracting a lot of disengaged fans can make things worse. If the company's publications have a low percentage of interactions (likes, comments and shares) they will not be displayed to the vast majority of the base.
3 Common Problems Facebook Ads Can Solve
With our experience serving more than 8,000 clients — many of them running paid media actions on Facebook — we identified 3 common problems faced by these companies.
1. Difficulty and delay in generating traffic only with organic actions, such as SEO and social networks
Yes, organic traffic is achieved over time and not immediately. As Fábio Ricotta says in his talk at the RD Summit 2016:
“SEO is a marathon, not a 100-meter dash”
That doesn't mean it's not worth it. On the contrary, long-term investment pays off over time. However, if you need more immediate results, advertising on Facebook is a good solution.
To solve this problem, read also: SEO On-Page: Know the magic formula to optimize your website
2. Difficulty in finding the right audience on the internet
Do you already know your audience? Do you have your personas well defined?
Not all companies know the right audience. Or they know it, but can't find it.
The high segmentation provided by Facebook ads and interesting features such as the lookalike audience can help your business to find the audience that wants your product/service, but doesn't know you yet.
To solve that problem, also go to:
- Post: Target audience, ideal client and buyer persona: what are the differences?
- Persona Builder Tool
3. Very slow purchase process in the perception of many companies
The purchase process is a basic path traveled by all consumers on the Internet. However, that process can be very slow and the time between the learning and discovery stage until the closing stage of the deal can be long.
With back-funnel ads you can create “shortcuts” in the buying process and show your solutions to people who are already ready.
- Purchasing process: what it is and what is its importance for the Digital Marketing strategy
- Purchase Process Generator Tool
Now that you know the power of Facebook Ads, we took a look at the challenges businesses face in standing out from the competition and came to one conclusion: we need to make life easier for marketers working with Facebook Ads.
For this reason, we developed new resources in RD Station Marketing: Facebook ads and integration with Facebook Lead Ads .
Now it is possible to create Facebook ads in RD Station and quickly increase the visitors of your Landing Pages.
In addition to accelerating your results, your company will also gain productivity by executing various actions on a single platform.
Already the native integration with Facebook Lead Ads allows you to generate Leads on Facebook itself and easily take them to your base in RD Station, avoiding manual tasks or external integrations. Just connect your accounts, combine the fields and you're done!
Tips from Facebook Ads specialists
Fábio Prado , founder of the AdResults agency and creator of the FaceAds Descomplicado course, and Camila Porto , a Facebook specialist, shared some tips on Facebook ads in their interviews at the Studio RD Summit :
How to make good ads on Facebook: tips and trends from Fábio Prado
If the ad was not able to attract attention, you spent an impression in vain, that person is not going to notice you.
You probably already lost count of how many ads appeared on your social media timelines .
How many of these did you click? How many caught your eye?
The competition for attention on Facebook is great, but if you manage to take advantage of good practices in the creation and promotion of your ad, you will be able to impact your audience and obtain results that few media manage to deliver.
The specialist highlighted in the interview that we did the importance of always being updated with what's new on this social network.
“Be attentive to the changes, test them and see what works and what doesn't in your business so that, in the end, you can adapt quickly to the changes. The one who survives is the one who is best adapted — and not necessarily the strongest.”
Check out the full talk below:
The video has subtitles in 3 languages: Portuguese, Spanish and English. You just have to click on the settings to activate them!
Some points commented by Fábio Prado were:
- Whether or not there is a recipe for companies to start advertising on Facebook;
- AIDA concept and its applicability in advertisements;
- What you need to do to not be affected by the constant changes in Facebook;
How to create impossible to ignore ads on Facebook: tips from Camila Porto
Facebook has increasingly decreased the organic reach of company posts, prioritizing posts from family and friends.
Have you already wondered if there is any way to avoid that?
For Facebook specialist Camila Porto, the way is to invest. «If you want to have a pamphlet, you must stop for it and that's it. On Facebook it works the same », she exemplifies.
She believes that it is important to see social networks as marketing tools that, like any other, also require a budget.
It is essential that companies forget that myth that they do not invest in paid ads, that it is free. Today, regardless of the size of the company, you have to invest.
Another point pointed out by the specialist is the fact that there is a lack of space to leave ads on Facebook. there are few places and many companies wanting to advertise, making the ads more expensive, especially for those who are starting out.
The specialist's tip is to pay attention to other channels, such as Instagram , WhatsApp and Messenger, to reach the audience through other means, which are even less competitive.
Watch the full interview:
The video has subtitles in 3 languages: Portuguese, Spanish and English. You just have to click on the settings to activate them!
Some points commented by Camila Porto were:
- Why it is important to invest money in social networks;
- How to reach your audience on Facebook;
- How to use the changes in the Facebook algorithm in your favor;
Did you like the tips? See all the interviews from the Studio RD Summit, on our YouTube channel .
And, to find out which publications generate the most conversions and organic reach, and what is the best content and schedule to be worked on, in order to invest only in what generates results for your business, download our worksheet: Follow-up of publications and metrics in Facebook :
Conclusion
We understand that most of the suggestions we brought are adaptable to different contexts.
Regardless of the size of your company and the market in which it operates, it is possible to apply them in such a way that they achieve their objectives at increasingly lower costs.
The important thing is to have persistence and understand that creating a campaign and not optimizing it is a big mistake and this will probably make your investment a cost with no return.
Therefore, do not pretend to do everything at once. Apply small optimizations consistently and monitor to see if the results increased.
We hope these tips help you get better results and achieve your business goals!
Frequent questions
What is Facebook Ads?
Facebook Ads are the paid ads on Facebook, which can appear in the News Feed and in the right column of the social network. In addition, using the Facebook ad platform it is possible to publish ads on Instagram, Audience Network and Messenger.
Why advertise on Facebook Ads?
Advertising on Facebook is a way to increase your company's reach on the social network and generate more business with a highly customizable and controllable investment. This means that you only invest as much as you can and as much as you want.
How to create campaigns in Facebook Ads?
The Facebook Ads Manager is a tool that allows you to perform various actions quickly, such as creating, editing, duplicating campaigns and making bulk changes.
