As more marketing budgets start to incorporate social media Facebook has become a viable option for advertising. Whether it’s the most appropriate ad space available for your brand is debatable. But, what is not debatable is the size of Facebook’s audience reach and the ability to tailor affordable ads based on flexible design, audience targeting, and pricing parameters. Below is a quick tutorial and breakdown on setting up a Facebook ad. It is important to note that running a personal Facebook Ad versus running a Roadblock Ad found on a users home page is different in budget, placement and functionality.
Design
The following fields are found within the design of the Facebook ad: Destination URL, title, body text, and image.
Destination URL: The URL can either link to a page on Facebook or a third-party site.
Title: There is a 25 character limit for a title.
Body Text: There is a 135 character limit for the body text.
Image: Your ad cannot include any image with dimensions greater than 110 pixels wide x 80 pixels tall and should have an aspect ratio of 4:3 or 16:9. Uploads must be less than 5 megabytes. If your image is larger or smaller than the dimensions specified, Facebook will resize your image accordingly.
Targeting
The following fields are found within the targeting of the Facebook ad: Who you want to target based on location, demographics, likes/interests, education and work level, and connections on Facebook. As you start changing the targeting parameters the ad platform will show you the estimated audience reach on the far right of the page.
Location: The location selected can be as broad as the country or can drill down to state and then city. This helps if you are running a geo-location based promotion.
Demographics: The ad can be tailored to a specific age group, sex, relationship status, and language.
Likes & Interests: The majority of Facebook users have a set of interests and likes they have selected on their profile. You can target your ad to those likes and interests and also to occupations or job titles. Keep in mind the more fields you choose the more you limit your audience reach.
Education & Work: Facebook users can be targeted based on their education level and specific company/organization they work for.
Connections on Facebook: You can target users based on who they are connected to, who they are not connected to, who their friends are connected to. A great little tip is found on All Facebook on how to capitalize on targeting specific connections.
Campaigns, Pricing and Scheduling
The following fields are found within the targeting of the Facebook ad: The pricing and scheduling of the ad.
Scheduling: You can choose to run your campaign continuously or during specified dates.
Pricing: Choose how much you are willing to pay based on a CPC (Cost-Per-Click) or CPM (Cost-Per-Thousand-Measurements) model. This allows you to set certain budget parameters. You can also choose your daily budget.
Once all fields are selected to your liking place your order and wait for Facebook to approve your ad.
