Facebook ads are not dead. Despite new players in the social media scene – TikTok, we’re looking at you – knowing how to advertise on Facebook is still an essential skill for most marketers.
Right now, if you advertise on Facebook, your ads can reach 2.17 billion people—in other words, about 30% of the world’s population. In addition, the active user base of the platform continues to grow.
Of course, these are impressive numbers. But the purpose of Facebook is to get your message across to the right segment of people. Users who are most likely to be interested in buying your products or services.
Keep reading to find out everything from how much Facebook ads cost to how to plan your first campaign.
What is Facebook Ads?
Facebook ads are paid posts that companies use to promote their products or services to Facebook users.
Source: Fairfax & Favor on Facebook.
Facebook ads are usually targeted to users based on their:
- Demography
- Location
- Interests
- Other profile information
Companies set an advertising budget and bids per click or per thousand ad impressions.
Just like on Instagram, Facebook ads appear throughout the app, including users’ feeds, Stories, Messenger, Marketplace, and more. They look like normal posts, but are always labeled “ad”to show that they are ads. Facebook ads include more features than regular posts such as CTA buttons, links, and product catalogs.
To get your brand in front of more users, advertising should be a component of any Facebook marketing strategy.
How much does Facebook advertising cost?
There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to Facebook ad budgets. The cost of advertising on Facebook depends on several variables, including:
- Audience targeting. Usually advertising for a narrower audience is more expensive than for a wider one.
- Placement of advertising. The cost may vary between ads shown on Facebook and Instagram.
- Campaign duration. The number of days and hours a campaign lasts affects the final cost.
- Competitiveness of your industry. Some industries are more competitive for advertising space than others. Advertising costs usually increase as the price of the product increases or the value of the lead you are trying to generate increases.
- Season. The cost of advertising may fluctuate depending on the season, holidays or other industry events.
- Times of Day. On average, CPCs are lowest between midnight and 6am in any time zone.
- Location. Average ad spend varies widely across countries.
Setting the cost of the campaign in accordance with the goals
Setting your campaign objective correctly is the single most important thing you can do to control your Facebook ad spend. If you do it right, your chances of success will also increase.
CPC benchmarks vary depending on the goal of each campaign. There are five main campaign objectives to choose from:
- Conversions
- Impression
- Achieve
- Clicks on links
- Lead generation
The average CPC varies depending on the goals of a Facebook ad campaign. For example, on average, an impression campaign goal costs $1.85 per click, while a conversion goal costs $0.87 per click.
Choosing the right goal for your campaign is key to achieving your goals while keeping costs down.
Types of Facebook Ads
Marketers can choose between different types and formats of Facebook ads to suit their campaign goals, including:
- Image
- video
- Carousel
- Instant Experience
- Collection
- News
- Slide show
- stories
- Messenger
The wide range of Facebook ad formats means you can choose the best ad type for your business goal. Each ad has its own set of CTAs that direct users to the next steps.
Here is a more detailed explanation of each of the Facebook ad formats:
Image Ads
Image ads are the primary format for Facebook ads. They allow companies to use individual images to promote their products, services, or brand. Image ads can be used across different ad types, placements, and aspect ratios.
Image ads work well for campaigns with strong visual content that can only be shown in one image. These images may be from illustrations, designs, or photography.
You can create one in just a few clicks by adding an image from your Facebook page to an existing post.
Image ads are easy to create and can successfully display your offer if you use high quality images. They are suitable for any stage of the sales funnel – whether you want to increase brand awareness or promote a new product launch to increase sales.
Image ads can be limited – you only have one image to get your message across. If you need to display multiple products or show how your product works, the single image ad format is not the best choice.
Source: BarkBox on Facebook
Pro Tip: Pay attention to the features and ratios of your image ads so your product doesn’t get cut off or stretched.
Video ads
Like image ads, Facebook video ads allow businesses to use a single video to showcase their products, services, or brand.
They are especially useful for product demonstrations, tutorials, and demonstrations of moving parts.
Videos can be up to 240 minutes long, but that doesn’t mean you have to use that time! Short videos are usually more engaging. Facebook recommends sticking to videos for up to 15 seconds.
Video ads can add movement to anyone’s feed, like this short and sweet video ad from Taco Bell:
Source: Taco Bell on Facebook.
The disadvantage of video ads is that they are time consuming and can become expensive to create. A carousel or image ad is best for simple messages or products that don’t require a demo.
carousel ads
Ad carousels showcase up to ten images or videos that users can click on. Each has its own title, description, or link.
Carousels are a great choice for showcasing different products. Each carousel image can even have its own landing page created specifically for that product or service.
This Facebook ad format is also useful for guiding users through the process, or for showcasing a series of related products by separating each part into different sections of your carousel.
Source: The Fold London on Facebook.
Instant Experience Advertising
Instant Experience Ads, formerly known as Canvas Ads, are mobile-only interactive ads that allow users to interact with your promoted content on Facebook.
Using Instant Experience ads, users can click on the image carousel, move the screen in different directions, and zoom in or out on content.
Facebook suggests using five to seven images and videos in each Instant Experience ad to increase engagement. Pre-made templates will also help you save time and repeat the key theme throughout your ad.
Source: El on Facebook
Ad collection
Collection ads are like immersive carousels — they take the user experience one step further. Collection ads are mobile storefronts where users can scroll through your product line. More customizable than carousels, they are also full screen. Users can purchase products directly from the ad collection.
Source: Feroldi on Facebook.
Companies can also let Facebook’s algorithms choose which products from your catalog are included for each user.
Collection ads are a great choice for large businesses that sell a variety of products and services. Smaller businesses with a more limited product line may be better suited to other types of ads, such as carousels.
Lead ads
Lead ads are only available for mobile devices. This is because they are specifically designed to make it easy for people to provide you with their contact information without typing a lot of text.
They are great for collecting newsletter subscriptions, signing someone up for a trial of your product, or letting people ask you for more information. Several automakers have successfully used them to encourage test drives.
Source: Facebook
Slideshow ads
Slideshow ads consist of 3-10 images or one video that plays as a slideshow. These ads are a great alternative to video ads because they use five times less data than videos. This makes slideshows a better choice for markets where people have slower internet connections.
Slideshows are a great way to get started for people with no video experience.
Source: Charter College on Facebook.
Ad stories
Mobile phones are designed to be held vertically. Stories ads are a mobile-only, full-screen vertical video format that allows you to make the most of your screen space without waiting for viewers to rotate their screens.
Right now, 62% of people in the US say they plan to use Stories even more in the future than they do today.
Stories can be made up of images, videos, and even carousels.
Here is an example of a video turned into a Story ad:
Source: Waterford on Facebook.
Stories provide more creative freedom than regular image or video ads. Companies can experiment with emojis, stickers, filters, video effects, and even augmented reality.
The disadvantage of Facebook Stories is that they are not hosted in Facebook feeds, so users may not see them as often as other Facebook ad formats.
Facebook Stories also require different formatting than video or image ads, so you may need to create original content for Stories only.
Advertising in messengers
Messenger ads are displayed on the Facebook messenger tab. Because people spend time chatting with friends and family, Messenger ads feel more personal than scrolling through image or video ads.
People see your Messenger ad in their conversations and can click to start a conversation with your brand. These ads are a great way to get people to interact with your brand. For small businesses promoting local products or services, Messenger ads can help start a conversation.
Source: Facebook
How to advertise on Facebook
If you already have a Facebook business page (and you should), you can go straight to Ads Manager or Business Manager to create your Facebook ad campaign. If you don’t already have a business page, you need to create one first.
We will be following the Ads Manager instructions in this post. If you prefer to use Business Manager, you can get detailed information on how to use Facebook Business Manager in our post.
Ads Manager is the launch pad for running ads on Facebook and Messenger. It’s a comprehensive set of tools for creating ads, managing where and when they appear, and tracking campaign performance.
Step 1: choose a target
Sign in to Facebook Ads Manager and select the Campaigns tab, then click Create to start a new Facebook Ads campaign.
Facebook offers 11 marketing goals based on what you want to achieve with your ads.
Here’s how they relate to business goals:
- Brand Awareness: Introduce your brand to a new audience.
- Reach: Show your ad to as many people in your audience as possible.
- Traffic. Drive traffic to a specific web page, app, or Facebook Messenger conversation.
- Engagement: Reach a wide audience to increase the number of posts or subscriptions to your Page, increase attendance at your event, or encourage people to qualify for a special offer.
- App Installs: Ask people to install your app.
- Video views. Get more people to watch your videos.
- Lead Generation: Drive new leads into your sales funnel.
- Messages. Encourage people to connect with your company using Facebook Messenger.
- Conversions: Encourage people to take certain actions on your website (like signing up for your newsletter or buying your product), in your app, or on Facebook Messenger.
- Catalog Selling: Connect your Facebook ads to your product catalog to show people ads for products they’re most likely to want to buy.
- Store attendance. Direct nearby customers to regular stores.
Select a campaign goal based on your goals for that particular ad. Keep in mind that for conversion-focused goals (like sales), you can pay per action, but for impact goals (like traffic and views), you’ll pay per impression.
In this example, we’ll choose the Engagement objective. From there, we need to specify what kind of interaction we want.
Now we will select page likes.
Some of the options you’ll see in the next steps will vary depending on the goal you choose.
Click “Next.
Step 2. Name your campaign
Name your Facebook ad campaign and indicate if your ad fits into any special categories such as credit or politics.
If you’d like to set up an A/B split test, click “Get Started”under “A/B Test”to set this ad as your control. You can choose different versions for this ad after it’s posted.
Scroll down a bit to choose whether or not to enable Advantage Campaign Budget+.
This setting can be useful if you’re running multiple ad sets, but for now, you can leave it off.
Click “Next.
Step 3. Set your budget and schedule
At the top of this screen, you’ll name your ad set and choose which page to promote.
You then decide how much money you want to spend on your Facebook ad campaign. You can choose a daily or lifetime budget. Then set start and end dates if you want to schedule your ad in the future or run it right away.
Running Facebook paid ads on a schedule can be the most efficient way to spend your budget as you can only show your ads when your target audience is most likely on Facebook. You can only set a schedule if you have created a lifetime budget for your ad.
Step 4: Target Your Audience
Scroll down to start creating a target audience for your ads.
Start by choosing your target location, age, gender, and language. In the Location section, you can even include or exclude cities of a certain size.
You can also give preference to people who have recently shown interest in the product or service you are selling.
As you make your selection, keep an eye on the audience size indicator on the right side of the screen, which gives you an idea of the potential reach of your ad.
You’ll also see an estimated number of daily Page reach and likes. These estimates will be more accurate if you’ve already run campaigns because Facebook will have more data to work with. Always keep in mind that these are estimates and not guarantees.
Now it’s time for detailed targeting.
Remember: effective targeting is the key to maximizing your ROI, and there’s no shortage of ways to target your audience with Facebook Ads Manager.
Use the Detailed Targeting field to specifically include or exclude people based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. Here you can get really specific information. For example, you can target people who are interested in both travel and hiking, but exclude those who are interested in hiking.
Step 5: Choose Your Facebook Ad Placements
Scroll down to choose where your ads will appear. If you’re new to Facebook advertising, the easiest way is to use Advantage+ Placements.
When you select this option, Facebook will automatically place your ads on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network when they are most likely to generate the best results.
When you have more experience, you can select placement manually. By choosing this option, you will have full control over where your Facebook ads will appear. The more placements you choose, the more opportunities you will have to reach your target audience.
Your options will vary depending on the campaign objective you choose, but may include the following:
- Device type: mobile, desktop, or both.
- Platform: Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network and/or Messenger.
- Placements: Feeds, Stories, Reels, In-Stream (for video), search, messages, overlays and post-cycle ads on Reels, search, articles, and apps and websites (outside of Facebook).
- Certain mobile devices and operating systems: iOS, Android, mobile phones, or all devices.
- Only when connected to WiFi: Ads are shown only when the user’s device is connected to WiFi.
Step 6: Establish Brand Security and Cost Controls
Scroll down to the Brand Safety section to exclude any types of content that are inappropriate for your ad to show.
For example, you can avoid sensitive content and add specific block lists. You can exclude specific websites, videos, and publishers from blacklisting.
Once you’re happy with all the options, take one last look at your potential reach and page like scores.
If you’re happy with what you see, click next.
Step 7. Create an ad
First choose an ad format, then enter the text and media components for your ad. Available formats will vary depending on the campaign goal you chose at the start of this process.
If you’re working with an image, select the media from the Facebook gallery and select the correct crop to fill in the placement.
Use the preview tool on the right side of the page to make sure your ad looks good on all potential placements. When you’re happy with your choice, click the green “Publish”button to launch your ad.
3 tips for advertising on Facebook
1. Pay attention to the characteristics of Facebook ads
Facebook ad sizes change more often than the weather (seriously). To prevent your Facebook ads from being stretched, cropped, or otherwise distorted, you need to make sure that the images and videos you choose are the right size.
Here’s a quick breakdown:
Facebook video ads
Facebook feed video
Minimum width: 120px.
Minimum height: 120 pixels.
Resolution: at least 1080 x 1080 pixels
Video ratio: 4:5
Video file size: max. 4 GB
Minimum video length: 1 second
Maximum video length: 241 minutes
Facebook also has a complete list of all aspect ratios and features for videos.
Facebook Instant Articles Video
Resolution: at least 1080 x 1080 pixels
Video ratio: 9:16 to 16:9
Video file size: max. 4 GB
Minimum video length: 1 second
Maximum video length: 240 minutes.
Facebook Stories Ads
Recommended: Maximum available resolution (at least 1080 x 1080 pixels).
Video ratio: 9:16 (supported from 1.91 to 9:16)
Video file size: max. 4 GB
Maximum video length: 2 minutes
Facebook Image Ad Size
Facebook feed images
Resolution: at least 1080 x 1080 pixels
Minimum Width: 600px
Minimum Height: 600px
Aspect Ratio: 1:91 to 1:1
Facebook Instant Article Images
Maximum file size: 30 MB
Aspect Ratio: 1.91:1 to 1:1
Resolution: at least 1080 x 1080 pixels
Facebook marketplace images
Maximum file size: 30 MB
Aspect Ratio: 1:1
Resolution: at least 1080 x 1080 pixels
2. Test everything
It’s important not to make assumptions about what will and won’t work in your Facebook ads.
Every time you try something new, you should compare it to your previous ads to see if you’re improving the metrics that matter most to you.
Best practices for Facebook ads are constantly changing. Only you know what works for your specific audience. And the only way to keep this knowledge up to date is through testing.
3. Simplify your workflow
Social media marketers are busy people with seemingly endless to-do lists. But there are several ways to simplify the workflow.
Hootsuite Boost lets you promote social media posts right from your Hootsuite dashboard. Manage audience targeting, campaign costs, and duration. By setting up automation triggers, you can let Hootsuite control which posts to promote based on your criteria.
Hootsuite Social Advertising helps streamline social marketing workflows and maximize ad spend. You can promote your most popular organic posts to reach more people. Create ad campaigns, track performance, and make adjustments to improve results. Later, create detailed analytics reports to see which campaigns are achieving your goals.
Get the most out of your Facebook ad budget with Hootsuite. Easily create, manage and optimize all your Facebook ad campaigns in one place. Try it for free today.
With files from Christina Newberry.