As Facebook becomes a more powerful and interactive marketing tool, more and more businesses are recognizing the potential behind the little blue F. It’s long been around – but brands are now embracing social media campaigns and opening their minds to running their first ad campaign on this social networks.
But knowing where to start can be tricky, so we’ve outlined a few helpful points for you below:
1. Make sure your page is branded right before you take any further action.
An ad campaign, no matter how big or small, can only be successful if the brand is strong and developed, so make sure that your Facebook page’s branding is complete before you even considers taking a step into the world of Facebook ad campaigns. After all, what’s the point in spending the cash on a ad campaign is the conversion rate is going to be low? Thing to look out for are as follows:
– Make sure you have a profile photograph
– Make sure you have a cover photo
– Make sure your logo is featured somewhere on the page
– Ensure you’ve linked back to your company website
– Ensure you have a description of your company on the Facebook page
2. Get the right tools
You want to ensure you have the right tools and analytics in place before you start your ad campaign – so that you can track the campaign and see whether or not it’s worth your money. It’s crucial to set these up for your first campaign – because if the ad isn’t working and doesn’t convert well to traffic or revenue it saves you wasting time and money doing it all over again later. There are plenty of social media tools out there you can use to track this stuff down, such as Hootsuite and Crowd Booster so do some research and make sure you have something in place.
3. Design your ad properly
When designing your Facebook ad you need to get a professional on board – and not just knock something up quickly yourself. Facebook is where people go to waste time, and read about interesting things – so it can be tricky drawing their attention away from this. Because of how and what you’re competing with – you need to ensure you’re using the right kind of eye catching, professional design that’s going to get their attention and keep it.
4. Include a call to action
Every good advertisement, no matter how big or small, has a call to action in it. This is how you essentially make the transition between someone reading your ad and someone clicking on it. Make the call to action prompt, obvious and powerful – a good copywriter might be able to help you nail this part of the design. People come on Facebook to socialize, and this can make it tricky to get their attention – so a powerful call to action will hopefully tear them away. Make it something worth their while – like a discount!
5. Make it relevant
There’s no use trying to sell ballerina dresses to motor bikers, so make sure you’re targeting your ad towards the right people. Facebook will try to ensure this as you set up the campaign by asking you questions, so make sure you’re thorough and honest with them. The last thing you want is to be spending cash on advertising – and then seeing no results because you were targeting the wrong people.
6. Have a clear goal
When you set up your campaign, ensure you have a clear goal in mind for what you want to achieve from it. Do you want increased revenue, or do you want more fans and Facebook likes? Setting realistic goals and understanding what you want to see at the end of the campaign is the best way for measuring it’s success in the long run. It will also set realistic expectations for you and your client too.
Elle works with Who Is Hosting This as a social media associate and branding coordinator.
