Jan 11, 202112 min read

How To Advertise On Facebook in 2021

In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about advertising on Facebook in a new world post-Covid-19. We will be going through planning your first Facebook ad, advanced strategies, and of course drop some golden nuggets that no one ever mentions.

Facebook advertising is an important channel that any business can use to connect with their audience. Facebook has 2.5 billion monthly users and Instagram has about 1 billion which means that your clients are on Facebook and Instagram.

Connecting organically with fans has become extremely difficult based on the algorithm and high levels of competition. Not to worry though, Facebook has a micro-targeting feature within its Ads Manager that allows you to reach your exact target audience - this means only potential clients would see your ads and that lowers your cost per conversion.

That’s great for your budget, conversion rates, and an overall great social marketing media strategy. You only pay to reach the most valuable potential customers through geo-location targeting and interest targeting.

In order to get the best results possible on the platform, it is important to understand the different Facebook ad types and options before you dive in. In this guide, we will be walking you through everything you need to know, from planning your first Facebook ad, advanced strategies, and of course mention some promised golden nuggets.

Types of Facebook ads

Step-by-step to advertise on Facebook

Facebook ad Dimensions

5 tips for Killer Facebook ads

Bonus: Facebook Ads Course that teaches you how to turn Facebook traffic into sales by setting your ads up the right way

Types of Facebook ads

Image ads

Image ads are static images that show up on people's feeds as a sponsored post. What these images can include is a lot of meaning as well as a product or service and a call to action in order to introduce people to your funnel and business. These ads are typically used for brand awareness or to introduce a limited-time offer such as the ad below we created for our friends at F45!

Video ads

Video ads are similar to photo ads in the aspect that there is one piece of content that a person consumes. Video ads are great because not only can you introduce an offer or your business to a certain prospect but you can also show them your vision through video and sound. This type of Facebook ad is very effective at getting your point across to your potential client and could be used in a variety of ways. The nice part about these ads is that if someone had watched a certain percentage of your video that means that they have shown interest so if this person falls off your funnel you can easily retarget that person instead of losing them!

Carousel ads

The carousel ad is a photo or video ad that you can swipe through such as the one below this paragraph showing the carousel ad we built for our friends at a 45. Carousel ads are very powerful because you get to show multiple pieces of content in an interactive way where you can engage with your potential client by having them go through the content you want to show them. Carousel ads can be used to show off multiple products or multiple photos of one product which is great to boost either brand exposure or a single product or service exposure!

Story ads

Story ads are a great way to get in front of your potential clients while they're sitting and relaxing on the phone watching stories. About 72% of Millenials won’t rotate their phones to watch widescreen videos which is why meeting them on fullscreen online real estate makes an impact towards conversions. These are short videos that are typically taken in a portrait format so it is content that is extremely easy to consume and it's typically less than 30 seconds long. Sorry I can also use the fan-favorite swipe up feature in order to send people over to your landing page or website in a very quick and easy motion. Another example of our collaboration with F45 is the story ad below. If you decide to use story ads make sure to make them high-quality, engaging, and powerful.

Conversion ads

Conversion ads Are aimed to complete a task that you would like your potential clients to do whether it is to check out on your website, become a lead for much more. This campaign category is great because it will target people that are likely to do this action. With the use of this campaign goal and the right ad, you can have a very profitable funnel on your hands. These types of ads typically have a call to action that says "shop now", "learn more", "claim offer".

Lead ads

Lead ads are great for capturing information since Facebook nowadays auto-populates their phone number email and simple things such as their city location or other categories that your business might require from your clients. Typically lead form ads decrease the cost of generating a lead for most businesses by about 60%. This is a great tool in order to collect people's information and get in contact with them to show them what you have to offer. With the right targeting lead ads are extremely useful for a lot of business models since not only does a decrease in the cost of generating a lead but it also decreases the time you spend per client since they are already prequalified to work with you.

Messenger ads

Did you know that about 1.3 billion people use messenger every single month? A super easy and convenient way to get in front of your target audience is by creating a messenger ad. This was the most powerful tool that Facebook provided us in 2020 and is likely to go on in 2021. This is because this feature allows you to automate the first set of messages in order to create that human to human interaction that has been lacking ever since Covid-19 stopped us from being able to do so.

Bonus: Facebook Ads Course that teaches you how to turn Facebook traffic into sales by setting your ads up the right way

Step-by-step to advertise on Facebook

Prior to starting any form of advertising, you need to have a Facebook business page. Most people already have this but if not don't hesitate to add it to your to do list! After that, you can head straight to the Facebook Ads Manager or Business Manager to create your Facebook ad campaign.

After that access, the Ads Manager since you will be spending quite some time learning your ads there!

Step 0. Start from the end

Before starting to set up your ad it is extremely important to actually start from the end. This means believing you are your potential client. What would you be doing? What is something that would grab your attention? What would make you go out of the comfort zone of your feed into an unknown website and either completing a purchase or becoming a lead?

Online advertising is much more than just placing an ad and hoping for the best you actually have to use a lot of psychology in order to succeed. After perfecting what you believe is the next thing to do is set up your campaign.

Step 1. Choose your objective

Log into Facebook Ads Manager and select the Campaigns tab then click Create to get started with a new Facebook ad campaign.

Now you will be greeted with 11 objectives and you would pick whichever one resonates the best with your business objectives. Here’s how they align with business goals:

Brand awareness: Introduce your brand to a new audience, which helps you be in front of new people.
Reach: Show your ad to as many people in your audience as possible, which helps you reach a lot of people for a cheap cost.
Traffic: Drive traffic to a specific web page, app, or Facebook Messenger conversation in order to connect with your clients on the platform that you desire.
Engagement: Reach a wide audience to increase the number of post engagements or Page Likes, this gives you that credibility boost that is sometimes needed to cater to your audience.
App installs: Pretty straightforward, it's aimed to get people to install your app.
Video views: Get more people to watch your videos, which can help you reach a wide audience similar to engagement and reach.
Lead generation: Introduce your sales funnel, and collect whatever details you would like your leads to have!
Messages: Encourage people to contact your business using Facebook Messenger, which is a fantastic way to bring back that human to human interaction that everyone misses so much.
Conversions: Get people to take a specific action on your website such as complete a purchase. This campaign goal is what we recommend if you are an online store attempting to get more sales.
Catalog sales: Connect your Facebook ads to your product catalog. This type of ad is extremely powerful with a pixel as it will retarget you with products you showed interest in on their website.
Store traffic: more so used prior to COVID but this is meant to drive in-person store traffic.

Pick and choose a campaign objective that resonates with your goal whether it is sales or exposure. The main focus here is to be able to use something that provides you a return on investment. Exposure doesn't directly pay you off such as conversions however it is always important to run engagement as well as exposure campaigns to develop your brand so that overtime.

Step 2. Your campaign

Step 3. Target your audience (Ad Set)

Now it's time to pick your target audience and remember that that is key in order to maximize your return on investment. There are no shortcuts here so you really have to dig deep into who your clients are and target those people specifically. On here you'll also be able to pick a few things listed below:

Budget: Use this field to determine the budget you want to allocate on a daily basis to this interest specifically so if you have X amount as a budget and you want to run a ad on five different interests it is suggested to use your budget divided by five and use that number for the budget for this ad set.
Location: In the section, you can use the location do you targeting in order to determine where you're at will be placed. In the section, you can pick from large countries to smaller cities even down to a specific pinpoint or ZIP Code. So if you have a store front do not hesitate to put your address as the location and use people living in this location as an option.
Age: This section is pretty self-explanatory and it requires you to pick the ages of the people you want to advertise to. It is important to keep this open at the start and then find out which age groups are the most profitable for you and move forward with those.
Gender: When it comes to picking the gender for your target audience if your product is only meant for one gender do not hesitate in testing the other gender as well because someone might want to buy it for their significant other. Dissection also correlates with the previous age section since it is suggested to start with an open targeting and move forward with whatever is the most profitable for your business.
Interest: This section is the reason Facebook advertising is as big as it is and it is mainly because you can target only people that would be interested in what you have to offer people. Use the section wisely and there are multiple strategies in order to determine what is the best audience for you so make sure to do a lot of background research on who your client is, what they do, what they like, and more. You can also narrow down interests which will only advertise to people who will fit all categories selected.
Language: The language section is also very self-explanatory and you have the option to leave it open or select English if your ad is in English. Make sure if your ad is targeted towards a foreign audience to select their first language.

Check out the Facebook Ads Course that teaches you how to target even more!

Step 5. Choose your Facebook ad placements

If you’re new to Facebook advertising, the simplest choice is to use Automatic Placements. When you select this option, Facebook will automatically place your ads across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network and focus on where is likely to convert the best.

Once you have more experience, select the ad placement that you would desire and make sure it aligns with your ad so that if you have a story ad it only shows up on story as well as if you have a feed post it would only show up on the feed.

Device type: Mobile, desktop, or both.
Platform: Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, or Messenger
Placements: Feeds, Stories, in-stream (for videos), messages, in-article, and apps and sites (external to Facebook).
Specific mobile devices and operating systems: iOS, Android, feature phones, or all devices.

Step 7. Create your ad

First, choose your ad format then create your ad. An easy way to do this would be to use the Canva platform. It's a free way to edit your ads. After that, import your ad to Facebook and create the primary text as well as the headline.

Use the preview tool at the bottom of the page to make sure your ad looks good for all potential placements (mobile, desktop news feed, right column, and so on). When you’re happy with your ad, click the Confirm button on the bottom to submit your order, then wait for Facebook to notify you that your ad has been approved.

Facebook ad Dimensions

There are a lot of details to keep in mind when getting your images and videos ready for Facebook ads especially when it comes to their dimensions because you want them to look stellar.

Text and objective specs for Facebook ads

To create the best Facebook ads, you need to keep the recommended character counts in mind. A good rule of thumb would be to keep your text limited to 20% of the image max.