How do I Create an Ad on Facebook?

Today I’m going to teach you how to create an absolutely dynamite ad on Facebook. It doesn’t matter what product or service you provide – if you follow these tips, you’re going to see results.

Let’s talk about the platform for a second, though – it’s important to know your audience. If you’re anything like me, you probably just use Facebook to stalk your friends and family…

No I don’t actually mean stalk. (Duh)

What I mean is that you probably scroll through your feed to catch up on what your friends and family are doing.

Maybe you look at a few dog pictures, check in on how Uncle Jack’s new baby boy is doing, and maybe even catch a 1min video of how to make The Best Gluten-Free Muffins You’ll Ever Have.

The reality is though, that you and I are the same: we don’t comment, like, or share anything! The vast majority of Facebook users do not, or rarely contribute to the daily Newsfeed.

We see what others post. We are lame.

And that’s totally ok!

Unless… you’re a Real Estate Agent (or entrepreneur).

In this case, you’re going to need to be proactive: let’s get you onto other people’s Newsfeeds – get noticed, be seen. A lot of people out there are just scrolling through their feeds, waiting for something to pique their interest or grab their attention.

We’ve all got our own styles, and before we go any further I just want to say I’m not here to criticize anyone; I’m not your mother, father, wife, husband, whatever – I’m just a nerd behind a laptop who knows a thing or two about the ins and outs of Facebook.

So, let’s begin!

Here is the step-by-step guide to posting your very first ad on Facebook.

Setting Up Your Business Manager

Let’s first talk about the assets you will require to setup your Business Manager.

What you should have before you start:

1. Have a personal Facebook account to confirm your identity.
2. Create an Ad Account. This can be done through Business Manager found at business.facebook.com. You will need to claim or create your Facebook Page, as well as claim or create your Ad Account ID. If you select the three bars on the top left > go to business settings > select Pages OR Ad Account. It will walk you through how to set it up.
3. (Optional) You can add the names and work email addresses of the people you’d like to add to your business if you are having more than one person handle your ad account.

Now it’s time to sign up for Business Manager:

• Go to business.facebook.com.
• At the bottom of the page, click “Get Started”.
• On the Getting Started page, click “Next”.
• Enter a name for your business, select the primary page, and enter your name and work email address.
• Click “Create Business”, and you’ll see you a message to welcome you to Business Manager.
• Click “Add People” to add employees to your business and give them access to your ad account and Page.

How to claim your Ad Account in Business Manager

It’s time to claim your own ad account. Don’t worry about this now, but in the future, you will also be claiming or creating ad accounts for your clients.

Note: You must be an admin for the ad account to claim it in Business Manager. Keep in mind that you can’t claim an ad account that’s owned by another Business Manager; you will have to create a new ad account.

What does a Facebook Ad look like?

As you can see, Facebook is very much a “display” platform.

What does that mean? It means that Facebook rewards engaging copy writing and beautiful ads that encourages people to engage and interact with, such as the ones above.

What does a Facebook campaign structure look like?

Well, before I can answer that, let me explain what a campaign is. A campaign is an umbrella term which describes the overall objective of the work being produced underneath it.

Still confused?

Here’s an infographic from our friends at @DigitalMarketer created to provide a clearer idea of what a campaign is:

Here are some examples of Campaign objectives:

• Traffic
• Engagement
• Conversions
• Lead Generation

The reason I only highlighted these four (there are lots of others) is because they are the ones I personally recommend when starting out.

Here are some other objectives, and what the page will look like when you go to “Create a Campaign”

When should you use a particular objective?

Traffic: boost blog traffic, sales page, anytime there isn’t an easily obtainable conversion

Engagement: to get more people to see and engage with your post or Page. Engagement can include comments, shares, likes, event responses and offer claims.

Conversions: encourage people to take valuable actions on your website, app or in Messenger, such as adding payment info or making a purchase.

Lead Generation: opt in to a landing page, webinar registration, any time there IS an attainable goal, collecting a lead.

So now that we have our objective – what next?

Targeting, my friends. Targeting.

Where Do I Find my Market on Facebook?

Why is it so important to find your target market? Because you can have THE BEST advertising campaign in the world, but if you put it in front of the wrong audience, it will fail!

Here at @nohypedigital, this is our BIGGEST concern. Are we hitting the right market?

Luckily, Facebook makes our lives easy; they have more interest-based data than anyone in the world!

They know what people like, behaviours, interests, shares, what people comment on, and more.

Kinda scary, right? Sort of…

For us marketers, this is the #1 reason we can place our AWESOME offers in front of the right people at the right time.

So let’s jump right into it. This is what you’ll see on the next page after selecting an objective.

The Ad Set

Don’t let this page scare you! I’m right here – we got this.

So what exactly is an Ad Set? Well, it can contain one or more ads. You’ll define your own targeting, budget, schedule, bidding, and placement.

Let’s walk you step-by-step as to how we at @nohypedigital approach this page.

Ad Set Name: Test Ad Set
You’ll see this ad set name in reporting, insights, tip and notifications.

Traffic: Select where you would like to send your traffic. Most likely a website.

Dynamic Creative: This is a new feature which allows you to “split test” ads (we’ll talk about this more in the next section) using some, not all, objectives. If the objective of the campaign is Traffic, I recommend turning it on.

Audience: This is where all the magic happens. You can choose to target people based on their interests.

• This may include interests that people share on their timelines, apps they use, pages they like, or other activities on and off Facebook.
• Can target based on demographics
• Can save your audience for a later date, known as a “Custom Audience”.
• You can also upload saved audiences, such as your clients’ emails, and save it as a Custom Audience. Check it out!

You can also create “lookalike audiences.” What does that mean? As the name suggests, lookalike audiences are a way to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they’re similar to customers you care about.

You can base your lookalike audience on a variety of sources (eg: Data Custom Audience, Conversion Tracking Pixel, Website Custom Audience).

I know this is a lot of information, so I think that now would be a good time to invite you to our NoHype Digital – Facebook Support Group.

This is a group which I personally manage in order to better help you get your ads off the ground.

Simply search it on Facebook, request an invite, and I’ll do my best to get you in ASAP.

Now back to the scheduled program…

So now that we know how to use the Ad Set section in order to target our audience, what should we “filter” down to?

Well, like I said, this is the secret sauce. It’s all about SPECIFICITY. Think about it like this:

IF YOUR TARGET MARKET IS GOLF ENTHUSIASTS, WHAT WOULD YOU TYPE IN THE AUDIENCE?

Tiger Woods? No way. Everyone knows Tiger Woods.

Phil Mickelson? Hmm… getting warmer. You probably cut the audience by 50%.

Bubba Watson? Ahhhhh, yes! Now we’re talking. A golf enthusiast would know who Bubba Watson is, but it’s unlikely that anyone else would.

Targeting Planning:

1. Who are the authority figures, thought leaders, or big brands in your niche?
2. What books/magazines/newspapers does your ideal customer read?
3. What events do they attend?
4. Which websites do they frequent?
5. Where do they live?
6. What tools do they use?
7. What’s UNIQUE about this specific group?

So many questions! Where’s the best place to find all the answers?

My friends, Google has ALL the answers!

Just replace your ideal customer in each question, and you’ll likely to find the secret sauce to your market.

Placements

If you’re new to this platform, I recommend using Automatic Placements. However, if you’d like to customize the placements of your ads, select Edit Placements.

Mostly, this is all trial and error, but granted that 90% of people use their phones to browse Facebook, I highly recommend including mobile as an selected option in your ad placements.

What’s also neat is that you can select “Only show ads when connected to Wi-fi”.

Why is that neat? Because typically when people are on wi-fi, they have more time on their hands to browse. They are not on the go and can appreciate your beautiful ad. A little @nohypedigital tip for you, on the house. 😉

Budget & Schedule

This section is pretty straightforward and I feel like I shouldn’t need to dive too deeply into this.

However, I will recommend that you “test” your ad on a smaller budget for 3-5 days to properly analyze the data. If you have a successful ad, we would typically increase the budget by 25-50% until the data shows the audience is exhausted from seeing it.

Ad Creative

If you’re a creative individual, this is where you move away from all the technical jargon and get into the fun and fabulous – Yes, I just went there…

• Back to business, though: what is the specific end benefit of your offer?
• Which pain points are you able to provide the solution to?
• How can you make your ideal customer’s life better?

Speak to your audience in the kind of language your market will respond to. This is all goes back to… STUDYING YOUR MARKET. Once again, Google is our best friend here.

Here is a great template to base your ads off of:

Before we begin the step-by-step walkthrough, if you are unsure how you’re going to create the imagery, I would definitely recommend “Canva” for those just starting. It’s an awesome free design platform which allows you to drag and drop text, shapes, graphics, and even upload your own photos!

Here is what the layout should look like when you get to the Ads section:

Ad Name – Straightforward, I would think.

Identity – Make sure your Facebook or Instagram (or both) accounts are selected.

Format – Single Image, Single Video, Slideshow.

• I’m not going to dive into the differences here, however I will say that if you selected Dynamic Ads you are able to upload more than one image. This is extremely beneficial when split testing Image Creative.
• In Dynamic Ads, you can split test:
  • 5 Ad Texts
  • 5 Headlines
  • 10 Images
  • 5 Calls to action
  • 5 Newsfeed Link Descriptions
• This can make for A LOT of split testing – almost too much! I would recommend split testing between 2 or 3 alternatives as it can get challenging to know which ad is the most effective.

Links – This is where you input your ad copy. Headlines, text, link, link description, etc. You can also preview the imagery here on mobile and desktop, as well as on Facebook and Instagram.

AND finally, last but not least… the Facebook Pixel.

I understand this isn’t the shortest guide, and I truly hope it’s been beneficial to you, but this next part is REALLLLLYYYY important, so if you can, please stick with me because this is what will, over time, make your ads cheaper, as well as narrow down your target audience.

As per usual, I’m right by your side, so stick with me and let’s do this!

The Facebook Pixel

What is the Facebook Pixel? It’s a piece of code that you can embed into your website. This little piece of code helps build your custom audiences of people who have visited your website, which allows you to retarget them later at a MUCH cheaper price.

It also creates for higher converting campaigns. This is because when you target this pixeled audience, they are already familiar with your brand and are more likely to buy (considered warm traffic).

Let’s not forget that pixels act as an amazing tool for gauging performance as well.

If this all makes no sense – DO NOT WORRY.

I could go on for a whole other article about the Facebook Pixel (perhaps at a later date), or you could always join the NoHype Digital – Facebook Support Group if you have any questions. I am happy to help!

However, for now…

Just trust me when I say that you need to embed your Facebook Pixel on each page of your website. If this sounds daunting, you can always hire someone. It is not a difficult task but does require a little bit of technical know-how. YouTube is always a great source to learn how to do this as well.

If you’ve done all this, then CONGRATS!

Your ad is now ready to be published! Please note that Facebook will review your ads before it allows them to be displayed. Allow up to 24hr for this process. If your ad is not approved, don’t fret. Facebook has been more strict with its policies this year due to various data breaches.

You can view those policies here.

If you feel like your ad is OK, you can always appeal the decision.

We’ve done this many times, so don’t feel ashamed.

Hope this helps!

Allan Porter

Former banker turned traffic specialist, Allan has left the world of financial services and decided to use his love for data manipulation, charts and statistics in the marketing realm. He honed his love for data through the world of day-trading at a young age and currently does it as a past-time. Allan’s open mind and eye for design is the key to our marketing performance success.