While Facebook has made it easy for any business to run advertising campaigns, the number of details to work through might be daunting for some. To make Facebook advertising work, you have to consider several factors, including the ad format, ad placement and target audience. You must also align these elements with your objectives and budget.
Still, as one of the cheapest options available, the platform is hard to ignore. For most industries, the average Facebook advertising cost per click (CPC) ranges from $0.50 to $2. This price range falls within most marketing budgets. But you could also easily derail your ad budget if you fail to account for the other factors mentioned above.
To avoid rookie mistakes, you can work with a Facebook advertising agency to help you garner high-quality returns and results. The right partner knows how to allocate campaign resources, optimize your ad assets and position your ads strategically. On top of partnering with the right agency, it pays to know the standards and best practices that experts follow to achieve cost-effective outcomes.
Facebook Guidelines for Ads
The first part of this guide focuses on the design and technical aspects of Facebook advertising. Let’s walk you through the available ad formats and their specified dimensions.
While you and your Facebook ad agency can choose the type of ad to use, observing the correct resolution, dimensions and such can ensure your visual assets will display properly across the platform.
Image
A simple format for advertising on Facebook, image ads combine an image and text to capture the attention of your target market.
Whether it’s an image you own or a stock photo, make sure it adheres to these recommendations*:
1,800 x 1,800 pixels if image ratio is 1:1 (square) Minimum dimensions: 600 x 600 pixels |
Video
Your goal, ultimately, is to drive users to your website and inspire conversion. No other format is more effective in helping you achieve this than video ads. These visual assets are an engaging way to present your product, service or brand. They help you deliver a message that moves viewers to take action.
For maximum impact, your Facebook ads agency or team should apply these standards to your videos*:
4:5 (mobile only) Minimum video resolution: 1,080 x 1,080 pixels Minimum dimensions: 120 x 120 pixels Video length: 1 second to 241 minutes |
Carousel
The carousel format lets you add up to 10 images or videos to your advertisement. That’s enough room for you to showcase different offerings, highlight product or service details or progressively tell your brand story. You can also put a link on each carousel card.
Here’s how to optimize Facebook ads in this format*:
Minimum resolution: 1,080 x 1,080 pixels Video length: 1 second to 240 minutes |
Slideshow
Ideal for showing steps or sequences, slideshow ads blend motion picture, sound and text, but with lightweight requirements. They are easier to make and load more quickly than video, catering to audiences with slower connections and/or older devices.
Slides: 2 to 15 Minimum resolution: 1,080 x 1,080 pixels Slideshow length: Up to 15 seconds |
Collection
A collection ad includes one cover image or video, followed by several product images. When users tap your ad, they’re taken to a full-screen landing page called Instant Experience. This user flow provides a visual and immersive way for prospects to discover, browse and purchase your product.
When you choose this format, keep in mind the following:
Minimum Resolution: 1,080 x 1,080 pixels Requirements: Landing page URL, Instant Experience |
Stories
Stories are ephemeral images or videos that appear on different Facebook properties: Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. While organic Stories disappear after 24 hours, Stories ads don’t.
With Stories ads, you can leverage image, video or carousel ads in all their full-screen glory. This immersive format is best for raising brand awareness and connecting with customers where they hang out.
Messenger
Capture the attention of your target audience through a Facebook ad that clicks to Messenger. You can automate this process by choosing the MESSAGES objective on the Ads Manager – more on this Facebook ads tool in the next section.
Playables
Compel users to install your game or app by letting them test-drive it through a playable ad. You can use a lead-in video and convince the audience to tap or click. This action should take them to a full-screen video demo of the product. A call-to-action (CTA) button should also be displayed, directing them to the DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL page when tapped or clicked.
*For ads placed on Facebook feeds
How To Use Facebook Ads
Create, manage and track your ads using Facebook Ads Manager. This all-in-one tool works on both desktop and mobile devices. The app version is available to Android and iOS users, allowing for quick access to business owners, Facebook ads agency account managers and marketers on the go.
Before employing this Facebook ads tool, you have to establish your marketing goals and target audience. Doing so informs and steers your campaign in the right direction.
Once you’ve covered your bases, it’s time to explore everything the Facebook Ads Manager has in store for your brand. Go to the webpage or app, choose the CAMPAIGNS tab and click CREATE. You will then have to:
1. Define Your Objective
The “objective” in this instance is what you wish to accomplish with your ad and should be aligned with your business or marketing goal. Are you advertising on Facebook to send traffic referrals to your site, increase your app downloads or improve your sales? Whatever it is, you can tick the goal that matches your intent.
Source: Facebook
Your options are grouped into the Awareness, Consideration and Conversion objectives.
Awareness
• Brand Awareness
• Reach
Consideration
• Traffic
• Engagement
• App Installs
• Video Views
• Lead Generation
Conversion
• Conversions
• Catalog Sales
• Store Visits
The Facebook Ad Manager will use your chosen objective as the campaign name, but you can always customize this part as you wish.
2. Set Your Budget
Your campaign budget depends on your goal, the campaign duration and other factors. A Facebook ad agency can help you appropriate your monthly budget wisely. You can rely on a dedicated strategist to know how to optimize Facebook ads budget and determine a ballpark amount for your campaign.
Source: Facebook
With or without a team of experts assisting you, you must know the two types of budget you can set on the Ads Manager:
• Daily Budget: Your average ad spend each day, which Facebook will consume regardless of ad performance/results
• Lifetime Budget: Your entire campaign budget, adjusted by Facebook according to ad performance/results
3. Select Your Audience
On top of the reasonable Facebook advertising cost, you can also take advantage of this social media’s sophisticated targeting features. Targeting means you can choose the audience you want to reach based on certain parameters.
While it sounds like Facebook can serve you your target audience on a platter, the reality is that you will have to identify your potential customers and input information about them.
Source: Facebook
You can tell the Facebook Ad Manager who to target by choosing from these options:
• Core Audiences: Defined by demographic factors like age, gender, location, education and job title, interests, behavior and connections
• Custom Audiences: People who have already shown interest in you through purchasing and site/app visits
• Lookalike Audiences: Based on a source audience with whom they share traits and interests
4. Determine Where Your Ad Will Appear
The next step is to select where your ads will appear. Automatic Placement is a beginner-friendly option as it uses Facebook’s delivery system to determine the best places for ad performance.
Source: Facebook
Meanwhile, if you have more sophisticated strategies in place, you can delve into Manual Placement. You can customize your placements according to:
• Devices: Desktop or mobile (you can further choose between Android and iOS)
• Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and the Audience Network
• Placements:
○ Feeds (Facebook News Feed, Instagram feed, Facebook Marketplace, etc.)
○ Stories and Reels
○ In-stream (Facebook in-stream videos, IGTV)
○ Search results
○ Messenger-sponsored messages
○ In-article and apps and sites (Audience Network native, banner and interstitial, Audience Network rewarded videos, Audience Network in-stream videos)
5. Choose an Ad Format
Before formatting your ad, you can block content and publishers that can affect your brand, such as sensitive content, by editing the elements in the Brand Safety. Once you get that out of the way, it’s time to tell your story using any of the ad formats presented in the previous section.
Source: Facebook
6. Submit Your Order
Once you submit an ad, it will go through Facebook’s ad auction. This is a system that determines which ad to serve to a particular user. Multiple ads go through this auction, and the winner is the ad that satisfies the following criteria:
• Bid
• Estimated action rates
• Ad quality
Note: Comply with Facebook advertising policies to ensure quality ad performance.
Check out our Facebook advertising tips to learn more about tracking campaign performance – the next important step after setting up your ads.
Best Facebook Ad Campaign Tips To Boost ROI
Even with Facebook’s low advertising cost, you’d still want to get the best bang for your buck. We’ve compiled some of the best Facebook advertising tips to help you generate effective campaigns and profitable results:
Use Facebook Pixel
The Facebook pixel is a piece of code that can be added to your website manually or activated by connecting the platforms you already use, such as Shopify or WordPress (called partner integrations). This Facebook ads tool tracks conversions on your website (web events), allowing you to optimize your Custom Audiences and retarget them with ads.
Important note: Apple launched iOS 14 changes that can affect how you deliver campaigns to iOS 14.5 and later users. Under its AppTrackingTransparency framework, the company now requires apps on the App Store to obtain permission in tracking users.
In connection to this, you or a professional Facebook advertising agency should perform some Facebook pixel updates to keep measuring web events efficiently.
Track Growth Metrics
Look deeper into your Facebook advertising metrics and consider their value in your entire sales funnel. For instance, you may have high click-through rates (CTRs). But do they point to additional leads or sales on your site? Or say you prioritize video views and engagement metrics, such as likes, comments and shares. If content resonance is high, is it happening at the top, in the middle or at the bottom of your funnel – and is this result aligned with your goals?
As you can see, advertising on Facebook becomes tricky once the numbers are in. Sometimes, fine-tuning campaigns to maximize performance is best left in the expert hands of a Facebook ad agency.
Perform A/B Testing
A/B testing or split testing uses two versions of a visual or creative asset to identify which resonates more with your audience. This way, you can direct your ad spend toward the top performer. Not sure how to go about this step? A Facebook ads agency or expert social media team can guide you in setting up a split test within the Facebook Ad Manager.
Track, Monitor, Refine
Your campaign strategy and execution are closely tied with Facebook guidelines for ads. But your campaign lifecycle has just begun. You need to track and monitor its performance, checking for areas to improve and opportunities to uncover.
In this light, you may need to enlist the help of experts. You can’t go wrong with a company that has demonstrated a deep understanding of how to use Facebook ads, shown in-depth knowledge of Facebook advertising policies and has delivered results based on clients’ marketing and business goals.
Beyond Facebook Ad Campaign Tips
In this blog, we’ve discussed Facebook ads guidelines and best practices. We’ve also touched on the elements of Facebook Ads Manager. You can also read up on Facebook advertising policies if you want to make sure your ad gets approved.
But what if you want to hit the ground running and make as few mistakes as possible?
If you’re just starting out but need to get a head start on Facebook advertising, find a qualified Facebook advertising agency that you can have full confidence in. With a trusted partner, you can amplify brand awareness and get the right people to notice you, eventually earning their business. Exponential growth is possible no matter how niche your market is.
Thrive, an online marketing agency with Facebook advertising capability, has proven it so time and again. Take the case of Petersen Games, a gaming company that sought our expertise. In deploying Follower Growth Campaign ads, our social media advertising team helped it gain 1,600 new Facebook followers in its first month. We also executed a targeted remarketing ad strategy that increased awareness of and pledges for its Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding campaigns. Once it was ready to launch, a high-intent audience group was retargeted to bolster conversion.
If you want to enjoy similar results and achieve a competitive advantage, message or call one of our consultants today.
