Introduction to Facebook Adverts for Small Businesses

Any small business looking to promote their services online can benefit from paid advertising on social media. Whether you’re looking to raise the profile of your business locally, or get more eyes on the product discount your business is currently offering, paid-for advertising across Instagram and Facebook can help. 

If you’re new to the world of paid social campaigns and sponsored posts, take a look at our beginners guide to getting the most out of your social media promotions.

Getting Set Up

First and foremost, your business will need a Facebook Business Manager account. If you already use Facebook to promote your business, this is a simple step which allows you to create and manage adverts in Facebook’s Ad Centre. You will be asked to attach a bank card to your Ad account for billing purposes and you will need to assign admin roles to your business page managers. Claim ownership of your existing Facebook business page to have full control over your account, and connect your business Instagram account to create consistent ads across both platforms. Once the initial admin is complete, familiarise yourself with the account and its functionality before looking to set up any campaigns.

Campaigns

Before setting up your first ad campaign, you’ll need to decide on a few objectives and goals to help define your adverts. If you are looking to generate new leads for your business, you can set up an advert with an in-built lead capture form to streamline data collection. Similarly if you’re promoting a sale you’re having on-site, why not try a carousel or video advert sharing some of your most popular products with a click-through button directly to your website. Narrowing down your goal will help to define the type of content you produce, as well as the type of campaign you run.

Once you are clear on the campaign style and what you want to get out of it, think about the types of people you want to target. Who is your target audience? Facebook Ads allow you to filter audiences by a range of demographics including; Age, Gender, Location, Occupation and Interests. Spend some time thinking about who you want to see your ad, and the types of related interests they may have in order to find an appropriate audience base for your promotion. You will also need to define a budget and duration for your campaign before publishing.

1-2 weeks is usually recommended as a starting point for most Facebook Ads, but as you begin to monitor and review the ad’s performance you can alter these settings to suit.

Promoted Posts

Promoting your existing organic posts is a great way to get started in the world of Facebook advertising. ‘Boosting’ or promoting a post allows you to put a budget behind one of your regular social posts and expand its potential audience. Whilst your posts will typically only be viewed by your followers, boosted posts allow you to target an audience that aligns with your target demographics to draw in a new group of potential followers.

Monitoring 

An important aspect of any paid social campaign is reviewing and responding to its performance. If you have conducted an A/B test using slightly different creatives, monitor their individual responses to determine which is more effective for your campaign goal. If you’re finding that many of the enquiries you are receiving in response are irrelevant to your services, perhaps look at altering your messaging or audience lists as you may be bringing in the wrong traffic. Use this time to review the results thus far and make any adjustments that may help to enhance your advert’s performance.

Organic Content

Alongside any paid promotions you are running, ensure that you are frequently creating and posting engaging organic content to support your campaigns. Whilst your paid-for advertisements may be bringing in a new set of eyes, don’t neglect the following you have already amassed across your social media platforms. If you’ve decided to run a paid campaign promoting a new product or service you’re offering, make sure this message is consistent across the organic content you are also putting out to effectively spread the word. Just remember, any post or advert relating to Payl8r finance options will need to follow our Advertising Requirements and will need to be reviewed and approved by our team.

Facebook For Business

As you begin thinking about your paid social media campaigns make full use of the resources that Facebook itself provides. They offer a range of resources for each type of campaign, so whether you want to raise the profile of your business locally, or retarget your existing customers with a website discount, Facebook can guide you in the right direction. Once you're up and running, Facebook tends to offer free calls with their in-house marketing experts to help review and optimise your Facebook ad strategy. You can also expand your working knowledge through their online training programmes which cover all aspects of Facebook promotions - from ‘establishing an online presence’ to ‘improving your creative strategy’.