The Facebook Advertising beginner's guide will teach you how to get started with Facebook Ads. From setting up an account to creating your first campaign.
If you’re interested in Paid Advertising, Facebook is one of the best places that you can begin with. You can start on a shoestring budget; the learning curve is NOT as steep as AdWords! Not to mention that it offers amazing targeting capabilities.
One of the key questions that people have before getting started is – Which do I pick? Google AdWords or Facebook? Actually, there is an inherent difference in the two. You see – with Adwords you get to pick people who are actively searching for what you want. Naturally, this number is a small fraction of the total number of people that your product/service can appeal to.
Unless you can really dig in deep, think laterally and identify searches that people will conduct – you will have a very small set of people that you can target. What’s more – since everybody will be doing pretty much the same thing – you will have fierce competition!
Facebook ads have different requirements. If you know who your ideal customer is, you can get started! Unless you are targeting everyone , you are much likelier to succeed with Facebook!
What If you are a savvy advertiser? Well, let’s put it this way – AdWords is a demand fulfilment platform and if you want to add a demand generation advertising platform to your toolkit – Facebook could be the answer.
If you’re trying to reach everybody, you’ll end up reaching nobody. Instead, you need to research and figure out who your target audience is and what they want.
People tend to freeze up when they need to identify their target audience. They are typically plagued by FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). It’s a mental barrier.
Here is one simple tip to cope up with it: Build an Ideal Client Profile.
You see –when you try and force yourself to imagine just one customer – you are forced to become ultra-specific. This is why you need the ICP! Try holding the following conversation with yourself:
Let’s say you are in the beauty niche:
The easiest question – Is it for men or women?
Let’s say it is a women’s product.
Is it really for every woman on the planet? I hope not.
Do you think she is married or unmarried?
Married? Great!
Does she have kids? No, she’s a bit younger.
40-ish? NO!
She’s younger – like 30-ish
Okay, small town, big city?
City, I guess.
Building an ideal client profile this way is great – you have come further than most people who wouldn’t think about this at all!
But, there’s a shortcut that would turbo-charge your efforts.
If you have an E-Mail list already, and you have promoted offers to this E-Mail list, search for your top 10 customers on Facebook. Since they have already bought from you – you would want your customers to be like them.
By definition, they ARE your ideal customers! Not just this, dig in and try to find some of the common interests. These are interests that you can target!
If you are starting off and don’t have customers yet, there’s an alternative! Go to your competitor’s fan page and look at the people who liked it. Then, find common interests!
This is what Noah Kagan did for Appsumo as well!
Here’s a list of targeting options that will get you started: Gender, Age, Countries , interests , language , connections
If you don’t have an end goal in mind, how would you know if you have made it or not? But, of course, you thought of that, right? Well, there’s something else I’d want you to think about.
What does your goal mean?
You see lots of people show off how many likes they have. So, they have goals like 100,000 likes on the Facebook page. Does that really help? Think about it.
Ideally, your goal should be a direct revenue number. $Profit or $Revenue are the best numbers.
It’s not ALL about the numbers
I know! I know!
The last point forced you to pick a number.
But, it’s not just about the numbers you picked. Tons of people spend $50-$100 and wash their hands saying “Facebook advertising doesn’t work for me!” when they could be sitting on a potential goldmine. But, how do you know if it’s a goldmine or a trench?
If you are starting out and haven’t validated the idea/product yet – your goals should be to do that first! You do not want to be super concerned about the numbers unless they are way off. The key is to see if some of the people in the audience are buying. Let me repeat that again: Validate first. Period.
If that is not the case and you have already validated your idea/product, don’t do one of the following 2 things:
1. Dismiss Facebook because advertising has not worked well for you: If it’s just Google Adwords or another ad network – test Facebook before dismissing it! As we have already discussed, not every marketing platform is same and you need to know if this one works for you or not.
However if none of the platforms are working for you –the problem could be beyond the platform. Then, you need to think about the messaging and your product market fit.
2. Dismiss Facebook because the campaign is not performing well: If this is the case, I’d ask you to start analysing / optimising and to give it some more time. It could be the difference between a successful campaign and a dud. Think about it along these lines:
a. Can you try a slightly different customer profile?
b. What targeting options have you not exhausted? Another city, maybe?
c. Can you change the messaging? And the design of the ads?
d. Do you see patterns in your data? [Saturday seems off or spending only in the morning?] Are they rectifiable?
e. Can you read up more and figure out a few advanced strategies and tactics?
If you’re interested in Paid Advertising, Facebook is one of the best places that you can begin with. You can start on a shoestring budget; the learning curve is NOT as steep as AdWords! Not to mention that it offers amazing targeting capabilities.
Unless you can really dig in deep, think laterally and identify searches that people will conduct – you will have a very small set of people that you can target. What’s more – since everybody will be doing pretty much the same thing – you will have fierce competition!
Facebook ads have different requirements. If you know who your ideal customer is, you can get started! Unless you are targeting everyone , you are much likelier to succeed with Facebook!
What If you are a savvy advertiser? Well, let’s put it this way – AdWords is a demand fulfilment platform and if you want to add a demand generation advertising platform to your toolkit – Facebook could be the answer.
Specific Target Audience
People tend to freeze up when they need to identify their target audience. They are typically plagued by FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). It’s a mental barrier.
Here is one simple tip to cope up with it: Build an Ideal Client Profile.
You see –when you try and force yourself to imagine just one customer – you are forced to become ultra-specific. This is why you need the ICP! Try holding the following conversation with yourself:
Let’s say you are in the beauty niche:
The easiest question – Is it for men or women?
Let’s say it is a women’s product.
Is it really for every woman on the planet? I hope not.
Do you think she is married or unmarried?
Married? Great!
Does she have kids? No, she’s a bit younger.
40-ish? NO!
She’s younger – like 30-ish
Okay, small town, big city?
City, I guess.
Building an ideal client profile this way is great – you have come further than most people who wouldn’t think about this at all!
But, there’s a shortcut that would turbo-charge your efforts.
If you have an E-Mail list already, and you have promoted offers to this E-Mail list, search for your top 10 customers on Facebook. Since they have already bought from you – you would want your customers to be like them.
If you are starting off and don’t have customers yet, there’s an alternative! Go to your competitor’s fan page and look at the people who liked it. Then, find common interests!
This is what Noah Kagan did for Appsumo as well!
Here’s a list of targeting options that will get you started: Gender, Age, Countries , interests , language , connections
What’s the Goal?
What does your goal mean?
You see lots of people show off how many likes they have. So, they have goals like 100,000 likes on the Facebook page. Does that really help? Think about it.
Ideally, your goal should be a direct revenue number. $Profit or $Revenue are the best numbers.
It’s not ALL about the numbers
I know! I know!
The last point forced you to pick a number.
But, it’s not just about the numbers you picked. Tons of people spend $50-$100 and wash their hands saying “Facebook advertising doesn’t work for me!” when they could be sitting on a potential goldmine. But, how do you know if it’s a goldmine or a trench?
If you are starting out and haven’t validated the idea/product yet – your goals should be to do that first! You do not want to be super concerned about the numbers unless they are way off. The key is to see if some of the people in the audience are buying. Let me repeat that again: Validate first. Period.
If that is not the case and you have already validated your idea/product, don’t do one of the following 2 things:
1. Dismiss Facebook because advertising has not worked well for you: If it’s just Google Adwords or another ad network – test Facebook before dismissing it! As we have already discussed, not every marketing platform is same and you need to know if this one works for you or not.
However if none of the platforms are working for you –the problem could be beyond the platform. Then, you need to think about the messaging and your product market fit.
2. Dismiss Facebook because the campaign is not performing well: If this is the case, I’d ask you to start analysing / optimising and to give it some more time. It could be the difference between a successful campaign and a dud. Think about it along these lines:
a. Can you try a slightly different customer profile?
b. What targeting options have you not exhausted? Another city, maybe?
c. Can you change the messaging? And the design of the ads?
d. Do you see patterns in your data? [Saturday seems off or spending only in the morning?] Are they rectifiable?
e. Can you read up more and figure out a few advanced strategies and tactics?
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