Facebook advertising isn’t going anywhere yet…with many companies utilizing the platform to reach key audiences. Facebook has developed ways for brands to target specific audiences, which is amazing for digital brand marketing strategy.

Here are some things you should consider when running your next campaign. Consider this a starting guide if you’re new to creating ads on Facebook and looking for some pointers.

1. Defining your target audience

Perhaps the best part of Facebook advertising is the ​ad targeting function​. With this feature, you can narrow down various factors that you want to target within your audience (such as their location, age, interests, etc).

Getting to know who your customers are and targeting those most likely to buy your products or services is what you want from a successful campaign.

Facebook has 1 billion+ daily active Facebook users, so you don’t want your ad to circulate in a pool of non-buyers. If you’re a women’s clothing brand located in Sydney, Australia you wouldn’t want to target men living in Canada…get the idea? Any audiences that are not likely to convert for you means you’re wasting your advertising budget. You want to save your budget for targeting potential customers.

To create and manage your Facebook target audiences, you’ll have to get familiar with the ​Audience Manager.​ If you’re a brand that doesn’t have much of a following or a customer list, you can use​ ​Facebook’s Audience Insights​ as a tool to help you out.

With this tool, you can start by setting campaign audience restrictions such as age or location. For example, you may want to advertise only to people in the U.S. between 18-24.​ Facebook will give you the freedom to choose your audience (and even compare competitor’s data, check out how on this article by ​Napoleon Cat​) which has helped hold its popularity in the digital advertising world.

There are several types of audiences that you can choose from within the Manager tool, let’s break them down (we’ll stick to the basics). Something helpful you can do is simply go on the platform and take a look around. The easiest way to learn the mechanics of Facebook advertising is to try it hands on and just practice.

Saved Audiences

• You can define your target by choosing people’s location, interests, age range, and gender

• You can create Saved Audiences in the Audience Manager or during the campaign setup

• Custom Audiences – This can be referred to as “remarketing.” It’s different from Saved Audiences because it allows you to connect with past visitors on your website, people who have viewed your products but do not make a purchase, and more.

This customer base is likely backed in some familiarity with your brand already = more likely to purchase.

Ever search for a red dress and start seeing red dress ads? Remarketing is just that concept, bringing brands that you’ve browsed before more likely to show up in your feed. There are several ways to create Custom Audiences, with the primary being that you can use your existing customer files or audiences based on your website traffic.

Custom Audiences are usually high-value as they have connected with your brand in some way before. This makes them more likely to convert (make a sale).

Think of it this way…someone is familiar with your brand and they see a discount for a site wide sale. This incentivizes them to explore the website or finally buy those pair of shoes in their cart. They are more likely to be a customer than someone who learns about the brand that same day, through clicking on the ad.

Lookalike Audiences

• This audience has similar qualities to your custom audience. This audience targets people who are similar to your existing customer base, which again increases their likelihood of a conversion.

• To create a Lookalike Audience, you will first need to have built a Custom Audience. You then select a target country and a percentage of targeted users who you would like to see your ad.

• This type of audience helps you to extend your reach during campaigns by targeting people that have qualities similar to your customers.

2. Picking the right types of ads

Consider first the ​types of goals​ related to your Facebook advertising strategy.
What do you want people to do when they see your advertisement? ​Visit your site, purchase a product, etc. Below are three major goals or objectives to consider, as advised by Facebook Business.

• Awareness: ​getting in front of more people’s eyes, introducing more people to the brand via ads

• Consideration​: encouraging interactions between potential customers and your ads

• Conversions​: taking maybe buyers and getting them to become customers

Having these objectives in mind will help determine the direction you want to take with your ads, including the creatives and ad types.

3. Test and Optimize Your Ad Creatives

You’re going to want to test different versions of your Facebook ads so you can see what performs best and then tweak them to optimize future campaigns.

Even if you’re following a campaign guide book, some optimizations are specific to your case and need to be improved through trial and error.

An example to consider would be a single image ad versus. a single video ad…which one gained the most attention or gained the biggest conversion for you?

A term referred to as​ A/B split testing ​is when you run several slightly different variations of the same ads to find out what works and what doesn’t. This way you can pinpoint your most effective ad elements.

4. Track Your Campaigns

With a handful of metrics and variables, we don’t blame you for getting a bit overwhelmed if you’re not familiar. This is why using the platform and trying it yourself is necessary.

For all you newbies, try to run smaller test campaigns and make adjustments so that you can play it safe with your budget.

There is no “right” answer for how to budget, just stay aware of where your dollars are going by putting ad restrictions. Otherwise your budget may drain quickly or ineffectively.