A Detailed Checklist for Building A Successful Facebook Ad Campaign

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During the second quarter of 2019, Facebook reported having 1.58 billion daily active users and 2.4 billion active monthly users. That is a tremendous amount of traffic, which you can tap into to promote your brand.

However, with changes in the Facebook news feed, getting organic success on the platform has become difficult. This doesn’t hold true for paid advertising tough. Over the past few years, Facebook has heavily invested into improving paid promotions and turning them into an effective tool to reach the right audience.

If you are ready to invest some funds, Facebook ads will help you augment your organic SEO efforts and increase your business reach. 

The good news is that even smaller brands with restrictive budgets can leverage the power of Facebook advertising. All they need to do is set clear goals and have an organized approach to their campaigns.

How to Set a Facebook Ad Campaign

Setting up a Facebook ad campaign can be daunting. There are a lot of things that you must take care of. Are you targeting the most relevant audience? Are you running the right type of ad? Are you tracking the right Pixel events?

Also, you have three Facebook ad elements to choose from: 

• Campaigns - This refers to the entire ad campaign with all of the elements.
• Ad sets - Ideal if you are targeting different kinds of audience sets.
• Ads - This is the actual ad.  Each ad set can hold many ads.
  Honestly, this can get a little confusing, especially if you’re new to it.

In this article, we are going to share a checklist of activities you need to complete. This checklist will ensure that you have all of the necessary resources ready to run a seamless campaign.

Check if Your Facebook Account is Configured Properly

If you are creating a Facebook campaign for the first time, you need to set up the following:

• A Facebook page
• An ad account
• A payment method

You will be able to manage and create your ad through Facebook Ad Manager. Once your account is set up, you can create the ad using the green “Create” button in the “Ad Manager.” 

Image source - Ad Manager

If you have hired an agency to run the campaign for you, you should also have a business manager with whom you share all of these details.

If you have multiple ads running at one time with users making comments, you should also have a moderator who is keeping an eye on them. Even if there is one ad running, you should keep tracking its performance daily and monitor user reactions on it.

Check the Creatives You’ll be Using

Facebook ads that instantly grab the attention of users are the most successful. And it is a well-known fact that visuals are more capable of attracting and holding attention than test. 

Therefore, creatives such as videos, images, and GIFs are an essential elements in a successful ad campaign.

It helps that Facebook allows a variety of ad formats so you can tailor your campaign to different objectives and target audiences. 

You can choose from options like:

• Photo
• Video
• Carousel
• Slideshow
• Collection
• Canvas
• Lead ads
• Dynamic ads
• Link ads 

Before selecting an ad format and developing creatives for it, make sure they have the right specifications. In addition, recheck multiple times to ensure that the creative is able to effectively portray the message.

The visuals in your ad are the most important ad element and should clearly represent your brand image. Ideally, you should also have less than 20% text in an ad copy. There are various Facebook tools to check if your image adheres to the rule.

One such tool is the Facebook Text Overlay, which helps you to check your image for text percentage.

Source: Facebook

Check Your Ad Copy for Engagement.

For your campaign to work, your ad must be effective and engaging. This is one of the biggest challenges in developing ads. 

You need to create ad copy that effectively highlights your unique selling point. It is a good idea to check out your competitors’ ads and figure out a way to make your ad stand out.

To create engaging ad copy, make sure:

• Your text is clear and effective
• You use correct grammar and spelling
• It has the right mix of text and images
• It is tailored for the audience
• It defines the unique selling point of your product
• It highlights how the product offers value to the customer
• It contains a clear call-to-action

Ideally, you should have a combination of different kinds of ads for your Facebook campaign, especially at the start. This will help you narrow down on what kinds of ads work best and get more clicks. You can then create more such ads to increase Facebook engagement.  

Have the Right Target Audience

You may have created the most amazing ad copy with brilliant creatives. But it is of no use if the wrong people are seeing it. Therefore, it is important that you configure the right audience for your ad campaign

Facebook allows you to select a different target audience for each ad set in your campaign. So if you are working on your first ad, try experimenting with different targeting options until you find the one that fits just right.

To define your audience, Facebook allows you to select different properties and an audience definition. 

Image source - Facebook Ad Set

Your campaign goal plays a very important role in defining the type of audience for your campaign. 

If you are interested in making sales, you'll probably want to focus on people who will be interested in your offering. This could be people of a specific age group, geolocation, gender, or even income group. 

On the other hand, if you are looking to promote your brand and create general brand awareness through your ad, you can select a more general audience.  

Check if the Campaign Plan Fits Your Budget

Your campaign budget has a big impact on the results of your Facebook ad campaign. You have set everything perfectly including ads, goals, and target audience. But if you haven’t planned your budget well, your entire social media marketing effort may fail.

Before starting the campaign, have a clear idea of how much you are willing to spend each day. Have some additional funds in place as you might need to spend some extra money during the testing phase. During this phase, you may need to run multiple ad sets to find out which ads your audience is responding to.

Facebook offers two different cost models - cost per click (CPC) and cost per thousand impressions (CPM). Choose the one that best suits your campaign model.

Also, take some time to look at past data, if you have any. Find out how much each conversion was worth and how much budget allocation makes sense in the long run.

Conclusion

The change in Facebook’s news feed algorithm has increased the importance of Facebook advertising, as it helps you make up for the loss of organic reach. 

However, you must understand that a popular ad doesn’t guarantee a successful campaign. The key is to achieve your main objective without falling into the endless trap of numbers and impressions.

Focus on your company goals and select your ad format and target audience accordingly. If this is your first advertisement, it is a good idea to start with a small budget and gradually increase it in the areas where you are getting results.

Do you have any other tips for creating a successful Facebook ad? Let us know in the comments section.