Facebook has over 10 million advertisers and more than 2.9 billion users. Despite rumors of Facebook's demise it still has one of the most active monthly user bases out of the top 10 social media sites, according to Buffer.
In this post, we will cover how small businesses can use Meta's suite of tools to start their first Facebook advertising campaign on the Facebook ads manager.
Where Is The Facebook Ads Manager Located?
Looking to dive right in?
You can use this link to get to the Facebook ads manager: https://business.facebook.com/adsmanager
If you don't have a Facebook ads manager account.
You may need to set that up here: https://business.facebook.com/
If you have not set either of these free tools up and are looking for a guide you can read this walkthrough on setting up your Facebook ads manager account.
What Is The Facebook Ads Manager
For those looking to launch their first Facebook ad campaign using the Facebook ads manager, here are a few reasons why you need a Facebook business manager account.
Meta Business Suite - Also referred to as the Facebook business manager. This acts as a centralized hub for everything Meta.
Audience - Create and manage your custom audience for your Facebook ad targeting.
Meta pixel - Manage your Meta pixel, this is a small snippet of code used to track the activity on your website and send it back to Facebook.
Manage your Facebook business page - Connect your Facebook business page to your Facebook ads manager so that the Facebook ads you create come from your ad account.
Ad Account - Your ad account connects your Facebook ads to your billing method.
Creative Hub - This feature allows businesses to store and upload all their image and video ad mockups. Then get feedback from the team.
Why Not Just Run Boosted Facebook Ads Instead Of Ads Manager?
In short boosted posts simply do not have the targeting, reporting, and tracking capabilities that are provided to us when we use Facebook ads manager.
For a full review of the difference between boosted posts vs the ads manager, you can read this post.
Creating A New Ad In The Facebook Ads Manager
The Facebook ads manager tabs show the 3 pieces of your ad campaigns:
The Ad Campaign - This is the highest level part of your campaign. This is where you can set the campaign objective: traffic, leads, sales, engagement, and more. Your Facebook ad sets and ads that you create will be governed by the objective you choose here.
Ad Set - The campaign's ad sets are where you can set your target audience, the ad set also allows you to set a daily or lifetime ad budget for your ad set. Finally, you can decide which platforms and ad placements you would like your ad set to show your Facebook Ad on.
Ad - The ads tab is where you create the ads that will show up in your potential customer's newsfeeds. You will need to connect your Facebook page and Instagram account here.
Facebook Ad Structure
Your Facebook campaign will look something like the one below.
The campaign is at the top. Both the ad sets fall under the same campaign and use its objective.
Each of the ad sets has its own ad images or video ads under them.
If you have multiple ad sets you can, "duplicate" your ads by clicking the 3 dots next to the half moon and duplicate your ads to another ad set.
Each ad set has its own Facebook ads. So depending on your targeting at the ad set level you may see different conversion rates.
What Is An Ad Account?
If you see a pop-up like this to add payment information after publishing your ads....
This means that you have either not set up your ad account and need to set up a new ad account or have not connected your billing information.
As a reminder, your Facebook ad account is where your Facebook ads live. This is connected to your billing method and is used to store all the data for your past and current campaigns.
To create an ad you will need an ad account, before you can launch your first Facebook ads campaign, Facebook will ask you to create a new ad account if you have not done so already.
If you don't have a Facebook ads account you can create one from here: https://business.facebook.com/settings/ad-accounts
Why Do I Need To Connect My Facebook Page And Instagram Account?
Connecting your Facebook page and Instagram account to the ads manager allows you to use existing posts in your ads.
Whichever platform you choose, Facebook or Instagram, your ads can be pulled from the content of an existing post.
Secondly, your ads will also be associated with that Facebook page or Instagram account.
Managing Your Facebook Ad Campaigns
When it comes to managing your ad campaigns there are two primary ways you are going to do this.
The first is through your desktop the other is through your phone or tablet.
Managing Your Facebook Ads Manager Account From Your Computer
We have briefly discussed the ads manager already, but the primary method of managing your Facebook ad account is to use the Facebook ads manager on the desktop.
This is because it is easier to access everything that Facebook offers via the business manager.
As you create your ads, you may find a problem that needs to be solved or a report that needs to be pulled. This is all easier from the business manager on your desktop.
Manage Your Facebook Ads On The Go With The Facebook Ads Manager App
The official app name is the "Meta Ads Manager".
This app is a great way to get a quick account overview of how your ads are performing and has an easy-to-use four-step process for creating ads.
One downside to the app is it is harder to view in-depth reports. I like to export my columns into a spreadsheet and format the data. This is harder to do on the phone.
If you are looking for a quick and dirty way to manage your Facebook ads manager from your mobile device this is it.
Launch Your Ads From The Facebook Ads Manager
You now know how to get to the Facebook ad manager as well as have the resources you need to create your first ad campaign in the ads manager.
If you are looking for help creating your new campaign in the Facebook ads manager and need help. Let me know and I'd love to jump on call to help you out.
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