How To Create A Facebook Ad

Facebook has an estimated 2 billion monthly users, with the average user spending 50 minutes per day on the platform. We use it as a news source, to keep informed of our favorite celebrities and brands, and to share about our lives and express ourselves. Accompanying these activities is a wealth of information that gives Facebook an unparalleled advantage over other social platforms out there in the realm of advertising. The statistics corroborate this, with a survey showing that 95.8% of social media marketers thought Facebook returned the best ROI out of all social platforms.

As an SEM Singapore company, we understand how important it is to reach targeted audiences for your offerings. Hence, we bring you a step-by-step guide on how to create a Facebook ad. To start, enter your own Facebook ad manager here.

1. Choose your objective

The versatility of Facebook allows for it to be used to achieve a wide range of marketing goals, be it to drive traffic to your site or retail store, generate leads, reach audiences, promote app installs, increase brand awareness, or sell products. Select your desired campaign objective to start.

2. Select a target audience

While the ad itself is important, do also keep in mind the people who are actually going to be viewing it. Sometimes, simply switching up your audience is all it takes to bring you the results you’re looking for. Experiment with audience targeting to find the optimal audience for your offering. For example, try different interest categories and audience lookalikes to target audiences that have shown previous interest in a similar offering. If your campaign objective is to gain awareness, consider excluding people who have already liked your page to maximize your ROI on ad spend.

3. Choose where to run your ads

Decide where you want your ads to appear. Because Facebook also owns Instagram and Messenger, you have the choice of selecting whether you wish for your ads to appear on these platforms as well.

4. Set your budget and schedule

Facebook allows you to set a daily budget (your ad stops appearing for the day once the budget is reached) and lifetime budget (your ad stops indefinitely when the budget is exhausted) as well as when you want your ad to start and its duration. Further customization for a more targeted reach is also available under ‘Advanced Options’.

5. Start creating your ad

Create a brand new ad or use an existing post. For the latter, choose ‘Use Existing Post’ from your Ads Manager dashboard and select the post you wish to advertise. To create a brand new ad, first choose the ad format you want your ad to appear in:

• Photo: Your ad shows as a single photo; create up to 6 ad variations with each image
• Video: Your ad shows as a single video
• Slideshow: Your ad shows as a slideshow of up to 10 images
• Carousel ads: Your ad shows as a scrollable display of 2 or more images/videos with links that direct to specific locations on your site
• Canvas ads: Your ad shows full-screen with the choice of a combination of images and videos
• Lead ads: Your ad shows with the ability for audiences to sign up for more info
• Collection ads: Your ad shows with a display of related products

Note that some formats may be unavailable depending on the objective you chose for your campaign.

You can now start crafting content for your ad! Feel free to experiment with your ads. Create different ads with varying accompanying images and copy and run them to see which performs best. This also has the additional benefit of minimizing ad fatigue, which occurs when people
view the same ad multiple times. Once done, you’re all set to go!