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Facebook Advertising guide

A practical guide to the opportunities that exist for advertising on Facebook.

Author: Rhian Harris

Part of the Socia Media Marketing Toolkit


CONTENTS

About this guide..............................................................................3

About the author..............................................................................4

An introduction to advertising on Facebook ...............................5

What goals can we achieve using Facebook advertising?..........9

Targeting using Facebook............................................................14

Placement: Where and when will my ads appear?.....................28

Ad types and what they offer........................................................31

Bid types: What are the options on bidding?.............................37

Tools: How are ads created?........................................................40

Creative best practice...................................................................46

Tracking and reporting:


How do I know if my ads have been effective?...........................55

Resources......................................................................................66

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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ABOUT THIS GUIDE

The aim of this Smarter Guide is to provide an overview of the opportunities that exist
for Facebook advertisers. It is not intended as a step-by-step guide to creating ads and
campaigns, more to look at best practice. Facebook’s own online learning platform,
Blueprint, provides continually updated step-by-step guidance should you need it.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rhian Harris is an online marketing all-rounder and guest blogger for


Smart Insights. With over 13 years of experience of all digital media
and e-commerce from utilities, travel, charity and retail sectors, Rhian
now works with businesses as a copywriter, providing optimized
content and strategy. IDM qualified, Rhian is a blogger and regularly
contributes to Huffington Post as well as her own lifestyle blog. You
can keep up to date with her through her business, Sparkly Content.

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1 AN INTRODUCTION TO
ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOK

Why do we need to advertise on Facebook?


Facebook has been around since 2004 and in those early years it was very much a
‘free’ platform until the inevitable need to monetise. Since its IPO in 2012 the free ride is
very much over and Facebook has introduced a number of paid-for services that have
now become a significant part of the marketing mix. Facebook now also includes the
Instagram platform, which offers its own advertising opportunities through the same ad
management tools, so this guide will also reference those.

The platform itself remains free for brands to set up pages for their businesses and enjoy
some exposure free of charge but for the wider range of services on offer, it is now very
much a ‘pay to play’ offering.

That doesn’t mean that you need to invest hugely in advertising - it’s still a lot cheaper
than most other promotional opportunities, and what it offers in terms of targeting is
deeply impressive.

Facebook can potentially connect a company to millions of prospective customers. Since


Facebook collects detailed demographic information about its users and offers targeted
ads, it is possible to be very specific about those you attempt to communicate with.

It is also partnering with third party organisations to track user activity elsewhere on the
internet which adds another dimension to its offering.

Before we get into the nitty gritty of Facebook advertising, as an example of a success
story this Liverpool-based lifestyle and street-wear brand attracted new customers and
boosted sales in the US by three times with the combined power of the Facebook pixel,
audience targeting and Instagram ads:

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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5 AN
1 AD TYPES
INTRODUCTION
AND WHAT
TOTHEY
ADVERTISING
OFFER ON FACEBOOK

Before and after advertising


Facebook is the most trafficked social media site in the world.

Most households are using, sharing, interacting and even shopping with content and
brands on Facebook each day.

Since its launch in 2004, Facebook is often thought of as the most popular social network,
reporting in January 2019:

þþ 1.49 billion daily active users on average

þþ 1.15 billion mobile daily active users on average

þþ 2.27 billion monthly active users.


With Facebook advertising sales said to be taking $26bn for 2016, a 57% increase from
$17bn in 2015 it’s big business. Unsurprisingly, it is understandably taking small business
support very seriously. It has launched various services to help manage the advertising
platform with the launch of an Ads Manager app, an extensive creative and educational
resources for small business marketers, online live chat support, a dedicated Facebook
for Business website and a number of live events have been run in major cities across
the world (including London).

Recent changes to Facebook that drive advertising


þþ New algorithm affecting reach of branded organic content

þþ Organic reach levels are at an all time low forcing brands to pay for visibility of
updates, even to their fans

þþ Maxed out “ad load” means Facebook are having to test additional inventory options

þþ Simplification and streamlining of the ad campaign structure

þþ Enhanced ad campaign reporting

þþ Continual improvement and roll out of new ad opportunities such as carousel


(multiple product) ads and video ads

þþ Reduced need for using ‘dark’ or unpublished posts - most functionality is now
available in ‘normal’ ads

þþ Dramatically improved ad reporting functionality

!
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION
Blueprint: Facebook’s online learning platform

Blueprint is a free online learning resource run by Facebook that will teach you all
the basics you need to know to get ahead with Facebook marketing.
Find out more at https://www.facebook.com/blueprint

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5 AN
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INTRODUCTION
AND WHAT
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OFFER ON FACEBOOK

With organic reach at an all time low, for most brands Facebook is no longer the guaranteed
communications channel it once was without the addition of a little advertising budget.

Getting your content seen on Facebook


January 2018 saw an update to the Facebook algorithm. Delivered by CEO, Mark
Zuckerberg, it aimed to “prioritize content from friends, family and groups.”

This move was in response to a few insights from the social network. Firstly, it is publically
known that Facebook mobile advertising inventory was certainly close to running out.
There was also a drop in younger demographics using the platform, complaining that the
social aspect had been lost and it’s more about advertising and branded content.

The update aimed to show less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and
media to encourage more meaningful interactions between people. It therefore means
that it is likely to become harder for brands to get their content shown in the newsfeed.
Brands need to take action to understand who their fans are and what’s relevant to them.
In short, users will be more likely to see your Facebook posts if their friends and family
are reacting to it.

We recommend the following to ensure branded content is shown:

þþ Continue posting quality content that encourages engagement: If your


branded page is full of posts that are generally not getting any reactions, you could
see a reduction in distribution. This means that brands should aim to create quality
content focused on sparking conversations between users. Some tips to encourage
comments include trying to include questions on posts, or write about timely,
relevant topics that you think your users will have an opinion on.

þþ Publish less content: Post updates that are more relevant to the user rather than
just pushing out lots of disengaging content.

þþ Stop ‘like baiting’: Although comments will help your chances of being shown,
posts that simply ask for a user to ‘comment on this post’ etc. will lead to the
content being demoted rather than promoted.

þþ Use the ‘See first’ function: Facebook offers users the chance to customize their
notifications so that your posts appear at the top of their newsfeed. Encourage
users to amend their settings so that they see the content from your page as a
priority. Here’s a guide from Facebook to help you educate your page followers.

þþ Use the Live function more: Put a strategy in place of how you’ll use the Live
facility, and the type of content you would like to share, then maximize it for
company updates. Facebook has said that Live videos are totalling six times the
interactions of non-Live videos.

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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5 AN
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INTRODUCTION
AND WHAT
TOTHEY
ADVERTISING
OFFER ON FACEBOOK

þþ Use groups more often: Groups are created through a shared interest or need.
Interacting through your page in these groups means that you can speak directly to
likeminded individuals who are more likely to engage with your brand.

þþ Use the Facebook Local app for small business: The app aggregates
Facebook’s database of 70 million business pages, reviews and check-ins.
Consumers can therefore view bars, restaurants and attractions, look at maps and
see nearby friends based on recommendations not advertising.

Online advertising
The landscape of online advertising is ever changing – more users are shifting to mobile
and increasingly shifting to social. This means that calls to business are being driven by
social ads.

Zenith’s1 research shows that across the globe, social display ad spend more than doubled from
2015 to 2017 and is projected to reach $76.24 billion in 2020.

  Zenith research reported via recode


1

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WHAT GOALS CAN WE
2 ACHIEVE USING FACEBOOK
ADVERTISING?

Facebook: A multi-platform offering


Facebook also owns Instagram and WhatsApp platforms, as well as running it’s own
Messenger app now as a separate offering.

This means that there are multiple opportunities available for the purpose of advertising,
as well audience networks for native ads.

Here’s a quick overview of the different offerings:

þþ Facebook: Advertising inventory available for mobile and desktop news feeds and
right column

þþ Instagram: Sponsored posts and Instagram stories advertising

þþ Audience network: Adverts are shown in third-party mobile apps and websites

þþ Messenger: Facebook messenger chats now handled in a separate app. Currently


being tested for advertising inventory.

þþ WhatsApp: Currently ad-free


In this guide, we are focusing only on Facebook advertising, but you can learn more about
Instagram ads in the Instagram Marketing Guide also as part of your expert membership.

The Facebook campaign structure

Advertising inventory through the Facebook platform for mobile and desktop news feeds
and right column is the original offering.

Facebook defines the structure as having three levels:

1. Campaigns

2. Ad sets

3. Ads

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2 WHAT GOALS CAN WE ACHIEVE USING FACEBOOK ADVERTISING?

So as an example, your campaign may be to drive more traffic to a website. Your ad set
level may test different audiences to display the advert. Your ads may be a number of
different images, videos or text to derive the best performer.

Some points to remember with Facebook advertising:

þþ The maximum amount of text allowed on an image used in an ad is 20%

þþ Demographics – be as specific as you can so that it is tailored to your audience

þþ Behaviours – limited to digital activities, different types of mobile devices and travel
(brilliant if you work in tech or travel, less so otherwise)

þþ Connections can further narrow down the targeting either to existing fans or
avoiding targeting existing fans

þþ You can connect your Instagram profile so that ads run across to the two platforms

þþ All ads have to be approved before they can go live

þþ Adding pixel tracking will help you to assess ROI from advertising budget

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2 WHAT GOALS CAN WE ACHIEVE USING FACEBOOK ADVERTISING?

What goals can we set for Facebook ads?


When you first start to create a new campaign or ad, you need to pick your advertising
objective. This is what you want people to do when they see your ads. For example, you
can create ads to get people to like your Facebook page, which is different than creating
ads to encourage people to visit your website.

In choosing an advertising objective, Facebook guides you through the process of


creating the right type of ad.

Once set up you can then track how your ads are working to meet the objectives.

The objectives that you can choose from are split into specific areas:

Awareness:
þþ Page post boost: Get more people to see and engage with your Page posts.

þþ Brand Awareness: Reach people who are more likely to pay attention to your
adverts and increase awareness for your brand.

þþ Reach: Choose this objective if you’d like to show your advert to the largest
audience for your budget.

Consideration:
þþ Traffic: Send more people to a destination on or off Facebook.

þþ Engagement: Get more people to see and engage with your post or Page.
Engagement can include comments, shares, likes, event responses and offer claims.

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2 WHAT GOALS CAN WE ACHIEVE USING FACEBOOK ADVERTISING?

þþ App Installs: Send people to the store where they can purchase your app.

þþ Video Views: Promote videos that show behind-the-scenes footage, product


launches or customer stories to raise awareness about your brand.

þþ Lead Generation: Collect lead information from people who are interested in your
business.

Conversion:
þþ Conversions: Get people to take valuable actions on your website or app, such as
adding payment information or making a purchase. Use the Facebook pixel or app
events to track and measure conversions.

þþ Product Catalogue Sales: Create adverts that automatically show products from
your product catalogue based on your target audience

þþ Store Visits: Promote multiple business locations to people who are nearby.

What strategies can we follow in using Facebook ads?

Brands use Facebook for all manner of strategic purposes but they tend to fall into one
of three overall strategic categories namely:

þþ Customer acquisition

þþ Customer conversion

þþ Customer retention

!
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION
Use Facebook for multiple goals

With Facebook’s myriad advertising options, the opportunity for lead generation,
conversion and customer retention are comprehensive with new features being
regularly rolled out.

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2 WHAT GOALS CAN WE ACHIEVE USING FACEBOOK ADVERTISING?

Different ad types and targeting strategies will lend themselves naturally to one or more
of these approaches.

Outline strategic approaches employed could include a drive to:

þþ Raise brand awareness

þþ Get the word out about new products, company changes

þþ To sell products and services

þþ Drive traffic to a corporate website

þþ Drive installs of an app or attendance at an event

þþ Remarket to potential customers

þþ Manage customer care programs

þþ Engage people interested in the brand

þþ Drive potential customers through the sales funnel

þþ Retain customers

þþ Encourage repeat purchase

þþ Drive word of mouth promotion

þþ Drive plays of a video to support TV advertising

þþ Demonstrate social proof

þþ Position the brand in a certain way

þþ Show a more human side of the brand

þþ Showcase products 2

þþ Tell the story behind the brand

!
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION
Use Instagram advertising to grow profile

If Instagram is a priority for your business, consider paid for Instagram ads by
linking your accounts though the Facebook Ad Manager

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3 TARGETING USING FACEBOOK

The targeting options available on the Facebook advertising platform are extremely
deep.

Given the nature of how people interact with Facebook, the platform has a lot of data
on its users.

In short, it is said that Facebook knows you better than your friends do. It uses the
history of your stated likes, your click history and even the words you use in your
status updates as well as externally collected data to build a pretty accurate profile
of you.

Reading this, if your response is ‘why do I still see such irrelevant ads then?’ All I
can do is blame the advertiser for poor targeting practice rather than Facebook itself.

Facebook uses the following information in determining what ads to show you:

þþ Ads similar to ones you’ve clicked on before

þþ Information you post and share on Facebook (including pages and posts liked)

þþ Information about you from your Facebook account such as your age, gender,
location and the devices you use to access Facebook

þþ Major life events such as getting engaged or married

þþ Information Facebook’s advertisers share with them

þþ Your activity on websites and apps off of Facebook that use Facebook login or
Facebook social plugins

þþ Offline activity such as purchase history or loyalty card usage supplied by data
collection companies
Rather than being anxious about your own personal data, we’d suggest considering the
opportunities that this vast knowledge base has for you as a business trying to reach
people effectively.

It is also worth noting that with the Facebook Messenger app and purchase of mobile
WhatsApp, further user data will be available for targeting (although can be opted out of).
As we mentioned in the last step, Facebook is currently testing adverts in Messenger, so
this may offer additional targeting opportunities.

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3 TARGETING USING FACEBOOK

!
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION
Choose your campaign creation method depending on your needs

Campaign shells: Set up your campaign structure and fill in the details for your ads
and ad sets to run later. Complete campaigns: Fill in all of the details at the time of
creation and end up with completed drafts that are ready to run.

Creating drafts

The Power Editor tool previously auto-saved draft campaigns during the creation of ads.
This is now a feature in the new Ads Manager allowing campaigns to be set up in draft
and published at any time.

Reporting

Previously the different tools offered different reporting capabilities. The new merged
Ads Manager combines all of the reports so that users can create, view and manage
their campaign results in one place without needing to switch between tools to create
their reports

How do I target potential customers on Facebook?


With our powerful audience selection tools, you can target the people who are right for
your business. Using what you know about your customers, such as demographics,
interests and behaviours, you can connect with people similar to them. There are three
options for choosing your audience on Facebook:

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3 TARGETING USING FACEBOOK

Facebook have a number of broad targeting filters which when combined are very
powerful:

þþ Core Audience: Allows you to reach people based on their demographics,


location, interests and behaviours.

 Location, Age, Gender and Language: Choose the basic demographics of


the audience you want to reach.

 Interests: Choose specific interests that are important to your audience.


These are determined by what people are connected to on Facebook, such as
Pages and apps.

 Behaviours: Select people based on purchase behaviours or intents, device


usage and more. These behaviours are determined by what people are
connected to on Facebook, such as Pages and apps.

þþ Custom Audience: Use email addresses, phone numbers, Facebook user IDs or
app user IDs to create and save audiences you’d like to show your ads to. This can
be used to target existing people that you may already have data on.

þþ Lookalike audiences - once you have created a Custom audience, you can then
ask Facebook to find people similar to them. For instance, you can create Lookalike
audiences of your fan base, people on your mailing list, or people who have visited
particular Pages on your website.

þþ Audience insights - Audience Insights helps you learn more about your target
audiences. You’ll gather aggregated attributes, such as interests and behaviours,
that you can use to find new audiences who may be interested in your business.
With each of these, you can target further by connections. Select your audience based
on whether or not they’re connected to any of your Pages, apps or events. Anyone who
has a friend connected to what you’re advertising will see his or her friend included in
your ad. This can increase the likelihood that they’ll find your ad relevant enough to click
on or engage with it.

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3 TARGETING USING FACEBOOK

!
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION
Drill down to your target market with Facebook advertising

Is your ideal customer male, living in Aberdeen, with an iPhone, and an interest in
deep sea fishing? If so, you can probably find him on Facebook.
And once you’ve found him, you can use Lookalike Audiences to find others that
share a similar profile.

The following screen grab (from Ads Manager) neatly displays how the various targeting
options surface as you create an ad. This is for a UK chiuldren’s retailer.

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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3 TARGETING USING FACEBOOK

At a more sophisticated level, Facebook has two very powerful targeting features:

þþ Custom audiences - you can create an audience to target based on your email list,
people who have visited your website, or used your app

þþ Lookalike audiences - once you have created a Custom audience, you can then
ask Facebook to find people similar to them. For instance, you can create Lookalike
audiences of your fan base, people on your mailing list, or people who have visited
particular Pages on your website.
Qwaya has detailed the targeting options in an excellent infographic which we’ll use here
in lieu of a lengthy written explanation:

Who should I target?


Many brands have a fairly sophisticated (and research backed) idea of who to target
and if this is the case you can go through the Facebook filters with ease. But for brands
struggling to identify their ideal customer there is help at hand. Custom audiences in the
next section could be of help, but you can also use Google Analytics as well as learning
from what competitor brands do.

Targeting using Google Analytics data


Google Analytics now has helpful demographic reporting that explores who is accessing
your web Pages, and, for ecommerce companies, who is actually spending money. It’s
found under the Audience tab and can help when you select your targeting options:

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3 TARGETING USING FACEBOOK

The company above already knows that their target audience is women aged 25-44, but
this gives an idea of the kind of interests they could also target. You can add in further
analysis by looking at Google Analytics.

Learning from other advertisers (and your competition)


Facebook now offers an option that lets you know why you are targeted for particular ads.
This can be a helpful way of generating targeting ideas.

When you right click at the top of an ad you see a drop down of various options as
follows. See this ad from Wordpress:

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3 TARGETING USING FACEBOOK

Click on the ‘Why am I seeing this?’ option and you see how it relates to one of your
interests:

!
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION
Learn from other advertisers as to how they target prospects and with what
messages.

Follow your competitor brands and learn from what they are doing.

See below for examples of other advertisers and their targeting criteria:

This advert targets specific demographics of age, gender and location:

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3 TARGETING USING FACEBOOK

This advert targets return visits from a previously clicked on app or website:

This advert targets lookalike audiences. In order to access Lookalike audiences you will
need to understand Custom audiences:

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3 TARGETING USING FACEBOOK

This advert targets a competitor’s customer:

What are Custom Audiences?


Custom Audiences are an incredibly powerful targeting feature and should not be ignored
by advertisers.

At a basic level Custom Audiences enable you to advertise to people that you already
know (for instance your mailing list) but that are not currently fans of your Page. You
upload your mailing list (or phone numbers) to Facebook and then target ads at that
‘Custom’ Audience. Facebook hashes the data so that they won’t actually be using it
other than in the process of creating the audience for you alone.

You can also use this feature to exclude people from your advertising. So, for instance,
you could upload a list of people that have purchased a particular product in order to
exclude them from ads promoting that product.

Facebook’s Help Center has a video that explains how they work and below Is our own
step-by-step guide:

Creating a Custom Audience


1. Save the email addresses or phone numbers from your mailing list in CSV or TXT format

2. Go to Audiences in Adverts Manager

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3 TARGETING USING FACEBOOK

3. Click the Create Audience button, select the Custom Audience option, then choose
Customer List (other options are also available).

4. Upload the CSV or TXT file

5. Your Custom Audience will be ready in about 30 minutes. Now you can create an ad
in the usual way but pop the Custom Audience in as your target group (see below for
more info).

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Website Custom Audiences


Website Custom Audiences are a little different and are a way of remarketing to your
website visitors via Facebook ads. These should enable you to:

þþ Bring back website visitors for a subsequent visit, perhaps to purchase a product
(see the Lean Greens ad below)

þþ Target ads at people interested in particular website Pages or products

þþ Precise targeting of your ‘hottest’ fans – i.e. ads targeted at people that are both
your Facebook Fans AND have recently been on your website

!
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION
Use retargeting techniques on Facebook

Using Website Custom Audiences you can target ads at people who have visited
specific Pages on your website but not progressed to the checkout.

Here’s how to create a Website Custom Audience

1. Go to the Adverts Manager

2. Click the Audiences tab on the left-hand side of the navigation

3. Select the button Create a Custom Audience

4. A box will appear with a variety of options. Choose Custom Audience from your
Website.

5. Review and agree to the Terms and Conditions

6. Next, place the pixel code provided by Facebook onto your website (Facebook can’t
see what people are doing on your website without this). Copy the pixel code from the
Create Web Remarketing Pixel box, and paste it between the <head> and </head>
tags on all Pages of your website. Or, send the pixel code to your website developer.

7. Click Create Audience

8. Name your audience and enter an optional description

9. Choose from one of the 4 options to add people to your audience. You can include all
of your website visitors, those who visited certain Pages and more.

10. Select how long you’d like to capture your Custom Audience pixel for. To include past
website traffic, tick the box.

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11. Click Create Audience

12. Select OK to finish setting up your remarketing pixel code to start adding people to this
audience

Creating Lookalike Audiences


Lookalike Audiences can be highly effective. As we’re all aware, Facebook knows an
awful lot about us and is pretty handy at identifying those similarities in others. So
Facebook can create all sorts of Lookalike Audiences from your Custom Audiences
and more:

þþ People who are similar to your Page’s fans

þþ People similar to your Mailing list (which you’ll have uploaded already as a Custom
Audience)

þþ People similar to visitors to your website (or specific website Pages). This is a
Lookalike of your Website Custom Audience
To create a Lookalike audience you will first need either an existing Custom Audience or
alternatively a Conversion Pixel or a Website Custom Audience set up. Then:

1. Go to your Adverts Manager and select the Audiences tab

2. Select Create Audience

3. Choose Lookalike Audience

4. Select your customer group. Choose a Facebook Page, Custom Audience, conversion
pixel or Website Custom Audience.

5. Next, increase or decrease the size of your lookalike audience using the slider. The
bigger the reach, the more your compromise the similarity:

- Similarity: Start by optimizing your lookalike audience for Similarity, which will show
your adverts to a smaller, more precise audience. With this Facebook will show your
ad to the top 1% of people on Facebook in your selected country who are most similar
to your source audience.

- Reach: Then, experiment with optimizing your audience size for Reach, which will
show your adverts to a larger audience. With this option Facebook finds the top 10%
of people on Facebook in your selected country who are most similar to your source
audience.

6. The Lookalike Audience takes a while to populate but should be ready for advertising
within 6-24 hours.

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Using the custom audience in an ad


You can access your Custom Audience at any time in the Audiences tab in the Adverts
Manager or Power Editor. When you go to create an ad you’ll see the option for Custom
Audiences at the top of the targeting options Page where you can create a new custom
audience or select a previously used one. Here you can select the relevant audience to
either include or exclude.

Why is targeting so important? Surely it is better to target


as many people as possible?
The more effective (and accurate) your targeting is, the more cost effective your advertising
will be. As with Google Ads and their Quality Index, Facebook now employs what it calls
a Relevance Score, determining how often the ad is shown and how much you pay.

The Relevance Score


In 2015 Facebook introduced the Relevance Score. This is a real time indication of how
relevant it believes your ad to be in relation to the people it is targeting. Facebook have
now explicitly stated that feedback related to relevance score is now considered when
buying reach and frequency.

Relevance score is calculated based on the positive and negative feedback on an advert
from its target audience. The more positive interactions, the higher the ad’s relevance
score will be. Positive indicators vary depending on the ad’s objective, but may include
video views, conversions, etc. The more times people hide or report an ad, the lower its
score will be.

Ads receive a relevance score between 1 and 10, with 10 being the highest. The score is
updated as people interact and provide feedback on the ad. Ads with guaranteed delivery
— like those bought through reach and frequency — are not impacted by relevance
score. Relevance score has a smaller impact on cost and delivery in brand awareness
campaigns, since those ads are optimized for reaching people, rather than driving a
specific action like installs.

Why does relevance score matter?


Understanding relevance scores helps advertisers in a few key ways:

þþ It can lower the cost of reaching people - the higher an ad’s relevance score is, the
less it will cost to be delivered.

þþ Bids matter too - if two ads are aimed at the same audience, there’s no guarantee
that the ad with an excellent relevance score and low bid will beat the ad with a
good relevance score and high bid. But, overall, having strong relevance scores will
help advertisers see more efficient delivery through the system.
Below is Facebook’s own explanation of how relevance scores work.

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3 TARGETING USING FACEBOOK

How relevance scores work


After your advert is served more than 500 times, it receives a daily relevance score from 1–10
(10 = highly relevant, 1 = not to be very relevant). You can view the score in Adverts Manager
by going to Campaigns and clicking Adverts.

Your advert’s relevance score is based on positive and negative feedback from the people
seeing it, based on how the advert is performing. It is calculated differently depending on
your objective (e.g. clicks to website or video views):

þþ Positive feedback: The number of times people are expected to take a desired
action, such as sharing or liking your advert, or help you achieve your objective,
such as visiting your website.

þþ Negative feedback: The number of times people are expected to hide your advert
or indicate a negative experience, such as choosing not to see adverts from you.

According to Econsultancy and Adobe research, most agencies (from UK, US and others)
cite audience targeting/refinement as the most important tactics for optimizing social ads:

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3 TARGETING USING FACEBOOK

4 PLACEMENT: WHERE AND WHEN


WILL MY ADS APPEAR?

It is widely reported that Facebook is running out of ad inventory. In 2016, it started


offering mid-roll video ads on Facebook and sponsored stories within Instagram and is
continually testing new concepts, but currently offers standard placements discussed in
this section.

When you create your ads, you can choose to run your ads across all eligible placements
on Facebook, Instagram, and the Audience Network. You can also manually select your
placements during ad creation.

The placements are:

Facebook –
þþ Feeds: Desktop News Feed (for laptops or desktop computers) and/or the mobile
News Feed (mobile devices or mobile browser).

þþ Groups: Your ads appear in groups on Facebook.

þþ Right column: Right-side columns across Facebook, only to people browsing


Facebook on a computer.

þþ Instant Articles: Ads appear in Instant Articles within the Facebook mobile app
and Messenger.

þþ In-Stream Video: Ads appear as short videos in both Live video and Video on
Demand on Facebook.

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4 PLACEMENT: WHERE AND WHEN WILL MY ADS APPEAR?

Instagram
þþ Feeds: Desktop Feed (for laptops or desktop computers) and/or the mobile News
Feed (mobile devices or mobile browser).

þþ Stories: Your ads can appear in people’s stories on Instagram. Ads in stories only
appear to people browsing stories on Instagram.

Messenger app
þþ Your ads can appear in people’s stories on Instagram. Ads in stories only appear to
people browsing stories on Instagram.

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4 PLACEMENT: WHERE AND WHEN WILL MY ADS APPEAR?

Audience network - Your ads appear on apps and websites in the Audience Network.
When companies buy ads through Facebook, they can choose to have their ads
distributed in the Audience Network.

Facebook states that native adverts run on the Audience Network get 60% more engagement.

As you create your ad in the Ads Manager or Power Editor you will be able to preview
how it will look. You can select multiple placements within the same ad set. Just be aware
that budget will not be spread evenly. Facebook claims that 85% of it’s ad revenue is
driven through mobile as this is where most users are, so it is worth considering how to
optimize your ads for mobile if using this technique. Therefore, typically mobile will take
the majority budget. If you want to control spend between placements simply create a
different ad set for each variant.4

!
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION
Take control in ad budget allocation

Create separate ad sets if you want to control the budget allocation between
mobile and desktop ads.

When will my ads be shown? Ad scheduling


When you are working in the Ad Set level you will be given the chance to set a budget (Daily
or Lifetime). You will also be able to select a start and finish day/time (or select to run the ad
set continuously from the start date). It is important to remember that each ad set will have a
separate budget though; so keep this in mind if you have more than one active ad set.

There are two delivery types you can choose for your ad set: standard and accelerated.
The option chosen affects how the budget will be spent.

Standard Delivery
If you choose standard delivery, your ads are delivered evenly over the course of your
campaign.

Accelerated Delivery
If you choose accelerated delivery, your ads will be delivered as quickly as possible. This
means prioritising speed over efficiency when choosing who to show your ads to, and when.
While this option may prevent you from getting the most purely statistical value from your
ads, there could be contextual value that makes it worth it. For example, if your campaign is
extremely time-sensitive, there might be added value for you in getting all your ads out during
a specific and short time period. In such a case, the trade-off could be worth it.

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5 AD TYPES AND WHAT THEY
OFFER

One of the reasons why Facebook marketing can’t be mastered instantly is the breadth
of advertising options available to brands. The offering is also changed regularly jus to
keep us on our toes!

Facebook maintains a comprehensive ads guide from which we’ve screen grabbed much
of the information in this section.

Let’s first look at the anatomy of an ad in the context of the placement options - note how
the image size and shape varies and how text is truncated in some variants:

Mobile news feed ad anatomy

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5 AD TYPES AND WHAT THEY OFFER

Desktop news feed ad anatomy

Right column ad anatomy

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5 AD TYPES AND WHAT THEY OFFER

Instagram ad anatomy

!
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION
Keep up-to-date with the latest changes in Facebook Ads

Use Facebook’s online Ads guide to check the size specifications of images and
the permitted length of ad copy

Boosting a Post
At the simplest level a ‘Boosted’ Post is an ad because you are paying for exposure
beyond its natural organic reach. Facebook gives you multiple opportunities to throw a
little ad money behind your organic content. With reach levels at an all time low, this is
becoming an increasing necessity to reach remotely sensible numbers of your fans. And
of course boosting a post is an opportunity to reach out beyond your fan base.

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5 AD TYPES AND WHAT THEY OFFER

Below is an example of a recent post and you’ll see the Boost Post button under the post
in the News Feed:

Once you hit that button you have the option of further targeting who sees it:

Note the warning at the top of this screen grab about 20% text. It’s very easy to boost
posts but they will be rejected if they fail to comply with this requirement. This ad will not
only have possible failed on that criteria, but our use of the Facebook ‘f’ would certainly
have been disallowed.
Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)
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5 AD TYPES AND WHAT THEY OFFER

!
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION
Design your posts to allow for Boosts

Use the Facebook Text Overlay tool to check the image:text ratio of posts so that
they can be boosted as promotions.

With boosted posts, you can now also add additional targeting without accessing the ad
through the Ad Manager.

Other ad options beyond boosting


Promote your Call to Action
You can now also promote the call to action used on the button of your Page. Adding a
call to action to your Page can help you drive people from Facebook to your website. You
can choose from different buttons shown below:

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5 AD TYPES AND WHAT THEY OFFER

To access the promotion options first make sure you have a CTA set up then click on it
and you will see the Promote option.

Be aware that if your normal cover image contains more than 20% text you’ll need to
upload something within the Ad Policy limits.

Rather than run through examples of every type of advert as these can change, take a
look at Facebook’s ad guide.

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6 BID TYPES: WHAT ARE THE
OPTIONS ON BIDDING?

When you place an ad, it enters an auction and is competing against all the other
advertisers targeting those people. As mentioned in the relevance section, all ads
compete equally and win based on a combination or bid, quality and performance of
clicks.

You will set a maximum budget and Facebook will estimate the cost of your ads in the
pricing section.

What are the main bidding options?


Facebook offers three main options for advert delivery:

Optimized for Actions



Optimized for Daily Unique Reach

Optimized for Clicks (CPC – “Cost Per Click”)


Facebook will optimize your ads to appear to people most like to do what your objective
sets out to achieve. It is important to know that the options available for the advert will
differ depending on your chosen objective. Note that these will be different depending on
the objective you have set for your campaign.

For example, these are the delivery options for boosted posts:

Whereas the options for promoting a Page means that optimization is limited to achieving
Page likes only.

When it comes to pricing, you will see that you can select a bid yourself - we’d always
recommend testing (note that some of these examples are in Dollars - yours is likely to
be in your local currency):

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6 BID TYPES: WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS ON BIDDING?

Automatic bid
This is where Facebook calculates the bid with the goal of spending your entire budget
and getting you the most of the result that your advert set is optimized for. We recommend
automatic bidding if you don’t have a specific value in mind for the result that you’re
optimizing for, or are still trying to figure out the right manual bid.

Manual bid
A manual bid is one that sets the maximum amount that you’d be willing to pay for the
result that your advert set is optimized for. Facebook advises against setting your bid at
less than your maximum or your ad may not be fully optimized.

Optimizing for actions is the default for a reason and the bid approach I would normally
recommend.

Changes to bidding structure


Facebook has recently made some changes to its bidding structures. To help explain the
differences:

þþ Average bidding: This option will pace your adverts to avoid using the entire
budget in one go. This means that the cost of some ads will be high, some will be a
lot cheaper.

þþ Maximum bidding: This will give you the maximum advert delivery and as many
conversions as possible, even if it costs more.

þþ Automatic bidding: The main benefit of this is getting the lowest costs. You can
also set a bid cap, like in the previous manual maximum bid option.

þþ Target cost: An enhancement to the previous manual average bid option, making it
easier to scale with stable costs.

My ad isn’t being shown


If you are struggling to get your overall budget spent and the ad is barely being shown then
increase your bid price or check the amount of text in the ad using the Text Overlay Tool
that we mentioned earlier. Of course if the ad itself is performing badly with a low Relevance
Score or CTR then it may well be worth rethinking the creative or targeting approach too.

You can find out more about Ad Set Bidding on Facebook’s help Pages.

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6 BID TYPES: WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS ON BIDDING?

Facebook optimizes for different behaviours depending on the objective that you have
chosen. The table below shows the objective types, what Facebook optimizes for and
how you’re charged for each campaign.

Before you choose a bid, make sure you understand the difference between budget and
bid. Your budget is the maximum amount you’re willing to spend on each campaign you
run. A bid allows you to choose how much you’re willing to pay per click (CPC) or per
1,000 impressions (CPM).

!
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION
Test, test and test again

Test everything. The image, the copy, the placement, the bid type, the bid amount.
Learn from your results, tweak and test again.

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7 TOOLS: HOW ARE ADS CREATED?

There are three main ways to create ads on Facebook:

1. The merged Ads Manager (self-server) and Power Editor (used by bigger advertisers)

2. For ad creation on the go, there is the Mobile Ads Manager

3. Agencies or businesses running multiple ad accounts (with multiple administrators)


may be working with Business Manager.

And of course, still an ad of sorts, is the ‘Boost Post’ button which you can use to drive
more reach of your newsfeed content.

Business Manager
Business Manager is a tool to help businesses and agencies manage their Facebook
Pages, add accounts and apps in one place. It is more secure tool for managing access
to Pages and ad accounts, geared towards companies who need to give different
permissions to lots of people giving greater control without the need to be Facebook
friends with work colleagues to get access to pages and ad accounts.

Built to mirror an organisational structure, the Business Manager hierarchy puts Business
Admins at the top with full access to control the permissions for anyone who works on
specific Pages or ad accounts.

Facebook is keen to migrate all advertisers over to Business Manager. It states the
following benefits:

þþ Keeping everything in one place

þþ Faster and better working on multiple ad accounts and pages

þþ Increased control on who has access to Pages and ad accounts, with ease of
removal or change

þþ The ability to keep work separate from personal Facebook friends


Facebook’s Blueprint has step-by-step instructions for getting started with Business
Manager. There is also a very helpful Business Manager support group run by Facebook
themselves that I would recommend. The Help Centre also has lots of resources.

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5 TOOLS:
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HOW
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WHAT
ADSTHEY
CREATED?
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You’ll know you are in Business Manager as the usual blue and white environment is now
black and grey:

!
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION
Facebook’s own Business Manager Resources

Webinar - Getting Started: https://facebook.webex.com/facebook/lsr.php...


Password: facebook
Facebook for Business: https://business.facebook.com/overview
Business Manager Get Started: https://business.facebook.com/create
Business Manager Set Up Guide (self guided): http://fbrep.com/.../Business_
Manager_ Overview_with_Set_Up_St...
Using Business Manager (as an Employee): http://fbrep.com/SMB_ATX/
Using_Business_ Manager.pdf
Business Manager Structure Guide: http://fbrep.com//SMB_ATX/Business-
Manager_ Overview.pdf

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Commenting as the Page using Business Manager


One of the differences in using Business Manager involves changing the ways you are
used to managing Pages, posting and comments, especially on mobile.

For the most part, the Pages Manager App is going to be your go-to solution for creating
content and checking Insights or Notifications. If you want to share Posts as your Page,
you can use Facebook within a mobile browser and look for little flag at the bottom
left of the Post. That will allow you to choose the ‘Voice’ you want to use, yourself or one
of the Pages you admin. This is the option accessible on Desktop, so by going into the
mobile browser, you should see it there as well.

This advice will help out with sharing and commenting on Desktop as well.

How to get out of Business Manager


The user interface of Business Manager Is quite different to the usual Ads Manager
so does take some adjusting. Not everyone likes it and once you have converted your
accounts to Business Manager it is quite challenging to revert to the old system.

To revert you will need to bring in a new Page and claim it to Business Manager (own).
Once you do this go to info and you can change your primary Page to the one you just
added. From that point you can release the Page your client wants to keep. Additional
you can bring it back in without claiming the Page to retain the functions in Business
Manager without it affecting your access from the drop down.

!
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION
Getting help with Business Manager

If you are interested in learning more, Social Media Examiner has a helpful article
on setting up Business Manager and using it. Facebook’s own Help Center also
has a useful section on the product.
There is a Facebook Group dedicated to answering questions, providing support
and collecting feedback on Business Manager, moderated by the Facebook
Help Team. If you are using Business Manager this is likely to be helpful to you.
Facebook’s Blueprint also has a helpful section on setting up Business Manager.

Ads Manager
In the past, Facebook has created two tools to administer Facebook advertising; Power
Editor and Ads Manager.

In a nutshell, Facebook Ads Manager was a tool for creating and optimizing campaigns.

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Power Editor is a more advanced tool offering additional functions to perform multiple
actions simultaneously and to work with ads more effectively. Power Editor has mostly
been used by experienced advertisers managing advanced and more difficult campaigns,
such as agencies.

Facebook made the move to merge these two tools, creating a new Ads Manager:

Default creation flow


Given that there were two sets of users creating ads in different ways, Ads Manager now
allows them to pick their preference.

þþ Quick creation: Allows the user to set up a campaign, ad set and ad elements in
any order. This is a good choice for more advanced advertisers previously using
Power Editor. This is otherwise known as creating ‘campaign shells’.

þþ Guided creation: This option guides users through the steps of the flow. It is better
for users if they are less familiar with all the components of Facebook advertising
campaigns, or preferred the previous Ads Manager tool. This is for ‘complete
campaigns’.

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How to name campaigns, ads and ad sets on Facebook


Ad and ad set naming conventions on Facebook have always been weak.

To simplify reporting, try to include as much information in the name as is helpful for
when coming to review ad effectiveness.

Advanced Facebook marketer, Jon Loomer recommends the following naming convention
that includes the following qualifiers:

þþ Client Name

þþ Page Name

þþ Item Promoted

þþ Objective

þþ Other Variations
It would look something like this (you’d replace each qualifier):
[Client Name] – [Page Name] – [Item Promoted] – [Objective]

Note that a qualifier is only necessary if you create campaigns with variations of that
item. For example, if you don’t take on clients, there’s no need to reserve a spot for the
client name. And if you only manage one Page, that may not be necessary either (though
you may want to plan for expansion).

Ad Set Name
Quite a bit of variations can occur within an ad set, so expect the name of your ad sets
to be more descriptive.

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Your ad set name could include details about any of the following:

þþ Daily/Lifetime Budget

þþ Scheduling

þþ Audience Targeted

þþ Placement

þþ Optimization

þþ Pricing

þþ Other Variations
It would look something like this (you’d replace each qualifier):
[Daily/Lifetime Budget] – [Scheduling] – [Audience Targeted] – [Placement] –
[Optimization] – [Pricing] – [Other Variations]

Ad Name
The ad name tends to be a bit simpler, particularly if you’re promoting an existing post.
Here are the qualifiers to consider:

þþ Inline Post, Promoted Post or Unpublished Post

þþ Copy Details

þþ Imagery Details
It would look something like this (you’d replace each qualifier):
[Inline Post, Promoted Post or Unpublished Post] – [Copy Details] – [Imagery
Details]

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8 CREATIVE BEST PRACTICE

Now you understand the nuts and bolts of advertising on Facebook, what else should be
considered to make an ad really work?

Let’s consider what we need to consider when creating an ad:

þþ The target audience

þþ The placement (and device)

þþ The timing of when the ad is seen

þþ The frequency with which the ad is seen

þþ The novelty or familiarity of the ad/the brand Plus the following creative elements:

þþ The image (or video)

þþ The text

þþ Headline

þþ Display link/URL

þþ Link Description

þþ Text above the image

þþ The call to action


All the above should be subject to rigorous split testing to work out what works best for
your audience.

Where do all the different ad creative elements end up?


You may find the following screen grab from an ad campaign by Silentnight helpful in
understanding where all the different ad creative elements end up.

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8 CREATIVE BEST PRACTICE

!
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION
Understand where all the ad elements surface and experiment with varying
content

When planning a campaign, create a table or spread sheet with all the headlines,
copy, CTAs and links laid out. Create variants for split testing.

Facebook’s Blueprint has a comprehensive section on Creative Best Practice so click


through to Blueprint to learn more about what Facebook considers to be good creative
practice as well as some great examples.

This great HubSpot blog post that analysis 11 Facebook ads that work (and why) is also
worth reading. Writer Amanda Sibley boils their effectiveness down to four factors:

1. Being visual

2. Being relevant

3. Including an enticing value proposition

4. Having a clear call-to-action

Where to source images


Be certain that the images you use are legally yours to publish. If you are using Ads
Manager you will get the option to use, free-of-charge, Shutterstock’s comprehensive
selection of stock photos. Do be aware that you will not be able to overwrite these with
any text as you would with images you had purchased from a stock library.

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8 CREATIVE BEST PRACTICE

Check out royalty free sites that allow use for commercial posts. Note some require
attribution but you can check the licenses for individual terms:

þþ https://pixabay.com/
þþ https://www.pexels.com/
þþ https://stocksnap.io/
þþ https://unsplash.com/

!
KEY STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION
Where to find images

If you use Facebook’s Ads Manager you will get free access to Shutterstock’s huge
library of stock images. If you prefer to integrate text then head over to Canva where
you can buy images for just $1 each and enjoy an easy-to-use publishing platform to
create profession- al-looking graphics incorporating text and images.

This blog article gives lots of examples of adverts that could do better, but let’s look at
some that could do with a little improvement:

Wrong image size

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8 CREATIVE BEST PRACTICE

Portrait use of a video rather than landscape.

Image too small to generate the larger news feed preview (images should be at least
1200x630 for optimum display, but if smaller than 600x315 this smaller image size will
instead be used)

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8 CREATIVE BEST PRACTICE

Failure to pause a campaign in the light of breaking news.

Poor targeting - the recipient wasn’t a student!

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8 CREATIVE BEST PRACTICE

Bad formatting - truncation problems, too much upper case, too many exclamation marks.

Poor creative - no headline or copy under the image, logo too small, missing full stop, and
phone number lost in text.

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8 CREATIVE BEST PRACTICE

Misleading information - claiming an association with Halifax and insinuating knowledge


about my financial status (against FB ad policy).

How to abide by the rules


You can find all Facebook’s policies here
https://www.facebook.com/help/399392800124391/

The 20% text policy


As mentioned earlier in this guide, one policy that you are bound to come up against very
quickly is the 20% text rule. Facebook wants to encourage visual content in images and
so will reject any ad with more than 20% text in the image.

You can upload sample images to test the percentage of text using the Grid Tool at www.
facebook.com/ads/tools/text_overlay.

Be aware that the rules are quite rigid on this – if more than 5 squares on the grid have
text then it will be rejected.

The above image contains significantly more than 20% text. The image below corrects
this (note that text in a logo is considered to be text).

What counts as text?


Some key policies are as follows:

þþ Memes

þþ Non-essential text

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8 CREATIVE BEST PRACTICE

þþ Punctuation marks and symbols

þþ Logos

þþ Legal print

þþ Phone numbers

þþ Screenshots of websites (unless core product – ex., Spotify.com)

þþ Watermarks
After 100 impressions, Facebook computers analyse your image to confirm that it aligns with
the 20% rule. This is why ads may initially appear to be accepted only to be rejected later.

Key policies
þþ All ads must have an image (except presumably boosted posts of updates without
one!)

þþ Facebook brand images cannot be used without permission.

þþ Images that contain QR codes cannot be used.

þþ The product being advertised and any related partnerships must be made clear as
in this Amex ad

þþ Similarly any implied partnership with Facebook is not allowed (so don’t use the
logo in your ads!)

þþ You are also not allowed to use images of any Facebook features that imply
Facebook Messages, Wall Posts etc

Landing Pages
þþ Any deals or coupon offers must be accurately reflected on the landing Page

þþ The destination URL must function properly in all browsers and not be a site under
construction

þþ Ads may not direct to landing Pages that trigger pop-ups or pop-unders

þþ Ads may not direct to landing Pages where downloads, malware or spyware are
automatically initiated upon arrival. Nor may they link to a file that requires an
additional program or application to open content

þþ Ads may not direct to a ‘closed’ or ‘secret’ group

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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8 CREATIVE BEST PRACTICE

Your ad text or targeting may not assert or imply knowledge of personal information such as:

þþ Race or ethnic origin

þþ Religion or philosophical belief

þþ Age

þþ Sexual orientation or sexual life

þþ Gender identity

þþ Disability or medical condition

þþ Financial status or information

þþ Membership in a trade union

þþ Criminal record

Rules on images
þþ Images must be appropriate to the product being advertised

þþ Must not be overly sexual, imply nudity or focus unnecessarily on body parts

þþ Ads may not contain adult content, including nudity, depictions of people in explicit or
suggestive positions or activities that are overly suggestive or sexually provocative.

þþ Images my not use shock or scare tactics

þþ Images may not portray non-existent functionality (the ad below with a fake play
button as rejected)

Rules in relation to specific products and services


As before Facebook’s Blueprint has a comprehensive section on ad policies. Very strict
rules apply to adult products, alcohol, dating, financial services, health and fitness,
lead generation, pharmaceuticals, prohibited content, software, subscription services,
working from home and multi-level marketing.

If you work in these areas be very careful that you understand the compliance in full. I’ve
seen a number of Facebook Pages closed down without warning for relatively low level
infringement.

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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TRACKING AND REPORTING:
9 HOW DO I KNOW IF MY ADS
HAVE BEEN EFFECTIVE?

Tracking ad effectiveness on Facebook


Facebook’s reporting offering offers a wealth of insight into advert performance.

When you login to Facebook once you have started running ads you’ll likely see something
like this lifetime overview in the right hand side of the screen which gives an overview of
basic advertising metrics.

Facebook Insights
Regardless of whether you spend money on Facebook advertising or not, Facebook
provides an analytics service called Facebook Insights. As well as emailing you a weekly
summary of your page’s progress, you can access the service and download a multitude
of reports.

It is worth keeping an eye on these reports in combination with your ads reporting, to get
a fuller picture of the organic and paid reach for your Page.

Click on See All in the Insights panel to get further Insights:

Engagement metrics include image/video/link clicks, comments, shares, post likes, and
page likes. Reach is also a key statistic, showing how many people have seen your
content.

This section is intended as a brief introduction and tutorial to the new Insights including
some of the most useful new data.

Facebook has recently updated their Pages Insights offering to help businesses better
understand how they are performing:

þþ Updating reach measurement to capture post views: This now includes


viewable impressions, which will help businesses to differentiate between organic
and paid reach.

þþ Redesigning Page Insights for mobile: This will make it easier to find the most

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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9 TRACKING AND REPORTING

important information at a glance on mobile directly.

Tracking the impact of ads


To track conversions, you’ll first need to add tracking pixels to the website of the landing
pages. These are simple to do.

Go to the Ads Manager and select ‘Conversion Tracking’:

Select the action you want to measure:

View the code or have it emailed to your developer.

Include a monetary value for each conversion.

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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9 TRACKING AND REPORTING

Once the code is in place, tick the Conversion Tracking option to tell Facebook each
time you create an ad to track it. If you are using Power Editor you can track multiple
conversion goals at the same time.

What is available within Facebook to help me track ad effectiveness?


Head across to the Ads Manager and you’ll see a dashboard with some lifetime results
as follows:Go to the Reports tab to really start drilling down to the ad reporting:

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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9 TRACKING AND REPORTING

You’ll see 17 default columns reporting on each individual ad:

You can edit this report by clicking the Customise Columns button:

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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9 TRACKING AND REPORTING

Select what you need and Apply.

We’d suggest that you create a number of separate reports depending on what you
intend to measure - the possibilities are endless.

Use the Filters option to create a report filtered by keyword or other variable:

Ad Reports functions
Reports can be scheduled to be created an emailed at daily, weekly or monthly intervals:

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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9 TRACKING AND REPORTING

You can export your reports as an Excel or CSV file:

You can share the report with a link:

Tracking using the mobile app


Facebook has an Android and iOS app called Pages Manager which, as well as tracking
organic activity on your Pages, will monitor ads too:

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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9 TRACKING AND REPORTING

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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9 TRACKING AND REPORTING

Tracking effectiveness using Google Analytics


Google Analytics has a number of reports that track referrals from social media. Here’s
a typical Facebook report:

Google Analytics Social reporting tab also reports referrals from social media sites:

We’d suggest using UTM tracking in all your Facebook ads to allow for accurate tracking
through to Google Analytics.

To build a URL with tags, you’ll need to tell Google the following (* marks required):

þþ URL: Original link to your website

þþ Campaign Source: The referrer, like Facebook

þþ Campaign Medium: Promoted post, ad etc

þþ Campaign Name: Product, promo code or slogan

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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9 TRACKING AND REPORTING

þþ Campaign Term: Paid keywords

þþ Campaign Content: Use to differentiate ads

Ad audience demographics reporting


Totally outside of Facebook Insights is a reporting tool called Audience Insights which
you access from within the Ads Manager:

You can choose to see a demographic profile of one of three categories of audience:

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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9 TRACKING AND REPORTING

Below is the data about Musicademy’s custom audience that comprises the people from
the US (you can add whichever countries you like) who have been on guitar-related
Pages on our website:

Here’s a profile of activity on Facebook and by device of people on our mailing list:

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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9 TRACKING AND REPORTING

Other reports such as household income, retail spending, purchase behaviour and
geographic location are also available.

This can be a helpful market research tool. Not only can you find out more about your
Facebook fans, but any custom audience that you upload.

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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3 TARGETING USING FACEBOOK

10 RESOURCES

Facebook support resources


þþ Facebook Key Facts Page
þþ Blueprint - Facebook’s on-line training facility
þþ Facebook For Business
þþ JonLoomer.com - great advice on Facebook advertising
þþ Facebook Ads Guide
þþ Facebook for Business blog

Other resources
þþ Canva – templates to create designs for Facebook covers, ads etc. Includes useful
image library

þþ PicMonkey – photo editing

þþ LICEcap – to create gifs of desktop activity

þþ Snagit – screen capture of desktop images or video

þþ Facebook Pages Manager App – android and iPhone app for managing your
Page, and monitoring ads on the go

þþ Grammarly – for writing enhancement

þþ Emarky – keyword tool for ad targeting

þþ Pixabay – royalty free image bank

þþ Pexels – royalty free image bank

þþ Stocksnap – royalty free image bank

þþ Unsplash – royalty free image bank

þþApp creation
þþ Woobox

þþ Shortstack

þþ Tabsite

þþ Constant Contact/Mailchimp – create sign up forms to data capture email addresses

Facebook Advertising (Updated February 2019)


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