6 Things To Remember Before Running Your First Facebook Ads

For many businesses, social media marketing (SMM) is daunting territory but getting geared up for digital marketing is one of the most effective ways of engaging with customers and clients, both existing and potential. There is no time like the present when it comes to getting an understanding of your audience and the channels you should focus on to continue fueling demand for your business. A great platform to start with is Facebook, as effective utilisation of Facebook Advertising can be an incredibly effective means of reaching new audiences. That said, failing to start on the right foot could lead to a waste of time and money, which is why we’ve put together this list of 6 easy yet essential things to remember before running your first Facebook Ads.

Understand Your Audience

We know it can be tempting to simply boost your most recent post, Facebook has a habit of making it too easy – and before you know it you have splashed out £150 with no real idea on whom the ad has been served to and what it may have yielded (if anything.) Before running any digital marketing campaign it is imperative that you know your audience. Take the time to do some research into who your audience really is. For some of you, this may seem silly and you will be thinking ‘of course I know who my audience is’ but sometimes who you’d like to think your audience is and who they actually are can be very different. A good place to start is to take a look into your website’s analytics and begin to build a profile of your audience from there.

Determine The Aim Of Your Ads

This may also seem silly, but it pays to have a clear idea of the outcome you would like to gain from a Facebook campaign. Facebook ads allow you to select which type of ad you’d like to run depending on what your target outcome is. These objectives range from driving traffic to your website to generating leads through form fills or even driving traffic to your store. Picking the correct marketing objective based on what you’d like to achieve could be the make or break of your ad campaign.

Set A Realistic Target Of What You Are Trying To Achieve

Facebook ads can be a great form of marketing if it is carried out correctly, however it is not a miracle worker and will definitely not solve all of your marketing problems. Before running your first ad we would strongly recommend being realistic on what you’d like to achieve through Facebook advertising. If your campaign that has a healthy click-through rate, a low bounce rate, and increased the percentage of new website users to your website, this could definitely be considered a success – despite the fact that you may not have received any direct leads. Think of it as opening up your shop window, because that is essentially what you are doing. The chances are the leads will soon follow if you are consistent.

Understand Your Brand – How Would You Like To Be Perceived?

Having a strong brand can be the key factor that can set you apart from competitors, therefore it is really important that this is not lost when it comes to social media marketing. You should take the time to have a clear vision of how you would like to be perceived and what your brand is – SMM (social media marketing) is a great way to demonstrate this. Before you run your first Facebook ads, draft up what you would like to say and the images that you’d like to use. Before putting it live, question if it is still in keeping with your businesses brand.

Consider The User Experience Beyond Facebook Ads

Remember that your first Facebook Ads will be going out to a new and wider audience, look at your company’s website and the landing page experience beyond the ad. Does your website look professional? Is your content up to date and valuable? Is the website loading fast enough? Does it look like it could be time for a new site? Fuel can help with any of your development and design queries. These are all things that can be fixed, but should be considered before any paid social media is pushed to a new audience.

Consistency Is Key

Consistency is key and unfortunately, Facebook is not a platform where you can leave it to do its own thing. Once you start advertising on Facebook you should not stop publishing posts organically. Social media users can be incredibly savvy and may well visit your page when they see your ad. Having a neglected page may make your brand come across as being overly commercial, which is not received well by many. A great tip is to create a content calendar – and stick to it!