Facebook Ads: what they are and how to create them
T
he Facebook ads consist of advertisements that are created and displayed on the platform's channels. They are therefore a very important promotional tool that allows companies and organisations large and small to advertise products and/or services to the broad user base on the social network. In particular, Facebook ads can be displayed within the Home, but also on Messenger, Instagram and the Audience Network.
Furthermore, Facebook also makes it possible to carefully choose the target audience to which one's advertisements should be addressed. In this case, the audience can be created from scratch, from characteristics chosen by the advertiser, or it can be generated on the basis of previously activated campaigns. In the first case, Facebook allows the selection of age, gender, interests, profession, etc. The second type of audience, on the other hand, can be created from a base of contacts and leads generated through a previously implemented campaign. In this case, it is possible to create a 'similar audience' or a 'customised audience'. The choice depends on the objectives of the campaign and is therefore at the discretion of the advertiser.
Facebook ads: creativity and targeting
In addition, the creation of Facebook ads also involves the use of specific creativity, the inclusion of catchy copy and the possible use of landing pages. In any case, before creating a campaign on Facebook, it is essential to choose the target. In this regard, for example, the platform offers many options. The purpose of a Facebook ad can be to increase brand awareness or simply to collect contacts. In the first case, the advertiser can opt for the objective 'Coverage' or 'Brand Awareness'. If, on the other hand, the company wants to increase the number of enquiries from customers, it will have to focus on a different kind of objective, such as 'Traffic' and 'Contact Generation'. To easily and quickly create a Facebook ad, it is therefore necessary to:
- Choose the target
- Identify the target audience (creating an audience from scratch or generating a similar or customised audience)
- Choose placements (Facebook Home, Messenger, Instagram, Audience Network)
- Insert creativity (graphics + copy) and possibly a link to a landing page
Facebook ads: how to improve and optimise them
Finally, once the advertisement is published, it must be monitored in order to check the actual results and correct certain aspects so as to improve it. Ads, in fact, can be updated and modified over time according to the advertiser's needs. If, for example, a Facebook ad should stop performing, one should consider making changes to the creative, or update the audience, choosing new interests and eliminating others.
Before making such a decision, however, campaign statistics and reports must be carefully evaluated. Only in this way is it possible to understand the behaviour of the audience and act in a timely manner so as to improve the performance of the ad. A good strategy for assessing the impact of creativity is, for example, to use A/B testing.
In this case, the ad is published with several creatives running simultaneously. Consequently, it is possible to compare their performance and identify the one that is most suitable and able to achieve optimum results. Not only that, an important KPI to keep in mind is the ad quality score.
This evaluation provides overall feedback on the performance of the Facebook ad. In this respect, the platform offers five types of score: above average, average, below average. The latter value covers a range from 35% of the least relevant adverts to 10%. Qualora l’annuncio dovesse avere un punteggio sotto la media bisognerà quindi valutare di modificare uno o più parametri.
