Ready to start creating a Facebook ad? We’re here for you. Brush up on what you need to know to get started with Facebook Ads Manager.
The Basics of Facebook Ads Manager
Let’s quickly run through the structure of advertising in Facebook Ads Manager before we dive into the anatomy of the ad itself.
- Campaign: A campaign is an umbrella for your advertising initiative. Essentially, it’s a group of ads that seek to achieve a common goal.
- Ad Set: Here is where you set the details, such as your audience, budget, run dates, and placements. You can have multiple ad sets per campaign. If you want to learn more about generating target audiences, check out this post on the Facebook Pixel.
- Ad: The ads are the individual creative for the advertisement that your audience will see.
Using First-Party Data
In the ad set, audience identification is the most critical factor in the success of your ad. If you’re leveraging first-party data to create custom audiences, this is where you’ll do it. The use of first-party data ensures your ad is only reaching a relevant audience. If you don’t have access to a database or are trying to reach new prospects, consider working with a media partner who has a strong first-party database. They can help you target your most appropriate audience and extend the reach of your existing digital campaigns. Read more about crafting a social media audience here.
Components of a Facebook Ad
First, decide at the ad set level if you want “dynamic creative.” Selecting this feature allows Facebook to optimize your ad based on multiple creative elements for your viewer. This essentially allows Facebook to mix and match ad elements based on who is looking at your content. This helps match your message to what they’re most likely to click on. We recommend turning this on to optimize ad conversions.
- Identity: You can choose to post your ad on both Facebook and your connected Instagram accounts.
- Visuals: Your visual creative can be a single image or video or a carousel of scrolling images and videos. With dynamic creative turned on, you may select up to 10 pieces of creative for Facebook to mix and match for your viewer.
- Primary Text: This is the copy that appears as the body copy of your post. The text should be around 125 characters long. Keep in mind this should be the details about why a prospect should move forward with your call to action—this is NOT your call to action. The CTA is in the button and within the headline copy that appears under your image or video. If you have the dynamic creative turned on, you can enter 5 versions of your primary text.
- Headline: Your headline is arguably the most important part of your ad. And with only 40 characters to make an impact, you need to make them count! The purpose of your headline is to provide a stop-the-scroll message that gets your prospect interested in what you’re sharing. With dynamic creative selected, you can enter up to 5 headline options.
- Description: This is the small 30-character line of text below your headline that can be used to create a sense of urgency or to qualify the headline. With dynamic creative turned on, you can enter up to 5 options for this text.
- Call to Action: Facebook has 16 pre-built calls to action such as “learn more,” “request a time,” “subscribe,” “contact us.” With dynamic creative turned on, you can select up to 5 calls to action.
You can also track conversions at the ad level with the Facebook Pixel. Track your ads performance, including reach, impressions, the amount spent, and cost per result in your Facebook Ads Manager.
If you’re new to the industry or aren’t sure the sort of creative and messaging that will resonate with veterinary professionals, reach out to a media partner with in-house veterinarians. They can help you with both tactical execution and strategic messaging.