In previous months I talked you through defining your Facebook goals, and deciding which form of Facebook adverting (Objectives) you will use to advertise within Facebook, so now you are ready to set up and publish your campaign.

Set Up
Within Facebook you need to complete the following steps to set up and publish your campaign:

  1. Define audience
  2. Set budget
  3. Schedule timeframe
  4. Build advert

1. Defining your audience: This is the section where you have the opportunity to really grow your business with Facebook.

Through Facebook we know the age, gender, location, interests, jobs & languages of the Facebook community, so you want to create a segment that best fits your target audience.

When it comes to defining your audience, you should test as much as possible. Try broad audiences and detailed segmentation to decide which method provides the best results for your business.

Don’t be afraid to think outside the box here. Dig around for brands and audiences who are similar to what you have in mind for your target audience. For example, if you are a boutique surf brand, do not be afraid to target by age, location, AND those who show an interest in other mainstream surf brands who are your competitors.

It takes time to identify your preferred audience, but this is the area where marketing specialists will show their worth. After all, you want to spend your budget on the Facebook users who have the best chance for reaching your goals.

2. Set budget: Decide how much you would like to invest into your Facebook campaigns. Choose between the following:

  • Daily Budget (the amount that you will spend on a daily basis)
  • Lifetime budget (the amount that you will spend throughout your whole campaign)

3. Timeframe: You have the choice between the following:

  • Continuous (no end date)
  • Start & End Date (campaign starts and ends on the set date)

4 Build Advert: This is where you engage the consumer through great imagery and content. However, you should be aware of some restrictions, which you often have to be creative to get around:

  • Image: Facebook want you to have as little text as possible on your image. Too much text and Facebook will penalise you. As a rule, you should have less than 20% of text on your campaign graphic. Facebook will also block your advert if does not pass their strict criteria to prevent obscene/inappropriate imagery. Here is a tool to check your image: https://www.facebook.com/ads/tools/text_overlay
  • Text: if your advert could cause any offence, Facebook will likely block your advert, so you must comply. This can be difficult for businesses within the beauty industry, as images which show excessive skin, or are deemed to make user question their own appearance are deemed inappropriate by Facebook. Here is more information about their advertising policies: https://www.facebook.com/policies/ads/#

Publish
You have defined all of the steps above and you have created your advert. You’re now ready to publish.

This is the period when your campaign is live on Facebook, assuming you passed the policies outlined above. It’s easy to sit back and forget about your campaign at this point because it may feel like the hard work is done, but you should check on your campaign every day to ensure it’s performing and reaching its full potential.

When you visit your campaign each day, look out for high and low scoring segments in the following areas. You may find the small changes in demographic have a big effect on results and ROI:

  • Gender
  • Location
  • Age

Next month we will talk about reporting on your Facebook campaigns.