How to Get Started with Facebook Ads
Before we jump into the how, let’s start with the why.
Why is it that so many business owners in Ghana come to our #ozeworkshops and ask about getting started with Facebook Ads? Do they know something you don’t?
Why should you try Facebook Ads?
Let’s look at the data.
The average Ghanaian spends almost 3 hours a day using social media? Really!? 3 HOURS!?
Yep it’s true. In fact, there are now 5.6 Million active social media users across the country.
And guess how many of those active social media users are on Facebook… That’s right, 5.6 million! Up 22% from last year! (Source: Global Digital Report 2018)
What’s the mean for you Chale? Facebook is here to stay and more and more of your customers are going to be using the platform.
Next question…is your audience on Facebook?
Good question! Because if you’re audience isn’t on facebook then why spend the time and effort to run Facebook Ads?
Let’s look at the breakdown.
Does your audience fit these demographics? If not, then you need to be thinking about another marketing channel.
Intro to Facebook Advertising
For those of you thinking to yourself, “ wait, you can advertise on facebook?” Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Facebook purposely designed their ads to look like other posts in your news feed.
So, how do you tell the difference between a post and an ad?? The two things to look for are the sponsored tag and the Call to Action in the bottom right corner.
Did you think they were just another post in your News feed? Yeah sorry about that.
So now that you know what a facebook ad looks like, let’s talk about how to get started.
Try boosting your first Facebook post
Advertising on Facebook can get pretty complicated, so before you go spending all your cedis on your first ad, try spending just a little on boosting a post.
How? Look through you recent posts on your facebook business page. Did you recently promote a product? Or highlight an event you have coming up? Do you see the “Boost Post” button in the bottom right hand corner of the post?
Click there to get started.
The first thing you’ve have to decide is what is your goal? Do you want people to engage with your post or message you? Or in other words, do you want people to like, comment and share your post, or do you want them to message you about it?
Then, with that goal in mind, choose a call to action. With the addition of the new call to action button “Send WhatsApp Message” you can encourage people to message you right to your WhatsApp account. Or you can choose a call to action like Learn More.
Targeting on Facebook
Next, it’s time to pick who you want to see your ad.
Facebook has a lot of data. So you can get really granular when you target people. For example, I can target people with in 25 miles of Kumasi or Accra city center, who are male and between the age of 25 and 35 who use android phones and are interested in Indomie.
How does facebook know what I like to eat? Are they watching me through my computer? No no, that just means that there are a group of people that Facebook’s algorithm has identified as interested in Indomie based on the engagement they’ve had with posts about Indomie, or maybe they even mentioned it in their profile.
After you’ve created your audience, all that’s left is to set a budget and a time period and make sure the ad looks good in the preview.
Then monitor the results closely. You may be pleasantly surprised by the results, or you may need to pick a more engaging post and try again.
And that’s how you get started with Facebook Ads. Stay tuned for part 2 of this post to find out how to drive some ROI with Facebook Ads.
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