Facebook Ads: A Beginners Guide (2024)

It’s 2024 and Facebook is still the choice platform to buy ads for obvious reasons.

• Advertisers are addicted to the simplicity of the platform
• The laser targeting options available are unmatched
• Lower ad costs resulting in positive return on investment (ROI)
• Facebook has 2.11 Billion daily active users and is the 3rd most used app in the world. Which means it owns a lot of online advertising real estate

Contrary to myths, most businesses can find their clients on the Blue app using the right targeting options.

If you want to drive quality traffic, generate leads and sales for any business, Facebook ads is an option you should consider.

Does Facebook Ads Work?

The answer to this question can be yes or no, depending on who you ask.

Facebook, like any other media platform, is responsible for getting your message across to an audience

Your results will largely be dependent on the quality of your message.

By message, I am referring to your advertising copy – Including your ad text, headline, and creative.

The quality of your advert is important to its success

You should also consider the types of ads that work well on Facebook because…

Different advertising platforms may require a different approach

A video ad designed for YouTube might not work well as a Facebook ad creative

A lot of people on YouTube are there to learn, on Facebook, they are socializing.

It’s the same for Google search or display ads.

Your ads need to be compatible with the platform.

From the messaging used to the format of the ad.

Don’t worry, in this article, I will be covering how to create a high-converting Facebook Advert.

Facebook Ads Policy And Staying Compliant

Before you start advertising on Facebook, or any other ad platform, it is important to understand the policy of that platform.

Policies are put in place to protect the users of that platform and also to comply with local laws and regulation

For instance, you can’t show certain ads to users below 18 years

However, some countries won’t allow those same ads for users below 20 years of age.

The reason you need to know and comply with advertising policies is to protect your access to advertising

Your advertising access can be restricted if you are found to violate the policies many times.

To view the complete Facebook (Meta Ads) Policy visit this link 

You can learn more about how to stay compliant using my compliance cheatsheet and training

How Much Does It Cost To Run Ads On Facebook

The cost of running Facebook Ads varies depending on several factors, including…

Ad Objective

Your ad objective is simply what you want to achieve with your ad.

You might be looking to build brand awareness for your brand or…

Sell more products from your online store or…

Generate leads for your services

These different objectives affect how much your ads will cost.

For instance, an ad with a conversion objective costs more than a brand awareness campaign.

Target Audience

The target audience refers to the people you want to reach.

You need to know that Facebook uses an auction model for selling ad placements.

What this means is that there is a pool of advertisers all trying to show their ads to different audiences

And Facebook’s ad algorithm decides which ads get shown at that time.

Several factors determine which ad wins the auction, such as the engagement on the ad, the quality of the ad, etc.

I won’t go into details not to bore you.

In summary, some audiences are attractive to lots of advertisers because they are highly profitable.

Showing your ads to those audiences will typically cost you more money because every advertiser is targeting the same audience.

In the same vein, narrowing down your audience increases your ad cost.

Let me explain what that means.

Inside Facebook Ads Manager, you can create an ad, targeting Men between the ages of 18 – 65+

You can also narrow it down by adding more specific details about these Men.

E.g. Men ages 35 – 55 who are also interested in Real Estate Investing.

And you can keep adding more layers to narrow the audience down even further.

The more depth you add to your targeting the more your ads will cost

You can learn more about Facebook ads targeting HERE

Ad Format

There are different ad formats at your disposal when creating Facebook ads.

The popular formats include; image ads, video ads, and carousel ads.

What many advertisers don’t know is how this affects their cost

Let me share a secret with you.

While these different formats can get you good results, video ads have the lowest CPMs

CPM stands for Cost Per Mile.

It means 1,000 impressions. i.e. Your ads have been viewed 1,000 times

So test different ad formats and compare results when advertising on Facebook.

Other Factors Affecting Facebook Ad Price

Several other factors affect the price of ads on Facebook. Including…

• Bidding strategy: how you want to pay for ads (e.g. cost per click, cost per impression)
• Budget: how much you want to spend on ads
• Ad setup: the overall setup strategy you employ

While there’s a right and wrong way to set up Facebook ads, the main control you have over the price of your ads is…

Creating A High Converting Ad On Facebook

As long as you have a good offer (a good product and associated benefits),

All you need to control ad costs and results is to make a great ad.

I talk about having a good offer because what you’re selling is important to the success of your ads

There must be an audience of people who already desire what you intend to sell

Don’t try to create desire in your audience, that’s very hard to do, even for elite advertisers

Your ads should only tap into the existing desire the audience has for your product.

There are key elements to consider when making your ads

I will get to each of them in just a minute, but first I want you to see what Facebook ads look like

Monday.com’s Facebook Ad

As you can see, it looks just like a post, however, notice that there is sponsored beneath the profile picture

That’s how to identify paid ads.

This ad can be broken down into 3 parts…

1. The text before the image is the ad text

2. The image is the creative (It can also be in video or carousel format)

3. The text beneath the image is the headline (aside from the website URL )

Now that you’ve seen what they look like and understand the different terminologies

I can proceed to give you the…

3 Steps For Creating A Winning Facebook Ads

Understand Your Audience

This is the first step and arguably the most important, for making winning ads.

The quality of your ad is not determined by how nice it sounds to the ears

It is not even determined by what the audience says about it

Only one thing matters when it comes to ads.

How much revenue is the ad generating?

What is the ROI of that ad?

People can say all sorts of things about your ad – and you should pay them no heed

Some of my most criticized ads, also happen to have the highest return on ad spend

Some of them returned about 191X of my ad spend…

Meaning that I got back $191 in sales for every $1 I spent on those ads

You can achieve this kind of result when you understand your target audience.

How To Learn More About Your Audience

Audience research is confusing for beginners. It used to confuse me a lot in the past.

So I will share techniques that will help you get into the heads of your prospects

To make brilliant ads, you need to use the same language your market is using

And there’s only one way to do that… Research!

My favorite place to research is the comment section of YouTube videos

Go to YouTube, search for videos teaching people how to solve the same problem your product solves, and read through the comment section.

Make sure you take notes.

You should also browse through online communities where your target market hangs out.

Or even interview existing clients or people who have bought from your competitors.

The most important thing is that…

By the end of your research, you should have answers to questions such as…

1. What is the demographic data of your ideal buyer? People who are already spending money to buy similar products/services (e.g., Age, gender, location, education, and occupation.)
2. What are their interests and hobbies?
3. What problems or pain points do they have that your product solves?
4. What motivates them to buy? (Why do they buy)
5. Where do they spend their time online?
6. What type of content do they consume? (Do they prefer videos, podcasts, or articles.)
7. What brands do they follow online?
8. What is their purchasing behavior?
9. How do they prefer to communicate and receive information (Email, SMS, or Phone calls)
10. What feedback have they provided about similar products (Good and Bad)

These answers to these questions will help you make ads that continue the conversation going on in the head of your target audience

Your ads will be more effective and convert a whole lot better.

Write A Winning Ad Copy

If you’ve done your research properly, then this will be a breeze.

You only need to write copy that will hook, engage, and excite your audience

And it’s very easy to do that when you know the audience

There’s a copywriting formula I like using when it comes to Facebook ad copy

It’s called the PAS Framework

PAS is an acronym for

P – Problem

A – Agitate

S – Solution

To use it, begin by calling out the biggest problem the audience is having.

This should hook the audience and get them to read more

Then you agitate (or expand) on the problem by giving specific details about the pains the problem causes

This builds trust with the audience because they believe you understand their situation

Then you state your solution.

When presenting your solution, make sure to address any skepticism immediately and give a clear call to action.

Writing Facebook Ad Copy Using PAS Framework

Assume we are selling a course that teaches advertisers how to lower their ad costs

Here’s what a good ad will look like

PROBLEM: Still struggling with high Facebook ad costs?

AGITATE:

It’s not your fault. Ads are now more competitive than ever

With millions of advertisers launching new ads daily, bidding wars are driving the costs to insane levels

ROAS has been dipping and many advertisers cannot even break even

This was my experience until a few months ago when I found…

SOLUTION:

A new ad setup technique that a few advertisers secretly use to lower their ad cost

Now, I’m getting at least 5X on most of my campaigns

If you want to see it in action, click the Learn More button to get started.

Writing Your Facebook Ad Headline

I have a simple formula for writing compelling Facebook ad headlines.

I use several other frameworks, but this one is just as effective.

I learned it from one of my mentors Frank Kern, who learned it by observing an ad in a Magazine

The framework for it is…

Do this [ACTION] if you want [BENFIT]

Applying this template to our earlier example, the headline would be something like…

Watch this if you want to lower your Ads cost immediately…

Nothing too fancy, but it works!

Create A Scroll Stopping Creative

As far as ads are concerned people need to pause to take a look at your ad

Nobody comes online and says… “I need to go see some ads”

Except for weirdos like us, who like to spy on what other advertisers are doing

So you need to put in enough work to stop the prospect and get them to read your ad copy

The way to do that is your creative – image or video

Your creative needs to be visually captivating to arrest a skimmer’s attention

I’ve written another article that explains how to do that in more detail

3 Tricks To Get Better Results When Advertising

I recommend you read it and apply the techniques I shared.

How To Target The Right Audience With Facebook Ads

For your Facebook Ads to convert, you need to show the brilliant creative you have created to the right audience

And with the targeting options available it is easier done than said

But don’t let the ease fool you. It is not by any means simple to choose the right targeting options

To determine the right targeting options for you, we need to refer back to the audience research you did earlier

Do you see why it is important for you to do the research?

Because you will continue to refer back to it throughout your campaign

So what do we need?

We need to know the gender, age group, and interests of your audience.

So that we can plug those variables into your Facebook ads targeting options.

You must target the right people with your ads if you want lower ad costs.

Watch my Facebook Ads Targeting Hack Video to get in-depth targeting strategies that are proven to work

Setup Your Ads

You’ve gone through the entire process of making a high-converting ad

What are the steps to set up the ads?

1. Register as an advertiser on Facebook. Visit business.facebook.com/overview (You need a personal Facebook account to do this)
2. Create your business page if you don’t have one (Make it look well branded)
3. Open Facebook ads manager (ads.facebook.com)
4. Click the Create button and select your campaign objective
5. Enter your campaign name
6. Under Ad sets, set your budget, and targeting options
7. Under Ads, upload your ad creative
8. Click Publish when you’re done.

After you publish your ads, they will start delivering after a review process from Facebook.

This is a simplified step, I cannot cover many things so the article is not too long

If you want a more in-depth tutorial, consider watching my video course…

Facebook Ads For Beginners.

You can get at no cost when you enroll in my more Advanced Facebook Ads courses

Summary

We’ve discussed extensively about how Facebook Ads work.

I hope by now you have found answers to some of the top questions you have about running ads

If you still have unanswered questions, let me know in the comment section…

I will be responding to as many questions as you have.

Also, make sure you take advantage of the extra resources – blog posts or courses I linked in the article

Learning more about the Facebook ad platform and how to make winning ads will help you get better results

Have fun!