How OKR and project management work together
One of the most common questions we get asked at Perdoo is how OKR and Project Management work together. OKR is a great framework for focusing on achieving results rather than completing tasks, but this doesn’t mean there’s no place for day-to-day tasks in OKR. They work together.
If you’re already familiar with the OKR framework, you’ll know an Objective sets your focus. An Objective describes a point in the future you want to get to which is different from the status quo. Your Key Results are things you measure, that have a target, and indicate whether or not you’ve reached your Objective.
Putting your plan into action
You’ve decided where you’re going, and how you’ll know if you’re on the right track. Now it’s time to put your OKRs into action and plan the work you’ll need to do. This is the work you’ll focus on that will influence your Key Results and eventually lead you to your Objective. This is where OKR and Project Management combine.
Many companies, teams, and individuals already use tools like task managers or to-do lists to manage the work they do. With larger teams or more complex work dedicated project management tools often come into play. These tools break down activities into Projects containing individual tasks with roles, responsibilities, and due dates.
If you’re using a project management tool, you’re probably wondering by this point if OKR is just another layer of complexity; extra work you need to do that can already be managed within your current processes. In fact, Project management is simply a way of organizing things that need to be done, while OKR takes care of motivation, direction, and measurement. In Perdoo, we call projects “Initiatives”.
Here’s an example:
A Games company decides it’s identified a huge opportunity for a new mobile game in an untapped market.
The Marketing team creates a Q1 OKR with a 3-month timeframe.
To achieve these ambitious OKRs the Marketing team will need to put together an action plan covering all the Projects they need to get done to reach their goals.
How OKR and Project Management connect
With these OKRs in place, the role of Project Management now comes into play and the Marketing team can spend time planning the exact steps, tasks, and activities they’ll need to do for their Objective to be a success.
One Project could be:
Create a multi-channel marketing campaign to encourage people to leave App Store reviews
Tasks could include:
- Create a campaign plan
- Run kick off meeting
- Brief creative team
- Review campaign creative
- Create in-app messages
- Create campaign emails
- Add campaign messaging to website
- Set up campaign reporting
- Create press release
- Connect with journalists
- Launch campaign
- Review campaign
In the example above, OKR and Project Management work together. Projects and Tasks become the “output” of the OKR and the Key Results the “outcome”.
It’s important to note here that a common mistake many people make when setting Key Results is to confuse them with actions, tasks or projects, or use Key Results as a kind of to-do list. The reason why this is a bad idea is that Key Results should always contain a metric and they should not be within your direct sphere of influence. “Running a project kickoff meeting” has no relationship to whether or not you’ve actually “Grown your game from launch to leader”. It’s something you do, but also something you could do 100 times with no effect on the intended Objective.
If you achieve “>4 stars on over 85% of all your reviews”, however, that’s a pretty good indicator you’re on your way to “growing your game from launch to leader”.
[cta heading=”Track OKRs alongside your projects” buttonlabel=”Get your FREE Perdoo account” buttonlink=”#start-for-free”]Conclusion
OKR is a fantastic framework for setting goals, and Project Management systems are fantastic tools for getting work done. When they’re combined you have a complete system for managing and measuring all the work you do, from strategy to execution to success.
For more on OKR check out our OKR crash course, a great resource for anyone getting started, or for team leads who want to introduce OKR to their employees.
Source: perdoo
8-Step Guide to Using Instagram Ads [2024 Edition]
Table of Contents
How much do Instagram ads cost?
How to advertise on Instagram: setting up an ad step-by-step
If you have a budget for paid social, you should strongly consider running Instagram ads. Why?
Ads on Instagram reach 96.6% of Instagram’s active user base every month. That’s a total of almost 2 billion potential customers! And the target group is still gowing — data from Meta shows that Instagram’s ad reach has jumped by 21% in the last year, despite changes in its ad reporting.
This guide will walk you through how to advertise on Instagram, including an easy 8-step guide to creating your first Instagram ad.
Bonus: Claim your free pack of 15 Instagram ad templates created by Hootsuite’s professional graphic designers. Easily customize them in Canva, and start stopping thumbs and selling more today.
What are Instagram ads?
Instagram ads are posts businesses can pay to serve to specific target groups on Instagram.
These ads appear in users’ feeds, Stories, and explore pages in the same format as organic content from other Instagram accounts.
Instagram ads can contain images, videos, carousels (multiple images), or collections (dynamic product galleries).
Instagram ads look similar to normal posts but always contain a Sponsored label to indicate that they are an ad. They also often have more features than a normal post, such as links, CTA buttons, and product tags.
Source: Instagram (@tedbaker)
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How much do Instagram ads cost?
The cost of Instagram ads depends on the total budget, duration, and objectives you’ve set for your ad or campaign. You can set a daily or lifetime budget for your Instagram ads, so it’s up to you how much you want to spend. Note that there is no best practice for how much to spend, but Meta recommends starting with at least $5.00 per day.
While there is no average or benchmark price, some cost factors can include:
- Your specific audience targeting
- The competitiveness of your industry
- The time of year (costs often go up during holiday shopping periods in Q4 such as Black Friday)
- Your chosen placement (costs can differ between ads shown on Facebook vs Instagram)
Advertisers can set their maximum bids for each auction or let Instagram optimize them automatically. So, if you’re new to advertising through Instagram, it’s best to start with a low maximum bid to gain some experience.
Once you have gained more insight into the competitive landscape for your chosen industry and demographics, you can decide if raising your maximum bid is necessary. We’ll explain this in more detail in our 8-step guide below.
The best way to evaluate your budget is to set up a draft campaign in the Instagram Ad Manager and look for the Audience Definition and Estimated Daily Results modules, which will tell you if your budget settings will be sufficient to reach your desired audience within your desired campaign duration.
Types of Instagram ads
There are many different types of advertising formats on Instagram, including:
- Image ads
- Story ads
- Video ads
- Carousel ads
- Collection ads
- Explore ads
- Shopping ads
- Reels ads
The wide range means that you can choose the best ad type that matches your specific business goals. Instagram ads now support six simplified campaign objectives. Call-to-action options will vary based on the ad type and objective you choose, see more on that below.
Image ads
Instagram image ads allow businesses to use single images to advertise their brand, products, and services.
Source: Instagram (@thursdays)
Instagram image ads are best suited for campaigns with compelling visual content that can be conveyed in a single image. These images can be created from high-quality photography or design and illustration.
It’s also possible to add text to images. However, Instagram recommends limiting overlaid text as much as possible for accessibility and best results.
| Supported objectives | Call-to-action (CTA) buttons |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Apply Now |
| Traffic | Book Now |
| Engagement | Contact Us |
| Leads | Buy Tickets |
| App promotion | Contact Us |
| Sales | Download |
| Call Now | |
| Get Offer | |
| Get Quote | |
| Get Showtimes | |
| Get Directions | |
| Learn More | |
| Listen Now | |
| Order Now | |
| Play Game | |
| Request Time | |
| See Menu | |
| Shop Now | |
| Sign Up | |
| Subscribe | |
| Watch More | |
| Use App | |
| Install Now | |
| Remind Me | |
| Send Message | |
| Send WhatsApp Message | |
| View Event | |
| Try in Camera | |
| Check Availability | |
| Donate Now |
Video ads
Instagram video ads are a great way to showcase your product or service in an engaging, eye-catching way. You can use video ads to demonstrate how products work, highlight unique features, or simply tell your brand story.
In-feed video ads can be up to 60 minutes long, but shorter videos are usually more effective. Read more about Instagram ad specs in our best practices for designing Instagram video ads blog.
Source: Instagram (@the_oodie)
Story ads
Instagram Story Ads are full-screen image or video ads that appear between users’ Stories.
Instagram Stories are a well-used part of the app, with over 500 million Instagram users viewing Stories every day. Engagement is often higher with Stories ads, as the format covers the mobile screen and feels much more immersive than in-feed ads.
The best Instagram Stories ads look and feel like normal Stories and don’t stand out as ads. When designing Stories ads, businesses can use all organic Instagram Stories features like filters, text, GIFs, and interactive stickers.
Source: Instagram (@campbellscanada)
Stories ads can use still photos, videos, and carousels. The call-to-action is presented as a swipe-up link at the bottom of the Story.
Source: Instagram (@woodscanada)
| Supported objectives | Call-to-action (CTA) buttons |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Apply Now |
| Traffic | Book Now |
| Engagement | Contact Us |
| Leads | Buy Tickets |
| App promotion | Contact Us |
| Sales | Download |
| Call Now | |
| Get Offer | |
| Get Quote | |
| Get Showtimes | |
| Get Directions | |
| Learn More | |
| Listen Now | |
| Order Now | |
| Play Game | |
| Request Time | |
| See Menu | |
| Shop Now | |
| Sign Up | |
| Subscribe | |
| Watch More | |
| Use App | |
| Install Now | |
| Remind Me | |
| Send Message | |
| Send WhatsApp Message | |
| View Event | |
| Try in Camera | |
| Check Availability | |
| Donate Now |
Carousel ads
Instagram carousel ads feature a series of images or videos that users can swipe through. They can appear both in-feed and within Instagram Stories, with a call-to-action button or swipe-up link that leads users directly to your website.
You can use carousel ads to:
- Showcase a collection of related products
- Tell a multi-part story
- Share up to 10 images or videos
Source: Instagram (@bashparis)
| Supported objectives | Call-to-action (CTA) buttons |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Apply Now |
| Traffic | Book Now |
| Engagement | Contact Us |
| Leads | Buy Tickets |
| App promotion | Contact Us |
| Sales | Download |
| Call Now | |
| Get Offer | |
| Get Quote | |
| Get Showtimes | |
| Get Directions | |
| Learn More | |
| Listen Now | |
| Order Now | |
| Play Game | |
| Request Time | |
| See Menu | |
| Shop Now | |
| Sign Up | |
| Subscribe | |
| Watch More | |
| Use App | |
| Install Now | |
| Remind Me | |
| Send Message | |
| Send WhatsApp Message | |
| View Event | |
| Try in Camera | |
| Check Availability | |
| Donate Now |
Collection ads
Instagram collection ads are a combination between carousel ads and shopping ads. Collection ads showcase products directly from your product catalog.
Collection ads are best suited for ecommerce brands, as they allow users to purchase products directly from the ad. When a user clicks on the ad, they’re directed to an Instagram Instant Experience Storefront where they can learn more about the product and proceed to purchase.
Source: Instagram (@flattered)
| Supported objectives | Call-to-action (CTA) buttons |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Not all calls to action may be available to you, depending on your industry. |
| Traffic | |
| Engagement | |
| Leads | |
| Sales |
Explore ads
Explore ads appear within the Explore tab, an area of the platform where users discover new content and accounts that are tailored based on their Instagram usage habits.
Source: Instagram (@halara_official)
Instagram Explore ads do not appear in the Explore grid or the topic channels, but rather are shown after someone clicks on a photo or video from Explore. As the content in users’ Explore tabs is constantly changing, Explore ads allow businesses to be shown alongside culturally relevant and trending content.
Explore ads can be both images and videos.
Pro Tip: No need to design brand new assets for Explore ads. You can simply re-use existing Instagram ad assets.
| Supported objectives | Call-to-action (CTA) buttons |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Apply Now |
| Traffic | Book Now |
| Engagement | Contact Us |
| Leads | Buy Tickets |
| App Promotion | Contact Us |
| Sales | Download |
| Call Now | |
| Get Offer | |
| Get Quote | |
| Get Showtimes | |
| Get Directions | |
| Learn More | |
| Listen Now | |
| Order Now | |
| Play Game | |
| Request Time | |
| See Menu | |
| Shop Now | |
| Sign Up | |
| Subscribe | |
| Watch More | |
| Use App | |
| Install Now | |
| Remind Me | |
| Send Message | |
| Send WhatsApp Message | |
| View Event | |
| Try in Camera | |
| Check Availability |
Reels ads
With the successful launch of Reels, Instagram recently announced the ability to advertise within Reels.
Ads are shown in between Reels, with similar specs to Stories ads (full-screen vertical videos), and can be up to 60 seconds. They should include sound or music to be well-integrated with organic Reels. All Instagram Reels ads will show a Sponsored mark underneath the account name.
Source: Instagram (@redbull)
Note that Instagram Reels ads will loop infinitely unless stopped. As well, users can like, share, comment, and save your Reels ads.
| Supported objectives | Call-to-action (CTA) buttons |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Shop Now |
| Traffic | Read More |
| Engagement | Sign Up |
| Leads | Click Here |
| App promoton | |
| Sales |
Shopping ads
With 44% of Instagram users shopping on the platform every week, it’s no wonder Instagram has been heavily improving its ecommerce features over the last 1-2 years.
With Instagram’s newest Shopping features, users can now view and purchase products without leaving the app (limited to businesses with Instagram Checkout enabled).
Instagram Shopping ads take users directly to a product description page within the Instagram app. They can then purchase through your mobile website.
To run Shopping ads, you need to set up your Instagram Shopping catalog.
Pro tip: Take advantage of Hootsuite’s integration with Shopify to access your catalog right from your Hootsuite dashboard.
Source: Instagram
| Supported objectives | Call-to-action (CTA) buttons |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Apply Now |
| Traffic | Book Now |
| Engagement | Contact Us |
| Leads | Buy Tickets |
| App promotion | Contact Us |
| Sales | Download |
| Call Now | |
| Get Offer | |
| Get Quote | |
| Get Showtimes | |
| Get Directions | |
| Learn More | |
| Listen Now | |
| Order Now | |
| Play Game | |
| Request Time | |
| See Menu | |
| Shop Now | |
| Sign Up | |
| Subscribe | |
| Watch More | |
| Use App | |
| Install Now | |
| Remind Me | |
| Send Message | |
| Send WhatsApp Message | |
| View Event | |
| Try in Camera | |
| Check Availability | |
| Find Your Groups | |
| Dial Code |
How to advertise on Instagram: setting up an ad step-by-step
There are two routes for creating Instagram ads campaigns: boosting an existing post and creating a new ad in the Meta Ads Manager (f.k.a. Facebook Ads Manager). Promoting an existing post only takes a few taps and can be done right from the Instagram app, but lacks the customization options available in Instagram Ads Manager.
Below, we’ll walk you through both methods.
Method 1: Using Instagram Boost
The easiest way to start advertising on Instagram is to promote one of your existing posts. This is similar to Facebook’s Boost Post option.
If you have a post that is performing well in terms of engagement, promoting it within the app is a quick and easy method to scale up the post’s success—and show it to new people who aren’t following you yet.
You’ll need a business or creator account on Instagram to do this. You’ll also need to have a Facebook Business Page connected to your Instagram account (here’s how to connect your Facebook and Instagram accounts in Facebook Business Manager).
Then, it’s as simple as clicking Boost post on the post you wish to turn into an ad.
Next, choose your goal. You’ll have three options: more profile visits, more website visits, or more messages (this includes more WhatsApp messages).
Then, define your audience. You can either choose to let Instagram automatically determine your audience (based on your follower data). Or, you can create your own audience by manually entering your targeting options.
You can also choose to run the boosted post on Facebook, if you want.
Now choose your daily budget and the duration of time you want the ad to run. You can either choose a set number of days or let it run infinitely until you manually pause it.
Finally, review your ad and click Boost post when you’re ready to go live.
That’s it! Your ad will be reviewed and approved by Facebook. Once it goes live, monitor your ad’s results in the Promotions tab of your Instagram profile.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=F8oTTFh3m9I%3Fenablejsapi%3D1%26038%3Borigin%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fblog.hootsuite.com
Psst: If you’re having trouble boosting on Instagram, we’ve got tips to help you sort that out.
Method 2: Using Ads Manager
To get the most out of Instagram’s extensive ad targeting, creative, and reporting abilities, you can use the Meta Ads Manager to create ad campaigns (remember that Meta owns Instagram).
Although it requires a bit more work, our 8-step guide will guide you through the process.
Step 1: Create a new Instagram ad campaign
To start, go to Meta Ads Manager and click +Create.
Step 2: Choose your objective
You can choose to pair your ad with an existing campaign, or start a new one from scratch. To start a new campaign, you’ll need to choose your objective first.
There are six campaign objectives available for Instagram ads. Those are:
- Awareness: Reach the largest number of people who are most likely to remember your ad.
- Traffic: Send people directly to your website, Instagram Shop, or app.
- Engagement: Increase views, likes, comments and shares on your Instagram posts.
- Leads: Collect leads for your business via Instagram ads. Or, encourage them to share information in exchange for content.
- App promotion: Promote app engagement and Installs.
- Sales: Find people likely to purchase your goods or services and drive more sales.
Choose the objective that best matches your goals, and click Continue.
Step 3: Name your campaign
After selecting your objective, you’ll be prompted to name your campaign.
Pro Tip: Give it a specific name based on the campaign objective to help you keep track of your campaigns.
Once you’ve chosen a name, click Next.
Step 4: Choose your budget and schedule
Once you know what you want your ad to look like, choose New [your ad goal here] Ad Set from the left-hand menu.
Here, you can choose how much you want to spend and how long your campaign will run.
For your budget, you’ll have two options:
- Daily budget: Set a maximum daily spend, useful for always-on ads
- Lifetime budget: Set a maximum spend for your whole campaign, useful for ads with a clear end date
Under Ad Scheduling you can choose to run ads continuously (most common), or only at certain times of day (for example, if you’re a food delivery company and only want to run ads in the evening when your audience is most likely to place delivery orders).
As you adjust these options, you’ll see the Audience Definition and Estimated Daily Results modules in the right-hand column, which will give you an idea of your budget’s expected reach.
Pro tip: Try to make your ad set fall in the middle of the green range.
Step 5: Identify your audience
Now it’s time to choose your audience.
You can either use a previously saved audience or create a new audience.
Saved Audiences are useful if you have your own custom audience data (i.e. past website visitors) or past audiences from previous campaigns that performed well. If not, you can create a new audience based on demographics, interests, and behavioral targeting.
If you choose to create a new audience, you’ll have the option to target by location, age range, gender, demographics, interests, behaviours, and languages.
Step 6: Choose your Instagram ad placements
In the Placements section, you can decide where your ads will appear.
There are two options:
- Advantage+ Placements: Ads will be shown to your audience wherever they’re likely to perform best.
- Manual Placements: You can choose specifically where your ad will appear (and not appear). If you want to limit your ads to show only on Instagram (not Facebook), you can choose these using Manual Placements.
If you’re new to Instagram advertising, we recommend going with Advantage+ placements.
If you choose manual placements, the Ads Manager will display the technical requirements for each one. To ensure your visual assets are optimized for each format, see our guide to social media image sizes or head straight to our guide to Instagram video sizes.
Step 7: Create a new Instagram ad
Finally, it’s time to create your new Instagram ad. Choose New [your goal here] Ad from the left-hand menu. This will open up a screen where you can customize your new Instagram ad.
Here, you can edit your ad name, choose from different Instagram ad types, and add creative elements like images, videos, headlines, and CTAs.
You can also add any copy, website links, and tracking parameters on this screen.
If you want to track conversions from your ad, it’s important to select the Facebook Pixel in the Tracking section.
Once connected to your website or app, your Facebook pixel will allow you to see insights about how your audience interacts with your business after clicking on your ad.
Step 8: Publish your Instagram ad
Once you’ve filled out all the necessary fields, click Publish in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen.
Your Instagram ads will now run on the chosen budget and timeline. Be sure to check your Instagram Analytics regularly to see how your ads perform.
6 Instagram ad tips
Now you have everything you need to know about setting up and launching Instagram ads. The next step is designing effective visual assets for your ads.
Here are some tips for how to design attention-grabbing creative for Instagram ads.
1. Design mobile-first ads
More than 4.08 billion users access social media via a mobile device, so it’s vital to design your creative for mobile viewing, not desktop.
Here are a few tips for designing mobile-first ads:
- When capturing video content, make sure to film in vertical (9×16) as this is easier to crop to 4×5 than from landscape
- Minimize the amount of text in your ads
- If you do add text, choose large font sizes that are easy to read on mobile screens
- Add animations and motion graphics to videos to quickly engage viewers
- Keep videos short (15 seconds or less)
2. Keep branding and messaging upfront
The first few seconds of your ad will determine whether a viewer will stop scrolling and watch the whole thing. That’s why it’s important to start your ad with the key message and showcase your branding within the first 3 seconds.
3. Use sound to delight
Data suggests that 69% of users consume social media with sound off. As such, it’s important to design your ads for sound-off consumption and to use sound to delight users who do have sound on. Here’s how to do that:
- Use visual elements to tell your story and deliver your key message without sound
- Add captions for any voiceover or scripted audio
- Use text overlay to deliver your key message without sound
4. Pitch, play, plunge
Facebook recommends designing a combination of creative types that work together to grab attention and reward interest:
- Pitch: Short assets that get the campaign idea across immediately and grab attention
- Play: Assets that allow light exploration and interactivity for interested audiences
- Plunge: Immersive assets that allow people to go in-depth into your campaign idea
5. Use a variety of ad types
With so many Instagram ad types to choose from, you can experiment to find the right combination of visuals and messaging that resonates best with your target audience. Consider incorporating video ads, Story ads, carousel posts, collections, shoppable posts, and more into your advertising approach.
Similarly, get creative with your creative! Why not test out some meme ads, or create custom illustrations, or GIFs to get your message out? Remember, Instagram ads should reflect your brand’s overall aesthetic and style. But that said, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t switch things up to keep your audience engaged.
6. Leverage analytics to see where you stand
The best way to know if your Instagram ads are performing well is to measure their effectiveness with analytics. Instagram’s native reporting tool offers insights into key metrics such as impressions, clicks, engagement rate, and ROI.
You can also use third-party tools to track your campaign performance in more detail and make data-driven decisions on improving future ad campaigns.
Instagram ad examples
To get inspired, let’s look at some successful Instagram ad campaigns from other brands. As you browse these Instagram ad examples, consider the types of visuals used, where ads are placed within stories, and how businesses use copy to engage their target audiences.
Skip puts its offer front and centre
Skip the dishes knows it only has a few seconds to grab its viewer’s attention–so they don’t waste any time telling you what they’re selling. In one simple and effective graphic, they give you the what, why, and where.
Source: Instagram (@skipthedishes)
The Bay leverages VR/AR capabilities
Today’s online shoppers expect interactive experiences–and The Bay delivers. By combining Instagram story ads with its VR/AR capabilities, the retailer creates a unique shopping experience that takes users out of their phone, and into the store.
Source: Instagram (@hudsonsbay)
Birdies speaks to the stomach
Marketing is all about emotion, right? And what’s more emotional than food? Birdies does a great job of connecting with its audience on Instagram by showcasing mouth-watering images of its most drool-worthy dishes.
Source: Instagram (@birdiesyvr)
Vessi shows its product in action
Instagram Reels, Story, and video ads are a great way to showcase how your product works–especially when it’s a technical item like Vessi’s new waterproof gloves. Here, Vessi uses an Instagram Reels ad to show the product in action.
Source: Instagram (@vessi)
Cider keeps it simple
You don’t need to break the bank every time you create an Instagram ad. Clothing brand Cider’s in-feed image ad is simple but effective. They show you the product and tell you why you should buy it. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.
Source: Instagram (@cidergang)
Dank Mart uses collab posts to build hype
Instagram now allows brands to create collab posts. These posts will show two account names–the brand and their partner–and link to both accounts. Canadian specialty snack store Dank Mart used this feature to advertise a new product with its upcoming collaborator, Nemesis Coffee.
Source: Instagram (@dankmart)
Storyworth turns customer testimonials into ads
Social proof is the idea that seeing other customers use and recommend a product will make you more likely to buy it. a company that helps you record your family history in a book, leveraged this idea by using customer videos in their ads. By showing grandparents opening this gift for the first time, they created a personalized, emotional Instagram ad that customers could relate to.
Source: Instagram (@storyworth)
Looking for more inspiration? Check out the Facebook ads library to see how other companies advertise on Instagram. You can search for Instagram ads by keyword and better understand how different brands approach the platform. From there, you can confidently test your campaigns, knowing what’s already worked for others in your industry.
Manage Instagram alongside your other social channels and save time using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can schedule, publish, and boost posts, engage your audience, and measure performance. Try it free today.
Source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-ads-guide/
How to Create Facebook Ads: A Beginners Guide
What are the benefits of advertising on Facebook?
Accurately target customers
Facebook has a lot of user data and allows marketers to use it when targeting their audiences.
When creating a Facebook Ad, you can get specific with demographics about Facebook users like gender, location, and age. Where Facebook differentiates itself from other platforms with ads, though, is through lifestyle-based targeting options, like:
- Interests
- Behaviors (like recent purchases)
- Education and job history
- Income
- Political affiliation
- Major life events
- Spoken languages
If you’re up for letting AI do all that for you, the 2023 release of Meta Advantage+ features will learn from your ad performance in real time. According to Meta, this will help to “maximize the performance benefits of AI in your ad campaigns and maximize the value of each ad impression.”
Get powerful results
Learning how to run Facebook ads is easy once you’ve mastered Facebook Ads Manager — and results tend to happen quickly.
A recent survey of US retailers showed that 41 percent see the greatest return on advertising spend (ROAS) from Facebook Ads. That’s huge compared to the average conversion rate across all industries of just 8.25 percent.
Reach billions on Facebook and Instagram
Because Meta owns both Facebook and Instagram, their platforms are easily integrated. This means that ads can be run simultaneously on both platforms, giving you access to even more social users — even if you aren’t active on Instagram. The reach potential of advertising on Facebook and Instagram is unmatched.
Both marketing agencies (90 percent) and small businesses (85 percent) found Facebook newsfeed ads to be the most effective. However, Instagram Feed and Instagram Stories ranked #2 and #3 as the top-performing Meta channels for ads on this list.
Track ad performance in real-time
While Meta got rid of its full Facebook Analytics platform in 2021, it still has excellent resources for understanding ad performance, including reach, engagement, conversions, and more metrics. This data is updated in real-time so you can adjust your campaigns based on performance.
Another significant benefit of Facebook’s current analytics is the ability to add the Meta Pixel to your website. Most content management platforms allow you to easily add this piece of code to your website and track the effectiveness of your Facebook Ads. You can monitor user behavior and create specific target audiences for future Facebook advertising campaigns.
Before you dive into Facebook Ads
Before you jump in, it’s essential to think about why you’re advertising and what you’re aiming to achieve. By determining your measure of success ahead of going live with ads, you’ll be able to decide which ad objective is best for your needs.
For example, if you want to increase your mobile app’s downloads through Facebook Ads, your success metric could be 100 downloads in the first month. If it’s lead generation you’re after, success could be measured by a larger email list. You should think about your reason for advertising before you create a campaign.
How to advertise on Facebook
All of Facebook’s ad campaigns run through the Facebook Ads Manager tool, so learning how to run ads on Facebook means getting to grips with it. Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to use. We’ll walk you through everything in this step-by-step guide to how to advertise on Facebook.
Getting started with Facebook Ads Manager
When you sign up for Facebook, you’re given a personal ad account ID by default. You can see this ID by going to Ads Manager and looking in the upper left-hand corner.
To use Facebook Ads Manager, you need a verified payment method and:
- A Facebook Page or
- To be an admin, editor, or advertiser on someone else’s Page
If you do not have a Page for your business, you can follow Facebook’s steps to set one up. Any Page you create will be automatically given an ad account.
If there is a Page you wish to advertise for created by someone else, you need to ask the Page admin to assign you an admin, editor, or advertiser role on the Page.
If you already have an existing ad account for your Page but want to create a new one, you’ll need a Business Manager account. You can create a new ad account once you sign up for Business Manager.
These steps are for using it on a desktop or laptop computer.
The easiest way to find Facebook Ads Manager is to click and bookmark this direct link. You will be brought directly into the Facebook Ads Manager for your personal ad account. If you manage multiple ad accounts, use the account drop-down menu to pick the right account.
To navigate to Ads Manager right from your business Page, head to the left sidebar and click on the Ad Center drop-down arrow of any Facebook Page, then choose All Ads from the drop-down. At the bottom of that Page is an option to click Ads Manager.
Click on Facebook’s Ads Manager to get started. You will be brought to your Facebook Ad Accounts page, where there will be a quick overview of your ad account(s). If you have access to more than one ad account, select the account where you wish to run ads.
If you’d rather use a mobile device, a Facebook Ads Manager app is available for Apple and Android.
How to create a Facebook ad
Here’s a complete, step-by-step guide to advertising on Facebook with the latest version of Facebook Ads Manager.
1 Create Ad
Click the green Create Ad button to get started with your first ad.
Facebook will take you to a page where you will be prompted to choose a buying type and campaign objective.
2 Choose your buying type
Meta’s ads have two different buying types: Auction and Reservation (formerly Reach and Frequency). Here’s Meta’s explainer for both:
Auction: Offers more choice, efficiency, and flexibility, with less predictable results. Ads can be placed across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and Meta Audience Network.
Reservation: Lets you plan and buy your campaigns in advance, with predictable performance goals and more control over your frequency controls. Ads can be placed on Facebook and Instagram.
The key differences between the two lie in your campaign setup and campaign objectives. For example, an Auction ad allows for various campaign objectives, while Reservation only has two: awareness and engagement.
It’s worthwhile reading over Meta’s guidance on which option best suits your needs here.
3. Choose your campaign objective
Meta and Facebook let you set up your ads with your ultimate goal in mind. There are six you can choose from:
- Awareness: Your ad will be shown to people most likely to remember them. According to Meta, this goal type is good for reach, brand awareness, video views, and store location awareness.
- Traffic: This ad type will send people to a specific destination, like your website, an event, or a download link. It’s best for link clicks, landing page views, and calls.
- Engagement: This ad type will make you more likely to receive messages, in-app purchases, likes, and comments. It’s also great for video views, conversions, and calls.
- Leads: Your ad may help you collect info from potential customers. It’s good for forms, conversions, and calls.
- App promotion: Get more users for your app or encourage current users to keep using it.
- Sales: Find people who are likely to buy your product or service. This route is obviously great for conversions and in-app sales.
4. Pick a name for your ad campaign
Once you’ve selected your marketing objective, you’ll be asked to name your campaign. Be sure to make your campaign name recognizable to everyone working on the ads.
5. Declare your ad category
Different regions have different advertising rules, particularly when it comes to categories like credit, employment, housing, social issues, elections, or politics. If your ad falls into one of these buckets, it’s worthwhile declaring it here to ensure it remains compliant with Facebook’s and various countries’ advertising standards.
6. Choose whether you want A/B testing on
At this point in the process, you’ll be able to turn on the A/B test feature, where you can try out different images, text, audiences, or placements to maximize your ad performance. The full setup for this will come later in the process — this toggle just turns it on.
7. Choose whether you want to turn on Advantage+ campaign budget
This feature, only available if you choose the Auction buying option, means Facebook will automatically find the best available opportunities for results across your ad sets and distribute your campaign budget in real time to get those results.
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Advantage+ campaign budget (formerly called campaign budget optimization) is best suited for campaigns with at least two ad sets.
8. Narrow down your performance goal
Facebook now allows you to get super specific about the ultimate goals of your ad. Each campaign goal mentioned in step 3 has a separate set of specific targets — for example, Awareness has everything from the broader ‘Maximize reach’ to the hyper-specific ‘Maximize two-second continuous video views.’
If you’re new to Facebook Ads, it’s worth trialing the broader options before zeroing in on specific targets that lend themselves to your goals and the content you share.
9. Define your ad spend and schedule
When you set an ad budget, it’s important to remember that this figure represents the maximum amount of money you want to spend. You can set your budget per day or as a total amount for the campaign.
- Daily: A daily budget sets a limit on what you spend each day on your ads. Facebook will use your set criteria to find the right place and time to show your ad to your target audience. Once your budget is reached, the ads stop running for the day. The cycle starts again on the next day.
- Lifetime: A lifetime budget is the maximum you’ll spend the entire time you run your ad campaign. You give Facebook a number and an end date, and it will spend the money based on ad performance. Once your budget is reached, the campaign ends.
10. Customize your target audience
Meta recently made some changes to its audience customization settings in Ads Manager, which is why things may look a little different nowadays if you’re a regular user!
Previously, marketers could zero in on everything from location to behavior and interests; now, you can choose only three options: location, age, and language.
But if you want to get more specific than that, fear not: the new Meta Advantage+ audience feature does all the ad targeting for you.
Here’s how it works:
“Meta’s AI uses lots of information to find your audience, constantly evolving as it learns (e.g., past conversions, Pixel data, and interactions with previous ads.)
You can rely on Meta’s AI to find your audience or add specific information about the people you want to reach as an Audience suggestion. Advantage+ audience creates the broadest possible audience to search within, giving Meta’s AI lots of flexibility.”
In other words, you can still provide more specific suggestions (like age range, gender, and interests). Meta will target those audiences first before expanding the search to generate the best results for your ad.
Good news for the Facebook Ads Manager veterans who know their target audiences inside out and want to reach them: your Custom Audiences are still available in the ad creation wizard, and you can even switch back to the original audience options by clicking the link you see in the screenshot below.
11. Choose your ad placements
Ad placement defines where your ad appears for your target audience. You won’t be surprised to learn that Meta has made similar changes to its placement tools, with the AI-powered Advantage+ placements to help maximize your ad reach.
However, you can still decide on ad placement yourself by selecting the Manual placements option in the screenshots above. When you do, you’ll see the options below become available to you:
There are several options across the Meta suite of social platforms:
- Feeds: Get high visibility for your business with ads in feeds.
- Stories and Reels: Tell a rich, visual story with immersive, full-screen vertical ads
- In-stream: Quickly capture people’s attention while they’re watching videos.
- Reels overlay: Reach people with sticker or banner ads as they watch short-form content.
- Search results: Get visibility for your business as people search.
- Messages: Send offers or updates to people already connected to your business.
- Apps and sites: Expand your reach with ads in external apps and websites
For more, check out Facebook’s guide to ad placement.
12. Choose your social accounts
In the next window, you can choose which Meta social media profiles you want the ads to run on.
13. Choose your ad format
Under Ad setup, you’ll be able to create a new ad, use an existing post, or use any mock-ups you have in Meta’s Creative Hub.
Once you’ve made that selection, choose whether your ad will feature a single image or video, a Carousel (multi-image or video post), or a collection (a group of products that becomes a full-screen experience on mobile).
14. Choose your media and write your text
It’s finally time to add those scroll-stopping creative assets! The Ads manager will likely have pulled through something you have already posted on your Facebook page, but you can change this by clicking the Edit drop-down in the Ad creative box.
Upload your photos or clips — carousel ads, video ads, they’re all created right here.
In this area, you can also switch up the ad copy and ad creative you use in each section of the Meta apps, if you want to tailor the experience for each platform.
Lower down in this section, you can choose music for the formats where this is applicable (check out our article on trending Instagram audio to help guide your choice!)
You’ll also be able to add your ad copy with the various text options in this section — don’t forget to include an applicable call-to-action (CTA).
15. Choose your destination
As you’ll have come to expect by now, you’ll have a host of interesting options to play with when it comes to your ad destination — where Facebook sends people when they click on your ad.
There’s Instant Experience (formerly Canvas) — a fast-loading, mobile-optimized experience. These offer a way for Facebook to keep your audience in their app. In other words, they’re a simple, dynamic landing page, form, or lookbook you can create with Facebook.
Of course, you can also choose your website link and even add your own UTM tracking parameter.
On top of that, you can send people directly to your inbox in Facebook Messenger, Instagram, or WhatsApp.
16. Publish your ad
To submit your ad, click the ‘Publish’ button at the bottom right-hand corner of the Page.
Once your ad is submitted, Facebook will hold your post so they can review it to make sure it fits their specs and doesn’t violate their community guidelines. Expect it to be reviewed within 24 hours. You’ll receive a confirmation email from Facebook once the ad is live.
How much does it cost to create a Facebook Ad?
While the specifics are more complicated, the simple answer is that you will only pay what you want to spend. The budget you set in step 9 above is what you’ll spend on the ad — however, the mileage you get from that spend can vary quite a lot.
According to data from Wordstream, the average cost per click (CPC) on Facebook ads across all industries is $0.83(for comparison, the average cost per click in Google Ads of $4.22).
However, drilling down on the specific sectors means the CPC can vary considerably. For example, the industries with the highest cost per click are Dentists & Dental Services at $1.27, Furniture at $1.19, and Attorneys & Legal Services at $1.15. The industries with the lowest are Travel at $0.43, Arts & Entertainment at $0.44, and Restaurants & Food at $0.52.
Get strategic with your Facebook Ads
Now that you’ve nailed the basics of creating a Facebook ad, you can start experimenting to see what works best for your audience.
For each step above, pausing and thinking back to your goals is helpful. Make sure everything you define and create aligns with your own measure of success. Not sure what your audience wants to see? No problem. Facebook has plenty of tools for A/B split testing, so you can compare ads side by side to find out what works. Get creative and monitor your ads’ performance so you can change things when necessary.
And check out Buffer’s top Facebook advertising tips to help you get started.
Source: https://buffer.com/library/facebook-ads/
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