Here’s What You Need To Know About Facebook Ads For Beginners
Using Facebook ads alone, we’ve helped our clients generate millions of website clicks,
thousands of website leads,
and millions of website sales.
So in this post, we’re going to talk about Facebook ads for beginners in 2023. And if you’re just getting started, you’re going to LOVE this.
Now when we think back to when we FIRST started doing Facebook ads, we had so many questions like…
- How much do Facebook ads cost?
- How does Facebook charge me for the ads?
- Can I pay for performance like can I only pay Facebook when I get a conversion?
- How do I set all this up?
- How do I even create an ad?
So we spent hours and hours, researching, reading blogs, reading forums, and watching YouTube videos.
And we thought, YES! We finally figured it out.
We know exactly what to do now and got started with Facebook ads. But even with all the information available publicly on the internet, we came up short.
The results weren’t good. We didn’t have high click-through rates.
And when we did get clicks, they didn’t turn into conversions.
And when we finally did get conversions, the cost per conversion was so high that we were not profitable.
So we felt like we failed and that Facebook ads just weren’t for us.
But something deep inside us told us to stick with it and through failure, we learned success.
That was over 8 years ago and now we are Facebook advertising pros!
And it’s time for us to help other people who were like us and want to master Facebook ads, so they can grow their career, their business, and more.
Now before we jump into the specific details of the Facebook ads manager (which we will do later)…
…let’s just take a step back and talk a little bit about Facebook ads for beginners – what you need to know upfront.
Now chances are you use Facebook or you just heard an amazing story about how Facebook ads helped a company generate thousands of sales.
Maybe even millions of sales. And as we mentioned earlier, we’ve also helped people generate millions of leads and sales using Facebook ads too.
So our goal is that by the end of this post, you, even if you are completely new, will have a great understanding of Facebook ads for beginners in 2023.
If that sounds good? That’s let’s go ahead and dive in with the first thing you need to know.
7 FAQs About Facebook Ads For Beginners
1. How much do Facebook ads cost?
So the first thing you need to know about Facebook ads for beginners is that you can spend as little as $1/day on Facebook ads.
Or, as much as you really want to per day.
So overall, you are in complete control of your daily, monthly, or even lifetime budget.
Also, social media ads, in general, have much lower costs if you compare them against traditional media sources like:
- direct mail,
- tv commercials, and
- radio ads
You can read more about this comparison in our post “Traditional Media vs. Social Media Advertising” which you can read next.
But we know what you really want to find out is how much will it cost you to reach a decent amount of people and get enough clicks for conversions.
And the answer is… well, it depends.
You see Facebook ads system is an auction. So the more people that are bidding, the higher the price goes.
Here’s a secret tip: The key is to find relevant audiences that no one else is using, to get lower costs.
2. How do you pay for the ads?
Now a lot of people have heard of CPA or paying for conversions, but that’s not how it actually works.
You see when you set up what’s called a conversion campaign, yes it shows your cost in terms of conversions.
But a conversion campaign is actually just optimizing your ad performance for more conversions.
So instead, Facebook charges you based on the amount of people you reach.
The more people you reach, the more money you will spend. It’s that simple.
3. How do I set up a Facebook ad?
So, we’re going to walk you through exactly how to set up a Facebook ad later in this post, but before you start actually trying to set up your ad, you need a plan.
If you just randomly go to set up an ad, then you will likely have random results.
So when it comes to setting up a Facebook ad, you should think about your social media goals.
Think about what you are trying to accomplish.
Is it more foot traffic, more leads, or more awareness? Do you want to just reach a ton of people and tell them about yourself?
Once you establish your goal, then you can think about the creatives.
So will it be a photo? Will it be a video? Or some sort of audio?
What do you want people to know when they see your ad?
When you have your goal plus your creatives, then you’re ready to set up a new Facebook ad campaign.
4. What are some ad best practices?
We run across a lot of people who think they have an amazing and incredible idea for a Facebook ad.
But oftentimes, we have to step in and redirect their thinking.
That is because too many people treat social media ads like TV ads or magazine ads. But don’t forget that social media should be… well, social.
So you should be trying to create ads that are relatable and social.
We were working with a client once and he had a very good pet product. All his customers seriously loved his product.
And so when he wanted to run a Facebook ad, he came to us and said, “I want to run a Facebook ad giving people 75% off of this amazing product.”
And the ad was just that; it was a picture of his product with a big 75% off text and designed like a magazine ad.
Don’t get us wrong, the ad looked beautiful, but we aggressively denied the idea, but the client persisted…. And the ad completely failed. We got zero conversions from it.
A few weeks later, we did another ad which we suggested that had video clips of pets using the product and the owners talking about how much they loved it.
And we will admit, the ad was a little rugged because it was taken from cell phone footage.
BUT that ad EXPLODED and continues to generate new leads and sales today.
So what was the difference?
Well instead of trying to sell, we tried to establish TRUST.
We can give you a dozen Facebook ads best practices, but the biggest factor of them all is establishing trust with your audience.
And the best way to establish trust is to try to create conversations and not sales messages.
Build trust, build trust, and build more trust.
Then when you feel like people trust you enough, then build even more trust. Once people trust you, the sales will come a lot faster.
5. What are the best campaign types to use?
Well, the best campaign is going to depend on your goals and your social media budget.
But at the end of the day, we know most of our clients want conversions. They want to turn traffic into a lead or into a sale.
If this is your goal too, then run conversion campaigns.
But for these types of campaigns, you do need a huge audience or you need to be prepared to spend a lot of money.
We would say at least $1,500 per month.
If that sounds like a lot, don’t worry, keep reading as we’ll show you how you can win with Facebook ads without spending a lot on the actual ads.
6. What type of results can I expect from my Facebook ads?
Facebook ads really can help you accomplish almost any advertising goal. There really is no limit.
And we’re sure you’ve heard of a lot of success stories.
But here’s the thing, you don’t always hear their failures. We shared our ups and downs at the beginning of this post, but you don’t see other people doing that often.
We shared our story because we want to set your expectations appropriately. Don’t expect to win immediately unless you already have a big audience on social media.
We want you to have this expectation because if you give up too early, then you’re wasting your time and you’re wasting your money.
Because initially, you are paying for data or market research. You’re going to create a new ad, serve it to a new audience and analyze results.
Almost immediately, you will be able to see what is working and what is not working. And from there be able to make adjustments.
But even after making adjustments, you still are in a research phase or sometimes what Facebook will call a “learning phase.”
So just expect to spend some money without any return while you are trying to get results.
Now is it possible to get results in week 1? Well yes, especially when you know what you’re doing.
But even the best marketers in the world may take 6 months to get good results.
7. How do I get the best results from Facebook ads?
Now the answer to this question takes an advanced strategy to pull off, but it’s actually pretty easy to understand.
Remember, the power of a Facebook ad campaign is being able to reach people.
Once you have reach, then your next natural goal is to influence, which you can do by establishing trust.
So once you reach a lot of people and establish trust, then BANG you get results! And some pretty good ones too.
But trust sometimes isn’t earned overnight.
In fact, some people who are reading this post may be thinking that trust is earned and not easily given.
And a lot of times someone has to get to know someone over a period of weeks or even months before they begin to establish trust.
So what does all this mean for your Facebook ads?
Well simply put, yes you can get results with one Facebook ad.
But you get the BEST results with multiple Facebook ads or putting together a Facebook ad funnel.
See, when you get it in front of someone multiple times, we’re talking 6 or 7 times with different messages, then you will begin to establish trust.
But this can be expensive to pull off with Facebook ads alone.
So this is where social media management comes into play.
When you get a fan or a follower that you can serve content to on a daily basis, then trust will be established much easier.
So to get the best results, you really need to get an audience of about 20k people who trust you.
Either by building up your social media followers, your blog readers, or even people who engage with your ads.
Facebook Ads Manager Walkthrough
So now that you have some of the most important questions answered. It’s time to show you what you need to create successful Facebook ads.
Now before we do anything, the first step for success is to track results.
You want to know where every single cent is going when you spend money on Facebook ads.
Now, most people will just hop right over to Facebook ads manager and show campaign objectives…
…but we think it’s important that you start with tracking hence when we are looking at Facebook pixels.
Now we break all of this down in a step-by-step screenshare in the video at the top of this post, so if that’s something you’re interested in, scroll to the top and start watching!
Wrapping Up Facebook Ads For Beginners In 2023
Otherwise, that is how you explode with Facebook ads.
We think all of the information we’ve shared with you is something you should know upfront as a beginner so you have the best chances of success with your online marketing.
And hey, we want you to win. Our mission is to help as many people as we can to grow with digital marketing.
Now, if you want to work with the experts for your Facebook marketing campaigns, check out our Facebook advertising services here.
