Do you want to start advertising on Facebook, but you don't know exactly how? I would like to help you get off to a good start. If you are not yet convinced that Facebook can be interesting for your business, I would like to point out the 9,4 million Dutch people who use this social medium almost every day. With the extensive targeting options you can easily address the right people and achieve quick results. Unfortunately, I still see it every day quickly Achieving results is very difficult for many people. In this article I would like to go through a number of settings with you, so that advertising on Facebook can also yield more for your business!

Business Accounts

The first tip I would like to give is to see if you have a business account in Facebook. This is a company account, where you can start working quickly and clearly. Many people still use a personal advertising account that has fewer options and does not receive support from Facebook. If you do not yet have a business account within Facebook, I recommend that you do so to create.

Once you do this, you will have more options within your interface. The only thing you need to pay attention to is that you add your Facebook page, advertising account and possibly a catalog (depending on whether you sell products). You do this by clicking on company settings and then linking your data per resource.

Start collecting data

Success? Great, then you are already further ahead than most organizations that advertise via Facebook! It is now important that you collect data correctly. You do this by placing a piece of code on your website, also called the Facebook Pixel. You can find this code by clicking on the drop-down menu within Facebook and then clicking on 'pixel'. You will then be given various options to place the code. It is often useful to discuss with your web builder how you want to place the code, we generally recommend doing this via Tag Manager. Don't forget to assign the pixel to your advertising account. You do this again in your business account.

By placing the basic pixel, you only receive data about the number of page views. By extending the code with standard events, you can collect much more relevant data. For example, think of someone making a purchase, or someone adding something to their shopping cart. You can then create custom target groups based on these events. If you want to use dynamic remarketing, it is useful to read my previous blog article about dynamic remarketing can be read again within Facebook.

Custom Audiences

Creating a custom audience is quite simple, and often very valuable. You can create such a target group by clicking on target groups in the drop-down menu. You will then be given different options, as you see in the image below.

I personally recommend starting with target groups based on website traffic. Depending on your business, it is wise to create target groups that contain people who, for example, visited your website in the past 30 days. Placing people in a (custom) target group who have added something to a shopping cart in the past 30 days, but have not checked out, is of course even more relevant. This way you can quickly create a lot of interesting combinations that will make your advertising campaign successful. After all, returning visitors generally convert faster than new visitors. Read the article by my colleague Lianne again, she has already explained how to adjust your adjustment create target groups within Facebook.

So far we have mainly talked about a number of settings and the custom audiences within Facebook. Important, because this is often done incorrectly.

The next question after that is; how do I create a successful campaign? Well, that's not very difficult. You can use Power Editor within Facebook business manager for this, this is a tool that allows you to completely prepare a campaign before you put it online. You can also create your campaign directly in ads manager.

If you then click on adding a new campaign, you will be presented with multiple goals. These are goals that Facebook has defined in advance. The question is actually whether your goal is among them. Below you can see what goals there are;

Success depends on a strategy!

Often one of these goals goes well with your social media strategy. If you don't have a strategy yet, it's time to create one. On our website you can download manual in which you draw up your social media strategy in 12 steps. After all, a strategy is necessary to be clear about what you want to achieve throughout the entire process! If your first campaign is running, it is always advisable to split test with different advertisements.

Once you have chosen one of the goals in Facebook, go through the steps. You have three levels:

• First, you start at campaign level, determining the objective as shown above.
• You then create the ad set: here you determine who will see your ad. You can do this based on demographic data, interests and you can also target or exclude the custom target groups you have created. If you have your targtting correct, you can proceed to the last step.
• Creating an advertisement. By default, Facebook indicates a number of formats that you can use for your ad. If you are a little more creative, there is also the Creative hub. Here Facebook gives you the option to create different formats, such as a 360º video, slideshow or an interactive canvas.

Ready?

Now you have the most important information to start a successful campaign on Facebook. Make sure that when you go live with the campaigns, you go through everything again. Make sure that your pixel is selected in your ad, so that it measures the data within Facebook. If you want to measure your data in Google Analytics, you can do so URL parameters to give. Facebook asks for this when you create your ad. Is it not possible to make a campaign live within Facebook, or do you have the feeling that you cannot get the most out of it? Don't hesitate and contact us, the solution is often simpler than it seems!