Our blog has talked a lot about the value of using social media for business. That said, you might be wondering which Facebook tools are perhaps the most valuable. Facebook is continuously working to provide products and solutions for all users to connect people and foster a world-wide community. This post will explain how to set up a Facebook page from the ground up. I will also explain how to set up other Facebook tools such as Ads and Audience Insights. My goal by the end of this post is for you to know how to get started with these Facebook tools!
Lets begin by claiming your space with a Facebook page. Of all of the Facebook tools, a page is the most important to cultivate. It is easier to set up a Facebook page than you think. The simplest way is to create a page right from your personal profile. There are actually 6 options to choose from when creating a page for the first time. For the purpose of this post I will focus on the 2 business related options.
To begin, log onto Facebook from a desktop computer or laptop. You will see menu options on the left hand side of your screen. Look to the bottom of those options and there is a grouping under the header “CREATE”. Click on the “Page” link and you’re on your way! You can also just click here. This is what you will need to start your page:
- A business name
- A business category
- A Street Address
- A Phone Number
You have probably noticed that there are two options for creating a business page. That can be sort of confusing, so here is a quick tip. If you are wanting people to come into a brick and mortar location than the “Local Business or Place” is probably what you are looking for. With multiple locations or web based operations you’ll want to choose “Company, Organization or Institution”. Socialnomics explains it in more detail if you’re interested.
Alright, we have talked about setting up your page, however, the page alone will not fill your bank account. The main point of using Facebook tools is to build a network of customers that you can continue to entice and communicate with. Facebook ads are a brilliant way to get your content out to real people.
Facebook Ads are broken down into three general categories: campaigns, ad sets, and ads. Campaigns prompt you to specify your marketing objective for your ad. Ad sets help you define your audience, budget, and schedule. Ads let you specify how your ad will look and what you want it to say.
To setup a Facebook Ad click on the “create ad” button at the bottom of your left-hand menu options or click here. You have now entered Ads Manager—the dashboard for all of your campaigns, ad sets, and ads. The first thing that you will need to do is select the objective for your campaign. Facebook offers 10 objectives which are all pretty straight forward:
Once you pick your overall objective you will then be able to use Facebook’s powerful targeting tool to select an audience that will best fit the messaging you want to display. I will talk more about Facebook audience tools later in this post.
After you have identified your target audience, you will then set your budget and time frame for the ad you want to run. There are two financing options.
- You can set a daily budget which will be the average amount you’ll spend each day your ad runs. A lifetime budget will be the maximum you will spend over the life of your ad. After you select a budget, you can then customize your schedule to run immediately and continuously, or set a start and end date to your campaign.
- You can also set parameters to let your ads only run on specific times of the day.
A great way to begin advertising on Facebook is to mock-up your own ads using Facebook’s Creative Hub. Use the Creative Hub to build an ad from the ground up and get insightful feedback on how well your ad will be.
Lastly, I want to introduce you to Facebook Audience Insights. This is one of the best Facebook tools to use because it will help you reach a very targeted audience. With over 1 billion monthly active users on Facebook, this social network is a goldmine of people who will have interest in your product or service. Audience Insights is a powerful tool to help you use data driven marketing to get results. The Audience Insights tool is found in the Ads Manager under the heading “Plan”. This powerful tool will let you build an audience around real Facebook users who have specific demographic and psychographic information.
To build an audience simply enter the Audience Insights tool. You will be prompted to pick one of the following options: everyone on Facebook, people connected to your page, or a custom audience. The way this works is that Facebook allows you to pick specific qualifiers for the people who will see the ad. For example, If you build an audience from everyone on Facebook, you might want to target males and females age 25-40 who are living in the Denver, Colorado area. You can specify what their interests are, what their income range is, and whether they own their home or rent. With advanced options you can really get down to the nitty-gritty on who you want to see your ad.
Another way to begin is to select people connected to your page or create a custom audience. This will give you an audience that is already based on people who are interested in your product or service. If you select people connected to your page, your audience will be modeled after Facebook users with similar behaviors and interests as your followers. A custom audience will have you connect the email addresses of your current customers. This is a powerful option because you can use the information you already have about people who like what you do to extend your reach. You’ll reach people with similar interests and behaviors who have not yet even heard or seen your business. This is called a lookalike audience and it will exclude your current customers and followers, while finding people who will be likely to find interest in your business.
After reading through this guide, I hope you have a little better understanding of how you can use Facebook pages, ads, and audience insights to improve the value of your business to your customers. by creating your own page, ads, and audience on Facebook you will be on your way to better marketing success. These Facebook tools will help you tap into a new customer base and provide value for your followers. If you are looking for even more insight on growing your social media presence, American Name Services can help! Click here to see how we can kick it off with a running start.
Let us know what you think of this post by leaving a comment below!
Written by Michael Peterson, Social Media Marketer at American Name Services
