Facebook Advertising Basics: How to Start?
- What are Facebook Ads and how do they work?
- Benefits of Facebook Advertising
- How does Facebook advertising work?
- Facebook ad formats
- Key Facebook Ads performance metrics
- Common mistakes of beginners
- Facebook Ads Manager Overview
- Main sections of Ads Manager
- How to find Ads Manager
- Interface settings
- Types of Facebook Ads campaigns
- Example of working with campaigns
- Budget settings
- Common mistakes of beginners
- How to create your first advertising campaign: a step-by-step guide
- Define your campaign goal
- Creating a campaign in Ads Manager
- Ad group settings
- Creating an ad
- Review and launch the campaign
- Conclusion
1. What are Facebook Ads and how do they work?
Facebook advertising is a tool for promoting businesses, brands, or products through paid ads. These ads appear in various parts of the platform: in the news feed, stories, the right column on desktops, as well as on Instagram, Messenger, and third-party sites through the Audience Network.
Benefits of Facebook Advertising
Facebook Ads are an extremely effective tool, and here’s why:
- Global audience. With over 2.9 billion monthly active users, Facebook offers access to a huge base of potential customers.
- Targeting: You can customize your ads based on age, gender, location, interests, behavior, and more.
- Budget optimization. You decide how much money to spend on advertising and can control your spending in real time.
- Analytics. Facebook provides detailed statistics that help you understand how your ads are performing.
“Facebook Ads allows small businesses to compete with large companies by offering affordable and accurate advertising methods.”
How does Facebook advertising work?
The Facebook Ads algorithm is built on machine learning to help optimize your campaigns for the best results. Here are the main steps in how it works:
- Goal setting. The algorithm takes into account your goal — whether it’s driving traffic to your site, conversions, increasing brand awareness, etc.
- Audience analysis: You set your target audience parameters, and the algorithm finds users who are most likely to interact with your ads.
- Ad placement: Ads are shown to users in places where they will best attract their attention.
- Optimization. Facebook analyzes results and automatically adjusts your campaign to improve results.
Why is targeting so important?
Understanding your audience is the foundation of a successful campaign. Here are some parameters you can use:
- Geography: You can target your ads to a specific city, region, or even a radius around a specific point.
- Demographics: Choose the age, gender, and even occupation of your target audience.
- Interests and Behavior. Facebook analyzes user behavior to help you target people who are interested in products or services similar to yours.
“For example, if you sell athletic shoes, you can target people who are interested in running or fitness.”
Facebook ad formats
There are several ad formats, and each has its own advantages:
- Photo ads. A simple and effective way to grab attention. Use high-quality images with a clear call to action.
- Video advertising. Helps you better tell the story of your brand or product.
- Carousel: An ad with multiple images or videos that users can scroll through.
- Collections: An interactive format that allows users to browse your catalog directly on Facebook.
- Stories Ads: Full-screen ads that appear in the Stories feed.
How do you determine which format is right for you?
It depends on your goal. For example:
- Use video to increase brand awareness.
- To stimulate sales – collections or a carousel.
- To quickly attract attention, use photo ads or ads in Stories.
Key Facebook Ads performance metrics
To understand how your advertising is performing, track the following metrics:
- CTR (Click-Through Rate). Shows the percentage of people who clicked on your ad.
- CPC (Cost Per Click). The cost of one click.
- CPM (Cost Per Mille). Cost per 1000 impressions.
- ROAS (Return on Ad Spend). Shows the profitability of advertising costs.
“If your ROAS is 3, it means that every dollar invested in advertising brings in three dollars in profit.”
Common mistakes of beginners
- Incorrect target audience selection. An audience that is too broad or too narrow can reduce the effectiveness of a campaign.
- Lack of testing. You shouldn’t immediately launch a large campaign without testing your ads on a small audience.
- Ignoring analytics. Constantly monitor metrics and optimize your campaign based on the data you get.
In the next section, we will look at how to work with the Facebook Ads Manager and understand what tools it provides for creating and managing campaigns.
2. Overview of the Facebook Ads Manager advertising account
Facebook Ads Manager is the primary tool used to create, configure, monitor, and analyze advertising campaigns on the Facebook platform. This tool gives you complete control over all aspects of the advertising process, from audience selection to budget optimization. Let’s take a look at its key features, functions, and interface so you can easily navigate through it.
Main sections of Ads Manager
The Ads Manager interface is organized to give you access to all the important features. Here are the main elements you’ll find:
- Navigation menu
Located at the top of the window, this menu allows you to switch between the main tabs:- Campaigns : All your ad campaigns are displayed here.
- Ad groups : A level of granularity where you can set up separate ad groups for different purposes.
- Ads : detailed view of each individual ad.
- Control Panel
Here you can create new campaigns, edit existing ones, and view results. - Analytics and Reporting
Ads Manager offers powerful tools to monitor your ad performance. You can view metrics such as impressions, clicks, conversions, and cost-per-acquisition.
How to find Ads Manager
- Through the Facebook menu
In the upper right corner, click on the menu icon (three horizontal lines) and select “Ads Manager”. - Via direct URL
Enter https://www.facebook.com/adsmanager in your browser .
Interface settings
To work effectively with Ads Manager, it is important to customize the interface to your needs. You can choose from:
- Which metrics to display.
- Filter data by dates, campaign types, etc.
- Save your own report templates.
Quote: “The main thing in working with Ads Manager is the ability to navigate metrics. Learn to immediately distinguish between key performance indicators to make the right decisions.”
Types of Facebook Ads campaigns
There are several types of campaigns available on Facebook, depending on your business goals:
- Recognizable : targeting those who are more likely to remember it
- Interaction : increasing activity around your content.
- Conversions : driving actions on your site, such as purchases.
- Traffic : attracting customers to a website.
- Leads : collecting user contact information.
- App promotion : for app installation and usage
Example of working with campaigns
Scenario: Let’s imagine you want to drive more traffic to your blog.
- Select the “Traffic” campaign type.
- You set an audience, for example, people aged 25–40 who are interested in “internet marketing.”
- Set a budget: $10 per day.
- Publish your campaign. After a few days, you receive click data, which allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of your advertising.
Budget settings
There are two ways to allocate your budget in Facebook Ads:
- At the campaign level : The budget is automatically distributed across all ad groups.
- At the ad group level : Each group has a separate budget.
Common mistakes of beginners
- Incorrect audience selection:
Often, newbies try to reach too broad an audience. This can lead to low ad relevance. - Choosing the wrong campaign type.
For example, using an “Engagement” campaign when your goal is sales.
Tip: “Don’t be afraid to experiment with different settings. Facebook Ads Manager allows you to do A/B testing to understand what works best for your audience.”
Conclusion
Understanding the Ads Manager interface and features is the first step to a successful advertising campaign. This tool is powerful, but it requires practice and attention to detail. Next time, we’ll look at the step-by-step process of creating a campaign.
Here is the detailed third section:
3. How to create your first advertising campaign: a step-by-step guide
Creating your first Facebook Ads campaign can seem daunting, but with the right approach, it can be a straightforward and even exciting process. In this section, we’ll walk you through all the steps involved in setting up your ad, including choosing your goals, audience, budget, and ad format.
Step 1: Determine your campaign goal
Before you start, think about what goal you want to achieve with your advertising. Facebook Ads offers three main categories of goals:
- Awareness:
- Increase brand awareness : show your ad to as many people as possible.
- Reach : maximizing your ad impressions among your target audience.
- Consideration:
- Traffic : Driving people to your website, page, or app.
- Engagement : encouraging interaction (likes, comments, reposts).
- App downloads : encourage mobile app installation.
- Conversions:
- Conversions : encouraging certain actions (purchase, registration).
- Catalog sales : Promote specific products from your catalog.
- Store visits : encouraging visits to physical points of sale.
Example: If you’re just starting a business, the “Increase brand awareness” goal will help you attract attention to your company. For an online store, the “Conversions” goal would be more appropriate.
Step 2: Create a campaign in Ads Manager
- Open Ads Manager
Go to Facebook Ads Manager and click the “Create” button . - Choose a campaign goal
Based on the defined task, choose one of the available goals. - Name the campaign
Give it a name that will help you find it easily. For example: “May 2025 – Blog Traffic.” - Enable A/B testing (if necessary)
This feature allows you to test multiple ad variants and determine the most effective one.
Step 3: Set up your ad group
An ad group determines who your ad will be shown to and when.
- Audience
- Geography: Select a country, region, or city.
- Age and gender: Set basic demographics.
- Interests: Use the targeting tool to find people interested in your field.
- Retargeting: If you have a customer base, you can upload it to show ads to those who are already familiar with your brand.
- Placements (where to show ads)
Facebook offers two options:- Automatic placements: the system itself chooses places to display ads (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network).
- Manual placements: You decide where to show your ads.
- Budget and schedule
- Daily budget: The amount you’re willing to spend each day.
- Total budget: The amount for the entire duration of the campaign.
- Schedule: Choose start and end dates or leave the campaign open-ended.
Step 4: Create an ad
- Facebook Ads
offers several formats:- One image: a classic option for simple but effective advertising.
- Video: Great for product demonstrations.
- Carousel: allows you to show multiple products or variants in one ad.
- Collection: an interactive format that is ideal for mobile devices.
- Content
- Text: Write a short and compelling text that explains the benefits of your product.
- Images or videos: Use high-quality materials.
- Call to action (CTA): Add buttons like “Learn more”, “Buy now” or “Sign up”.
- Sitelink
Enter the URL where users will be redirected after clicking.
Step 5: Verify and launch the campaign
- Check all settings
Before launching, make sure that the audience, budget, and content are selected correctly. - Click “Publish”
After that, the ad will be sent for moderation. This usually takes a few hours. - Monitoring results
In Ads Manager, you can review your ad performance and adjust settings as needed.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does Facebook advertising cost?
The minimum budget can start from $1 per day. The final cost depends on the competition in your niche and your settings. - Can I change settings after launch?
Yes, but major changes can affect campaign performance.
Conclusion
Creating your first Facebook ad campaign is a step into the world of digital marketing, and with practice, you’ll be able to better understand your audience, optimize your budgets, and achieve your goals.
