Marketing after the storm. In this post we’re going to show you How to Create a Local Brand Awareness Facebook Ad Campaign. Every business that relies on local consumers to drive their business can always use a new stream of potential customers and in light of recent events that couldn’t be more true. Other than word of mouth or referrals there is no better way to get their attention than with Facebook Ads. For as little as $5 per day you can place your brand or business in the Facebook Newsfeed of the exact consumers you are looking for!

In this example we’re going to cover the basics. In order to advertise on Facebook you must have a Facebook Page. You will not be able to create Facebook Ads using your personal profile. You will need a Facebook Ad Account which will be created automatically when you finish creating your first ad here or if you have ever ‘Boosted’ your page content from your page before then, whether you know it or not, you already have a Facebook Ads Account. And, for this example you will need to create or have an existing Facebook Post on your business page so you have something to promote. So let’s get to it!

First you’re going to Create a New Campaign via the Facebook Ads Manager. The Ads Manager link may be accessible on your personal Facebook home page depending on your settings or you can click here.

To keep things simple for this exercise we’re going to create a Brand Awareness campaign. Facebook’s Brand Awareness objective is an effective option for advertisers looking to drive business or brand outcomes, in this case, local exposure for your business. The conversion or tracking result focused on here is Ad Recall Lift and is defined by Facebook as follows:

• The estimated ad recall lift (people) metric shows how many people we estimate would remember seeing your ad if we asked them within 2 days.
• The ad recall lift optimization delivers your ad to the people we estimate would remember seeing your ad if we asked them within 2 days.

So as your ads run, the Facebook algorithm is ‘learning’ from your audience and is using the results to further optimize ad delivery.

Next you’re going to Create a New Ad Set and choose an Audience.

Give your Ad Set a name and follow the red arrows below to define your audience. In this example we are targeting a fairly broad audience of locals for Hilton Head Island and Bluffton, SC including men and women aged 18 to 65+. We recommend clicking on the pull down arrows to see more options available. The more specific you get here the more targeted your audience will be. You can review your Audience Size as you make changes to the different demographics. Keep in mind that bigger is not always better here. It’s about fine tuning your demographics to match your business or brand avatar.

Next you’ll choose your ad Placements and Budget.

For our purpose we’ve selected Automatic Placements (Recommended) as Facebook likes it when they get to select where ads are placed. We encourage you to click on the Edit Placements radio button too to see further options which are available for more advance users. Populate your Daily Budget and let your ads run continuously within your budget and review the default info that follows. Note that you can only run ads on a schedule by choosing the Lifetime Budget option.

Now it’s time to choose an Ad Name, select a representative Facebook Page and choose your Creative (in this case an existing post on your page). Click Use Existing Post and choose your referring Facebook Page. If you have an existing Instagram Account you can select it here or Facebook will use your Facebook Page for displaying your ads on Instagram. Under Creative select a post from your page. You can then toggle through the different platforms that your post/ad will be served to to confirm accuracy and appropriate representation.

Click Confirm to create your ad! You will then be automatically redirected to your Facebook Ads Manager where you will see that your ad is ‘In Review’ which simply means that Facebook is reviewing your content to make sure it conforms to their ad policies. Your ad should be approved in short order and your ad will begin showing up in the newsfeed of your new customers! We strongly recommend monitoring your ads daily to learn from your results. Maybe even duplicating your existing ad and choosing new creative to see if that performs better! But more on that later.

Are you considering improving your company’s presence on the web? Give us a call! We’d be happy to take an hour or so and chat about what we’ve learned and how it can help you reach your goals. No cost or obligation to you, we just like to engage in conversation relative to your success! Call Frank ‘Bo’ Milbourn at (843) 682-2212 or email [email protected] today!