Facebook-Ads – How to create an advertising campaign in facebook

Facebook offers a very cost-effective way of online advertising with facebook ads. These are ads that can be set to be shown only to a very specific audience.

For example, you can set your ads to be shown to just 40 year old, single, male facebook users who have kids, like hiking and live in Switzerland. This example is very specific. However, you limit the number of facebook users, who will get to see your ad. The fewer attributes you set for your target audience, the bigger your target audience will be and the more facebook users will get to see your ad.

In order to advertise on facebook, you already have to be a facebook user. If you do not have a facebook account yet, you will have to open one.



Go through the following steps in order to advertise on facebook:

1. Log in to facebook with your user name and password
2. Click on your profile, click on “Create an Ad” on the right side
3. Now you can start creating your ad
4. „Design your ad“: Under „Destination URL“, enter the website that you want users, who click on your ad, to go to. You can add the URL of your facebook page or the url of your website. Under “Title” you should add a title for your ad. The text of your add can not have more than 135 characters and has to be added under “Body Text”. Under “Image” you can upload a picture for your facebook ad. This is optional. However, pictures can not be bigger than 110x80 px.
   The last sentence of your ad should give an instruction to the viewer, such as “Order now!”.
   On the right side you can view your ad, while you input the text.
5. “Targeting”: When you put in details here, you will see that the “estimated reach” will decrease. Remember that not all facebook users make all information in their accounts and thus may not be counted as your target audience, although they should.
   Under “Location” enter the country in which the ad should be displayed. The ad can be seen in the entire country or in specific cities (“by city”) and the area around them.
   Under “Demographics” you can provide information on age, gender, relationship status and languages of your target group.
   Under “Likes&Interest” you can add certain styles of music, bands, movies etc.
   Under “Education&Work” you can specify what education it is your target audience should have. You can even add a company or organization.
   If you advertise your facebook page in your ad, you should add it under “Connections on Facebook” > “Target users who are not already connected to:”. Otherwise, facebook users who already like your facebook page will get to see the ad as well.
6. Under “Campaigns and Pricing“ you will have to decide whether you want to „pay for impressions“ (CPM – cost per impression) or „pay for clicks“ (CPC – cost per click). You also have to add your maximum bid. The maximum bid is the highest price you are willing to pay per 1,000 impressions or per click. Just choose “Use Suggested Bid” – this is the simplest way when you are just starting out with facebook ads.
   I recommend you use the model of CPC (paying for every click on your ad), as this is more cost effective.
7. Click on “Review Ad”.
8. You will now see your facebook ad and you can also assign a name. This is especially useful if you decide to run different ads.
9. The costs for your ad will be charged to the credit card that you have already stored in your facebook account. If you have not put in your credit card information, you will have to do so now.
10. If you do not want to change your ad, click “Place Order”.
11. Under “Run Status” you will now see “Pending review”. This means that facebook is currently reviewing your ad. You will receive an email from facebook once your ad is approved and active.
12. In this overview, you will later on be able to see how many people have seen your ad and how many actually clicked on it.

It is advisable, to advertise with different ads with slightly different texts and target groups, in order to get a feeling what the target audience likes best.

Tutorial: How to develop your marketing plan

When starting a business, you need a marketing plan in order to know which target groups to attend to, how to plan your marketing campaigns, how to set up your budget and control it.

Before your start to develop your marketing plan, you should ask yourself the following questions:

• Which product/service are you selling?
• Who is your target audience that will buy your product/service?
• What need does the above market have for your product or service?
• Which information on your product/service do you want to communicate to your target audience?
• What is the best way to get into contact with your target audience (for example TV, radio, newspaper, social media)? – When answering this question you should not forget about your budget?

Your marketing plan should be set up like this:

1. Executive summary
(this information you can either take from your business plan or write anew)
>> The questions who, what, when, where and how should be answered in regard to the marketing goals and strategies.
>> This part can be answered easily at the end, after the marketing analysis has been done.

• Description of the company
• Mission statement
• Products/services
• Financial feasibility

2. Analysis of the industry
>> Here you should go into the industry, competitors, suppliers, regulatory environment, customers, as well as the role of the company within the industry.

• SWOT-analysis: analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.
  http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/marketing_management/SWOT.htm
• Porter’s 5 forces analysis: Here you should analyze competitors, future competitors, potential substitutes for your product/services, suppliers on the market and customers
  http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/marketing_management/marketing_strategy.htm
• Mission/vision of the product/service
• Objectives
• Competitive environment
• Situation analysis
• Competitor analysis

3. Products and the corresponding target audience
>> Describe each product/service

• Demographics of the target audience: income, interests,activities, way of life, other geographic descriptions, psychological mindsets, political affiliations, family situation, age, taste
• Market trends and social trends through which customers are being influenced-
• The needs and wants of your target audience and corresponding benefits received from products

4. Marketing strategy

• Overall marketing objectives
• Mission statement
• Product's positioning relative to competitors and in the eyes of target customers
• General strategies you will use to reach objectives and fulfill the mission statement
• Product's marketing mix, including specific marketing programs.
• "Four P's":
  - Product (any related changes, improvements and issues)
  - Pricing strategy for each product
  11 different pricing strategies: http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/techniques/pricing2.htm
  - Distribution channels (how the product gets to customers and consumers)
  - Promotional activities: Public Relations, internet marketing and advertising, offline advertising, viral marketing and other marketing programs

5. Measurements
>> Build success metrics into each marketing program, including intermediate measures, and how you will use them to monitor progress and adjust execution when applicable.



6. Prognosis and financial analysis

• Size of the target audience
• Size of the market shares
• (monthly) growth forecast
• Profit und loss statement (with sales units and dollar forecasts, cost of goods marketing budgets, fixed overhead and variable expense projections, other expenses, profit margins)
• Breakeven analysis (units and dollars needed to make a profit for each marketing program or new or changed product)
• "What-if" scenarios (sensitivity analyses) showing what happens if forecasts and profit margins are lower or higher than expected