The Poor, Underrated Settings

Most of us gloss over the Facebook Ad settings, not carefully choosing the right options. In return, we’re not able to fully optimize our ads! We give so much more time on the content, the message, the aesthetic value. Only to realize that it will never reach its full potential if the settings aren’t properly fixed! That’s why people, properly manage the settings first, then the rest later.

So, that’s why you’re here. To find out if your settings have been properly managed. And if not, then you’ll find the answers to your questions here! (Hopefully)

What’s Your Objective?

I’m guessing you already know what you want to accomplish with your ads. That’s really important because depending on the options you take, Facebook will adjust accordingly. So if you really want to optimize your advertisement, you got to be sure what you want to achieve from your ad.

Before going further, of course, you have to choose your objective, your end goal in this ad. As I’ve said, Facebook will adjust accordingly depending on what you choose. Below are the objectives that you can choose from. If you already know what each one means and don’t really want to know the other ones, you can just skip that part!

As you can see, there are 11 objectives that you can choose from! We’ll briefly summarize each one in case you don’t fully understand what the others are. This might help you from future ad campaigns where your objectives are different.

A. Brand Awareness
– To put it briefly, let’s play a game. What company do you think of if you see a check mark? What about the letter “M”? How about a bitten apple? The letter “f.” You know they’re Nikey, McDonalds, Apple, and Facebook right? Being able to recognize and be familiar with you as a brand with little to no effort. Building a reputation and an image.That’s brand awareness.

B. Reach
– Focus on this if you want the most people to see your advertisement. Exposure is the primary concern here. The more the people see your ad, the better! However, keep in mind that a wider reach doesn’t mean more customers. That still ultimately depends on your ad and content.

C. Traffic
– The idea is similar to that of reach. However, instead of focusing on exposure, you instead focus on the number of people visiting. Developing a wider range of potential customers whereas reach is just reaching as many people as possible. It can be your facebook page, your website, or anything that people in the internet can “visit.” So this objective is obviously to gain more traffic.

D. Engagement
– Ah, yes. I’ve been seeing the word “engagement” thrown and used all over social media this days. However, there’s a reason for that. It seems like engagement is what Big Daddy Facebook likes. This objective focuses on gaining, as the name suggests engagement. What do I mean by that? Basically, gaining you more comments, shares, interactions, and likes.

E. App Installs
– If you have an app and want to promote that app, this might be your ad objective. You see those apps being promoted to Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram? Those are App Installs. By clicking those, you immediately go to the App Store or Google Play where you can directly download the app. So if you want your ad to do the same thing, this ad objective is for you.

F. Video Views
– If it isn’t already obvious, this objective is about gaining views on your videos. I think this is pretty self-explanatory as is. So if you plan to make a video and promote it, this might be the objective you’re looking for! Facebook suggests your videos to be behind-the-scenes footage and product launches. But don’t worry, you’re still the boss and can create whatever video you like.

G. Lead Generation

– Others refers to reaching as many people as possible such as the reach objective and gaining more people to visit your page or website such as the traffic objective. While these focus on gaining more, lead generation is not necessarily gaining less, but is more on being selective and limited in choosing your prospects. Finding more information about the people who seem to be interested in your business.

H. Messages
– Again! As the name suggests, it’s about messages. And what’s Facebook number one messaging platform? Messenger! So your ads will appear in messenger, most likely in a “sponsored message” form. You know, the ones that you can immediately buy from.

I. Conversions
– Making people take action is the focus here. Whatever action it is you want from people, perhaps buying a product from your website, you prompt and encourage them to do that action.

J. Catalog Sales
– I’m assuming you know what catalog is right? It’s a list of the items or products that you want to sell. Your catalog will be advertised by Facebook so people will get to see what are the items you have to offer. This is of course in ad format.

K. Store Visits
– This ad objective is really helpful if you have multiple business or store locations. This ad intends to reach the people within close vicinity to that of your stores. As you expect, this not streamlined for business whose products and services are based on the internet.

CONCLUSION

– Let’s all be real here, some of these feel real close to one another. Their objective seem to be overlapping with others right? Because there’s really no clear cut objective. The best way to know which objective is really for you, you best do more research or you won’t be able to fully optimize your advertisement!

You Campaign Name!

As you can see, after choosing you objective, you’ll be prompted type in your campaign name. And depending on the objective you chose, you will have more options.

But there are 3 things present in all objectives. And that’s your campaign name, the option to create a split test, and the option for budget optimization. Note that you can’t budget optimize and create a split test at the same time. Facebook doesn’t allow it.

After that, just set up your account, fill in your country, currency, and time zone. Change your Ad account name too if you would like.

The Ad set

Now, depending on what objective you chose, your ad set will vary. But there are 3 things that will not change! And that’s your target audience, placements, and budget & schedule. Remember, be specific here and truly narrow down what you want! Do your homework and research if you’re don’t have any idea what you’re doing. I can’t stress this enough!

Your Audience
– You don’t really need much explaining in this one! Just fill out everything that suits your target audience. This includes previous audiences, age, gender, language, and location. You can include however many languages and locations you would like. There’s also a “detailed targeting” options which will further specify your target audience! This is really essential if you’re just a small business and have a limited budget. Remember, more audience, the more the cost.

Placements
– Facebook recommends that it be set in automatic where Facebook handles the placement. Now I also recommend this option too if you don’t fully understand what you’re about to do. If that’s not the case, then edit to your heart’s content!

Budget & Schedule
– For me, this is the trickiest part. There are a lot of options here! You have to be very specific here because you’re optimizing your ads. This is your budget we’re talking about. Spend too little and you won’t get your money’s worth. Spend too much and you’ll waste a portion of your budget that could’ve gone to something else.

The Conclusion

Yes, I’m well aware that it’s still not yet the last section. But you don’t really need a guide in the last part because that’s your own personal ad.

This may seem A LOT of work to do, researching, knowing the right time to run your ad, the appropriate budget you’ll spend, which countries work for your product or service, the appropriate devices, the social media platforms that’ll work best for you. A LOT has to be considered. But if you persevere and study this field, there’s no doubt that you will get your money’s worth!