Facebook’s advertising platform is like no other that I have seen.

From top to bottom it is simply unique in just about every aspect that I can think of especially for marketing your business through its Ads Manager.

I’ve ‘tinkered’ with some of the other social media and online ad platforms such as Google Adwords, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, etc. and I haven’t gotten the same results as with Facebook.

I’m quite sure other platforms work very good for some marketers but I can’t say that I had success using them.

Maybe I was attempting to compare the others to Facebook for validation or something but they just seem not to work for my content.

Facebook ad manager is very easy to use and I will go more into depth with it later in this article.  

It’s self explanatory (or at least for me it is) but with anything be sure to do a little more research to gain more knowledge about it.

I always recommend to scour the web for more information on any subject matter because sometimes you may get a better understanding through other sources.  

I try to provide as much info and accuracy as I can but there’s nothing wrong with being transparent too.

I will get straight into the content and hopefully it will help you get a great start on creating Facebook ads for your small business.

Here are 10 Easy Ways to Create Facebook Ads and using some other tools to assist your business:

1) Promoting Your Facebook Page (Likes, Followers)

If you are a business owner trying to advertise on Facebook, then promoting your ‘fan page’ or ‘business page’ might be a priority.

Getting your page familiar with current or potential suitors for your products or services on Facebook can help your business immensely.

The image below of the weird looking guy in glasses (myself) shows you where to find the ‘Promote Page’ tab on your business page.

Also the other tab at the bottom gives an option to ‘Promote Your Page’ along with other selections to advertise different Facebook business page properties.

Once either tab is clicked you will see the next step to show how the promotion will look to users on multiple Facebook visual platforms (the tabs at the top right).

Also you can target your specific demographic (bottom image left side) if you know exactly who your customers are so make sure that you sort of play around with the different functions as well.

Take another look at the image above:  Do you see the thumbs up ‘Like Page’ button in the lower right hand side?

Once this campaign is set and approved your target audience will see the promo and if they’re interested will click the button and follow your Facebook business page.

Pros & Cons to Creating a Facebook Ad to Promote Page

Pros

-Easy to make

-New customers potentially can keep up with your business

-Two visible options to create on the front page (when you are logged in)

Cons

-Facebook’s algorithm doesn’t allow your entire audience to see your other posts if you are not paying 

-If Facebook ever folds, then the majority of your ‘fans’ or the folks that ‘Liked’ your page via the button will disappear (unless they subscribe to your email list)

2) Make a Facebook Ad by Promoting Your Blog Post 

Creating a Facebook ad to market your blog post is a simple way to get clicks to your website and your fan/business page.  

There are many ways to do this but of course we like ‘simple’ so I will show you 3 easy steps to accomplish it.

Step #1-Post about your Content

This step is easy so I can go on to the next one, right?  

Ok I have to consider and include EVERYONE in this Facebook ads manager tutorial so this part is for the novice readers because they count as well.

For the few of you that aren’t familiar with this step, write a Facebook post about your content whether its a video promoting your content or plain text with your content link.

Step #2-Boost Post 

‘Boost Post’ simply means getting more exposure for your content via Facebook ads.

Here’s an example of a post that I ran on my page.  It’s from a blog post of mine that I promoted via the ‘Boost Post’ function in the lower right hand corner. 

Also, be sure to notice that I provided a url shortener for my blog post link and strategically placed it at the end.  

Step #3-Target Audience

For this particular post my target audience was based on data that I was getting on other campaigns that I ran on Facebook.

I used the audience that I created for a YouTube video that I made promoting my free eBook.

I targeted many countries around the world while creating this ad along with interests that I thought were good fits such as small business, hair stylists and a few others.

The age bracket that I targeted was based on who was already apart of my business page and who responded to some of my other Facebook ads.

Pros and Cons to Boosting your Facebook Post

Pros

-Simple to create

-Social signals for your blog post which Google loves

-Very easy to receive engagement PLUS page ‘Likes’ 

Cons

-None really as long as your ads are consistent & ethical

3) Promote your Website, YouTube Videos, Podcasts

On your Facebook fan/business page there is an option to promote your website link.

Remember that you can enter text or upload a video (highly recommend) to get the word out about your website. 

Advertise your YouTube channel and/or videos using the above method too.

When I ran ad campaigns for a few YouTube videos, I noticed unusually HIGH positive engagement.  

I would have to attribute it to being a ‘YouTube’ video so therefore the Facebook algorithm gave super credence to it allowing many like, shares and comments.

Pros and Cons to Creating Facebook ads for Promoting your Website

Pros

-Web traffic (depends on your budget)

-Quality social signals/backlinks for your website 

Cons

-Don’t expect a lot of people to visit your site as compared to the social signals/backlinks your site will receive

-If your video is too long, don’t expect much (keep it between 30 to 60 secs)

4) Create Ads by Promoting Your Facebook ‘Sign Up’ Tab

Facebook gives you the option to promote your sign up tab which is interesting.

Here is a screenshot of my simple cover and below it is my sign up button. 

The actual button has several options in which I will detail more below and I will show you how to advertise your Facebook sign up button as well.

Once your mouse is hovered over the ‘sign up’ button you will see an ‘edit button’ option so click on it.

The screen below will pop up on screen and lets you set up your button.  

Also to the right are three tabs labeled Website, iPhone and Android which will give a visual to how it will look on those 3 platforms.

Once you click on ‘Choose a Button’ there are over 12 options to choose from in the drop down.

You can choose which ever works for your business but in this example we are discussing specifically promoting the sign up button.

Now this is under the assumption that you are offering something for free such as an ebook, course, video, etc.

And of course if collecting emails is your goal then an autoresponder like AWeber or some other email marketing service is needed.  

*Note:  Above is a paid affiliate link which means if you purchase the services from the AWeber link I will receive a small commission (full disclosure).

Start creating a Facebook ad for your sign up button the exact same way that can be accessed for promoting your website (first example at the beginning of the post).

Its also an additional way to create Facebook ads for your website too even though I gave a different example in #3 above.

Wow, there’s the goofy looking guy with glasses again too!

After the sign up promo button is activated, a similar page appears so that an ad can be created.

Just remember the image below can be adjusted and quite frankly (more times than not) should be adjusted because you want the possible lead to engage.

And a great visual will catch the attention of anyone who’s interested.

Also you want to minimize the text (near the image below ‘Free Ebook-Local’) because Facebook may not approve your ad).

You will know before you submit the ad because you will receive an instant notification if there is a problem which makes the entire process simple.

Pros and Cons to Promoting your Sign Up Tab

Pros

-Possible leads by signing up for your offer

-Better position if Facebook has a major algorithm change

-You control your customer database list via your autoresponder

Cons

-Likely the most expense of all the previous ad creations because you’re basically getting charged ‘per leads’ 

-Must use an image for the ad creation type (no option for uploading a video at the time of this post…unless you know of a way & if so please share it in the comments)

5)  How to Create Ads within Facebook Ads Manager

Interestingly enough, its kinda cool to see where the ‘birth’ of these ads come from but the Facebook Ads Manager is actually the dashboard where you can control all of your ads.

Its also a place where Facebook ads can be created along with a few other functions as well.

After you create your Facebook ads its fairly easy to control them and make any changes to any of your ads from one location.  

I find myself tweaking and editing campaigns often to optimize the performance of each inside the Facebook Ads Manager.

4 Important Functions in Facebook Ads Manager To Know

The are four very important functions within the Facebook Ads Manager dashboard that you should know about.  

Each one has its own use and will provide a lot of information about your entire advertising campaign process.

All Campaigns Tab inside Facebook Ads Manager

The ‘All Campaigns’ tab shows you information for your campaigns, ad sets, all ads and account history.  

When you click on this tab all of the mentioned information will appear along with other detailed info within the drop down categories.

Create Campaign/Create Ad through Facebook Ads Manager

The ‘Create Campaign’ and the ‘Create Ad’ tabs are basically the same thing. They’re self explanatory and does exactly what it says and that is create a Facebook ad campaign.

I’m not sure why there are two tabs with the same function on this particular interface but I’ve yet to hear any marketer or business owner show their displeasure for it.

Performance Tab of Facebook Ads Manager

The ‘Performance’ tab has a plethora of information to help you throughout the entire process.  

There are several sections that are very important to analyze the way your ad campaigns are efficient.

Delivery, engagement, video engagement, app engagement, carousel engagement, performance and clicks and cross device are the main sections of Facebook ads manager ‘performance’ tab.

Each section provides information on how your audience engages with certain types of campaigns, website and mobile app info (if applicable), etc.

You can also customize columns, reset column widths and set as default within the ‘Performance’ tab.

Breakdown section of the Facebook Ads Manager

Within the Facebook Ads Manager ‘Breakdown’ tab there are plenty of options where an ad can be broken down to see who’s viewing your ads, how they are viewing it, where they are viewing it from, etc.

There’s a ton of information that will help you get an idea who your target audience is but its up to you to take advantage of it.  

Be sure to click on the tab to see the additional sections such as placement and time of day to further optimize this entire section for your business.

Facebook Ads Manager Pros & Cons

Pros

-User friendly interface 

-Create Campaign tab for new ad sets

-Sliding bar to pause ad campaigns

-Easy to edit campaigns 

Cons

-None 

6) Facebook Insights Overview Tab

The Insights section of a Facebook business page works as a multi functional place that has many uses.

I could probably write a standalone post on this entire section because there is so much I could talk about.

But of course we are discussing how to create a Facebook ad within it so I will attempt to stay on point.

Create New Promotion within Facebook Insights

As you take a look at the  image below notice the ‘+Create New Promotion’ and ‘Boost Again’ links to start and continue a campaign from within Insights.

I understand why both are there but this section should be for analytics only but who am I to criticize.

Its just an observation but from a web design and business perspective I definitely get why both exist under the Insights category.

My assumption is the majority of the marketers who are going to this section want to see data pertaining to their page such as their audience make up, etc.

Facebook’s perspective is probably just to add them as options or an alternative to going back to the ads manager or business home page.

Pros and Cons Facebook Ads-Insights Overview Tab

Pros

-I’m sure some folks are cool with the ability to create ads here 

Cons

-From my perspective both + Create New Promotion & Boost Again tabs are useless (just my opinion but I definitely understand why Facebook both there)

-I’m just not a fan of creating ads from the Insight tab at all

7) Facebook Ads Manager App for Mobile 

Ok…True story:  I didn’t know until a few weeks ago that Facebook Ads Manager had an app for mobile devices!

But knowing the footprints of the place I wasn’t completely shocked either.

I’ve gotten use to creating ads on my laptop and never gave it any thought until I stumbled across it in the app store for my smartphone.

I must say that the mobile app is much easier to use than on desktop.  It appears to be far less stuff to deal with and just overall a cleaner look.

Though I’ve played around with the app (and continue to do so), I haven’t created any ads using the mobile app yet but I will.

8) Legend App for Multi Platform Ad Creation

A pretty nice tool for marketing your ads on Facebook is an app called Legend.

Its a free app that can be downloaded from your mobile app store and the features are minimal which makes it very easy to use.

You can create images for your Facebook campaigns very easily. The really cool part is the visuals show even better if you are running a cross campaign on Instagram.

9) Easy and Free Image Creation  Solution called Canva 

Canva makes designing just about anything easy and will do the same for your Facebook ads too.

Of course we like things to be easy and simple and that’s exactly what you get when you are designing an image using this free platform.

I spoke about Canva in my book ‘Social Media Simple Marketing’ because I use it for all of my social media platforms.

Its a great tool to create images for Facebook ads and there are tutorials on the site to jump start your process too.

10) Create Multiple Facebook Ads to Split Test 

If you are going to use images or videos in your Facebook ads then you may want to run one of each to really see which performs the best.

There isn’t anything wrong with split testing both on a light budget to find out which performs the best.

Honestly, you are likely to find that video will work the best in the majority of ads because they get people’s attention quicker.

Both images and videos work but find out which works for what you are trying to accomplish within your business.

Make multiple Facebook ads regardless of what you are promoting to get a good indicator of which performs better

Conclusion

There are multiple ways to create Facebook ads for marketing your business.  

Facebook Ads Manager is the hub for your campaigns and offers a multitude of different things to aid in the entire advertising lifecycle.

I didn’t mention Facebook Power Editor in this article because I wanted to focus on the other platform to create ads.

I’ll save my thoughts on it for another post in the future to show other ways how to advertise on Facebook.

There are also multiple tools that are free and simple which are available as well.

Every business is different but many of the ways to create Facebook ads that are mentioned were tested by others before I attempted to do the same.

I’m not affiliated with Facebook in any way but I love testing things first to give you an idea to see what will work for you.

Thanks for spending time out of your day to read this!