Facebook advertisements are available to anybody. Whether you’re a small business or a Fortune 500 corporation, Facebook advertisements may reach any type of consumer. With over 2 billion users, Facebook is a natural choice for advertising your business. I speak from experience when I say that it would be a HUGE error not to have a presence on this adaptable platform and market your brand.

Why should you spend money on Facebook advertisements?

Increased website traffic is not the only benefit that advertisements can provide. You can create leads, engage with your target audience, and establish credibility.

In short, Facebook advertisements work for all types of audiences, including those unfamiliar with your services, warm and responsive to your business, people considering employing you as a consultant, and existing clients.

Facebook advertisements are effective for a wide variety of businesses and items. It’s simple to create a business manager account, and you can begin publishing your advertisement within minutes.

The primary advantage of advertising on Facebook is creating hyper-targeted audiences. You can segment your audience based on various criteria and target your business in multiple ways.

Once your ads are published, you will instantly begin to notice results. This ability to obtain immediate results during your campaign provides you with the benefit of fine-tuning your post for optimal success.

One of the several advantages of utilizing Facebook to advertise your business is the ability to set your budget for producing and running ads.

Apart from these remarkable capabilities, I adore that Facebook always adds more options and customizations for advertising your ads. In this manner, you may continue testing, experimenting, and experimenting with new ways to engage your target audience.

Associated with: How Do I Market My Consulting Practice?

To begin advertising on Facebook, you must first choose your target audience. The success of your Facebook advertisement is contingent upon how you target your audience.

Creating a target audience for your Facebook ads

Depending on their demographics, interests, and interactions with your page and website, you can segment your target audiences.

According to who they are and what their reality is like

1. As simple as their age and gender.
2.  The marital or relationship status of the individual.
3.  Their geographical location
4.  According to the language they speak
5.  According to educational attainment. Within that, you can split further by subject of study or university.
6.  According to the economic situation
7.  Their homeownership status or the composition of their household.
8.  According to ethnic affinities
9.  Whether Baby Boomers, Generation X, or Millennials
10.  By occupation or job description. For instance, those with higher-level job titles such as manager or director are more likely to engage in business consulting.
11.  Whether or not they are parents, and if so, how many children
12.  Whether or not they possess a pet
13.  Whether or not they possess a vehicle
14. Whether they are expatriates or not
15.  As a result of significant life events such as a recent anniversary or promotion, new employment, etc.

According to their areas of interest:

1.  By political allegiance
2.  Through business and industry affiliations such as management, hospitality, banking, health care, or design
3.  By the type of cuisine they prefer or the type of restaurant they frequent
4.  Through leisure pursuits such as movies, music, video games, and literature
5.  Through an interest in physical activity and wellness activities such as running, martial arts, or yoga
6.  Whether they contribute to charity causes

Based on their activities:

1. Whether they are primarily mobile or desktop users. Mobile users can be further classified as iOS or Android users.
2.  Individuals who have viewed or interacted with the page of a rival
3.  Those who have viewed or interacted with your Facebook page previously!
4.  Whether they took any action on your website, such as purchasing a product or registering for a webinar.
5.  Those who have messaged or saved your page’s postings
6.  If someone responded to your event listing by selecting ‘going’ or ‘interested.’
7.  The duration of their visit to your website. Those who have spent the most time can make an excellent list, even if their numbers are small compared to other list categories.
8.  If they have placed your products in their shopping basket but have not yet checked out
9.  Based on the variety of products or services they’ve purchased
10.  ‘Lookalike’ audience that is comparable to your existing audience from non-Facebook sources
11.  Whether they have viewed a video previously, and if so, for how long. (3 seconds, 25% of the whole video duration, or 95% of the total video length)

If you’re prepared to spend a little more money, consider Fixel, an AI-powered solution that will segment your audience based on more than 60 data factors!

Take a look at Facebook’s audience targeting guide.

Facebook Advertisement Objectives

Before publishing advertising, you must establish a goal for each campaign. What do you want your advertisement to accomplish? Are you interested in meeting new people? Increasing the number of visitors to your website?

Facebook includes a pre-populated set of objectives for promoting your business to assist you.

It is organized into three sections, each of which represents a stage in the ideal customer journey;

Awareness

Brand Awareness – is the most excellent solution for first-time advertisers or consultants just starting.

Reach Is the ideal option if you’re looking to reach a large audience. The audience size fluctuates according to the budget and location of the campaign.

Consideration

Increased traffic and online viewership – focused on increasing traffic and online viewership to your website. You may boost traffic to your entire website, a single blog post, or a single landing page on your website.

Engagement – here, you engage your audience by offering them something of value, ideally through events or the ability to claim offers and discounts. You can also draw new audiences into your page postings by providing them the opportunity to be a part of a community that meets their needs.

Installs of Apps – If you have an app, you can market it and send internet viewers to the Google Play or Apple App Store.

Video Views – the most effective way to tell your brand’s story and strengthen your connection with your audience. Consultants might capitalize on this opportunity by publicizing customer testimonials.

Lead Generation – the ideal way for generating new leads and expanding your mailing list. Within Facebook, a sign-up form will capture the email addresses of interested audiences. You can manually download the collected email addresses or utilize one of the numerous programs available.

Messages – an intriguing way to communicate directly with others. When a viewer clicks on your advertisement, a conversation channel between you and them opens in their Messenger program. They can now ask you straight questions and address their concerns about your business.

Conversion

Conversions are critical to the success of our consulting practice! By enticing internet visitors to take action on your website, you may convert them into engaged consumers.

Catalog sales – this method works if you have a large online business with various products.

Like catalog sales, store visits are an excellent choice for businesses with a physical location.

Continue reading: Choosing the Appropriate Advertising Objective.

What kind of ads can you run on Facebook for your consulting business?

Link Clicks Ads

Advertisements in which you submit a link to an external website source. These links might point to specific blog posts or pages on your website. Rather than promoting particular pages on your website, you can market your entire site. However, remember that you will achieve the best results if the provided link points to a specific landing page.

The most well-known type of advertisement is the link click advertisement, which performs well in general. This is also contingent upon the other website’s material being of high quality.

Additionally, viewers now have the opportunity to ‘Like’ your page.

Leads Ads

For many consultants, Leads Ads are ideal for enhancing their chances of acquiring new clients. With this form of advertisement, you can present a valuable resource that your audience WILL want to obtain, such as an eBook. Viewers can download the eBook directly from Facebook, bypassing any external links.

Once leads are ‘produced,’ which occurs when individuals provide their email addresses, you may view them via your Facebook Ads account. You may now begin sending them your unique emails!

Lead Ads provide a fantastic way to learn about your audience and their interests.

Video Ads

Advertisements in which you embed a video rather than an external link. This advertisement can entice your viewers into watching the video, which results in a long time of engagement with your commercials.

The maximum duration of a video that Facebook will allow you to use in these ads is 120 minutes. However, keep in mind that the most effective video advertisements are under two minutes long.

Facebook allows for auto-play as well as replay or continuous looping.

Page Post Boost Ads

Facebook frequently recommends content for you to ‘boost’ to a specific target demographic. Boosting an existing post increases its reach and engages those not already part of your audience.

For instance, if you’ve shared a link to your blog or an image, Facebook will prompt you to boost the post if it’s already performing well.

Page Like Ads

As the name implies, Page Like Ads’ sole objective is to raise your page’s ‘likes.’ Rather than watching your video, downloading an ebook, or visiting your website, your target audience’s primary call to action is to ‘Like’ your page.

The post description is critical for increasing the number of people who like your page. You can speak to your target audience’s hopes and aspirations to convince them that your page and the type of material you post will benefit them. Equally critical is choosing a picture that resonates with your intended audience.

Events Ads

This is another fantastic option for a large number of experts. You can quickly create and promote an event on Facebook. For instance, you can advertise your event to residents within a 20-mile radius. This ensures that your event is pertinent and approachable to your target audience.

AdEspresso by Hootsuite includes a quick guide to content specifications and media sizes for each ad type.

Specs for Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads	Media Size	Post description	Headline	Link description
Link Click Ads	1200 x 628 pixels	90 characters	25 characters	30 characters
Leads Ads	1200 x 628 pixels	90 characters	25 characters	30 characters
Video Ads	16:9 (landscape) or 9:16 (portrait) aspect ratio	90 characters	25 characters	30 characters
Page Post Boost Ads	1200 x 628 pixels	unlimited	25 characters	30 characters
Page Likes Ads	–	90 characters	–	–
Events Ads	1920 x 1080 pixels	90 characters	25 characters	30 characters

Read: Tools for creating ads

The Fundamental Concepts You Must Understand About Facebook Ads

Target audience

In the most straightforward words, the target audience refers to the group of people you wish to reach with your advertisements. Here, the term ‘group’ refers to various distinct groups. Depending on their demographics, interests, and interactions with your page and website, you can segment your audience.

Precise Interests

‘Interests’ serve as the foundation for segmenting your target audience according to various attributes. Interests can include the types of pages they enjoy (consider your competitor’s website! ), specific hobbies and pastimes, educational attainment, employment and job duties, etc.

Sales Funnel

A sales funnel refers to the stages of development that a typical customer goes through during their relationship with your organization.

The stages are as follows: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion.

Ad campaign

It consists of several ads, typically similar that you publish to achieve goals such as increasing visibility or drawing people to your website. Advertisements have a set duration and budget. This budget can be daily or referred to as a ‘lifetime’ budget for the entire campaign period.

CPC and CPM

Cost Per Click, or CPC, is a means of budgeting for your advertising campaign. You calculate your budget by dividing the number of clicks on your adverts by the overall cost.

CPM, or Cost Per 1000 Impressions, is a cost-per-thousand-impressions-based budgeting technique for your advertising campaign. This strategy charges you only for the number of impressions specified while creating your adverts.

Custom Audience

We can submit our list of audience members to target our ad campaign on Facebook, even if they are not ‘fans’ of group members’ pages. Typically, a custom list is for an audience we’ve met offline or through non-Facebook channels, such as contacts from email lists.

Lookalike audience

Facebook can target profiles similar to those that users submit to Custom Audiences.

Optimised CPM

Facebook optimizes your ad campaign automatically for maximum success. Facebook uses this function to display your advertisement to those most likely to engage with it.

Facebook Pixels

Facebook Pixels are a technique to connect visitors to your website to your Facebook page. You create a code in Pixels and paste it onto your website to link. Pixels will then track your online visitors’ behavior and provide you with a personalized list that you can share on your Facebook page.

Facebook Retargeting

Retargeting is a technique associated with Facebook Pixels.

Retargeting allows you to target your website visitors on Facebook once more. Your audience will be able to view your advertising the next time they visit Facebook.

Placement

The placement option allows you to specify where your advertising will appear on Facebook’s visible screen. You can specify whether you want your advertisement to appear in the news feed or the page’s sidebar.

Split Testing

Split testing is when you make two slightly different versions of the same post and distribute them to two distinct segments of your target list. Split testing enables you to see which techniques work best for your audience. Typically, the ads are identical except for the one variable you wish to test. It may be a new title for your landing page, a new image, or a revised text description.

Alternatively, you can test the same ad content across multiple audience segments. Facebook allows you to allocate an equal portion of your ad money to each test.

How to Become an Expert at Facebook Ad Targeting and Concentrate on Your Audience

Are you making these big mistakes for your Facebook ads?

While the process of Facebook advertising is a never-ending learning and relearning activity, there are several things you cannot afford to overlook in your advertising campaigns.

Just targeting cold audiences

Cold audiences are people who have not yet been exposed to your business. True, cold audience targeting is critical if you want new individuals to learn about your business. However, you will not achieve much success until you target various groups at various stages of your sales funnel.

Underestimating the cost of running Facebook ads

Yes, you do not have to spend a fortune and deplete your bank account to generate leads from Facebook ads. It is a widespread misconception that selling advertising on Facebook requires hundreds of dollars in investment. That is not the case.

Facebook advertising is available to businesses and individuals with a range of budgets. You can optimize your adverts to get a great return on investment, even with as little as $10 per day.

The reality is that Facebook advertisements are prohibitively expensive compared to expanding your following organically. However, there is a cost greater than not running Facebook advertisements. The time and energy you would otherwise spend marketing your business and generating leads.

Your time must be more expensive than you now believe. Waiting for the correct audience to present itself can be more costly than reaching out to the right audience via advertising.

Not testing your audience

Split testing is critical to maximizing the effectiveness of your advertising campaign. Split testing allows you to market an advertisement to two distinct segments of your target audience. Each set will receive a variant of the same ad. You may assess what works best for your audience based on the results.

Not giving importance to retargeting

When individuals initially notice your advertisement, just a tiny percentage join up or engage with it. Each of us requires reminders. Additionally, we all take our time warming up to the point where we can click open the link and make a decision.

Thinking that Facebook ads work like a coin flip

That is not the case. Facebook advertising is not like flipping a coin and hoping for the best. The most effective Facebook advertising campaigns are continuous creation, testing, and optimization. The cycle is repeated until your objectives are met. This exercise will provide you with a wealth of data, experience, and insights that you can incorporate into your next campaign to achieve more than just improved outcomes.

Bear in mind that while leads are valuable, data on potential leads is just as valid.

Believing that you will start getting huge results from your very first ad

The number of options available to you for targeting your audience and promoting various types of content is mind-boggling. Indeed, something must work once your advertisement is placed? Not always. Facebook advertising is a commitment in which you must constantly monitor your results and make adjustments to improve performance. It’s easy to become lost in the possibilities if you don’t have a clear end goal.

Create only one ad with one message in one campaign

The key to success with Facebook advertisements is to have distinct campaigns and messages for each ad post. Experiment with different landing pages and call to action. Combine messaging and calls to action. Alternate between landing pages and calls to action. Create two distinct landing pages to convey the same message. The possibilities are virtually limitless!

Before you publish your ads, can you answer the following questions?

•  Do you have a well-thought-out strategy for your advertisement?
•  Did you include a unique, trackable URL in your post?
•  Is your landing page relevant to the advertisement (rather than redirecting your audience to a generic landing page)?
•  Is your post understandable to folks unfamiliar with you or your business?
•  Is the content of your advertisement pertinent to your target audience? For instance, if your audience is looking for business consulting services, an advertisement regarding life consulting will not resonate with them.
•  Does your advertisement provide an explicit call to action for the viewers to take?
•  Do you intend to alter the text of your advertisement post several days after it is published?
•  Do you have a strategy to engage your audience, which has been converted to leads via Facebook ads? Redirecting traffic to your website is not a goal in and of itself. It would be best to have a strategy for contacting them and converting them into high-paying clients. For instance, suppose Susan, a potential client, saw your Facebook ad for an upcoming webinar. She clicks on it, which takes her to your website. She then completed the webinar registration form, including her email address and other contact information. It would be a grave error if she did not receive additional communication from us. She may be unable to attend the webinar! We can then email her a welcome greeting and further information about the webinar, including the date and time. Additionally, we can email her links to our previously published blog pieces. In this manner, she remains ‘engaged’ with us until the webinar.

While this tutorial is not thorough, I am confident that it will enable you to begin developing ideal advertisements for your consulting practice instantly.