Advertising on Facebook can be quite costly, especially if you are unsure how to set the ad up properly or you don’t know how to select the best option for your particular objective. In order to get your ad to the right target audience at a reasonable price, you have to ensure the objective of your campaign is chosen correctly.
That starts with learning more about Facebook advertising objectives in general and reviewing a simple but detailed comparison of the different types of objectives you get to choose from.
Selecting Your Objective 101
When you decide you want to run a Facebook advertising campaign, think of the main objective or goal you have in mind. Are you launching a new product and want to spread awareness? Are you offering a discount for a promotion? Are you looking for lead generation?
Really think about what your goal is since this is the key component of the ad campaign process, which will set your ad up for success and provide you with a solid return on investment (ROI).
Selecting your Facebook advertising objectives is the first step to campaign creation because it’s that important — everything else follows suit. There are three different options to choose from:
- Awareness — Objectives that generate interest in your product or service. These are more top of funnel objectives.
- Consideration — Objectives that get people to start thinking about your business and look for more information about it. These are more middle of funnel objectives.
- Conversions — Objectives that encourage people interested in your business to purchase or use your product or service. These are more bottom of funnel objectives.
Under each of those three objectives, there are subcategories you can drill further on. Under the Awareness objective, you have brand awareness and reach. Under the Consideration objective, you have the options of traffic, engagement, app installs, video views, and lead generation. And under the Conversion objective, you have conversions, product catalog sales, and store visits to select from.
Once you select the objective that fits best with your overall business goal you can continue setting up your ad campaign based on that particular objective set.
Your Guide to Facebook Objectives
Maybe you read that, and you are still unsure which objective your campaign goal falls under. Maybe you read that and are conflicted since there are a couple of different options that fit the campaign, which is a common case.
Well, here are a couple of different scenarios to help you choose the right Facebook advertising objectives:
Goal — to acquire new customers
This goal is all about getting new customers to either check out your online store, follow your social page or subscribe to your newsletter. So your ad objective could be best suited under the following options:
- Conversions — drive them to your online store
- Lead generation — get newsletter subscribers and followers
- Engagement — promote your brand and events
- Messages — start a conversation with people to engage them with your brand
Goal — to drive sales to your products/services
This is a very common goal for most Facebook ads since companies and startups are running ads to drive their sales. In this case, there are several different options to choose from:
- Engagement — drive an offer or deal
- Conversion — drive them to your online store
- Message — start a conversation with people to engage them with your brand
- Lead generation — capture the person’s information for targeted offers
Test and Learn Mentality
There is a lot of pressure to get your Facebook ad right since you are spending valuable time and money to do so. However, you may not always get it just right the first time. There are a lot of options and tactics to choose from, and it’s okay not to get it right the first time. That’s when you can test and learn from the type of ad campaign you are running and adjust accordingly the next time around.
Every audience is different and will respond to your unique messages differently. Take a look at your cost per click and cost per conversion to ensure your spending is on target and receiving a positive ROI. If not, play around with the type of objective you set up and optimize your next campaign a bit differently so you can receive the type of conversions you are aiming for.
