Thursday, August 6, 2020

How Do You Boost A Post On Facebook? A Practical Guide

Ever wondered how do you boost a post on Facebook?

Wanna get more eyeballs on your content?

Don’t have time to use the Ads Manager?

If you answered yes to one or all of these questions, then you’ve come to the right post. 

In full disclosure, I’m personally not a fan of boosting posts. But, I don’t have anything against it either. 

It’s an overly simplified version of the Ads Manager, in my opinion, and gives you limited control over how you promote your post. 

At the same time, I can see how it would come in handy if you want to quickly promote a post. 

That’s why I decided to take the time to write a post about it. 

I also wanted to rank for “how do you boost a post on facebook” but that’s neither here nor there. 

Enough talk. Let's get to it. 

Step 1: Choose the post that you want to boost

On the left-hand side of your Facebook page, click on the “Posts” tab and find a post that you want to boost. 

If it’s an image, make sure that it doesn’t have too much text. Or else your reach will be limited, or worse-case, Facebook will disapprove your ad entirely.

If you plan on promoting a video post, keep in mind that the video must be less than 60 seconds in order to run on Facebook and Instagram. 

If you have no posts or Facebook page, then now would be the time to create both. 

Note: Have you read my free Facebook Ads Guide? Check it out after you finish this post.

Step 2: Hit the “Boost Post” button on the bottom right-hand part of the post - Facebook Promoted Posts

Click on the button and wait for the new window to popup.

Step 3: Choose Your Objective - How Do You Boost a Post On Facebook

Facebook will give you 2 or 3 objectives to choose from. Choose the one that makes the most sense for your business goals. For example, if you’re boosting a video post, then you might want to consider using video views as your objective. 

Step 4: Add a Post Button (Optional) - Facebook Boost Post Tips

If you want, you can choose to have a call-to-action button on your post. These buttons are believed to help increase clickthrough rates. 

You can boost your post with or without the button.

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Step 5: Choose Your Audience - Boosting A Post On Facebook

Hopefully you have a rough idea of who your target market is. 

And don’t you dare say “My target market is everyone”. 

If you try to appeal to everybody, then you will appeal to nobody. 

Think about what your target market is like. Ask yourself what they listen to, who they follow, what they read, what events they go to, etc. 

When you have a pretty good idea of who your target market is, then use the Facebook Ads Manager to define the attributes that are consistent with your target market. 

Step 6: Define Your Ad Placements - How Do You Boost A Post On Facebook

In this section, you’re given the option of using Automatic Placements. By selecting this, you give Facebook the freedom to adjust your bid accordingly and place your ads wherever they feel makes the most sense. 

This gives maximum control to Facebook regarding your ad placements. This is generally not a bad idea because Facebook ad’s platform is very smart. They know how to show the right ad, to the right person, at the right time. 

This maximizes the experience of the user, Facebook gets paid for the ad space, and the advertiser gets his offer in front of someone who is likely to buy. It’s a win for everybody involved.

If you decide to toggle this option off, then you must define exactly where you want your ads to be placed. You have three options available: Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. 

Step 7: Set Your Duration and Budget

How Do You Boost A Post On Facebook - duration and budget

There’s no limit to the duration or the budget for the campaign. However, there is one rule. 

You must budget a bare minimum of $1 per day for your campaign. 

Anything less than that and you’ll get an error from Facebook. Try your luck if you want, but don’t say I didn’t tell you. 

Under the total budget, you also get a projection for how many people you’re expected to reach for your campaign. I would take these numbers with a grain of salt because there are lots of variable that can affect the success of a campaign. 

Use these numbers to give you a general idea, but don’t be surprised if you end up doing better or worse than projected. 

Step 8: Add Your Payment Details

How Do You Boost A Post On Facebook - payment details

Choose the currency that you’ll be paying in for your ads. This should be the same as the country you reside in. 

If you have multiple ad accounts, then choose the appropriate ad account for this campaign. Otherwise, if you have just one, then use the one you have.

Step 9: Hit Boost! - How Do You Boost A Post On Facebook

How Do You Boost A Post On Facebook

At this point, everything should be ready to go. It wouldn’t hurt to look everything over one more time to make sure you didn’t miss anything. 

I also recommend checking out the preview section to see how your post will look in different placements. 

This will give you an idea on the type of experience that users will have when they come across your ad. 

Don’t try to make everything perfect. Good enough is good enough. 

Once you’re at that point, it’s time to pull the trigger and hit the “Boost” button. 

Your post will now undergo a review process by Facebook and if approved, your ad will immediately go live. 

If there are any issues, Facebook will disapprove your ad and tell you what you need to fix. 

It would help to be familiar with Facebook's Advertising Policies. If you get too many violations, you run the risk you getting your ad account shutdown.

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Thursday, July 16, 2020

17 Well-Known Facebook Ads Placements

Why is Facebook free?

One word: Ads. 

They’re all over the place. 

Well, not literally. But, it’s not that far off. 

These days, you don’t even have to be on Facebook in order to see a “Facebook” ad. 

More about that later. 

As you might’ve guessed from the title of this post, we will be talking about the different Facebook Ads Placements that exist.

This list is current as of Feb. 2020 and it is by no means definitive. Facebook is well-known for changing things at a drop of a hat.

I’ll do my best to keep this list updated, but I can’t make any guarantees. 

When in doubt, you can always go straight to the source i.e. the official Facebook website for more information about their ad placements. 

So with that being said, let’s dive in.

Feeds - Facebook Ads Placements

Feed ads have some of the highest visibility on Facebook. 

There are also more feed ads than any other type. 

These are the types of ads you see while scrolling on Facebook or Instagram.

Here are the various placements:

Facebook News Feed

facebook ads placements

If you scroll through your news feed long enough, you’re bound to come across an ad or 2. Facebook’s goal is to strike the right balance between promotional and organic posts in the news feed so that it pleases both the casual user and the advertiser.

Note: Confused about running Facebook Ads? Check out this exclusive Facebook Ads Guide.

Instagram Feed 

facebook ads placements - ig feed

Much like Facebook, you’ll come across an ad in your feed if you scroll for long enough. These ads appear front and center on a person’s mobile screen and are suitable for both image and video ads.

Facebook Marketplace 

facebook ads placements - facebook marketplace

The Facebook Marketplace is one of the best place to show your ads. Why? The people that are within the marketplace are likely to be in a buying mindset. All it takes is showing the right offer to the right person and you could be looking at a nice payday.

Facebook Video Feeds

Facebook Right Column

There are some things that you notice at the corner of your eye. The Right Column is great for staying top-of-mind with your audience and works great for re-targeting people who visited your site. 

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Instagram Explore

Instagram’s Explore Tab is great for discovering new content on the platform. Posts that end up here often get high visibility and for a while, it was only accessible to organic posts. Now, you can run your ad in this high-traffic area and get yourself a ton of eyeballs on your offer.

Messenger Inbox

1.3 billion people use Messenger every month. It has become a successful platform in its own right, behind Facebook, and it’s projected to grow in the coming years. This means that there are countless opportunities for your message (no pun intended) to get seen by your target market.

Stories - Facebook Ads Placements

In September 2018, Facebook made Stories ads available to all advertisers. 

At the time, over 300 million people were using Facebook Stories and Instagram Stories every day. That number is probably much higher now. 

What’s unique about Stories is the fact that they fully immerse you when you’re looking at them. 

When designed properly, they take up the entire space of your screen so you have no choice but to look at it. 

There are 3 Stories ad placements: Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories, and Messenger Stories.

Audience Network - Facebook Ads Placements

The Audience Network was officially launched back in April 2014. It is Facebook’s version of the Google Display Network or GDN for short. 

To put it simply, The Audience Network is a collection of websites and apps that display Facebook Ads. 

Using this placement allows you to extend your reach outside of Facebook while still leveraging their ad platform. 

You can use the same targeting as other placements, including Custom Audiences, Core Audiences, and Lookalike Audiences. 

There are 6 creative formats for Audience Network ads: 

Banner

In-Stream Video

Interstitial

Native

Native Banner

Native Banner ads are made up of the following components: 

  1. Ad Options View
  2. Sponsored Label
  3. Ad Icon
  4. Ad Title
  5. Social Context
  6. Call-to-Action button

Misc. Ad Placements - Facebook Ads Placements

Here are a few more placements that don’t fit neatly into one category:

Instant Articles

In-Stream Video

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Thursday, July 2, 2020

A Useful Guide To Facebook Campaign Budget Optimization

Facebook Campaign Budget Optimization is here to stay. 

And it can help you get more bang for your buck. 

But before you start using it, it’d be a good idea to understand how it works. 

By the end of Feb. 2020, Facebook is making CBO, short for Campaign Budget Optimization, the new standard for advertising campaigns. In other words, you won’t have a choice but to use it.

Facebook even wrote an article on their site about CBO, which gives further validity to this shift 

My goal for this blog post is to provide some necessary groundwork so you can get the most out of CBO. 

So, let’s dive right in. 

What is Facebook Campaign Budget Optimization?

Campaign Budget Optimization, or CBO for short, is a setting within Facebook ads that allows you to manage your budget at the campaign level. You can either set a daily or lifetime amount and customize the bid strategy for your particular needs. 

Other than that, campaign will distribute the budget among your ad sets and get you the most amount of optimization events according to your bid strategy. 

For example, if your bid strategy is lowest cost, then Facebook will optimize your ad spend across ad sets to get you the most optimization events possible while spending the least amount of money. 

Note: If you want an in-depth guide on Facebook Ads, check out this article. 

Don’t Pause Your Ad Sets

facebook campaign budget optimization

According to the official website, Facebook warns against pausing your ad sets when using CBO. If you pause and unpause your ad sets, you might notice that most of your budget goes towards one ad set. 

As a result, your data will be skewed and your budget usage will be inefficient. 

Understanding Your Results

facebook campaign budget optimization

Facebook recommends interpreting your results at the campaign level. You should look at the total amount of optimization events as a whole and the overall cost per optimization event. 

This is because CBO manages your budget at the campaign level. Your budget gets distributed amongst your ad sets in the most efficient way possible to maximize your ad spend.

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A Simplified Example of Facebook Campaign Budget Optimization

To help you wrap your head around Facebook Campaign Budget Optimization, here's a simplified example for how it works. This example originally appeared on Facebook and has been adapted for this blog post.  

Let's say that there are 15 opportunities for you to show your ad divided among 3 ad sets. We're also going to label each ad set A, B, C, for the sake of simplicity. 

We're also going to assume that 4 opportunities for ad set A are $5 each, and 6 opportunities for ad set B costs $2 each. 

For ad set C, there are 3 opportunities that costs $1 each, 1 costs $7 each, and 1 costs $8. 

Your total campaign budget is $30.

Before we go any further, keep in mind that you won't know about the number of opportunities within each ad set nor how much they would cost when you're running and reporting on the campaign. 

When we use CBO, we get 12 optimization events for $30, which comes at an average cost of $2.50 each.

Here's how that would break down: 

  • A: 3 optimization events for $5 each ($15 of total spend
  • B: 6 optimization events for $2 each ($12 of total spend)
  • C: 3 optimization events for $1 each ($3 of total spend)

At this point, you might wonder: "Why did my campaign spend the most on the ad set with the highest cost per optimization event (ad set A) and so little on the one with the lowest cost per optimization event, i.e. ad set C?"

Since you wouldn't know about the more expensive opportunities avoided, this seems like a valid question to ask. 

But for the sake of this example, we know that ad set C starts off initially the cheapest among the 3 ad sets. However, it gets expensive much quicker. 

Ad Set A on the other hand, starts off much more expensive than the other ad sets, but the costs remains much more stable, which leads to a smoother performance overall.

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Thursday, June 18, 2020

5 Facebook Business Tools To Help You Promote Online

Facebook loves businesses. 

It’s true. 

Think about it. 

The majority of Facebook’s revenue comes from advertising. And businesses tend to spend a lot on ads. 

Back in 2019, Facebook generated almost $70 billion in revenue from advertising alone. 

Businesses spend money on Facebook Ads because they expect to get a return on their revenue. 

And if you do it properly, it would be logical to assume that. 

In addition, there are a  variety of Facebook business tools at your disposal to help with your advertising efforts. 

There are much more than the ones I’ve listed, but these 5 are absolutely essential for business owners who want to be profitable with Facebook Ads. 

Click here for a general overview of Facebook Ads.

Facebook Business Tools #1: The Ads Manager

facebook business tools - ads manager

The Ads Manager is by far, one of my favorite tools. 

It only seemed right to have it first on the list. 

The Ads Manager gives you maximum control over structuring and optimizing your Facebook ads. It’s not necessary to use it, but there are some advantages worth considering. 

Some people might be tempted to use the “Boost Post” option on Facebook. And it can be appropriate in certain situations.

For instance, you might have an organic post that’s doing exceptionally well. Rather than going through the trouble of setting it up in the Ads Manager, you can hit “Boost Post” for a streamlined setup.

I’ll also be dropping a future post on how to boost a post on Facebook.

But, if you’re looking to get “down and dirty” and build your campaign from the ground up, then the Ads Manager has just what you need. 

You can create multiple ad sets to target different audiences, test multiple ads, and get deep insights into your campaign performance.

It can seem a little overwhelming at first but think about it like riding a bike. It starts off being uncomfortable, but you start to get the hang of it as you keep doing it.

For more information, check out Facebook's official post on the Ads Manager.

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Facebook Business Tools #2: Creator Studio

Facebook is not playing games when it comes to content. 

To help creators manage their content across Facebook and Instagram, they created a central platform to keep everything in one place. 

You can track performance, manage interactions, and streamline publishing all from one place. 

This tool has been a godsend for many creators because they can manage all of their accounts from the comfort of their desktop. For example, you can upload Instagram posts and IGTV videos straight from Creator Studio. You’re no longer forced to upload your videos from the mobile app.

You can even schedule your posts so that they appear on your profile at a certain time. 

If your Facebook Page is eligible, you can activate in-stream ads to show ads on your videos. Depending on the size of your audience, this could be a significant income stream. 

To sum it all up, Facebook says that the Creator Studio “brings together all of the tools you need, simplifying the process of building and managing your video business.”

Facebook Business Tools #3: Facebook Analytics

Peter Drucker famously said, “What gets measured gets improved. What gets measured and recorded improves exponentially.”

When you harness the power of Facebook Analytics, you are both measuring and recording the actions that people take on your Facebook Page, website, and more. This allows you to make data-driven decisions that will help increase your bottomline. 

Their analytics tool is built on the insights of their 2 billion-person community which gives them a unique perspective on how people operate and behave. 

Facebook Analytics is packed with a variety of features to help you understand how people interact with your business. For example, there’s the overlap report where you can see the number of people who interact with both your Facebook Page and website. 

There are also automated insights which get surfaced automatically by Facebook. They do this by using machine learning to analyze and monitor your data, which helps save you time and gives you the ability to make an informed decision quickly. 

Facebook Business Tools #4: Creative Hub

Got an idea for an ad?

You have two options: You can create a draft in the Ads Manager, which requires building out an entire campaign from scratch, or create a single ad mockup in the Creative Hub. 

Unless you love doing more work than necessary, the second option is the best way to go. 

In addition, you can collaborate with other people in your company through the Creative Hub. You can brainstorm and put different ads together before you decide to create a campaign in the Ads Manager. 

After you finish creating the mockup, you can check to see how it looks across different placements. Once you’re satisfied with the final product, you can import the ad into one of your campaigns in the Ads Manager.

Facebook Business Tools #5: Events Manager

After you add your Facebook pixel to your website, you can start seeing pixel event data in the Events Manager. 

The most basic pixel event is the “Page View” event. This event occurs anytime someone loads a page on your website.  Facebook has a robust set of Standard Events to add on your website such as “add payment info”, “add to cart”, “purchase”, and more. 

You can also create custom events to track specific actions taken on your website, that’s not covered by Facebook’s Standard Events. 

In addition to Pixel events, you can also track offline events and app events from the Events Manager.

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Thursday, June 4, 2020

How Do Facebook Ads Work? Here’s A Simple Answer

In 2019, Facebook made just under $70 billion in advertising revenue alone. 

That’s 98% of their total revenue. This is why just about everything on Facebook is free such as Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, Facebook Profiles, etc. 

But, have you ever wondered how do Facebook ads work? 

Surely, there must be some kind of rhyme and reason to how they do things. 

And it turns out, there is. 

Before we dive into the mechanics of the ad platform, I thought it would be useful to understand the anatomy of a Facebook ad first. 

Anatomy of a Facebook Ad - How Do Facebook Ads Work

When you break down a Facebook ad to its individual parts, several pieces emerge. 

When these pieces come together, it’s like Thanos collecting all of the Infinity Stones. They work together to achieve a specific goal, which is set by the ad objective. 

Here are the basic components of any Facebook Ad: 

  • Creative - The visual element of your ad. It can be an image or a video.
  • Ad Copy - The written text above the creative.
  • Headline - A short sentence or phrase that appears directly under the creative. Its use will depend upon the context of the ad.
  • Placement - Where your ad appears.
  • Targeting - the group of people who will be exposed to your ad.
  • Bid - the amount you’re willing to pay to show your ad. 

Just about every ad you will ever create (with rare exceptions) will have all of these basic components. 

Without them, you won’t be running any ads anytime soon.

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The Ad Auction - How Do Facebook Ads Work

how do facebook ads work

Facebook uses a real-time auction to determine the best ad to show to a person at a given point in time. Billions of auctions take place each day across Facebook’s family of apps. 

Ad placements include the News Feed on Facebook, Instagram Feed, Stories, and on websites and apps. I’ll be doing a comprehensive breakdown on each ad placement in a future post. 

The participants in each auction depend on the targeting for each respective advertiser. Advertisers that are trying to reach the same target market will compete in the same auction against one another. 

This can happen even if they’re targeting different interests. For example, Advertiser A might target people who like Grant Cardone. Meanwhile, Advertiser B is targeting people who like Apple products. If there’s a person on Facebook who likes both Grant Cardone and Apple products, then both advertisers have to compete to see who will get their ad shown.

Getting your ad shown has an exact science that was formulated by Facebook. They assign each ad a particular score, and the ad with the highest total value will win the auction. 

The total value of an ad is made up of 3 factors: bid, estimated action rates, and ad quality. 

Your bid is how much you’re willing to pay to show your ad. In old school auctions, the winner was the person who was the highest bidder. When it comes to Facebook ads, you can be the highest bidder and still potentially lose. 

The estimated action rate is Facebook’s best guess on whether or not someone engages or converts from a particular ad. If the action rate is high, then your ad costs will generally be much lower than your competition. 

Ad quality deals with how “good” your ad is from a multitude of perspectives. Keep in mind that the goal of Facebook is to optimize the user’s experience. They want people to come back often and stay on their platform for as long as possible. 

If your ads are negatively disruptive to the user experience, then your ad costs will rise.

Ron Goldman, VP of ad products from Facebook, once said “Our goal is to make ads on Facebook just as useful and relevant as posts people see from friends and family.”

This sums up their process perfectly. The advertising platform is their bread and butter and they will do everything they can to keep the riff-raff out.

Ad Relevance - How Do Facebook Ads Work

When you combine the estimated action rate with ad quality, you get the ad’s overall relevance.

Relevance deals with how relevant the ad is to a particular person. For example, if you have an ad for a steak and you’re showing it to vegans, they’re going to see your ad as irrelevant. 

They may choose to hide your ad, report it, or just completely ignore it.

If you need help with determining the relevance of your ads, Facebook has a set of 3 diagnostics to help with that called Ad relevance diagnostics.

Here’s a quick explanation of each:

  • Quality Ranking - Your ad’s perceived quality compared to other ads competing for the same audience.
  • Engagement Ranking - The likelihood that a person will click, react to, comment on, share, or expand an ad.
  • Conversion Rate Ranking - Your ad’s expected conversion rate compared to other ads with the same optimization goal (i.e. your ad objective) competing for the same audience.

Post-Click Experience - How Do Facebook Ads Work

Your work isn’t done as soon as someone clicks on your ad.

If you’re directing people off of Facebook, then you need to ensure that their experience is up to par. Facebook calculates this based on your website speed and the user’s network connection. 

Facebook said on the record that, “We will show ads to people when they are interested in your content and have a network connection that can quickly load the post-click content.”

This helps users have a positive experience with advertisers and reduces the chance of them bouncing off the website due to slow loading speed. 

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