Say what you want about Mark Zuckerberg. From the drama portrayed in the film The Social Network to the whole “legs in the metaverse” snafu, it’s safe to say the Meta CEO has made some missteps during his career.
What you can’t deny is that he created one of the greatest advertising opportunities of all time.
Facebook, with its 3 billion monthly active users, is still far and away the most popular social media network. As an ecommerce brand, you can reach those users—more than one-third of the Earth’s population—with just a few clicks.
With that said, there’s an art to advertising on Facebook that goes beyond publishing a video and crossing your fingers.
Here’s how to run ads on Facebook as an ecommerce business and see real results.
If you’ve ever used Facebook, then you’ve seen a Facebook ad (or ten). These promotions appear in the main feed, in stories, between videos and just about everywhere else on the platform.
Facebook ads are only a small part of using Facebook for business, but they’re an important one. Ads on the platform can be used to promote a product, generate leads or simply build awareness.
Whatever you use them for, Facebook ads are a highly effective medium for promotion—especially for ecommerce brands.
In fact, we strongly recommend Facebook ads for most businesses because:
Before you can start running ads on Facebook, you need to do some admin work. That means setting up Facebook Ads Manager.
(Note: This section assumes you already have a Facebook Business Page. If you haven’t created one yet, you’ll need to do that first!)
To get started with Facebook Ads Manager, head over to Meta Business Suite. From there, follow these steps:
And that’s it! You’re now ready to run Facebook ads for your ecomm brand.
However, before you do, we suggest linking your ecommerce platform with Meta Business Suite. To do that, go to business.facebook.com/commerce, click Get Started, then Create a shop.
You can then choose from the list of partner platforms to link your existing ecommerce solution to Facebook. Your next steps will look different depending on the platform you use, so we won’t go into detail about each one here—just follow the prompts as they appear.
By connecting your ecommerce shop to Facebook, you can easily guide shoppers from your ads to your products.
Now that you have an Ads Manager account, we can show you how to advertise on Facebook. Buckle in—this is where the fun begins.
As with all ad campaigns, the first step is to set out your goals. However, with Facebook ads, this step isn’t just a best practice—it’s required.
When you click Create in Ads Manager, you’ll immediately be asked to choose a campaign objective. Your choices are:
If you want details and use cases for each option, you can hover over them before hitting Continue.
Ultimately, your overarching company goals will inform which objective you choose. For example, if you’re launching a new business, you may want to choose Awareness. However, once you’ve generated interest, you may want to switch tactics to Leads or Sales.
Whatever you choose, click Next, and you’ll be brought to a page with a few different fields to sift through. These will vary by objective type, but some of the sections you’re bound to see include:
Work your way through any prompts that come up, then hit Next.
The following page is where it gets serious. It’s time to talk about your budget.
At this point, Facebook asks you how much you want to spend. You can either set a per-day budget or a lifetime budget.
Only you can decide how much to spend on Facebook ads. Naturally, the more you spend, the more results you’ll see—though, of course, nothing’s guaranteed.
Our advice? Start small. You can set your daily budget as low as $1, so feel free to experiment before spending big.
During this stage, you’ll also choose your schedule. If you’re doing a Daily Budget, we suggest setting an end date so you don’t accidentally overspend. And if you pick Lifetime Budget, then you’ll have to set an end date. Facebook then spreads your budget across this timeframe.
Next, you’ll define your audience. Scroll down to the Audience section and click Create new audience. (Note: Facebook may suggest that you use Advantage+, a feature that automatically finds your audience. However, you’ll have more control if you create your audience from scratch.)
In this section, you can change all kinds of parameters about your target audience, including:
Assuming you’ve already created buyer personas, this step should be pretty straightforward. Don’t forget to save your audience so you can use it for a different campaign.
Here, you can also choose your ad placements. (Again, Facebook will suggest Advantage+).
If you opt for manual placements, you can decide which devices and platforms (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) your ad will show up on, as well as where within the platform (in the Feed, on Marketplace and so on).
Finally, it’s time to flex those creative muscles and add in the content for your ad.
In theory, you’ve already produced the eye-catching visuals and messaging for your ad, so this part should be as simple as importing files and pasting in some pre-written copy.
However, if you’re not sure where to start, here are some ecommerce-specific tips:
All that’s left to do now is double-check your work and, if you’re satisfied, hit that big green Publish button. As soon as you do, your ad will be reviewed—which can take up to 24 hours—and shared with your selected audience.
Okay, technically, that’s not all that’s left to do. After your ad goes live, you’ll want to watch it like a hawk, using Facebook’s built-in insights to analyze its performance.
As an ecommerce business, you’ll likely be most interested in metrics like:
Pay attention to these indicators and react accordingly. If an ad is doing numbers, scale it up; if it’s not delivering the results you’re looking for, adjust some parameters or nix it altogether.
Some amount of trial and error will be necessary, but that’s the name of the game. Eventually, you’ll land on the winning combo.
Facebook puts billions of captive consumers at your fingertips. When you know how to reach them, your ecommerce brand will grow faster than you can send a friend request.
As luck would have it, we know how to reach them. At Human, we help ecommerce businesses navigate the world of pay-per-click advertising on Facebook and other platforms—and build a loyal customer base along the way.
Reach out to us today to explore the possibilities for your ecommerce strategy.