I have been running Facebook ads for the past three years and I’ve tried many different courses. There’s a lot of rubbish out there on how to do this, but also some great resources if you know where to look. I’m going to share with you what has worked for me and why in case it helps you find your own way through all the information that is available (or lack thereof).
1 - Build a fan page from scratch
This is not only one of the best ways to learn about Facebook advertising, it’s also the way to go if you’re starting your Facebook business from scratch and don’t have a business page (or fan page) set up already.
Why? Because getting people to like your page is hard work! It takes time and effort to post things that people want to see. Luckily there are plenty of resources out there on how to do this, most of which focus on ‘Facebook marketing’, because a lot of the strategies translate over into ads as well. And when you know what makes people tick (behaviourally), you can craft advertising that works better!
2 - Follow real examples
The second best way to learn about Facebook advertising is to follow any businesses that you find interesting on social media or in the news and watch how they use it in their marketing.
It’s cliche, but you can learn a lot about Facebook advertising from the children’s toy industry. They are really good at it, especially Lego Group and Mattel (Hot Wheels). Most of these companies have very large fanbases on their respective pages or communities. And most of them use excellent content to engage people: short and sweet videos, podcasts, care packages full of goodies for fans… You name it! I find their strategy fascinating and very useful when I think about how we use social media at my company.
Check out these brands:
Lego Group Hot Wheels Moshi Monsters Disney Pixar Barbie Jeep Ford Motor Company Microsoft Office Depot General Electric BMW Tesla Motors Target Sketchers Marks & Spencer Pepsi Co. Kellogg’s Airbnb Nestlé Purina Pet Care
3 - Use a case study or a disclaimer.
The third best way to learn about Facebook advertising is to do what we did at my company and start off by using the official Facebook Advertising Case Study! There are actually two good reasons why you should pick this one:
You can work through all the stages of creating, targeting, and managing ads in small bite-sized pieces. The actual Facebook Ads Case Study itself is really well done! Between the posts, there’s a whole bunch of checklists, templates, and step-by-step guides that will help you feel comfortable with managing your own campaign(s). Even though I had been running Facebook ads for 2 years before we chose to use this tutorial, I had not seen their checklist for posting best practices and thought it was great!