The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Ad Management in 2023

Posted on April 11, 2023 | Updated on April 26, 2023

Most business owners feel as though they are in the dark about the magical formula needed to be successful with Facebook ad management. While some companies find great success on the platform, others throw a lot of money at trying out different ads without much to show for it.

Some people even pay so-called marketing gurus to help drive results without any clear return on investment (ROI). Fortunately, Facebook comes with some built in algorithms to help users figure out what’s working and what needs tweaked. 

How to Utilize Facebook Ad Management to Drive Conversions

Facebook’s ad revenue is around $1.5 trillion in 2023, and expected to reach over $2 trillion by 2026. With so many companies and people advertising on the media giant, you can find advice running the gamut of things to try to bring in revenue. 

We’ve spent some time hunting through the top tips, comparing them to our own experience on the platform, seeking input from other marketing professionals and coming up with some of the best tips for Facebook ads management. 

1. Narrow Your Audience

One of the benefits of advertising on Facebook is reaching a specific target audience. Start by narrowing the parameters by demographics and psychographics. You can choose who sees ads based on what their interests are and past behaviors such as groups they’ve joined or pages they like.

One of the key elements of Facebook ad management is how well you target your users. You can do everything possible to create an engaging and eye-catching promotion, but if you aren’t serving it up to the right people, it will still fall flat and your return on investment (ROI) will be dismal. 

Take the time to perfect your audience selection and your advertising dollars will stretch farther and give you a better ROI. 

2. Stand Out From the Crowd 

Study the competition. What types of ads are they serving up? Can you use something different to capture attention? For example, your nearest competitor uses photos and catchy headlines. You find photos that are brighter and more targeted and give them to the same audience.

Think about the special offers, content and engagement other brands do. How can you try something else for your target audience? You want to get them to share, comment and click without seeming spammy or too self-promotional. 

3. Choose the Right Timing

The average Facebook user spends about 33 minutes per day on the platform. Figuring out when your audience is most active can save you money and make your ad campaign more effective. Within the Facebook ads manager dashboard, you can choose the times you want your ads to appear. Select the days and hours your target audience is most active and most likely to engage. 

If you’re unsure of the best times, you can consult Facebook’s analytics reports. When you log into the Facebook ad manager, click on the icon on the left side for Campaigns–a little box icon with grid lines. On the Campaign screen, a left sidebar will appear. Choose the top icon, which features a bar graph to see insider information about how various campaigns have performed. 

You can also dive down into ad sets and specific ads by clicking on the taps across the top. The more information you gather, the better you can see which ads work best with your audience and how to serve up new ones for stellar results. 

4. Separate Campaigns

If you want to see how well each ad performs, create separate campaigns for different promotions. You can also organize ads by sets and see which images and wording performs best over time. 

Use the analytics mentioned above to figure out which campaigns you want to repeat and which flopped. 

5. Segment Your Audience

If you want to narrow down your audience even more, you can create separate ads for different audience segments. Break customer data into factors such as income level, gender, age and geographic locations. 

Know each buyer persona’s pain points so you can solve them in each ad. For example, if you sell baby teething rings, you might have moms, dads and grandparents hunting for them. The ads you serve to each of those buyers would vary. Moms are usually wanting some relief from the endless tears. Grandmas want the baby to feel relief. 

While some of the emotions overlap, the way a mother feels will vary from the way a grandparent does. Know the pain points, speak to them and you’ll have much more success than if you just serve one general ad to every person.

6. Make the Copy Match the Image

Is your copy relevant to your image and vice versa? You don’t want to show users a photo of a brightly colored umbrella and then talk about clear skies. Readers like to feel you’re being upfront and honest but also offering them a solution.

Facebook ad management gives you an opportunity to see all your scheduled ads and drafts at a glance. You can move photos around as needed, edit headlines and tweak your copy at any time. 

One of the top benefits of online advertising is that you can edit in real time. If a promotion isn’t going well, make some adjustments and see what happens. Facebook Ads Manager even allows you to run experiments via the hamburger menu.

You can add new campaigns and see which version performed for the least amount of money per click. Armed with in-depth information, you can stretch your marketing dollars to get the most from even a tiny budget. 

7. Avoid Overspending

Under your Facebook ad management dashboard, you can set some thresholds for spending. You want a large enough budget to serve up ads to potential customers but you don’t want to spend thousands of dollars per day and run out of your annual money in a matter of weeks. 

Click on the hamburger menu on the top left of your dashboard just under your home icon. Choose “Payment Settings.” Select the edit icon next to the payment threshold to set some maximum amounts. You can also scroll down to set an account spending limit and view payment methods. 

8. Spend Time in Audiences Tab

One of the most crucial things you can do to improve your ads is to reach the right people. Click on the hamburger icon again and select “Audiences.” You have two options when creating an audience to serve your ad to–custom or lookalike.

A lookalike audience is based on those who’ve already interacted with your brand. Perhaps they liked a post or commented on something on your business page. You can also cross-promote between different pages you have on the platform.

A custom audience is one where you set all the parameters. You can have the selections as wide or narrow as you’d prefer. You’ll see how many potential customers you can reach with each audience.

Practice Makes Perfect With Facebook Ad Management

The key to really understanding the best principles for Facebook ad management is to frequently try new things. See how one type of ad performs with a particular audience. Reset some of the parameters and see if clickthroughs improve. The more time you invest in learning the system, the easier it will be to launch new campaigns and get an excellent ROI.

About The Author

Eleanor Hecks is the Editor-in-Chief of Designerly Magazine, an online publication dedicated to providing in-depth content from the design and marketing industries. When she's not designing or writing code, you can find her re-reading the Harry Potter series, burning calories at a local Zumba class, or hanging out with her dogs, Bear and Lucy.

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