Q&A from our "Beginner’s Guide to Running Your First Two Facebook Ads" Webinar

[Caitlin_M]

For many, the thought of setting up your first Facebook ad can feel intimidating, especially since you don’t want to waste money as you try to find customers, drive business, and grow your contact list. Social Media 

That’s why in this free one-hour webinar, we’ll walk you through the process of building your first two Facebook ads. We’ll touch briefly on the types of ads you can create and how to more easily create your ads with Constant Contact tools.

More specifically, you’ll learn:

• The different types of Facebook ads
• How to set up and connect the needed accounts
• How to set up and run different types of ads in Constant Contact

In this post, you can watch the webinar in its entirety. Interested in our free, future webinars? Sign up here to stay informed!

Getting Started

Why should I create my ads through Constant Contact?

Constant Contact has simplified the process. If you've never created a Facebook or Instagram ad before, this is a great way to get started. Facebook can be confusing to a lot of users for creating ads as it is primarily designed for power and enterprise users who are running millions of dollars of ads at once.

How much do Facebook and Instagram ads cost?

Ads cost what you are willing to spend, ultimately. A variety of factors — your audience type and size, the creative you use, the offer or messaging in your ad — all play into how effective or efficient your ads are, and that's where the 'cost' for the ads can vary significantly.

How long should we run our Facebook ads for? 

If you are just starting out, we'd recommend no less than two weeks, but no more than six weeks, especially if you are only using $100 as a test budget. That being said, it's very dependent on your spending level and your goals. Have a sale next week that you really want to get leads for? Spend that $100 over five days instead.

Can you do ads through Instagram as well?

Yes. When connecting your Facebook account, you can also select the Instagram page you wish to advertise for as well, provided you have the login for that account.

What is the difference between a lead ad and a click ad? Can both run at the same time?

Lead ads allow you to collect a visitor’s email address and any other information you want from a set of fields (like name, address, phone number, etc.) without the user having to leave Facebook. Click ads take them off of Facebook, such as your website or to your store, to purchase an item. You can run both of these types of ads at the same time.

Does Facebook take employment ads?

Yes, but they do have specific limitations on targeting in order to comply with anti-discrimation laws. Read more about Facebook's ad policies*.

What if we don't have a large Facebook following? Will that make running ads less effective?

Nope! It's great if you have built a large following up, but ads are not impacted by the size of your Facebook page. In fact, running ads should lead to your follower count increasing as some users who are exposed to ads click through the profile picture on the ad to follow a brand. Additionally, you may have seen that over time the posts you make to your "organic" followers have inconsistent or decreased reach (e.g. you don't reach 100% of your followers with every post you make). Facebook does that intentionally as part of its algorithm, so advertising gives you back the reach you are missing — and another reason to use lead ads and email marketing to make sure you can reach your full audience!

Creating and Publishing Ads

Do you recommend using a branded image for an ad? If so, does it have to be a certain size, such as 1200x628px?

Using something branded can help to make sure that your ads create additional brand awareness value on top of the clicks and leads you may generate. If the image is eye-catching and interesting with your logo/name on it, go for it! As for sizes, Facebook allows for a few different sizes, but the 1200x628 and 1080x1080 are both standard and best practices. If running your ad on Instagram and Facebook, we recommend using the 1080x1080 image which will cover both nicely.

I am a graphic designer. Can I design an ad in another program and use it as a Facebook ad?

You can design the ad in any other program and upload it into your Constant Contact library. Facebook recommends that your image be 1200x628 or 1080x1080. If you use Canva, you can directly integrate your account as well to import your images.

Can more than one person see and edit the ads using their Constant Contact login or is it like FB and tied to the personal FB account?

The only restriction is for anyone with a Campaign Creator role, who will not have access to creating, editing, or publishing social ads. Outside of that, anyone can create, edit or publish an ad.

When does Facebook charge us? I noticed I wasn’t charged right away when my ad was approved.

The way Facebook charges can vary based on payment type. Generally speaking, they will charge your card at one of two points: 1.) When you hit a certain threshold of spend within a given month (say $500, but that may increase as you run more ads); 2.) At month's end, covering all your charges for that month. Click for more information on Facebook’s ad billing policies*.

I have an available ad credit through Facebook. Can this be used with Constant Contact?

Yes, when you're setting up your payment information, you'll see a checkbox to say you have an ad credit.

How do I find a disclosure statement? Where can you house your privacy policy if you have an Etsy shop and not a private website?

You might be referring to a privacy policy for a Facebook Lead Ad. There are privacy policy generators online that can help you document your own, but consider consulting with your legal counsel to ensure that you're being compliant with any applicable regulations. Once the privacy policy is created, you can host it in your Constant Contact account and use the URL provided.

Results and Reporting

What are "impressions"?

Impressions are the total number of times all your ads were displayed to users on Facebook. It is not a measure of how many users saw the ad, that metric is called "Reach" within Facebook's Ad Manager (e.g. one user could see more than 1 impression of your ad)

What is a good reach metric average?

You should shoot to have a few thousand people in your 'potential reach' pool at a very bare minimum. Remember that for about $100 you might serve 20,000 impressions, which means theoretically you could reach 5000 people four times; 20000 people once, or 1/4 of 80000 people once, etc. etc.

How do you send a follow-up email addressing each person who signed up through my ad by their first name?

First, you'll want to make sure your lead ad is collecting their first name. Creating an automated email is the fastest and easiest way to engage with your new subscribers right away. Make sure to include a greeting tag so you can make the email look personal.

Other 

I have heard a lot about the new practices Apple has initiated that will affect reporting on Mass emails. How will this affect our results?

Constant Contact fully supports a user’s right to privacy, and as Apple releases more information about Mail Privacy features in iOS 15, we are committed to minimizing any negative impact on our customers from this update. Our tests thus far indicate that Mail Privacy Protection has no major impact on performance of lead or click ads on Facebook, Google, or other platforms. Those using retargeting practices, or those employing lookalike audiences, are most impacted, as users who opt out of tracking do not show up in your data pool. Our Blog team has written a post regarding Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection.

(*This article contains third-party links. Any links we provide from non-Constant Contact sites or information about non-Constant Contact products or services are provided as a courtesy and should not be construed as an endorsement by Constant Contact)