A Detailed Guide to Running Facebook Ads Effectively

Facebook advertising has become an essential marketing tool in the business strategy of most companies today. With more than 2.8 billion users worldwide, Facebook not only gives you a chance to reach potential customers but also lets advertisers tailor campaigns for the best results. So how do you run Facebook ads yourself while keeping costs down and raising your order rate? In this article, MONA Media will guide you step by step from basic to advanced, helping you set up and optimize your Facebook ad campaigns to grow revenue and build your brand sustainably.

Popular types of Facebook ads

Facebook offers many ad formats to match different marketing goals. Here are the most popular ones on the platform:

Image ads

Image ads are one of the most common Facebook ad types you will come across. The ad uses just a single image combined with text, a link and a CTA to catch users' attention. It is one of the simplest and most effective ad formats.

Video ads

Video ads on Facebook are a popular choice for businesses today, because viewers tend to prefer watching video over reading text. Video ads let you use video to capture attention, tell your brand story or present products and services in detail. This format is highly interactive, which improves marketing performance and raises the chance of conversion.

Carousel ads

This format shows multiple images or videos in a single ad. It suits campaigns that tell a brand story, introduce products, compare features or highlight what is special about a product or service. Showing several images or videos also increases the time people spend with the ad.

Collection ads

Collection ads make it easy for customers to view and buy your products. The ad shows images of all the products in the collection, and people can tap it to learn more about a specific product. You can also look at the Instant Experience to get an overview of collection ads on Facebook.

Stories ads

Many businesses use Stories ads in video form because they look like the Stories people post every day, which feels more authentic and gives a better experience. Stories also have a CTA button that encourages customers to act.

Playable ads for software trials

This ad format helps your software reach more users. Customers can try the software or game for free for a limited time, getting the best experience before they download it.

Message ads

Messenger ads make it easy for people to start a conversation with your business. Instead of showing one-way ad information, they open a two-way conversation, letting you advise and support customers quickly and raise your conversion rate.

What do you need to prepare to run Facebook ads?

Before running Facebook Ads, start by preparing 3 essential below: 

Fanpage account

To run ads on Facebook, the first requirement is a Fanpage account (the Fanpage used to run FB Ads). If you see someone running ads from a "personal profile", it is actually a Facebook Fanpage they have named like a personal profile.

When you run FB Ads, you run the posts and images published on this Fanpage. The quality of the Fanpage greatly affects whether a campaign works. So take time to polish and maintain your Fanpage content before running a campaign to get better results.

*Note: If your Fanpage is new, fill in all the information and post regularly, at least 10 posts, to build trust before starting an ad campaign.

Ad account

The second requirement is to create a Facebook ad account, which comes in 2 types:

• Personal ad account: The default account that comes with your Facebook account. Creating and setting up a personal account is quite easy and suits beginners learning Facebook Ads.
• Business Manager (BM) account: A business account. As the name suggests, it is used by businesses and organizations. However, you can create a BM account even if you do not own a company. Note that an account without business verification does not get higher ad payment limits or good support if your account is restricted or banned from advertising.

*Advice: If you have to pick one of the two, MONA recommends the BM account for the most benefits, because:

• You get help unlocking the account, with advisors to answer your questions.
• Facebook gives it priority, with earlier updates on news, policies and tips for optimizing ad campaigns.
• The ad management interface is more professional and has more features.

Ad Visa card

The last thing to prepare so you can run Facebook ads effectively is a Visa card. Facebook now accepts payment with all types of international payment cards. You can choose one of 2 types:

• Visa Debit card: You spend only what you load.
• Visa Credit card: Spend first, pay later.

*Advice: If you are new, use a debit card so you can control spending and avoid exceeding your planned ad budget.

Create and choose an account to run Facebook Ads

If you do not yet have all 3 account types commonly used to run Facebook ads (Business Manager, Fanpage and ad account), you need to set them up first. Here is how:

Facebook Business account

If you already have a Facebook Business account, you can start here. If not, follow the steps below.

• Step 1: From your personal account, go to the Business page and choose to create a new account.
• Step 2: Follow the step-by-step instructions to create an account.
• Step 3: Click business settings and complete the information.
• Step 4: Add permissions for administrators.

Facebook Fanpage

To run FB Ads, you first need a Fanpage. Here is how to create one:

• Step 1: Click Create new Page.
• Step 2: Choose the category that matches your Fanpage to get the right optimization features.
• Step 3: Fill in the required information (profile picture, cover photo, description, location, opening hours and so on).
• Step 4: Add admin or other roles for team members by adding their personal Facebook account or email.

*Note: Think carefully about the Page name before creating it, because Facebook limits how often you can rename an account within a certain period, which can be up to 75 days (depending on the case).

Create a Facebook Ads account

Creating an ad account is also quite simple. Do it as follows:

• Step 1: Choose Add ad account.
• Step 2: Click Create and fill in all the information following Facebook's instructions.
• Step 3: Choose the time zone that matches the market where your ads will appear.
• Step 4: Choose the right currency for billing.
• Step 5: Choose a payment method, then enter your card details.
• Step 6: Add permissions for members in settings and set roles on the account.

Read it now: How to create a Facebook account, easy and detailed from A to Z

How to run Facebook Ads

Once the above is ready, you can run Facebook ads yourself with the detailed steps MONA shares below:

Step 1 – Create ads (Create Ads)

To start an ad campaign, you have 2 options:

• Method 1: Go directly to the link https://business.facebook.com/  => choose "Ads“

• Method 2: Go to the link https://adsmanager.facebook.com/ leading to Ads Manager => choose "Account Overview" to set up your payment method.

After setting up your payment method, click over to the "Campaigns" page. Click the "To create" button and a popup will appear for you to choose the campaign objective and set up the ad set (set the budget, choose the target audience, schedule, ad placement, content and so on).

Step 2 – Set the ad campaign objective

Next, define the objective of your campaign. Facebook will then determine the right ad format and bidding options for your campaign objective. Objectives can include:

• Increase traffic to your website
• Increase Facebook engagement (likes, comments, shares)
• Increase sign-ups
• Increase sales
• Or other objectives

Step 3 – Name your Facebook Ads campaign

Naming your campaign makes it easier to manage and to evaluate ad performance. It also gives you a clear time reference and makes things easier to navigate later.

Step 4 – Choose the right ad category

When choosing an ad category, consider these options:

• Clicks To Website: Running FB Ads to increase traffic to your website.
• Website Conversions: Ads that increase conversions on your website.
• Page Post Engagement: Increase engagement on Fanpage posts.
• Page Likes: Increase Fanpage likes.

Step 5 – Enter account information and choose your audience

The next step is very important when running Facebook Ads: defining your audience, including name, gender, age, language and so on. Setting the right target audience helps your campaign reach people who are genuinely interested, which raises your conversion rate more effectively.

Step 6 – Set the budget and bid

You can choose from 3 types of budget:

• Daily budget
• Budget for the whole campaign
• Budget for the objective

This step can affect the whole campaign, so consider carefully and choose the budget that best fits your strategy.

Explore now: How to set bids for Facebook ads effectively

Step 7 – Choose ad placements

You can flexibly choose different ad placements such as Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network or other placement options.

If you choose Advantage+ placements your ads will be shown in the most optimized way, possibly on Instagram and Audience Network. Each placement serves a different purpose in reaching customers. You can also choose Manual placements if you want to customize them. There are 3 placement options:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Messenger

Step 8 – Preview your FB Ads

After completing the steps above, your ad campaign is nearly ready. At this step, just preview the ad to make sure everything looks right.

Step 9 – Wait for approval, then check and track results

After you click to run FB Ads, you will wait for Facebook's approval. Then check and track how the ads perform on Facebook. Note that ad review usually takes from a few hours to a few days (depending on the case).

Read more: Facebook ad review taking long? Tips for faster approval

How to turn on, turn off or delete ads on Facebook

Facebook Ads can be stopped at any time. You can turn campaigns, ad sets or ads on or off whenever you like to control delivery. You can also check the delivery of a campaign, ad set or ad by looking at that toggle.

So how do you turn ads on or off?

Before you start, keep in mind:

• Turning off a campaign or ad set does not delete the ads.
• Turning off a campaign turns off all ad sets and ads in that campaign.
• If you cannot turn a campaign, ad set or ad back on, try resetting the account spending limit or updating your payment information.

How to turn Facebook ads on or off

To turn ads on or off, follow these steps:

• Step 1: Go to "Ads Manager"
• Step 2: Choose "Campaigns, Ad sets or Ads".
• Step 3: Click the toggle next to the campaign, ad set or ad you want to turn on or off.

*Note: When an ad is on, the toggle is blue; when it is off, the toggle is gray.

How to delete ads on Facebook

When you no longer want to see a particular campaign, ad set or ad on Facebook, you can delete it. After deleting, you will no longer see the campaign, ad set or ad in your account, and you cannot undo it. If you may want to run it again later, turn it off instead of deleting it.

If you want to review performance data for a deleted campaign, ad set or ad, use Facebook's filters. Click Filter in Ads Manager, then select Deleted under Delivery in the dropdown menu.

To delete a specific campaign, ad set or ad, follow these steps:

• Step 1: Go to Ads Manager
• Step 2: Click Campaigns, Ad sets or Ads to find the item you want to delete.
• Step 3: Tick the box next to the campaign, ad set or ad you want to delete.
• Step 4: Click the trash can icon in the action bar to delete the campaign, ad set or ad.

*Note:

• If you do not see the trash can icon in the actions, choose More, then choose Delete in the menu.
• This help article only covers deleting campaigns, ad sets or ads. If you want to deactivate your ad account, go to Account Settings and learn more about how to deactivate an ad account.

How to run effective Facebook ads

Besides the Facebook Ads instructions above, MONA has a few more tips to help your ad campaign perform at its best.

Best times to run FB Ads

The best time to post helps you reach the largest share of your target audience. The same goes for Facebook ads: choosing the best time to run them gets you the best results.

The best times vary by business type, product and audience. You can also read our article on the best times to post on Facebook to work out when to publish your ads.

Split your ad campaigns

In MONA's experience, the minimum budget for Facebook Ads is 100,000 VND/day. Split it into 3-5 campaigns of 100,000 VND each instead of putting the whole budget on a single post. Splitting the ad budget and topping up when it runs out is an approach MONA has used very effectively.

Prioritize posts with high engagement

Of all the posts on your Fanpage, running FB Ads on posts with high engagement saves cost and brings more engagement and conversions. So to optimize your Facebook ad campaign, create content first and test which posts get the most engagement, then run ads on those.

Missing CTA (Call To Action)

CTA (call to action) is the last key factor that decides whether customers actually buy, sign up, like and so on. Your call to action must be interesting and appealing enough to lead customers to the next step.

Choosing the wrong ad format

Running Facebook Ads the wrong way can send your advertising goal off course, and you will surely not get high performance. Facebook describes its ad campaigns in detail to help businesses find the best way to get results for each campaign. There are 3 main ad groups to refer to:

Group 1 – Awareness stage

At this stage, focus on 2 factors:

• Brand Awareness
• Reach

Group 2 – Consideration stage

At stage 2, pay attention to factors such as:

• Traffic
• Engagement
• App installs
• Video views
• Lead generation
• Messages

Group 3 – Conversion stage

At stage 3, pay attention to:

• Conversion rate (conversions on your website or landing page)
• Catalog sales (sales by product catalog)
• Store traffic (visits to your online store).

Content that does not offer enough value

Content is always an important factor in the performance of any marketing campaign. If you do not invest in content and do not give customers useful information, you will certainly not get high performance when running FB Ads.

Not running tests (A/B Testing)

When you run FB ads, it's hard to tell which ad creative will perform best and at which times. So you have to create several ad variations and test them. That gives you concrete results to evaluate.

Testing is fairly simple: set up 2 identical ads and change just 1 element to compare. That element can be the content, CTA, image, location, target audience, or even the strategic goal.

Targeting the wrong audience

Targeting the wrong audience is damaging. No matter how well your ads run, a campaign that brings no customer conversions is a failed campaign, because it earns you no revenue. So make sure you have studied your customer insights carefully before choosing the target audience for your ad campaign.

Optimizing Facebook ad images

Facebook has a best-fit display frame for each type of image. So when you post content to run Facebook Ads, optimize your images to the required dimensions. This step is essential when running Facebook Ads, and it helps the campaign cost less and reach more customers. 

Frequently asked questions about running Facebook Ads

Will running Facebook ads definitely bring in customers?

MONA Media can't guarantee that running ads on Facebook will bring you customers. However, Facebook ads have great potential for reaching and attracting your target customers. Remember that FB ads are only one marketing method. You also need to consider other factors, such as product or service quality, how you interact with customers and brand building, to keep a steady flow of customers over the long term.

What should you do if you violate Facebook's advertising policies?

If you violate Facebook's advertising policies, you may run into problems such as ads being rejected, ads being limited, or ads being removed. When that happens, contact Facebook as quickly as possible for support. Keep in mind that resolving a policy violation with Facebook can take a long time, so be patient. It's best to always follow the policies and keep up with Facebook's latest rules so your ads perform as well as possible.

Should you advertise on other platforms instead of focusing only on Facebook?

Yes. Advertising on several platforms brings you many benefits: a more diverse source of potential customers, no dependence on a single platform if something goes wrong, wider brand coverage across the internet, and better results from your ads and marketing campaigns.

In this article, MONA has walked you through how to run Facebook ads in detail. We hope this helps you run FB ads for your own products or services. If you're also looking for a reputable provider to run Facebook Ads advertising, MONA Media is definitely the right choice for you. Our principle is “any budget works”: we launch campaigns quickly with specific, committed results, and we're confident we can meet every client's needs, even in the hardest industries. Contact the MONA team via HOTLINE 1900 636 648 for a consultation and a detailed quote.