After all the algorithm changes on Facebook and Instagram, the idea of a businesses post organic going viral seems to be an outlandish dream. Social Media for businesses is now truly a pay-to-play platform. Now encompassing Facebook and Instagram, if you’re looking at getting your content seen and your customers to take action, social media advertising can no longer be ignored.

It’s a common complaint, Facebook Advertising is daunting and difficult. With all the options available when setting up Facebook and Instagram ads it’s not surprising people feel overwhelmed. The first thing to be considered when setting up your campaign is: What do you want to achieve from your Facebook campaign? Is it – Traffic? Reach? Conversions? Engagement? Before you begin setting up your campaign make sure to familiarise yourself with the 5 most common goals for Social Media advertising.

Traffic

If you’re aiming to drive traffic from Facebook to your website or landing page, this is the goal for you. When your campaign goal is Traffic, Facebook will show your ad to people who are most likely to click through to your website. When Traffic is your goal, you’re going to see a boost in your unique traffic and page views. This is the goal to select if you’re looking to promote a new site or you’re promoting a new product or offer.

Reach

Use the Reach objective to get your ads seen by as many people in your target audience as possible. The Reach objective can be useful when targeting a small niche audience and you want to reach as many of them as possible. This objective can also have the secondary benefit of website traffic, video views and conversions on your website.

Engagement

Wanting people to interact with your content? Looking to start a conversation with your potential customers? Select Engagement as your goal if you want more people to engage with your ad. Engagement with your ads includes comments, likes and shares. The engagement objective can also be useful in generating Event Responses, Page Likes and even Offer Claims.

Lead Generation

Are you looking for leads? Lead Generation ads might be the option for you. Use Lead Generation ads if you’re looking to generate leads directly within Facebook without driving traffic to your website. Lead generation ads work a little differently to the other ad types with Facebook automatically populating data such as name, phone number and email address when someone selects “Sign Up”.

Conversions

If your goal is to increase conversions for a specific action like opting in, registering or completing a sale – the Conversions goal is what you’re after. When selecting this goal, it’s important to remember that Facebook needs some information to start with. You will need to have at least 15 – 30 conversions per week in order for Facebook to learn the characteristics of previous buyers and show your ads to people who are most likely to convert.

Now that you’re familiar with the most popular ad types, it’s time to start experimenting. As with most things, it’s rarely a ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to Facebook ads. It’s important to test the objectives and find what works best for you and your brand. What may work for one business may not receive the same results for another.

Need help with your Facebook + Instagram Advertising? Emblm specialises in setting up and running your social media advertising campaigns. Contact Us here, we’d love to help.