An ad is an ad, right? When you’re talking about Facebook Ads, this isn’t the case.
When you create your first social media marketing campaign, you’re going to see there are three different types of Facebook Ads; Awareness, Consideration and Conversion. To anyone other than an ad specialist, figuring these out, let alone all the buttons and guidelines for your campaigns is enough to have you running back to boosting posts.
But wait… remember, boosting posts does not allow you the targeting and on-going optimisation benefits of Facebook Ads. We’re also here to help you learn the difference between the three different Facebook campaign objectives and how to know which one to use. All your Facebook Ad can be easily managed through your Facebook Business Manager account.
Photo by Will Francis on Unsplash
The 3 Types of Facebook Ad Campaign Objectives
What is a Facebook Ad campaign objective?
A Facebook Ad Campaign Objective is the type of Facebook Ad you want to run. The objective you choose will impact the format of your ad, the content you can have, audience you can reach and even the cost of how much the campaign costs.
As we know, there are 3 different types of Facebook Ad campaign objectives to choose from; Awareness, Consideration and Conversion. Each has its pros and cons for the goal you’re hoping to achieve, so pick carefully.
1. Awareness
If you simply want to put your brand in front of as many people as possible, then awareness is the Facebook Ad objective you’re after. The aim of this campaign is to generate interest in your business or product.
When aligning brand awareness in your sales funnel, awareness campaigns sit toward the top, often acting as the consumers first exposure to a business. If you like the reach of boosting posts, but would like to reach a more defined audience, then this campaign type may be exactly what you’re after.
Who should use an awareness campaign?
Everyone should run an awareness campaign, at least once.
If you plan on running a successful business, you need clear branding. For example, if I were to say what is the main colour of the two top cola manufacturers of the world, you’d probably say red and blue right? That’s branding. However, the results aren’t instant.
It takes an average of 7 times for a consumer seeing your brand for you to become memorable. With the purpose of Facebook to be to connect with friends and family, becoming familiar and memorable is your goal. If you bolt out of the gate with buy, buy, buy, you’re not going to get very far. But if you let people get to know you first, you’ll have better luck converting viewers.
Social media marketers recommend running an awareness campaign for at least 3 months before switching to a conversion-orientated Facebook Ad campaign.
Awareness campaigns are also useful for people who like the numbers of boosting, but know they need to target their audience more specifically.
How to get the most out of your awareness campaign.
- Use engaging visuals with your brand colour and font.
- Optimise your copy with your differences as a business.
- Keep your images and copy simple.
2. Consideration
The consideration Facebook ad type is generally used to drive web traffic and engagement. They tend to be more targeted to your specific audience than an awareness campaign, and encourage consumers to seek more information about your product or service. A consideration campaign is great for collecting data for email databases or retargeting campaigns.
As mentioned, you’ll typically run an awareness campaign for three months before running a consideration campaign.
Who should use a consideration campaign?
A consideration campaign is suited for those who have already run branded campaigns, know their target audience and are ready to collect more data to prepare for lead generation. Videos work well with consideration campaigns, as do buttons to download an app or engage with you on Facebook Messenger.
It should be noted, consideration Facebook ads can not track the outcome of its call-to-action beyond clicks. Those after this ability would be better off investing in a conversion campaign. Consideration ad campaigns sit in the middle of the conversation funnel. They act as the secondary as a tool to provoke further information gathering by the consumer around a product or service.
How to get the most out of your consideration campaign.
- Run a brand awareness campaign prior to your consideration campaign.
- Add relevant call to action (CTA) buttons to each ad.
- Where possible, make a landing page to direct people to so you can capture information.
3. Conversion
Conversion Facebook ads sit at the bottom of the sales funnel. Their objective is to convert users, either directly via Facebook or a landing page.
What you consider a conversion will depend on your business. For example, a clothing retailer with an eCommerce website is more likely to consider a conversion a sale, while an accountant would be an enquiry submission.
Who should use a conversion campaign?
Businesses looking to ‘seal the deal’ with their target audience should use conversion campaigns. They encourage users to sign-up, purchase or visit a store directly from the Facebook Ad.
Conversion campaigns do tend to be expensive due to the very specific targeting.
How to get the most out of your conversion campaign.
- Know your target audience very well or have data to plug into the campaign, like from Google Analytics.
- Run a branded campaign for at least 3 months prior.
- Have a website with a specific landing page or create an automated form via Facebook Messenger.
- Use direct call to actions, like buy now, enquire now, etc.
If Facebook Ads were easy, everyone would do it. However, they are worth every bit of an effort.
If you do need help, Localsearch can help. We are a Facebook Marketing Partner, giving us direct support from Facebook. Every package is tailored to your business, so you only pay for the type of campaign you need. Contact us now to create your quote.