How to advertise on Facebook in 2022: types, cost, tips

If you’re trying to jump into the world of advertising, you probably already know that Facebook is one of your biggest opportunities. If your customers use Facebook, it’s probably a good idea to invest in Facebook Advertising. And depending on your business, there are different types of ads and goals that you can set up to achieve success.

In this comprehensive Facebook advertising guide, we’ll look at ad types, how they work, costs, specs, tips, and more. By the end of the article, you’ll be ready to launch your own campaigns.

What is Facebook ads

Facebook ads are an amazing way to promote your business and find new customers. After all, Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, with nearly 3 billion monthly users.

If you’ve ever used Facebook, you probably noticed some ads yourself. They mainly come in the form of images and videos. One thing they all have in common is that they blend in very well with organic posts. This is done by design. Facebook’s goal is not to disrupt the user’s browsing experience with your ads but to enhance it.

Those paid ads get in your feed because brands and businesses pay for them to get there. Keep reading to find out how that works and how you can do the same.

How do FB ads work?

What makes Facebook ads work so well is that Facebook really knows its users. Because so many people use the platform and they have used it for so long, Facebook learns about their interests, who they are, what they like, what language they speak, etc. All this information is kept safe and private.

As an advertiser, you can target users based on their demographic, location, online activity, interests, and more. Facebook’s ad algorithm then takes that targeting information and serves the right ads to the right people. In the last few years, the Facebook ad algorithm has gotten much better. It needs less specific targeting to bring in great results. Sometimes, adding too many restrictions on it can harm ad campaigns.

As an example, it used to be the norm to always use interest targeting. But now, if you have a high budget, that step can be skipped altogether. The Facebook algorithm is so good that it will find your customers for you. It’s a delicate balancing game that every advertiser needs to master when they learn how to run Facebook ads successfully.

Next, we’ll learn about the different kinds of Facebook ad formats.

Types of Facebook ads

Image Ads

They’re the most common type of ad that you’ll see in your feed. It consists of a single image and can be seen in different specs and placements. See below for some examples of placements of image ads.

Video Ads

If possible, we highly recommend running these instead of image ads. The video format is much more effective in drawing people in with sound and motion.

Videos don’t have to be complex; you can make them yourself. There are thousands of amazing video ads out there filmed on iPhones. You can also use videos made by your customers, known as user-generated content (UGC).

Product Ads

If you run an e-commerce store, these ads will do wonders for your sales. They’re the equivalent of Google’s Shopping Ads.

The way Product Ads work is you first connect your e-commerce store to Facebook. You then create a product catalog and group products however you see fit. The grouping allows you to target these ads better and find your ideal customer. What makes them even better is that if you make any product changes on your website, the changes will automatically reflect in your catalog and, therefore, your ads.

And lastly, these product catalogs make product tagging possible in organic posts and other ads. Organic posts include everything you post without paying for: photos, videos, stories, etc. Product tags are essential for e-commerce stores.

Poll Ads

These types of ads can be used to survey your target audience, interact with customers, and increase brand awareness. Polls can be added to video ads, and they only show on the Facebook Mobile Feed and Instagram Stories.

Carousel Ads

With the carousel ad format, you can highlight multiple products, categories, or features at once. With up to 10 images at a time and a link for each, this format is great for those that want to get creative.

They’re also an amazing storytelling tool — perfect if you’re looking to explain a process. For example, let’s say you have a shop selling hand-made bags. Your customers would love to see the process of you actually making the product.

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Collection Ads

Collection ads make it easy for users to browse your products. Each collection features a primary image or video with three smaller images below it.

Once a customer clicks on a collection, they are taken to either an instant storefront, lookbook, or instant customer acquisition. Instant customer acquisition takes the user off Facebook and to your website, while the other two are part of Facebook’s Instant Experience. That means they visit the storefront and lookbook without leaving Facebook or Instagram.

Lead Ads

Lead generation is easy with Facebook’s lead ads. These consist of a creative plus a call to action (CTA). Once a user clicks on the CTA, they are prompted to fill out the form made by you. With some fields already pre-filled by Facebook, the process is fast and smooth.

Ask the right questions, integrate with your customer relationship management (CRM) platform, and lead ads will be your best performers.

Messenger Ads

With close to 1 billion monthly users, you can certainly find your customers on Messenger. Messenger ads use the same creatives that you use in other Facebook ads, so setting them up is easy. You also have the option to drive users either to your website or app.

If the goal is talking to the customer, you’ll want to use Click-to-Message ads. This simply means that people that click on your ads go directly into conversations with you.

If you’ve already talked to a customer, you can now take advantage of Sponsored Messages. These are targeted, in-context ads in Messenger that are meant to re-engage those that are already interested in your business.

Other ad formats we didn’t dive into include Playables and Slideshows. Playables are only used for apps, and Slideshows are rarely used by advertisers.

However, with the above, you already have a good grasp of the different kinds of Facebook ads. You’re one step closer to leveraging Facebook in your own business.

How to advertise on Facebook

In this part, we’ll go through setting up an ad for a classic Facebook Page. Go to Ads Manager and click on +Create in the left corner. Next, follow these steps:

Choose your objective

You need to tell Facebook what you’re trying to optimize for so that it can show your ads to the right people. This step differs from campaign to campaign. You’ll have to figure out what best fits your goals.

If you were running an e-commerce store, for example, Catalog sales would be a great option. If you were a local driving instructor, Leads (Messages) would work great.

That way, you can talk to your customers, understand their needs, and offer them your services. Message ads are a great way to drive sales, build loyalty, and stand out from the competition.

Select your audience

‍At this point, you want to narrow down your audience to your ideal customer. Choose a location, age range, gender, and languages.

Decide where to run your ad

‍You can choose between placements on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network, or all of the above.

Set your budget

‍You can either set a daily budget or a lifetime budget. Beware that if you’ve just opened your ad account, Facebook will likely limit your spending. Don’t be alarmed — with time, this limit will increase. It is put in place to deter bad actors.

We should also mention that if you set your budget on a daily basis, Facebook might deviate from that number on some days. This is normal. The cost will go up and down day by day. Facebook will make sure that when spread out over a month, the average spend per day will be in line with what you indicated.

Pick a format

‍Remember the different types of Facebook ads we talked about earlier? You can choose your ideal format at this stage. Depending on the campaign objective you chose earlier, you will have different options at this stage. Consider the goals of your campaign and whether you have the necessary creatives to run the ad.

Place your order, measure and manage your ad

‍Double-check your campaign and send it off. Congratulations, you’ve done it. After the campaign is approved, it will enter the ad auction and show in front of prospective customers.

Go to your Ads Manager and check in on your campaign. Monitor performance and adjust as needed.

How to maximize your Facebook Ads results

Depending on the type of campaign you launched, you must ensure that you’re giving yourself the best chance to succeed.

If you’ve launched an ad optimized for messages, for example, you want to make sure that you’re answering queries in a timely manner. Customers these days have high expectations in terms of service. It’s for this reason that chatbots are so popular. 68% of people say that the reason that they love Chatbots is that they provide speedy answers.

We suggest you sign up for a free trial with a chatbot like Chatfuel. This will allow you to directly connect to Click-to-Message and Sponsored Message ads. Now, the chatbot will be able to talk to users coming through these Entry Points. For clarity — An Entry Point is a channel customers start a conversation with you through. In this case, that’s Click-to-Message and Sponsored Message ads.

Once an Entry Point is connected to your chatbot, you can automate welcome messages and Quick Replies. As a result, you save time, and your customers quickly get the information they need.

The welcome message is the first message your chatbot will send to users that engage with your ads. It’s generally warm, includes basic information about your business, and offers options to continue the conversation.

Read this article for a guide on creating welcome messages in Chatfuel and some welcome message best practices. The image below shows what a welcome message might look like.

The buttons below the welcome message are called Quick Replies. They make it extremely easy for customers to tap and receive the information they’re looking for. You can have up to 13 of them, and they can be customized based on what your customers are normally looking for.

In Chatfuel, content blocks are completely customizable to your needs. Depending on what a customer types in or which Quick Replies they click on, the chatbot can be set up to do many things. It can send a plain text message (Ex: Business address), send a file (Ex: Restaurant menu), send a video (Ex: A guide), make a call, and more.

Side note: Once you’re setting up your bot in Chatfuel, you can (and should) test it by going to Dashboard → Automation → Flows → Click on the flow you’d like to test → Click on the ‘Test This Flow’ button:

If you haven’t yet, make sure to sign up for Chatfuel so you can level up your Facebook Ads. You’ll get to try it out for free, with the first 50 conversations on us. No credit card is required.

Facebook ad specs

Image specs

Design Recommendations

• File Type: JPG or PNG
• Ratio: 1.91:1 to 1:1
• Resolution: At least 1080×1080 pixels

Text Recommendations

• Primary Text: 125 characters
• Headline: 27 characters
• Description: 27 characters

Technical Requirements

• Maximum File Size: 30MB
• Minimum Width: 600 pixels
• Minimum Height: 600 pixels
• Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%

Video specs

Design Recommendations

• File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Ratio: 1:1 (for desktop or mobile) or 4:5 (for mobile only)
• Resolution: At least 1080×1080 pixels
• Video Captions: Optional, but recommended
• Video Sound: Optional, but recommended
• Videos should not contain edit lists or special boxes in file containers.

Text Recommendations

• Primary Text: 125 characters
• Headline: 27 characters
• Description: 27 characters

Technical Requirements

• Maximum File Size: 4GB
• Minimum Width: 120 pixels
• Minimum Height: 120 pixels

Carousel specs

Design Recommendations

• Image File Type: JPG or PNG
• Video File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Ratio: 1:1
• Resolution: At least 1080×1080 pixels

Text Recommendations

• Primary Text: 125 characters
• Headline: 32 characters
• Description: 18 characters
• Landing Page URL: Required

Technical Requirements

• Number of Carousel Cards: 2 to 10
• Image Maximum File Size: 30MB
• Video Maximum File Size: 4GB
• Video Duration: 1 second to 240 minutes
• Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%

Collection specs

Design Recommendations

The cover image or video that displays in your collection ad uses the first media asset from your Instant Experience.

• Image Type: JPG or PNG
• Video File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Ratio: 1:1
• Resolution: At least 1080×1080 pixels

Text Recommendations

• Primary Text: 125 characters
• Headline: 40 characters
• Landing Page URL: Required

Technical Requirements

• Instant Experience: Required
• Image Maximum File Size: 30MB
• Video Maximum File Size: 4GB

These design recommendations come directly from Facebook.

Facebook ads cost

Finding out exactly how much Facebook ads will cost you won’t be easy. But we can try and make an educated estimate.

The two metrics used for billing on Facebook are cost per click (CPC) and cost per 1000 impressions (CPM).

First, we need to understand that there are limited ad spots on Facebook. And because spots are limited, you will be competing for them with other businesses. Facebook uses an ad auction to determine which ad is shown to its users.

When considering the winner, the auction considers ad quality, interaction rates, and of course, your bid. So, if you’re competing in a saturated industry that has many deep-pocketed businesses, expect high CPCs. Finance and insurance are great examples of that.

According to reports from Revealbot, as of September 2022, the average CPC on Facebook is $0.97. The average CPM is $13.7. That is an aggregate number across many industries. That means that there are many that are much more expensive than that (Ex: finance), and many that are cheaper. If you’re in the cheaper category, consider yourself lucky.

Facebook ads tips

And last but not least, we’re going to send you off on your journey with a series of quick-fire Facebook ads tips and tricks. We’ve learned these from experience, as well as from other advertising experts. Let’s go through them.

Creative is king. Make sure you spend your energy on creating quality images and videos for your ads. This is because it’s the best way to be seen in a sea of advertising noise. Great creative is engaging, personalized to your audience, and it tells a story. If you do it right, your customers will notice your ad, and sales will boom.

Capture users’ attention quickly. With so many ads out there, users won’t hesitate to just skip right by yours if it’s not interesting enough. Make it catchy. Use bold colors. Use bold designs.

Don’t use too much text in your creatives. Although this is not officially a rule anymore, it’s still recommended not to use text on more than 20% of your creative. Otherwise, Facebook might throttle your distribution.

Take advantage of user-generated content (UGC). Just because creative is king, it doesn’t mean that they need to always be professionally made. We actually recommend you to use UGC as much as you can. According to consumers, UGC comes across as much as x2.4 more authentic. That, of course, translates to more sales.

Retargeting ads are your best friend. Retargeting is when you’re specifically showing an ad to someone that already visited your website. These ads are highly effective because you’re targeting users who are already familiar with you, and who you know are in the market for what you’re selling. The cost for retargeting ads is also usually fairly low.

Merge your ads as much as possible. This is because Facebook’s ad algorithm needs data to start working for you. And to get that data, you need to spend a good amount of money. If you’re running many different campaigns, you’re spreading your budget thin and not letting the algorithm optimize your ads for you.

Test, Test, Test. And when you think you’re done, run some more tests for good measure. Sometimes, there’s no way to know what works best without taking a few chances.

Pro tip: Take inspiration from other brands’ Facebook ads. Use this amazing tool called Facebook Ad Library. Search by keyword or advertiser, and you’ll be able to see all of their live ads.

We’ve reached the end of our guide on how to advertise on Facebook in 2022. We sincerely hope that you’ve found the information that you’ve been looking for. If you think we should include something else, please let us know.

Best of luck in your journey to becoming a Facebook Ads expert.

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