Why should I use Facebook Ads to promote my online service marketplace?

Here is a small practical guide of the steps to follow in order to use facebook Ads :

The first steps 

1. If you don’t have a Facebook pro page, creating one will be your first step! If you need a hand, you can find our advice here.

2. Go to the Facebook Ad Manager to create your ad campaign (previously opened).  In the settings of the account, you will need to fill in information related to your service marketplace. (Tip: You can click on “add a person” if you want another person to support you in the management of your advertising campaign. )

3. Next click on the Campaigns tab and then click on Create. You will find 11 marketing objectives depending on the objectives of your campaigns classified in 3 categories :

Raising awareness:

• Brand awareness: Presenting your marketplace to a new audience.
• Coverage: make your ad visible to as many members of your audience as possible.

Consideration:

• Traffic: Generate traffic to your web page, application, or a particular Messenger conversation.
• Interaction: Reach a wider audience to increase post related interactions, generate likes of your page, increase the number of attendees at your events, highlight a special offer.
• Application installations: encourage users to install your app.
• Video views: increase the viewing of your videos.
• Lead generation: attract new prospects to your sales circle.
• Messages: encourage users to contact your marketplace via Facebook Messenger.

Conversion :

• Conversions: encourage users to carry out a specific action (e.g. register on your online service platform) via your app or Facebook Messenger.
• Catalog sales: connect your service catalog to your Facebook ad (less suitable for a service platform).
• Point-of-sale traffic: encourage customers close to your stores to visit them (less suitable for a service platform).

4. Choose one of these objectives, depending on what you expect from your advertising campaign.

Caution: depending on the objective, Facebook will improve the way your ad is distributed. Some objectives seem to achieve the same results, and yet the purpose is not the same. 

For example, the objective of gaining traffic makes it possible to generate interactions, likes, and comments. However this objective does not target a specific audience, which in the end, does not encourage conversions. Pay attention! 

5. Define the name of your campaign.

Targeting

Defining who the target audience is of your advertising campaign is probably the most important step in the process.  A poorly defined target audience results in a less effective advertising campaign, and ultimately is a waste of money.

6. Once the objective of your campaign has been defined, the target audience must also be defined.

The first option displayed is to select a personalized audience. It should be composed of users who have already had the opportunity to interact with your service marketplace, on Facebook or other places. Several indicators are used to define a personalized audience:

→ age

→ sex

→ location

→ language

As you select indicators, on the right side of your screen you will see the size of the targeted audience which will allow you to see the reach(scope) of your ad. You will also see an estimate of the number of positive mentions generated (caution, it is just an estimate not a guarantee).

7. Now you can configure detailed targeting

Which is always accessible from the Ads Manager section of Facebook. In order to do this, you will have two fields which will help you specify the criteria for the final audience.

→ Advanced Targeting: This configures your audience according to advanced criteria. You can add demographics, interests, and more or less precise criteria. For example, you can differentiate between people interested in “flowers” and people interested in “roses”.

These criteria are used to both include people in the final audience, as well as exclude them from it.

→ Connections: Configure the audience according to your previous connections with users. You can exclude or include people already connected with your page.

Example: When promoting an event for your existing community, you can only include people who like your page.

Caution: The use of advanced criteria can be an advantage as well as a disadvantage. It provides a guarantee of accurate targeting but can also result in the exclusion of other potential targets. Different tests will have to be carried out in order to adopt the best strategy for you.

→  Budget and payments: before making a payment, you need to determine your budget and how it will be used. Your budget can be set up as a total amount or daily amount.

8. Once you have clarified this, you need to configure the start and end dates of your advertisement.

If you want your ad to be scheduled for a later date you must specify this, otherwise it is scheduled immediately.

9. Choose your broadcast schedule: standard or accelerated.

10. Choose the type of billing you want:

→ Cost per click (CPC), you will only be charged if a user clicks on your page or link.

→ Cost per impression (CPM), you will be charged every time your ad is published, for example if your ad is published 30 times, you will be charged 30 times.

Your choice of billing determines how your budget is spent and ultimately the results obtained by your ad.

11. Choose the type of advertising.

We have selected the advertising formats that we think are relevant for your facebook service marketplace page.

Advertising with an image, Location: news feed
Simple, easy to set up. The visual must be striking and relevant.

The video, Location: news feed, story, in-stream video advertising (longer)
Maybe use a gif. Effective and popular.

The poll, Location: news feed, story. Very popular and generates interaction.

Messenger, Appearing on Messenger, it allows the ad to reach a large panel of users.

Stories, Efficient format that adapts to the phone format.

Carousel, Location: news feed. Allows you to expose a number of your services.

Slide Show, Location: news feed. Create a slideshow with a collection of photos, texts, and short videos.

Instant Experience, Previously called Canvas, a full-screen advertising format that loads very easily.

Caution: when selecting a specific ad format, make sure that it fits the chosen platform: computer, mobile or both.

12. Once you have defined your target and decided on your type of advertising, you will have to choose its location.

To begin, it is a good idea to select Automatic Placement, which will take care of choosing the locations of your ads and place them where they are likely to generate the best results. This function can also offer you the possibility of publishing your campaigns on different platforms such as Instagram, Audience Network or Messenger.

An alternative option would be to choose Manual Placement, which is best if you want to test different locations.

Recommendation :

Facebook provides you with a tool to measure and compare the performance of your advertising strategies, the A/B test. This tool will help you to start, or later determine the most relevant strategies for your page.

A/B testing allows you to modify variables of your advertising such as the content, audience or its placement. The goal is to determine the most effective strategy for your future campaigns.

Example: you can develop a strategy based on a personalized audience, and an audience based on interests to see which works best. 

Once you have identified your variables, your budget will be divided between the two versions. The A/B test can then measure the performance of each strategy on a cost-per-result or cost-per-conversion-lift basis with an exclusion.