A beginner’s guide to social media ads (Get better results without spending more!)

The world of social media ads can feel overwhelming and confusing to many business owners, and it’s no wonder! With new platform updates and audience buying behaviour constantly changing, it can be hard to keep up with the changes and make informed decisions that will help your business get noticed on social media.

In this article, I break down the difference between boosted social media posts versus social media advertising campaigns, share tips to help you boost your ad results, and the metrics you should keep track of.

What’s the difference between a boosted post and a social media ad campaign?

When many businesses start advertising on social media, they often dip their toe into advertising by boosting a Facebook or Instagram post. Boosting a post can be done within the Instagram app or via Meta Business Manager’s desktop platform by selecting a post that you have published to your Facebook or Instagram account and then tapping the ‘Boost post’ link under it. A single boosted post can be launched within minutes and is a low-effort way to reach a new audience.

On the other hand, a Facebook and Instagram advertising campaign is set up, launched, and managed within a Meta Ads Manager account. An advertising campaign can include multiple audiences and pieces of ad creative and requires more strategic planning, thought and time to create and launch.

The main benefit of opting for an ad campaign is that you can:

• Access a broader range of advertising objectives
• Promote your business across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Networks
• Be more strategic and detailed with your audience targeting
• Have greater control over campaign optimisations.

Meta Ads Manager also provides more detailed reporting than what you will see from a boosted post, allowing you to track results and draw valuable insights, seeing precisely the type of ad creative, messaging and targeting that generates the best results for your business.

How do I boost a Facebook or Instagram post?

A Facebook or Instagram post can be boosted within minutes within the app or Meta Business Manager on your desktop.

To boost a post:

1. Select the post you would like to promote
2. Select an advertising objective (such as visits to your profile, visits to your website or direct messages)
3. Select or create an audience to target
4. Select a daily budget
5. Set your campaign length duration
6. Review your campaign and launch!

Boosted post tip: Boost your posts via Meta Business Suite to avoid paying Apple a 30% additional service fee (which Apple recently introduced) if you boost a post via the Facebook iOS app on iPhone or iPad.

Recommended reading: The anatomy of an engaging social media post

How do I launch a Meta advertising campaign?

To create and launch a Meta advertising campaign, you first need to set up a Meta Ads Manager account, which is linked to your business’s Instagram and Facebook accounts. This link here includes helpful information to help you get started.

Top tips for planning and launching a social media campaign:

• Have a clear advertising campaign objective. E.g. awareness, website traffic, leads, conversions

• Clearly define what target audience/s you want to reach. E.g. their age, gender, location, interests

• Test multiple ad copy variations. Have at least three to five copy variations to test when you launch. Include different messaging and try using CAPS and emojis to grab attention and hook your target audience.

• Test multiple ad creative variations. Launch with at least 3-5 different creatives (single images, carousels, videos) to help give yourself the best chance of seeing what creative resonates most with your audience.

• Optimise based on results. Let your ads run for a week, if possible, to get a seven-day picture of what is or isn’t working before you make significant ad optimisation. Don’t be afraid to switch off an ad if it isn’t generating results, and try broadening your audience and increasing your daily ad budget if you’re not reaching as many people as you want.

• Include retargeting ads in your campaign. As our newsfeeds get more crowded and our days busier, businesses need to increase the number of times they connect with consumers before they decide to ‘Buy Now’. Include retargeting ads within your campaign to help reconnect and remind potential customers of your business or promotion.

Ad campaign tip: To help drive better campaign results, ensure your daily budget is large enough to reach your target audiences. A mistake I see many businesses make is that their daily budget is too small, meaning their campaign struggles to reach a large enough audience.

What metrics should I track to measure success?

So you’ve boosted your post or launched your social media ads. Now what? To help drive the best results, I recommend tracking your campaign or boosted post results daily.

However, a mistake I see many businesses make is that they make drastic changes to their targeting, ad budget or even creative based on one or two days of results. Instead, I recommend making significant updates based on seven days of results. An ad campaign or boosted post’s performance can change daily, so having a week’s worth of data to base your decisions on helps ensure you’re looking at the big picture, not just one lousy performance day.

The metrics you want to track are:

• Amount Spent: How much ad budget you have spent to date.
• Reach: How many accounts your ad or boosted post has reached on Facebook and Instagram.
• Results: Depending on your campaign’s objective, the result your campaign is optimised for could include profile views, website landing page views, conversions or leads.
• Cost Per Result: This will tell you the average of how much it costs to achieve each Result.
• Landing Page View: The number of times someone has clicked on your ad or boosted post, resulting in your website landing page fully loading.
• Cost Per Landing Page View: This will tell you the average of how much it costs to achieve each Landing Page View.
• Impressions: The number of times your ad/ boosted post was seen on-screen.
• Unique CTR: The percentage of accounts that saw your ad/ boost post and performed a link click.
• Frequency: The average number of times your ad/ boosted post was seen by each account. Keep a close eye on your ad frequency to ensure that your ad frequency doesn’t get too high.
• CPM (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions): This is the average cost for 1,000 impressions.
• Leads: Tracking this metric will depend on if you’re running a Lead objective ad campaign.
• Purchases: Tracking this metric will depend on whether you run a conversion objective ad campaign.
• Cost Per Purchase: The average of how much it costs to achieve each Purchase. Again, whether you track this metric will depend on whether you’re running a conversion objective ad campaign.
• Purchase ROAS (Return On Ad Spend): The total ROAS from purchases for a conversion campaign.