Entry-level FB#3 - Campaign and Ad Creation Basics

[TheBoss]

Effort Reaps Rewards


Infuse effort and creativity into your ads. Stand out. Do more than the average affiliate when it comes to finding images to use. Facebook is covered with ads and you have a split second to catch user attention.

Search relevant niche sites and forums. Explore sites people wouldn’t usually search for images on. Use Deviantart. Crop wallpapers. Use Google image search. Use the similar images tool. If you see a potentially useful image, save it for later.

Think about your ad copy and how to make it relevant to your audience. Use emotional hooks. Research your audience. Develop an empathy complex.

Lastly, don’t just copy what you’ve seen in spy tools. They can help when it comes to starting in unchartered waters but if you rely on them it will stifle your creativity.

Ad Creation with Photoshop

There are tools out there like CrazyCTR that make permutations of images. People recommend crazy borders/filters etc. Truth be told, these are secondary concerns. The specific image used is by far the most important variable.

I make ads in Photoshop. I automate very little other than adding borders and exporting layers as separate files. I like to put effort into my creative and view them myself and pretend I am a user.

When making sidebar ads I always assess how the image looks at 100% zoom. Is it legible? Can I tell wtf is going on in it? Is it a bit too detailed? Does it need a pinch of sharpening? Colour? Et cetera.

Typically, I will drag x number of images into the file. Photoshop goes through the placing of each file. I resize each (while keeping aspect ratio at 1:1!) to capture the details I want. I generally want things to be quite simple with minimal background fluff.

After placing all images I select all layers and rasterize. I then go through every layer and apply tweaks. These often consist of an unsharp mask to make things more crisp - 25% at 1 px setting. Don’t go overboard.

Is the background behind a face/character/focus of attention quite complicated? Use the blur tool. It adds a depth of field effect and I love it.

Are things a little bland? Try Image > adjustments > vibrance. Upping saturation may also be useful.

When done, save obviously, then go to File > Scripts > Export Layers to Files…

Set the directory (I just hit the desktop then move afterward), a name prefix (we will rename later anyway), jpeg, don’t include an ICC profile, quality 6. No point going overboard with jpeg quality for sidebar ads. If you are going to batch process these afterward use jpeg quality 10!

Once exported, move them all to some organised folder. Once moved, select them all > hit F2 > enter a name (e.g. 100x72 Girls_Batch1) and hit enter. Auto-rename ftw! Now they should be named in the form 100x72 Girls_Batch1 (1), 100x72 Girls_Batch1 (2), etc. I use these numbers in ads later to keep track of what images I used.

Want to ad borders? Make an action in Photoshop.

In short, create a new file, open the actions panel, click record. Make a new layer. Hit alt+backspace. Set the current layer to fill: 0%. Go to layer blending options. Add a stroke > inside > whatever settings > OK. File > export > save for web > jpeg quality 60 > save the file to desktop. Close the file, do not save. Click stop macro.

Now, go to File > Automate > Batch…

Find your action in the list. Source > folder. Select the folder full of your raw adverts.

Untick all options. Select destination > folder > choose whatever.

Click OK > away ya go!

Using the Power Editor


You should be using the Power Editor for FB ad creation. The FB advertising centre sucks for just about everything other than billing info and reports, responder demographics, etc.

You will need Google Chrome. Access it by going to:
http://www.facebook.com/ads/manage/powereditor/

You will need to log in and then download your account info.

Familiarise yourself with the interface. At the top right you have links to various options. At the top of the inner section you have Campaigns | Advert Sets | Adverts, which switches between these views. Facebook has only recently released advert sets and have revamped the interface so it can be a bit confusing if you already have some experience.


Summary of ‘compartments’


Campaigns = the big container. Here you set the campaign name and the campaign objective, which inherits down to all advert sets and ads.

Setting an objective here seems to restrict the objectives you can select for individual ads. I'm not sure if there is any advantage to selecting a campaign-level objective vs doing it for each individual ad, time will tell. It therefore makes sense to split ads intended for garnering page likes and external clicks into separate campaigns. For now, select clicks to website.

Example: [US] Awesome Offer (Clicks to Website)



Advert sets = what campaigns used to be. Here we set a daily budget. I would split these based on demographics and specific advert imagery/copy (see next section).

NOTE: Facebook is in the process of moving targeting options around from the advert level to the ad group level. This doesn't change much, but do be aware that this guide can't keep 100% up to date with all the granular and breaking changes that Facebook makes.

Double Note: Facebook has just announced that this change is rolling out. So, most options are moving to the ad set/group level with the ads themselves, the lowest rung on the ladder, being more about creative content.





Adverts = obviously, the ads. In this grouping we just make ads. Note that the objective you can select for the ads is restricted if you have set a campaign objective.

The objective also changes the ad types and bidding modes available.

E.g. if you select "Page post engagement" and make a video ad, you can bid on a CPM/oCPM basis and have the videos auto-play. However, if you choose clicks to website as your objective, and use a video ad, automatic play is not available.

For you - the budding affiliate - clicks to website is the easiest objective to use. Website conversions as well. They are pretty much the same, although if you pick website conversions you are asked to select a FB conversion pixel. This does not need to be verified or even placed. You just need to specify one.



General Usage

Hit download to sync the power editor with Facebook. Hit upload to upload any changes you have made. If you don’t hit upload, no changes are made to your ads/campaigns. Remember to hit upload only when you are ready.

Hitting download will erase your pending changes, so can be used to revert any changes. You do not lose the pending changes if you close the power editor, provided you do no clear Chrome’s cache.

There are lots of other little things to play with, e.g. Tags (which allow labeling of campaigns into groups) and the audience save feature that serves as a template for targeting parameters.

Note the filtering list on the left hand side - this is useful for showing only adverts/advert groups from within a specific campaign.

Note the cog icon in the top right that lets you specify columns to show.

Lastly, the drop down menu beside "Download to power Editor" lets you switch accounts and manage pages. In the manage pages section you can see all your posts (published and unpublished) and can delete them, or create ads from them directly if you want.