(#726) Foundational Guide: Creating, Running and Reporting on Facebook and Instagram Ads
The Full Guide on Running Facebook and Instagram Ads
So you’re in charge of running a Facebook or Instagram ad. Where do you start?! We’ve got you covered with a DETAILED walk-through. Check out the video below along with a text description as well.
If you’re responsible for creating and running ads chances are you are also responsible for sending your supervisor a report. What do you write?! We've got your back, here too. Check out the mad lib report you can send to your supervisor below. Download and fill in your community-specific info. If they don’t require a report, we strongly recommend you send one anyway! You’ll want some hard facts that your ads are paying off, plus you’ll look like a rockstar property manager.
send a report to your supervisor
Why you should send one: For your Facebook Ad Campaigns to be successful, you need to keep a close eye on a few metrics to evaluate the performance of your ad. This will help you and your supervisor make adjustments to continue to improve the success.
What you should include:
Monthly write-up: Before jumping into all the numbers, give a quick overview. Explain what your team did in relation to your goals and how it went. What do you think went well, and what do you think could’ve gone better?
Total spend: How much money did you spend on ads? Likely, you’ve already discussed a total budget with your supervisor, but it’s good to include this amount to keep track of it.
Clicks: This will let your supervisor know how well the Facebook Ads Campaign is doing. Including this next to your total spend lets them see how much each conversion costs.
CTR (click-through rate): An easy metric to understand a feature. More clicks mean that your ad is more enticing to viewers. Keep in mind how the number of clicks relates to other numbers. If you have a high number of clicks, but not many messages or calls (whatever your goal is) that might hint at where the disconnect is and the potential for improvement.
Impressions: How many people saw your ad. More is great, of course! If you have a high number of impressions, but a low number of clicks or conversions, it’s a good idea to evaluate the process from the perspective of the prospect and make it easier or more appealing.
CPC (cost per click): How much did each click or lead cost? This will give you a good idea of how your ad-spend is being used and if an adjustment is needed.
Ad Report Email Template
Get your report template, send it off, and look like a leasing rockstar.
Create and manage a facebook ad
follow along as our creative director walks you through the process
steps & recommendations for Creation
Create:
You're going to go to https://www.facebook.com/adsmanager.
Click on, “Create.” The little green button.
Choose what type of ad you want to run. My top recommendations:
Traffic - will push people to your website
Messages - will push people to message the page
Lead Generation - will push people to be able to submit their email to you for a lead list.
Click continue.
Now, here is where you're going to put in some basic information.
Name the campaign
Select a name that will easily allow you to know the details of the ad. Example: Barton Creek - February Specials Carousel
Budget:
Totally up to you on how you want to do it. I recommend budgeting around, let's say a dollar to $2 per click to give you a good starting point, but every single location and community is a bit different.
A daily budget - set a dollar limit to spend daily until an end date that you specify.
A lifetime budget - you can set a dollar limit to use over the course of the ad. For example, you want to spend $500 until the end of December. So Facebook will run that ad from now until the end of December at a $500 cap, total.
Timeline:
Set a clear start and end date. I recommend doing at least a month or 30-days to start.
Creating An Audience:
Select your audience and add a location. You'll type in your address.
What you'll be able to do is drop a pin somewhere and you'll see and adjust the radius around that community. You can select an area from 1-50 miles.
Select interests based on amenities that you have. Maybe you have a pool so swimming could be an interest. If you have a fitness center, maybe it's health and fitness. Keep in mind Fair Housing Guidelines. You are not able to target a specific demographic so keep it to interests that may be had by residents in your community.
Placements:
Click on placement. You can do automatic placements and Facebook can choose for you, or you can do manual and select some different options.
Our recommendations: Choose the manual placement and select these options: Facebook newsfeed, Instagram newsfeed, Facebook marketplace, Instagram stories, and maybe Facebook stories.
Click on next. And this is where you get into your artwork.
Optional: Control some bid optimization. Example: Set a limit to what dollar amount you’re willing to spend per click.
Ad Artwork:
Select the Facebook page that you want it to show from. If it's showing Instagram, you can select the Instagram page as well. Then you'll create an ad.
If you want to do a single image or video, you can select the image.
If you want to do a carousel, you can upload multiple photos. So you can select an image, add an image and do that for each one.
TIP: Usually carousels work better for things like Instagram, single images work a little bit better for Facebook, but it's totally up to you.
Add in some primary text, set a call to action, the purpose and goal of your ad. Whatever you’d like viewers to do - message you, call you, or visit your website.
Fill in message templates - encourage people to message you with suggested prompts.
Preview and publish
View your Ad preview and verify that your message, information, call to action, and ad-spend are all free of errors.
Click publish and you are good to go!
Video Ad Example:
Slideshow Ad Example:
Managing The Ad
If you want more people to see it:
Increase your budget and make your audience broader by increasing the radius and removing specific interests if you have them. Again, anything below $2 per click is a cost-per-click for real estate.
If you want more people to click it:
Start by adjusting your ad artwork. Change up which photo shows first and play with your text by potentially including a special.
You can adjust your audience making it broader or more specific.
Wait to see results from these first two options, then the last step is increasing your budget. Anything around 1% is a good click-through rate for real estate.
Check out more foundational guides:
