Sep 15
How I Used Facebook Ads To Market for a Business
This week in Praxis, for practice we had to go out and learn a tool and then find a business that could be beneficial too. There were many different routes we could've gone with the project. We could’ve learned how to use Linkedin sales navigator for a business, use Canva to create branding, learn how to make video content into social clips, create an example of an ad for a business, use Zapier to automate a business process, or any other tool that could benefit a business. There were many different directions we could go with in this project, but I chose to go with the ad. I chose an ad because the martial arts school where I work there has not really been any marketing recently. I thought that creating an ad for the business could be a beneficial experience for myself and also benefit the business.
How did I create the ad?
First, I found the tool I wanted to use: Facebook ads. I chose Facebook ads because the school where I work has a large following on Facebook. I first had to get video clips of the Tae Kwon Do and what our program offers. I recorded clips of what our program looks like during classes and during our after-school program. After I spent two days just recording content, I was able to sift through all of it and start editing and picking which ones I wanted in the ad.
For editing I used iMovie. iMovie is a great editing app but is only available for ios or Mac. When starting the editing process, it made it much easier to come up with a layout of how I wanted the ad to look like. I know I wanted to keep it thirty seconds or less and wanted it to be mainly short clips of classes. Once I found the clips I wanted it was time to cut them down and find the best moment within each clip. Most of the clips were only a few seconds long because I wanted to fit a lot into the ad without boring the viewer. After I cut the clips down I needed to add transitions in between the clips and add small text during the ad, so the viewer could understand what they were looking at. At the end of the ad, I added text with the phone number and our website as well. Lastly, I added music that felt exciting, but also did not take away from the video and the sounds during the video. After I finished the ad, it was time to post it!
Posting it
For my Facebook ad I decided to post it and then boost the post, which is mainly the same thing as the ad. The only difference between the two is that with a boost post the post is on your account organically rather than just an ad. Once you click boost post or you will see this screen:
Once you are here you will need to change the audience you are targeting. Which for the company I was doing it for is adults because our main customers are parents of children. Then you have to choose the location you want your ad to reach, which for us we didn’t choose a huge radius because we wanted it to be in the area of our building location so it could be an easier commute. After that you choose how long you want to run it for and how much money you want to pay to run the ad. The more money you pay, the more that Facebook uploads it to other people's feeds and the more clicks you can get. One thing you can add is either a contact or learn more button, for mine it was a learn more button that takes you straight to our website. On the right side, you can see the total amount of money spent and for how many days the ad will be running for. You can also see the estimated clicks and an estimate of how many clicks you might get by the end of the week in total. After you edit all that, you are done, and you are ready to upload it!
If you would like to check out the final of my ad click here.
3 Takeaways:
Keep it short:
One thing I learned while creating the ad was I have to keep it short. Whether it is the clips or the whole video in general. Oftentimes you will see that ads are quick, short, and straight to the point. When creating my video I kept the videos very short and quick, so the viewer could see the whole program and what it might look like within thirty seconds. By adding quick clips of different things you have the viewer's attention the whole time because it is not just a long clip of something that becomes old and boring quickly. By doing this technique you give yourself a greater chance of people getting interested in your message from the ad.
Take a long clip rather than a perfect clip:
Another thing I learned was don’t focus on getting the perfect clip. I got advice when I was starting to record that I should take a longer video rather than a shorter perfect video. Because while editing and cutting clips you are more likely to find a better clip within a longer video rather than a short one. I found this technique to be really helpful because I was able to find just the right clips for my ad.
Look for improvements in your workplace:
Lastly, always look for improvements that can be made. Whether it is professional, personal, or any other aspects in your life. There will always be room to improve. For this case it had to do with the business I work for. They did not really have any marketing for their business. Creating this ad would be beneficial for the company, because it would help attract people to our school by seeing what our program looks like, but also as a learning opportunity.
Final thoughts and Results:
I loved all the editing and creating content for a business that could really use it.
Overall, I am very happy and proud of how the ad came out and maybe I’ll do more in the future.
So far it has been up for less than one day since I have posted it, and so far I have gotten 71 views, 6 likes, and 26 post engagement. In my results so far, you can see that most of my views have been from mothers. Something I might change in the future is just applying it to mothers and shortening the age gap a little bit.
Written by Erick Perez-Nagle
