Advertising on Facebook can make a major difference to your marketing game. Learn about the tools that smart marketers leverage to create stunning and engaging ads every time.
How to Create Better Facebook Ads: 9 Tools to Use
If you’re struggling to generate successful Facebook ads, or have no idea where to even begin, you’re not alone. Social advertising can seem like a necessary evil when it comes to promoting your business, but we’re here to help you make it your new BFF. Or at least a tolerated acquaintance.
After all, social media just surpassed paid search as an advertising channel, growing 25% year-over-year. In addition, Facebook ads specifically have the potential to reach the 2 billion active users with customizable features that help you reach your business goals. To make the journey smoother and more fun, we lay out our top 8 tools for how to create better Facebook ads and see results.
1. Facebook Ads Manager
The go-to tool that shows savvy marketers how to create better Facebook ads is, of course, Facebook Ads Manager. It allows you to create multiple ad campaigns, manage them with ease, create effective retargeting ads, and view detailed results that can be exported as reports. Some useful features of the Ads Manager include:
- Campaign Objectives – Select from various objectives, like brand awareness or driving traffic, to define business goals.
- Ad Sets – Sort your ads into groups that can differ between budget, audience, and more.
- Audience Details – Create custom audience segments with info like location, age, and gender.
- Scheduling – Further manage your budget by running Facebook ads at a specific time and date.
Facebook Insights
Gaining more information means marketers are better equipped to create messaging that resonates with audiences. A great way to do this is by taking advantage of Facebook Audience Insights, which is totally free to use. You’ll be able to filter your audience by different factors:
- Demographics – Target your audience based on gender, age, lifestyle, and education.
- Location – Learn the general area of where potential consumers live. Urban dwellers shop differently from country folks!
- User Activity – What videos, pages, and links are your customers clicking on and liking?
- Lifestyle and Interests – See whether your audience members are in long term relationships and what their hobbies are.
Facebook Ads Reporting
It’s one thing to create an ad and send it out into the online world, but analyzing its performance is what will lead to improved results and achieved goals. The Facebook Ads Reporting tool lets you customize, schedule, and share reports which give you an overview of how your ads are doing.
There’s even an option to view specific highlights that show data like how many times your campaign reached its objective, how many people saw your ad, and how much you’ve spent on the ad. Useful stuff!
2. Boosted Posts
Boosted posts are a bit different from an actual ad. A boosted post is a typical post you’ve added to your feed that you can then “boost” to a specific audience for a small fee. While they aren’t as intricate and targeted as a Facebook ad, boosted posts definitely have their benefits:
- Your content can reach more people.
- They are much more affordable than other types of ads.
- You can set up boosted posts quickly and easily right from your timeline.
3. Facebook Ads Library
Ever wonder what kind of ads your competitors are running? There’s an easy way to be a fly on that wall with the Facebook Ads Library. The Library is a searchable, comprehensive collection of every ad that is currently active on Facebook and Instagram.
We always suggest that businesses take the time to study other well-performing ads for inspiration and insight on how to create better Facebook ads for their brand. Doing this will show you what to do (and what not to do), the type of pages your competitor’s ads link to, their budget, and much more.
4. Billo
Another phenomenal content creation platform, Billo is intended for true professionals. For a fee, Billo’s creators will use their sophisticated editing tools to create custom high-quality videos that make the most sense for your products and audience. It’s an especially useful tool for eCommerce brands that rely on unboxing, testimonials, and how-to videos to communicate with customers in a fun and authentic way.
5. Kapwing
Any smart marketer will tell you that videos and gifs are a popular and effective approach for how to create better Facebook ads, and Kapwing is an online video editor that makes polishing and captioning videos easy and fun. It even lets you make memes, and all for free! Here are a few Kapwing perks:
- Trim, loop, resize, rotate, reverse, and filter videos
- Add subtitles
- Add and adjust audio
- Convert images to video
- Create a video collage
6. Canva
Canva is an excellent (and free!) resource for handling the creative aspects of ads, like logos and editing photos. There’s also a Pro version for just $119.99 a year that offers comprehensive tools and resources. Some Canva features that every business is sure to love include:
- Drag-and-drop editor for simplified designing
- 250,00+ free templates
- 100+ design types like social media posts and presentations
- Over 1 million free photos and fun graphics
- Remove background images instantly
- Printable products that Canva will deliver to your door
- Schedule social media content to eight platforms
7. HotJar
Ever wondered just how users interact with your site? For example, do your visitors quickly scroll through to the bottom of the page or do they linger on a certain image? Do they immediately close the pop-up video ad or do they watch to the end? Now you can be a fly on that wall!
Hotjar records user sessions, whether from desktops or mobile devices, so you can learn exactly what potential customers do when they visit your website, how they navigate between pages and interact with menus, videos, icons, and product descriptions. This intel gives insight into what sections of your site are engaging your audiences and why, and what needs more work. Armed with this data, you’ll know exactly how to create better Facebook ads that jive with your audience.
8. Facebook Pixel Helper
When a visitor takes a particular action on your website and you know about it thanks to Facebook Pixel, you’re in a better position to retarget them with relevant ads. With the more recent Chrome extension, Facebook Pixel Helper, you can manage and troubleshoot pixel events directly from your browser, confirming that pixels are firing correctly.
9. Expert Know-How
While learning about these tools is a great way to kickstart your journey for how to create better Facebook ads, the best tool for any business is always an expert social media marketing agency – like Social Ktchn! Social Ktchn is the home of vetted experts who fluently speak the language of Facebook and Instagram and are well-versed in every hidden gem feature.
As a full-service digital marketing company, we are dedicated to delivering customized services that produce the results you expect. Our deep knowledge of social media management tools, creative experience, and analytical approach gives us a unique ability to craft successful campaigns and drive revenue.