When it comes to setting up and planning your ad campaigns you should take a different approach for Facebook & Instagram compared to Google Search Ads.
The main reason is where these ads are served. I explain the difference in this short video and why your ad copy, ad messaging and your call-to-action may need to be adjusted so you can maximize your results from your ad campaigns.
If you manage Business pages on Facebook you will know that managing your page could happen through either Creator Studio or Meta Business Suite. Have you heard of Business Suite but never set it up completely?
Both these platforms have existed separately for a few years. It's been confusing at times to know which features and tools you will find available through each and why you should use one over the other.
With the news that Facebook (Meta) is more actively recommending people use Meta Business Suite to manage social posts, content planning, engagement it can be challenging at first to learn where all the features and tool are located as things have been moved around.
In this video I go into more detail about this announcement and explain some reasons why this is good news while I also point out some bugs and issues that I have found with these tools.
Other Videos:
Getting Starting with Facebook & Instagram As | Account Set Up, Campaign Planning & Strategies https://youtu.be/vviOHDlMmuM
This strategy guide will help you get everything ready for success before you jump in to create your first ad campaign.
Are you ready to start advertising with Facebook & Instagram?
While these two platforms are popular choices for social media advertising, they are not the easiest to set up and get ads running on quickly. It doesn’t need to be complicated, but the unfortunate reality is that it can be confusing and time-consuming for many to get ad campaigns up and running.
This article will help you identify the various items that need to be set up within your Meta account so that you can start advertising (use this as a checklist of sorts). We’ll also cover the basic components of an actual ad campaign so that you can have what you need to create a stellar ad campaign.
Now, I don’t want to mislead you or cause anxiety. Facebook and Instagram can be a really effective platform for advertising. The goal of this article is to help save you time and frustration and help you understand how to fix things, if you come across bumps in the road during the process.
So let’s get into it.
Account setup
There are 7+ account assets you need to have “permission” to access in order to advertise on Meta platforms.
Personal Facebook account
Meta Business Suite account or Meta Business Manager account
Facebook Business page
Instagram account
Meta advertising account
Credit card for ads payment
A list of any additional users who need access to your Facebook Page, Ads Account and other ad assets
Extras to set up for optimal advertising performance (not covered in this article):
Meta Pixel
Custom Conversions
Audiences
Approved website domain
Google Analytics, UTM Tracking
Let’s go over a brief description of each item:
In order to run ads on Meta, you must have a Personal Facebook Account. Facebook wants to know who is running ads on their platform and may require you to verify your identity (to confirm that you are who you say you are).
Over the past several years, Meta has introduced different business management tools which fall under a couple of different names. These tools are available to allow you to control different elements of ads, ecommerce, page and community management. You may have access to either “Meta Business Manager” or “Meta Business Suite.” Overall, many of the features of each are the same, they are just organized with different user interfaces. Meta has been slowly migrating users to the newer “Meta Business Suite” but many still have the older interface. For the remainder of this article I’ll refer to Business Suite specifically. Business Suite is the overall administrative area that brings together all the pieces about your business including user access, ads manager, your Facebook pages and Instagram accounts, your ecommerce database, ad audiences, post scheduling, your ad account payment details, Facebook pixels, and more.
In order to run ads on Facebook or Instagram you need to have a Business Page. It is possible to run ads on Instagram without a Facebook Business page, however you may come across setup issues in Ads Manager or see error messages where they request you choose a Facebook business page.
I have been able to set up Instagram ads through Business Suite without a Facebook Page, but I had to jump through a few hoops to make it happen—it’s not ideal. So even if you don’t plan to actually use your Facebook Page, you may still have to set one up.
As mentioned earlier, to create ad campaigns you must have an advertising account. This ad account brings together Facebook tracking pixels, the ad creative and performance metrics for your campaigns, billing information, and more.
That brings us to payment. Obviously, to run ads on the platform, Meta requires billing information, so make sure you have a credit card ready. While you can create ads without entering payment info, your ads will not start to run until you have a valid credit card saved in their system.
Last but not least, you have the ability to include multiple users and give each specific access control over account elements. So, if you need to give more than one person (employees or agency partners) access to pages, ad account metrics or more, this is controlled through Business Suite.
Setting up your ad campaigns
We have our Meta Business Suite account setup. We are ready to create ads—woohoo!
The next step is creating actual ads. Where do you start? How do the ads look and what additional info should you have ready? Keep reading for a detailed guide to save time and help you strategically plan your ad campaigns.
How ad campaigns are organized
There are 3 levels to ad campaigns:
Campaign Level
Ad Set Level
Ad Level
Each Campaign has a setup “goal.” Based on this goal your ad will look, perform, and be targeted to different users on the platform(s).
The Ad Set level groups together different ads. This level is where you set specific details about when you ad should run, what your budget is, who you want to see your ad, what platforms to run the ad on, and which specific ad placements you’re interested in.
The Ad level groups together the various individual ads you create for each of your campaigns. You will usually have multiple ads within an ad set. The ads usually have different elements to allow you to test slight variations of ad creative including different images, videos, ad titles or ad text copy, along with different CTAs (Calls-To-Action).
Let’s talk about goals
The most important component to running an effective Meta Ad Campaign is knowing your goals for advertising ahead of time.
In simple language: What do you want to accomplish by running ads on Facebook and/or Instagram?
Meta refers to these interchangeably as “goals” and “objectives.”
The following objective options are provided by Meta:
Awareness
Traffic
Engagement
Leads
App promotion
Sales
Meta will treat your ad differently depending on the overall goal for your campaign. Based on the goal you choose, your ad may appear different and be distributed differently for different audiences on the platform.
The overall goal will also affect how Meta shows ad performance statistics. For example, if you are trying to optimize your ads for traffic to your website, video views, messages, or conversions, your ad metrics may be featured differently so you can understand how well your ads are performing based on reaching the selected goal.
What’s my ad going to look like?
One of the more confusing things about Meta ads on Facebook and Instagram is that there are several “placements” where your ad can appear.
What’s a placement?
As you may know, Facebook has lots of different environments within the platform. These environments each look a little different. This means the overall design of Facebook, the User Interface, allows ads to be placed in different spots on the website pages or within the mobile app.
These different placements can show ads in different sizes and in some cases can include different elements to your advertisements. This means you can feature more or less information or have different call-to-action buttons on the ad creative.
The most popular type of ads on Meta have the following elements:
Image or Video
Headline
Website URL
Ad Description (text copy to go below the ad image and headline)
Call-to-action button (Facebook provides 29 call-to-action button options, but only select CTAs are available for specific ad objectives)
Time Saving Tip: Have the ad creative elements ready and planned out well ahead of time.
I’ve worked with countless clients who want to jump in and start setting up ads right away. Once we get the process started and they understand the “account setup” items involved, which we have covered at the beginning of this article, clients often then need time to get everything configured and set up. This can take a couple of hours…or a couple of months. Yup, I’ve had to help clients over a period of months who didn’t have access to their own Facebook personal profile, admin access to their Facebook business page, or access to a Business Suite account that’s linked to a page. Let’s not dwell on this frustration…
Don’t let this get you frustrated. Just have a plan for when things get difficult, if they do.
Have you ever experienced issues like this? Check out this article covering ways to get support from Facebook when you need help–this will touch on this exact issue, but also what to do when your facebook ads get disapproved or when your Facebook ads account gets completely shut down
Now, let’s assume you have worked that all out and you are ready to get rolling with ads. The next hurdle is planning the actual ad creative and creating images or videos to go with the ad.
That’s when we can fall back into that waiting period. Always set expectations with your client: give them a timeline for what you need, and when you need it. I make sure my clients know what’s needed and that they understand if any one item is missing—we won’t start. This is important, especially if they need ads to start running at a specific time.
When first starting with a new client or overall ad campaign I always try to plan my ad creative OFF of Meta. I typically use Google Docs for this. Just create a blank doc and start with the following:
Ad Campaign Setup
Ad Goal/Campaign Type:
Ad Campaign Name:
Ad Set Name:
Ad Run Time (start and stop dates):
Audiences you plan to target (be specific):
Budget:
Ad Creative Samples
Ad 1
Ad 1 Headline:
Ad visual (image/video filename):
Ad Copy:
Destination URL:
CTA:
Ad 2
Ad 1 Headline:
Ad visual (image/video filename):
Ad Copy:
Destination URL:
CTA:
Ad 3
Ad 1 Headline:
Ad visual (image/video filename):
Ad Copy:
Destination URL:
CTA:
I recommend having around 3-5 different ads planned out and ready to roll for each ad set.
Having 3-5 variations gives you enough different elements for Facebook/Instagram to feed a few choices to your audience. Let the algorithm do its thing. The goal is for the algorithm to show your different ads to different people at different times and test what will perform best to achieve your overall intended goal.It will end up selecting one or more ads and will show the better performing ads most often. Having variations ready to go allows you additional opportunities to test variations without additional delays if you decide to make a change to an ad campaign after a short time.
Recap
You now have an overall understanding of the top 7+ items you need to ensure you have control of so you can get started and be able to advertise on Meta. We have also detailed how ad campaigns are structured within Meta and what creative elements you should have planned in advance to create your actual ad campaigns.
I hope this article helps you navigate through what can be a confusing system to advertise on. Don’t worry—once you get these items all setup it will be much easier for every new ad campaign you want to set up.
And again, if you come across any problems with your ad campaigns involving disapproved ads or different setup errors, check out my other article on How To Solve Issues With Disapproved Meta Ads on Facebook & Instagram.
Now go get your ad campaigns set up!
Leave a comment below if you found this article helpful. If you have any questions, just reach out. I’d be happy to help.
Now, this is a feature coming out in the next couple of weeks. And really what it is is it’s like having that “@” with a user name like you would on all these other different types of platforms.
This is supposed to be a way for you to easily tag or get in contact with other people on youtube. One of the great things is that having a customized URL On Youtube used to be limited to people once they had 100 subscribers. Well, this new feature of handles is going to have to be open to everybody which means you’ll be able to create one as soon as it rolls out and I’d advise you to take advantage sooner than later.
Now, YouTube will be creating these tag names initially for you using your Youtube channel name, you will have the opportunity to change it and customize it as you see fit.
I’ve already received a notification via email about one of my YouTube channels so keep a lookout.
It’s a common and frustrating problem that unfortunately happens all too often:
What should you do when you have problems with your Meta ad campaigns? The goal of this article is to help you save time and frustration when you have issues with disapproved ads or problems with your ad account so that you can get your ad campaigns back up and running quickly.
The impact of disapproved ads Before we jump in, I want to bring your attention to a couple of different ways the possible “disapprovals” can affect how much advertising you can continue to run on the platform while some ads have been flagged or disapproved.
First, there are a few levels in the Meta advertising system where you may have problems.
Usually, the first issue you will have is with a specific campaign, ad set, specific ad, or multiple ads. If you have issues with one specific ad, ad set, or campaign, but have other campaigns running, those other campaigns will continue to run without issue. In this case, only the specific disapproved items will be stopped until fixed or completely removed or deactivated. The rest of your campaign will continue to actively run.
If, however, you have issues with ads being “disapproved” often, or if the issues are considered more serious by Meta, it is also possible your entire ads account will become disabled. When that happens, you won’t have any ads running for any campaign until you solve whatever problems you have.
In other words, Meta does have the ability to, and may completely, stop ALL ad campaigns from continuing to run on their platform if they deem the account’s Advertising Policy violations are serious enough.
While this does sound serious, not all hope is lost. In my experience, these issues are often able to be solved and your ads and/or ad account can be reinstated with a few action steps.
Let’s review a few scenarios so that you have a plan of action:
Scenario 1: You receive a notification that selected ads have been disapproved.
What does this mean? Facebook has determined there is something wrong with your ad(s) and you need to fix the issue by making recommended changes. Once you address these issues, you can submit your ad for review again.
Find ads with error notifications on the ad level within an ad set. Look at each ad in your campaign’s ad set(s); you should see an alert box on the top right side of the screen.
What to change:
Usually the error message will tell you why your ad was disapproved. It may have been determined that your ad wasn’t set up properly; there may be an issue with your image or video files, your headline, your URL, or your ad copy (the text used in the primary text area); or the issue may be something else, possibly a compliance issue with Meta’s Advertising Policies.
You can usually make small changes to your ad, then click the button below the error message that reads, “Request a review.”
This will often solve the problem. Meta will review your ad again and hopefully your ad will be approved and continue to actively run. This process can take a matter of minutes or days; I’ve found ads are usually reviewed within an hour or two.
Scenario 2: Your ad was rejected. You followed the steps in Scenario 1 above, but your ads are still disapproved.
What do you do next? If you still believe your ads comply with all the Advertising Terms of Use, the next step is to try to gain direct access to a Meta support agent (a human). Yes, the first step is often just an automated second review by the algorithm. If you need further assistance, it’s best to get support from a real live human who can escalate the issue for further review.
This is the part that many people don’t realize exists. Yes, you can actually get in touch with a human at Meta who will chat with you (or maybe even get on the phone with you!) to help get your ads reviewed and running again.
Note: you need to be logged into your Meta (Facebook) account which has admin access to your business manager account, ads account, and page to gain proper assistance from Facebook.
Steps to follow:
1. Click the “support” button on the top right of the screen
2. This will open the support interface where you will be prompted with options to follow up on previous support cases or you can select the specific business account that is having the issues.
3. You will see a list of issues that you may have experienced with your account. You can either click on one of these or click “load more” at the bottom.
4. You will usually see another item: “Other Business Manager Issue.” I usually click this, as it’s the fastest way to gain access to support chat.
5. You will then be presented with a screen to submit your contact info and a summary of your issue.
Next, a Facebook Messenger chat will open in a new browser window. At first you may see some automated messages. I usually click through until I can request to speak to an agent. Once you get in with an agent, summarize your issues and they will help you out. If you have disapproved ads they will usually request you supply your ads account ID and the specific ID for each disapproved ad. If you don’t know how to find these they will direct you.
Scenario 3: Your ads account has been fully disabled. All ads and campaigns will be paused until your account is reinstated.
How to solve: So, you’ve received a notification that your ads account has been shut down due to policy violations. This is a more extreme step taken by the system to stop your ads, either for suspicious activity or if Meta doesn’t trust you or your account. The steps to resolve this involve supplying more information through direct contact with a Meta support agent. It is common to get these issues resolved within a day or two and have your ad account reinstated along with all ads so you are running once again.
What you can do: Just as in Scenario 2, you need to login to business support, initiate a support request, select your business manager account, scroll to the bottom to “Other Business Manager Issue,” and start a chat with a Meta/Facebook support agent.
This time you will likely need to verify your identity to prove you are the person you say you are and confirm you have proper access to your business manager account and ads account. Meta may ask you to provide a photo ID so they can prove you are the person who has admin access to the account. They will then again request your Meta business manager ID and probably your Facebook ads account ID.
While this is an annoying step to go through, trust me, this would be a bigger issue for you if Meta allowed any person to gain access to your business account and you end up losing control over everything. Just work through the process and, with patience, you will get things solved.
After reviewing these details they will determine why your account has been disabled. Assuming you haven’t intentionally violated any major policies, Meta Business Support agents will advise the next steps.
Ad account shut down If you have had ads which have been flagged or disabled a few times, it’s very likely you will experience your entire account getting shut down. Meta has a “quality score” system for every account; you will never get to see this score, but it helps them determine if your account is trustworthy.
I’ve had clients in industries that can cause ads to commonly be flagged, such as debt collection. While this industry is highly regulated here in Canada, where companies have to follow strict rules for what and how they advertise, within Meta it’s commonly the specific text within your ad copy that will raise flags for the platform. As one of my specific clients in this industry had their ads flagged almost every single time we created a new campaign, I’d commonly have to run through the process of getting on chat with support, having them review the account and ads, and then we’d be able to get the account reinstated within a day or two. Yes, hugely frustrating!
I want to reassure you: As long as you can provide any information the support agents may request, it’s likely that if you aren’t breaking rules, you will get your account back up and running fairly quickly.
If your ads get flagged often, and your entire account has been disabled a few times, there is likely a bad score against your account. I have been told by Meta reps that this can’t be reset or adjusted.
If, in an extreme case, you go through this repeatedly, one thing to try next is to create an entirely new Facebook/Meta Advertising account for your business and start running ads through that new ads account.
Note:This is an extreme measure to take and I’d recommend confirming if this should be done when speaking with a Facebook rep. They can also guide you though what additional steps to take and how best to do this without losing pixel data or your audience data. You cannot port over previously created campaigns or ads. You will be starting fresh…and that’s a good thing.
Let’s Recap This article has covered what you can do if you have specific ads disapproved, what you can do if you need to get additional assistance from a live Meta support agent, as well as what to do if your advertising account is completely shut down. I’ve personally had to deal with issues like this several times. While it can be frustrating, my hope is that the scenarios outlined above will help you get things up and running a lot faster.
Now it’s time to get back to creating kick-ass ads to help you grow your business!
Take your Real Estate Listing presentations to the next level. In this video, I show you how to create simple slide show videos for your real estate house listings that you can use for social media posts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and more.
This Canva tutorial shows you step-by-step how to use a slide show template in Canva and easily customize real estate property listings using pictures, text and more to create a customized video to help you sell your real estate listings and take your presentations to the next level.
This video is perfect for realtors, real estate brokers, agents and admin assistants that want to go beyond simple image posts, carousel posts and static images to create a professional-looking presentation for your real estate home listings.
LINKS:
If you are looking to get started with Canva or want to upgrade to a Pro account, click my affiliate link below:
https://partner.canva.com/c/1232855/619765/10068
Download my FREE Real Estate Instagram Post Template which includes 26 Instagram graphics for real estate posts:
Want to know what one of the most overlooked marketing tools for Real Estate Agents is? My Answer – Building A Email List and Leveraging Email Marketing.
As a real estate agent, you are in the business of building relationships. One of the best ways to maintain a connection with your audience and to keep in touch with them so you stay top of mind is through email marketing.
This video covers why email marketing is essential for realtors and features 6 Email Content Ideas for you to use in your email newsletters.
LINKS:
– How To Create Slide Show Videos for Real Estate Listings in Canva
– If you are looking to get started with Canva or want to upgrade to a Pro account, click my affiliate link below:
https://partner.canva.com/c/1232855/619765/10068
– Download my FREE Real Estate Instagram Post Template which includes 26 Instagram graphics for real estate posts:
Are you a realtor looking to gain a bigger following on LinkedIn? Do you have many LinkedIn connections but your LI Page doesn’t have many followers?
Are you looking to increase the number of people who will see your LinkedIn Page posts?
In this video, I show 2 easy strategies to help you gain more followers to Company Page.
For more Social Media Marketing Tips for Real Estate Agents and Brokers check out the links below:
1 – How To Install A Canva Template and Learn Canva Basics (Beginner Canva Tips 2022)
2 – Create A Slide Show Videos for Real Estate Listings in Canva
FREE CANVA TEMPLATES FOR REALTORS
Download my FREE Real Estate Instagram Post Template which includes 26 Instagram graphics for real estate posts:
CANVA LINK:
If you are looking to get started with Canva or want to upgrade to a Pro account, click my affiliate link below:
https://partner.canva.com/c/1232855/619765/10068
Learn how to install one of our Real Estate Instagram Post Canva Template Packs to your own account.
In this video, I also demonstrate how easy it is to customize each Canva Template with your own logo and profile picture. I demonstrate how to change colours, fonts, resize objects, change pictures and much more. Whether you are a Canva beginner or have used Canva in the past I cover some pro tips to help you save time so that you can customize your Canva post graphics fast.
Save time, learn pro tips and create stunning Canva Instagram post images quickly and easily.
Whether you’re a buyer, seller, or simply a real estate marketer, you understand the value of having a strong, credible, and appealing profile for your target audience. It is vital to market your business successfully and find ways to outperform your competitors in such a competitive industry.
The only thing left is to think about creative ways for realtors to promote their listings and develop an online presence. As a result, video marketing is the perfect medium for improving and enhancing real estate marketing. Most successful video marketing campaigns include many aspects to convert better than text and improve the entire user experience.
Why Is Video Marketing Important for Realtors?
Houses and property are the primary product you offer as a realtor. But it is the personal connections and relationships you have with the clients that allow you to sell.
Realtor video marketing is vital for every real estate professional trying to expand their clients and, as a result, their career to new heights.
Real estate video marketing aims to promote realtors on a more intimate, human level than what is generally presented at an agency level. In reality, making videos provides realtors with a lot more flexibility regarding how they want to promote themselves to potential clients.
Finally, realtor video marketing is gradually becoming the most effective way for realtors to get their names out there, connect with prospective sellers and buyers, and expand their businesses like never before.
Here’s a guide with some tips for realtors to craft an effective video marketing strategy.
Plan Ahead
Every video marketing campaign should begin with a well-thought-out plan. It requires understanding how to determine the scope of a project and determining the correct components for your campaign. Only then can a realtor benefit from real estate video marketing more effectively.
The planning should include not just the content but also the scripting and duration of your campaign. It is also the time to delegate tasks, ensuring that you have professionals dedicated to developing your plan.
Set A Budget
If you are creating the video on your own, you must budget for your team’s time, equipment, editing software, food, and other expenses related to the shoot. Hiring a video marketing agency may increase your expenditure, but it is worthwhile if you are unsure of your video talents.
If you carefully plan your budget, you will not only save money, but you will also be much more ready to get everything done right and on time when the moment arrives to shoot your video.
Choose the Right Equipment
The benefits of real estate video marketing can only be enjoyed if your video content is of high quality. The easiest method to achieve this is to use high-quality equipment to record videos and audio for your company.
High-speed internet enables higher resolution streaming, allowing the viewers to see your properties in greater detail. As a result, choose an excellent camera, lighting, and sound equipment to record your videos.
Introduce Yourself
When potential clients don’t know who you are, they are typically hesitant to consult with you or pay you to help them sell or buy a home. As a result, realtor video marketing must include introduction videos. It is critical for any real estate agent wishing to expand their clients.
Realtors can make a series of videos to introduce themselves to their audience while discussing the various services they provide. Alternatively, they could decide to make a series of videos on the advantages of homeownership.
Show the Property
Working with the video marketing strategy for real estate entails using the format’s strength to promote the best aspects of your property. It includes displaying all aspects, amenities, and benefits that they provide.
Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience to do this. Consider what they would like to see and the type of content required to decide in favour of acquiring a home or any other property.
Post Where Your Audience Is
There are various options to interact with your audience using videos in the real estate market. It, however, implies that you must make the correct option when selecting theideal channels to post and promote your real estate videos.
Your videos must be published in places where your target audience can see them. For example, just because Facebook is a popular site does not imply that your target audience is present or that you will achieve good results with it. Consider what your target audience does online and, more crucially, where they go for real estate information.
Add Human Elements
Purchasing or selling a home is a deeply personal process. It is not only monetarily significant, but it is also emotionally taxing. Therefore, people frequently act based on their emotions. It can be beneficial for your real estate videos to develop content that focuses on positive human emotions such as joy, happiness, and love.
Videos that create an emotional response evoke better emotions from viewers and are far more memorable. This is especially true for selling real estate because customers like to relate to other warm humans rather than frigid property listings.
Use Different Video Formats
One of the advantages of video marketing is that it works with and can be transformed into anyvideo type. This implies that a realtor or real estate business can make various videos to meet different goals and needs while maintaining consistency with its brand approach.
Here are some of the best types of videos you can make as a realtor to promote your business:
Explainer Videos
Residence Showcase Videos
Neighbourhood Showcase
360-degree Property Tour Videos
Testimonial Videos
Analyze Your Competition
One needs to study and research the competition before launching any video marketing campaign. It is wise to know and understand what kind of video marketing strategy the competitors are using and why their audience is sticking with them.
This step will help you determine where your competitors are lacking so that you can work around that as an advantage. You can provide the information and content through your videos that your competitors aren’t offering to the prospective audiences, giving you an upper hand.
Conclusion
Use this video marketing guide to demonstrate your personality, your real estate knowledge and establish trust. Maintain a professional demeanour while being friendly and engaging with them.
Show clients why your content is unique and essential by emphasizing the importance of your facts, storytelling, and your distinct perspective.
