What Is Facebook Advertising? Overview and Benefits

Facebook advertising is a type of digital advertising offered by Meta that allows individuals and businesses to promote their posts through ads on the social media platform. Facebook advertising enables users to run their own marketing campaigns, boost posts, and track analytics through its online platform.

Explore how Facebook advertising by Meta works, who uses the platform, and the different ways in which it can help boost your business on social media channels.

Overview of Facebook advertising

Facebook advertising, now known as Meta advertising, allows you to reach your audience through social media campaigns. The platform prompts you to choose an objective, select an audience, set a budget, and manage your ad as you track its performance over time. One company generated a nine-fold return on its investment using this digital advertising tool, spending more than $300K to earn more than $3.5 million in revenue Facebook ads helped them generate [1].

How ads work

Facebook ads meet your specific business goals and reach accounts that fit the audience of your product or business. To get the most out of your ads, Meta requires you to set an objective and select an audience when you set up and purchase your ad.

To be effective, it's essential that your business is a good match for Meta ads. For example, businesses that are inexpensive to start—including SaaS and e-commerce—or those interested in capturing immediate sales may not have as much success as businesses looking for low-friction conversions and those with long sales cycles. If you’re unsure, it’s helpful to start small to test these strategies.

Ads offered

Meta allows you to choose from different ad formats, including photo, video, carousel, slideshow, store, Marketplace, Messenger, collection, or playable. Each works differently to meet individual business and budget goals. The format you select will determine where your ads appear and which audience sees them.

Cost

Ad costs differ depending on how much you want to spend. Meta offers pricing options to fit your needs and budget. You have the option to turn off your ad campaign at any time, as well as the opportunity to increase or decrease the amount you spend. Other factors that may affect the pricing of your Facebook ads include what kind of ad format you’re using, the day of the week you’re advertising, and the time the ad goes live.

Meta offers two budgeting options:

• Daily budget: This is the amount you spend on ads each day. Meta has the option to increase the budget for any given day based on the performance of your ads.

• Lifetime budget: Your lifetime budget is the total amount of money you allot Meta to spend on your ad campaign. While the amount spent on ads daily may change based on ad performance, your spending will always stay within your lifetime budget.

Who uses Facebook advertising?

Anyone can advertise on Facebook, even if you are a small business with a limited advertising budget. Facebook ads are useful for companies that want to promote their business and form better relationships with potential customers through different ad formats.

Benefits for businesses

Facebook ads are simple to use, with a step-by-step guide for users to navigate. You can advertise on Meta and on Meta-owned Instagram using Facebook ads. Meta allows you to tailor ads to specific audiences, set business objectives, and track the performance of ad campaigns. You can also change your budget depending on your ads’ performance and determine which format is best for your business and products.

Pros and cons of using Facebook advertising (Meta ads)

Like many marketing solutions, Facebook advertising has benefits—potential reach and guidance—and disadvantages—audience limitations and cost—that come with using the platform. The following chart highlights common pros and cons.

How to advertise on Facebook

The simple way to get started advertising on Facebook is to follow the guidance offered by the platform. Meta has a step-by-step guide to launching a Facebook ad that's easy to follow [2]:

Choose an objective.

Facebook allows you to choose from a list of objectives to determine what you want to accomplish as a business or a brand. The objectives you choose depend on your overall purpose for using Meta ads. For example, if you want to drive conversions, you might choose the sales objective. If you aim to increase messages, you might choose sales or engagement.

Select an audience.

By selecting an audience, you choose which demographic the ad targets. Meta recommends starting with a broad audience and then narrowing it down to a more detailed group of accounts based on the ad's initial performance. 

Pick where to run the ad.

With Meta, you can run your ad on different feeds, such as the traditional Facebook feed, Instagram, and Facebook Marketplace. You can also explore pages on either Instagram or Meta, Messenger, and Instagram and Facebook stories. Choose where to run your ad based on where you think it will perform the best and get maximum clicks and views.

Set the budget.

Setting your budget involves picking the amount of money you’d like to spend on your ads, either daily or over the ad’s lifetime. You can change this number at any time, but Meta recommends keeping it consistent for at least seven days to gather accurate analytics regarding the ad’s performance.

Pick the ad format.

Meta offers eight ad formats from which to choose:

• Photo: Photo ads are simple and easy to create. You may use this format to promote a product to your audience, using an image of the product itself in the ad.

• Video: Facebook digital ads allow you to create your own commercials for products and services using the video format. You can use pre-recorded content or record videos specifically for the ad.

• Stories: Stories are click-through posts that disappear after 24 hours. You can interact directly with an ad through a story, and they pop up between viewings of stories from people you follow. 

• Messenger: With a Messenger ad, account users who view and interact with your post receive an ad through Facebook Messenger with more details about your product or service. Messenger also allows you to start conversations with audience members and interact with accounts in a personal, immersive way.

• Carousel: Carousel ads allow you to add up to 10 photos or videos within the ad. Each image or video has a link that takes the consumer to the individual page of the showcased product. Carousel ads are useful if you want to advertise multiple products, events, or services simultaneously.

• Slideshow: Slideshow ads are similar to video ads, but they use less data and make it easier for account users with bad internet connections to see your entire ad. Slideshow ads typically are video length with multiple photos attached.

• Collection: Collection ads offer a glimpse into several of your business’s products. A collection is a mini catalog of your products that account users can click through to purchase.

• Playables: Playables are interactive videos primarily used on mobile devices for customers to try your app before installing it on their own phone or tablet.

Place your order.

Meta uses a system called ad auctions to determine who sees your ad once you place your order. It takes into account these three variables:

• Personal bid: This is the money you can spend on your ad.

• Estimated action rate: Meta determines this based on who it thinks will interact with your ad when shown to them.

• Ad quality: How much information you include in the ad and whether you sensationalize the product are the bases of ad quality. Meta determines this through feedback from ad viewers.

Manage your ads.

After you post your ad, you can track its performance through the Ads Manager section of your business account. Meta offers several Facebook marketing tools to compare your campaigns' performance and business activity, including sales and traffic.

Get started today.

Meta ads may benefit your business if you want to advertise products, services, or your company on social media. Consider the pros and cons of Facebook advertising to determine if the investment in social media marketing is worth it for your company. If you choose to use Meta ads, decide which ad format aligns best with your advertisements and budget.

Learn more about social media advertising and begin a career in social media with Meta’s Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate on Coursera. Develop the skills to promote your business or personal brand online, track analytics, and manage your advertisements.