Utilise the Potential of Meta (Facebook) Ads for Martial Arts Academies
Facebook advertisements have evolved into a pivotal instrument for various enterprises, and martial arts academies are no exception. These ads hold the power to enhance enrolment rates and broaden the school's visibility by capitalising on the platform's robust targeting features and crafting engaging ad content.
The sole challenge? When you initially access the Facebook Ads Manager, it might appear daunting. Within it, you'll encounter numerous reporting dashboards, various ad format choices, and audience insight tools—all contributing to the perception that initiating a new ad campaign might be intricate.
Written by: Vuong Ngo
Published at 12/11/2023
This comprehensive guide aims to delve into the process of establishing an effective Facebook ad campaign tailored for martial arts school promotion. It will center around crucial aspects such as audience targeting, the creation of captivating ad materials, optimisation techniques, and the incorporation of supplementary marketing strategies to ensure a successful campaign.
Shortcuts
What exactly does Facebook Ads Manager entail?
How to Build Campaigns through Facebook Ads Manager
1. Set a campaign objective
2. Determine a conversion destination and define a performance objective.
3. Establish a budget and timetable
4. Defining Your Target Audience
5. Select the advertisement placement platform.
6. Develop Your Advertisement's Creative Elements
7: Evaluate Campaigns and Launch
Measure and Enhancing Your Ads for Achievement
What exactly does Facebook Ads Manager entail?
The Facebook Ads Manager serves as a comprehensive tool for creating, modifying, and evaluating paid Facebook promotional campaigns. Recently, Facebook merged Ads Manager and Power Editor into a unified platform to streamline the process of creating and monitoring social media ad campaigns across various advertising platforms under the Facebook umbrella, encompassing Instagram ads.
Key functionalities of the Ads Manager
Meta Business Suite:
Provides an overview of Facebook and Instagram account activities without the need to log in to personal accounts.
Audience Manager:
Enables saving and targeting specific audience segments based on criteria like age, location, interests, and job title. Additionally, it allows uploading customer lists and subscriber information for retargeting purposes.
Meta Pixel:
Matches website activities with Facebook users, facilitating retargeting campaigns for those who visited the site or added items to a cart but didn't make a purchase.
Events Manager:
Tracks in-person store visits and purchases, enhancing advertising reporting accuracy, especially for campaigns aimed at driving foot traffic.
Creative Hub:
Allows advertisers to create mock ad creatives, offering previews across multiple devices, enabling team feedback, and analyzing competitor ads. Formerly known as Creative Studio, this feature aids in refining ad content before campaign launch.
How to start an Ads Manager account
Sure, here are the steps to get started with opening a Facebook Ads Manager page:
- Create a Facebook business page using your personal account. Once the page is created, you can modify permissions later on.
- Access your Facebook Business Manager account, now known as Meta Business Suite. Navigate to Meta Business Settings > Accounts > Ad Accounts.
- Choose "Create a New Ad Account."
- Begin the ad creation process in Meta Ad Manager by naming your ad account, selecting your time zone, and choosing your preferred currency.
- Invite team members to collaborate within your new ad account, assigning them either partial permissions (e.g., the ability to create ads but not access ad account settings) or full control.
- Configure permissions for your team members as you create ads via Ads Manager.
- Add the payment method that will be used to fund your ads.
How to Build Campaigns through Facebook Ads Manager
Before You Start: Understanding Facebook Advertising Terminology
- Campaigns: Define the primary objective for your campaign, such as conversions, website clicks, or engagement. Select a campaign name that mirrors this objective.
- Ad Sets: Determine your target audience, the individuals you wish to view your ads. You can create multiple ad sets per campaign, allocating different budgets to each. For instance, if your primary goal is to drive conversions, you might allocate 60% of the campaign budget to an ad set targeting women and the remaining 40% to an ad set targeting men.
- Ads: Create your ad content in this section. Once again, you can have multiple ads per ad set. Experiment with different Facebook ad formats to discover what resonates best with your audience.
To enhance the effectiveness of your Facebook ads, it's essential to take critical actions such as choosing the appropriate campaign objective, identifying your target audience, and setting a budget. Let's delve deeper into these steps.
1. Set a campaign objective
To commence the creation of a Facebook ads campaign, begin by clicking the prominent green 'Create' button at the top left corner, then proceed to 'Create campaign.' Here, select an objective that becomes the overarching goal for your campaign, significantly impacting the ad targeting strategy and audience reach guided by the advertising algorithm.
Choosing the right campaign objective mirrors the process of selecting the fitting martial arts technique—it defines your strategy's direction and plays a pivotal role in determining your overall success
2. Determine a conversion destination and define a performance objective.
Next, label your campaign, specify if you fall under Meta's defined "special ad categories," decide on A/B testing preferences, and opt for Meta's "Advantage campaign budget" expenditure option if desired.
Designate your campaign's name during ad creation in Ads Manager.
Subsequently, Ads Manager will guide you to determine the destination you want to direct individuals to, such as your business's Facebook page, website, or application.
When creating an ad in Ads Manager, indicate a conversion location.
For campaign objectives related to engagement, traffic, sales, and leads, you will select a conversion location, except for app promotion or awareness campaigns.
Afterward, set a performance objective (such as maximising conversions) and configure a Meta pixel if prompted.
3. Establish a budget and timetable
Numerous clubs exercise caution when it comes to exceeding their advertising budgets. Address this concern by defining the commencement and conclusion dates for your campaigns and choosing one of the subsequent budgeting alternatives:
- Daily budget.
- Lifetime budget: The total expenditure throughout the entire campaign's duration, permitting variations in day-to-day ad spending, as Facebook's algorithm allocates portions of the budget based on optimal timing.
Determining the appropriate budget for Facebook ads can be challenging. For instance, if you make $100, consider reinvesting between $10 and $30 into Facebook advertising. The advantage of Facebook advertising lies in its flexibility, allowing you to spend as little or as much as desired. Even a daily investment of $5 can initiate the process.
Adopting this budgeting approach allows you to initiate an ad for a brief period, evaluate its performance, and then experiment with a different ad. An allocation of just $5 per day over a month enables you to test 10 different ad variations, totalling $150.
When allocating funds for Facebook ads, bear in mind that it's not solely about purchasing customers; it's also an investment in acquiring data and additional brand assets beyond the customer base. These include audiences such as site visitors, video viewers, or email subscribers.
4. Defining Your Target Audience
To begin with, pinpoint the perfect audience for your martial arts school's promotion to enhance ad efficacy by assessing the following elements:
- Age, gender, and language preferences: Customise your ads to match the demographics of your preferred student base.
- Location-specific targeting: Concentrate on prospective students located within a particular radius surrounding your school.
- Interest-based targeting: Aim for individuals who have shown interest in martial arts or similar fitness pursuits.
Over the time, your audiences data can be more fine-grained identified with below strategies.
Lookalike audiences
A lookalike audience comprises individuals who exhibit resemblances to an existing list. The algorithm identifies Facebook users with shared traits as your current customers, targeting them in forthcoming campaigns.
Specify the degree of likeness desired for the new audience. A 1% lookalike closely mirrors your existing customer list, while a 10% overlap broadens the audience pool, creating a larger group.
Retargeted audiences
You have the option to set up the Facebook pixel on your website, allowing Facebook to track individuals who have shown interest in your products. You can incorporate these individuals into a retargeting audience.
How to install Facebook Pixel is platform dependent, if you don't know how to do that, feel free to reach out to us to have a chat.
5. Select the advertisement placement platform.
The Facebook Ads Manager enables clubs to promote products and services on both Facebook and Instagram. In Ads Manager's Placements tab, you can choose the platform you wish to advertise on.
By default, the Automatic placement option is selected. This feature allows the advertising algorithm to determine the most effective placements for your goal while maximising your available budget. It serves as an excellent starting point if you're uncertain about the platforms or placements that will work best for your audience.
Alternatively, you can manually select platforms and placements from the following options:
- Facebook: Feed, Marketplace, video feeds, right column, Facebook Stories, in-stream videos, instant articles, search results, and Messenger
- Instagram: Feed, Explore page, Instagram Shop, Stories, Reels, and in-stream videos
- Audience Network: External apps and websites that lease advertising space from Facebook
6. Develop Your Advertisement's Creative Elements
Arguably, the focal point of your Facebook advertising strategy is the creativity behind your ads. The appearance of your advertisements significantly influences users' likelihood of engaging and fulfilling your objective. An ad that fails to seize attention in a cluttered feed is often overlooked.
It's crucial for ads to be both attention-grabbing and captivating. These qualities diminish when you repeatedly show the same ad to your audience. For many businesses, sourcing captivating content can be challenging. However, this may not pose as much of a challenge for your clubs, as you have an abundance of video footage available, which can also be contributed by parents and athletes.
Considering these resources, your choices include:
- Video ads
- Single image ads
- Carousel ads
- Canvas ads
Whichever format you opt for, it's essential to preview your ad creative before launching the campaign. Facebook ad specifications vary across devices, necessitating visually appealing creatives that resonate well across tablets, desktops, and mobile phones. Also, consider this checklist when crafting engaging ad creative:
- Utilise high-quality images and videos
- Create concise and value-oriented copy
- Include clear and compelling offers
- Experiment with multiple ad variations
- Ensure optimisation for both mobile and desktop devices
- Incorporate a strong and effective call-to-action (CTA)
7. Evaluate Campaigns and Launch
Prior to launching your new Facebook ad campaign, carefully review the information you've included. Ensure that images, videos, and ad copy effectively communicate an engaging message to the targeted Facebook users.
Once satisfied with each component, submit the campaign for approval. Facebook typically takes up to 24 hours to review and approve the ad, although approval often occurs much sooner, usually within a few hours.
Measure and Enhancing Your Ads for Achievement
Your responsibilities continue even after launching your initial campaign. Keep track of ad performance to determine whether your campaigns are effectively achieving their objectives or if they're ineffective.
Access the Account Overview tab within Ads Manager, providing a reporting dashboard showcasing campaign performance. Navigate through each section to access individual reports for ad sets and ad creatives.
Utilise the dropdown menu to utilise a preconfigured reporting dashboard or select the key metrics your business prioritises for tracking.
Based on the data, refine your Facebook ads campaign for optimal performance and superior outcomes in promoting your martial arts school.
Experiment with various ad versions:
Conduct tests with multiple ad variations to ascertain the most resonant ones among your target audience, ensuring the best outcomes.
Evaluate performance metrics:
Regularly monitor crucial metrics like click-through rates, conversions, and cost per action to assess the efficacy of your ads, enabling data-driven decision-making.
Adapt your campaign according to results:
Utilise insights derived from analysing ad performance to refine your campaign strategy. Make necessary adjustments, such as modifying ad creatives, targeting criteria, or budgets, to enhance overall success.
