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Between the IPO, debate around GM’s ad performance, and Zuckerberg’s recent marriage, there’s been a lot of controversy — or at least chatter — around Facebook of late.

As we look across the digital landscape, however, we still get a lot of questions regarding Facebook ads and how to set them up, especially with the recent changes within the user interface. 

This post is not to debate the efficiency of Facebook ads (I did that last week), but rather to show new users how to set up Facebook ads, and current users how to improve their existing ad campaigns by highlighting some of the nuances in the setup process. Let’s get started.

How to Set Up Ads on Facebook

Step 1 - Create an Ad. When logged in to Facebook, look at the top right hand corner of your browser. You’ll see a green button that says ‘Create an Ad.’ Click it and you’ll be on your way.

Step 2 – Select What to Advertise. There are a bunch of options here. You can promote URLs (on or off Facebook), pages, applications, events, places or domains. For example, you might want to drive users off of Facebook to an external URL. Or perhaps you’d like to promote your Facebook page and get more ‘likes’ — know as ‘connections’ in Facebook speak — so that you can grow your fan base more quickly. As you can see below, I’ve chosen to promote our Inbound 2012 Marketing Conference!

Step 3 – Set Up the Ads. For Facebook ads, you’ll usually need to write some short copy and confirm your URL. An ad preview will display on the right hand side so you can see how the ad will look once it’s live. For certain ad campaigns, such as driving likes to your page, you won’t need to write additional copy.

Step 4 – Target by Geography. Select the geographical region in which you want your ad to run. Pay particular attention to the checkbox that includes cities within 10, 25 or 50 miles of the region you’ve selected, as you may or may not want this additional targeting. Get as targeted as you can here, as the capabilities include country, state/province, city, and zip code; or you can even try to type in your target city as I’ve done below with Boston.

Step 5 – Target by Age and Gender. Select which genders and age groups you’d like to see your ad. Be sure to uncheck the box to the right, or else Facebook will be at liberty to show your ads “slightly” outside of your target market.

Step 6 – Target Your Ad to Precise Interests. At this stage, you can target users based on their hobbies, status, interests, ethical background, and more. Pretty crazy, right? Options include both broad categories and very precise interests, some of which you can see below.

Step 7 – Define Precise Interests. If the particular interests that you’d like to target your ad towards are not included within broad targeting, then this is the option for you. Simply type in the keywords that are most relevant, and Facebook will automatically show you options. For instance, I typed in “marketing” below and results instantly display for my exact keyword, as well as related keywords that I may also want to focus on.

Step 8 – Or, Use Broad Categories. Facebook also provides plenty of options within their broad categories. If you see categories here that fit your target market, simply check the box and your ad will automatically be included within the chosen segment.

Step 9 – Target Your Ad Based on Connections. While you can target by interests, age, and geographical location, Facebook also offers ad targeting based on connections. For example, you can target people who are connected to your business page or specific apps, and you can even target their friends. As you can see in the sample Facebook ad below, I’ve targeted people whose friends are connected to HubSpot. The strategy here is that you can target like-minded users who have an interest in your company.

Additional targeting features within this section include sexual orientation, relationship status, language, education and workplaces.

Step 10 – Set Your Objective and Pricing. This one is tricky. See the pop up below? If you aren’t careful, Facebook will charge you on CPM pricing (cost per 1000 times your ad is displayed) rather than CPC (cost per click your ad receives). If you prefer CPM, then don’t worry about this. But if you prefer CPC, like I do, then be sure to select “click on my ad or sponsored story” in the drop down like I did below.

Step 11 – Review Your Ad. Be sure to review your Facebook ad before taking it live, and check everything to ensure you know exactly how you’re paying, when the ads are live, who the ads are targeting, and that every other detail below is as you intended!

Step 12 – Launch Your Facebook Ad! Click that blue “Place Order” button you see above to take your ad live. As always, be sure to watch your Facebook ads very closely during launch to ensure that everything is working properly, and that your budget is being spent wisely. Treat your Facebook campaign like any other well strategized campaign, and manage it with precision and diligence.

Have you set up a Facebook ad campaign yet? Were you happy with the results you saw?

Image credit: Diana Garcia BOG

After announcing that they will launch a social-friendly search engine last week, Bing’s new feature goes live last Tuesday. Users can now access the new Bing search engine, and the page will show a new message saying “The best search, now with people from your social networks.” Introducing Bing’s Social-friendly Search Engine It should be [...]

Small businesses nowadays use social media to promote their brand. However, not everyone knows how to do it right. If you’re one of them, there’s no need to worry. Just follow the simple tips below on how you can promote your small business through social media, and you’re off to a good start. Select One [...]

Dear Lifehacker, More »

Amazon has started a $6 million annual fund that seeks to encourge more independent authors to publish their works on Kindle first, the company announced today.

Amazon’s Kindle family is on a roll with overall strong sales during Black Friday and the $199 Kindle Fire tablet may already be the number two tablet after the iPad in sales. The next piece of the puzzle Amazon needs to figure out is how to get more authors to publish directly to Kindle before print and other e-reader stores. It hopes to do this with the new fund, called KDP Select.

KDP Select works by giving authors and publishers a share of the fund if they agree to make their books exclusive to the Kindle Store for at least 90 days. After the 90 days of exclusivity are up, the books are then eligible to be checked out from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

“By choosing KDP Select, independent authors and publishers have an opportunity to make money in a whole new way and reach the growing audience of Amazon Prime members,” said Russ Grandinetti, VP of Kindle Content, in a statement. “A short 90-day commitment allows authors and publishers to experiment at very low risk. In addition, free promotions are a new tool for KDP Select authors, and we hope to add more such tools over time.”

The monthly royalty payment for each KDP Select title is based on that book’s share of the total number of borrows of all participating KDP books in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. So when more people read your title for free from the Lending Library, the amount of money allocated to you increases. Amazon said it expects the KDP Select fund to be sized at a minimum $6 million for 2012, but it has also already marked down $500,000 to give out before the end of the year.

The Kindle Lending Library has drawn the ire of the U.S.-based Authors Guild, which represents more than 8,000 U.S. writers. The group claims the online retailer is “boldly breaching its contracts” with authors by letting users check out books for free. The Authors Guild mostly appears upset because many major publishers denied Amazon’s request to include their titles in the Lending Library, but Amazon went ahead on the grounds that it would still pay a fee whenever someone checked out a book.

In light of the new KDP Select fund, perhaps Amazon has decided to foster more independent works for the Lending Library so it can build a better a relationship with major publishing houses. It also likely sees $6 million a year as chump change if it can convince people to buy tons of Kindles and consume Amazon content on them.

Filed under: media, mobile

In preparation for Black Friday, a majority of Apple Stores in the US will open their doors early between 5AM and 9AM, wth a reported 18 locations will start the day at 4AM and at least five starting sales at midnight.

WP7: Microsoft has started rolling out the Windows Phone 7.5 update to select users who own certain handsets. More »

“@marovdan: Select U.S. Cities See Brain Gain http://t.co/hj69CVnv via @WSJ @stoweboyd”

– September 22, 2011 at 06:41PM via http://bit.ly/qaT9PU