There are 800 million users on Facebook today. It’s no secret that we check facebook every day, maybe even 4-5 times a day. That’s a lot. Are you using facebook as a tool to reach people and spread the word about your church or business? If not, you’re missing out.

The Design of Your Ad
Your ad needs to be eye-catching, and most importantly it needs a call to action. If you have a graphics team on board you will have no problem with creating an ad. If you don’t, you may want to look at using stock photography (www.istockphoto.com). Once you have selected your imagery, it’s time to think about your call to action. Example 1: “Click to sign your child up for Vacation Bible School!” Example 2: “Do you want to visit our church, but not sure what it’ll be like? Check out a live service!” Example 3: “Join a growth group!” There are so many options so you’ll need to be strategic on your message and purpose.

Next you’ll want to think about the landing page. Ideally, you'll want to setup a custom tab that fulfills your call to action. (Learn how to create custom tabs here.) For instance, in Example 2, you would want your landing page to be your videos tab. 

Targeting your Audience
Now it’s time to get the most out of your facebook ad. The most important part of creating an ad is to target your audience.

There are so many options with targeting and because of this you may want to run a few different ads. This way you can target different audiences, i.e. married couples, teenagers, etc. For instance, let’s say pastor’s message next Sunday is going to be geared towards married couples. In this case, you would target both men and women who are married and over the age of 18.

(Advanced Demographics shown below)

Pay Per Clicks vs. Pay Per Impressions
Now that your ad is ready to go, how are you going to pay for it? You have a few options. First of all, you can set a budget per day or a lifetime budget which will be spread over the course of the scheduled campaign. Second, you can pay for impressions or you can pay for clicks. What’s the difference? Cost per click (CPC) advertising allows you to specify a certain amount that you are willing to pay each time a user clicks on your ad. Many CPC advertisers are more interested in having people click through to their website in order to drive conversions. Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) advertising allows you to specify how much you are willing to pay for 1000 impressions (views) of your ad. Most CPM advertisers are more focused on ensuring that their ad is seen often, rather than on having people click on their ads. These advertisers are also often more focused on spreading brand awareness than accruing immediate conversions.

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