You've been using Facebook forever and are familiar with the basic features and functions! You were an early adopter and now you have to help a client or yourself set up a Facebook ad. It shouldn’t be too hard, you got this right? Well… slow down!

While Facebook has longevity, like many social media sites, the company has been evolving to make it one of the go-to platforms for advertising. Facebook advertising should be a staple of the media mix for organizations, large and small. It's less expensive than traditional advertising, can be managed easier, and doesn’t require a hefty advertising budget to be successful.  

Hello Meta Business Suite

Facebook introduced its Meta Business Suite in 2020 which can be accessed in both desktop and mobile devices. This is an optimized platform from its predecessor; Facebook Business Manager. Meta Business Suite is meant to manage your business’ Facebook, Instagram and Meta accounts, and keeps professional tasks separate from personal. It is meant to be a turnkey platform to create and manage paid ads, review analytics, and collaborate with team members. If you have ever used a social media aggregator such as Sprout Social or Hootsuite, it’s a similar experience. 

This is where a business’ journey should begin when creating Facebook and Instagram accounts, and their subsequent Facebook page(s). Having it all in one place makes it easy…right?

Well, not quite. Meta Business Suite is not available to everyone. It is slowly being rolled out. Visit business.facebook.com to check if Meta is available to you. The link may take you to Facebook Business Manager - as we mention above, this is the predecessor to Meta. If this happens, go to the menu bar and check if Meta Business Suite is available to you. 

Advertising on Facebook has Changed

Before you set up your paid ads, it’s important to understand that Facebook now has three tiers:

1. Meta Business Suite (or Facebook Business Manager)

2. Ads Manager 

3. The actual Facebook Page for the Business

The Business page represents an organization or brand, which is different from an individual’s profile page that provides updates about the person. Ads Manager in Meta Business Suite (or Facebook Business Manager) lets you create paid ads with a variety of targeting options to members or fans of the business pages, those who look like them, or entirely new audiences.

Boosting VS. Creating Ads

Myth: Advertising on Facebook is easy! All you have to do is add money to a post and people will come pouring in! 

Fact: Not quite. “Boosting” a post by adding money to it is NOT the same as setting up an ad. With a boosted post, you can do some limited targeting, and that only gets seen by people who already follow your page. Going through the steps to launch a full-fledged ad is worth your time and the money you spend. 

Through the Ads Manager platform, you can set objectives, bidding structure for your budget,  create an eye-catching ad using videos or a carousel of images, and choose your target demographics or create a custom targeted audience. If you want to find 35-year old females who like dogs and live in a certain zip code, you can select these interests, behaviors and geography in Facebook’s demographics to target that specific group. Just know, setting up a targeted ad takes time and practice, but once you get it down, you will be able to save demographic groups for future ads, and also clone any of your past campaigns as a shortcut. Check out this article by Demand Curve that highlights all the ad targeting options you have - beyond the boost! Keep in mind that options change often, so be nimble when you approach advertising and targeting. 

Through Ads Manager, you will also be able to show your clients reports with general insights on how consumers interacted with their ads - this data alone will make you look like a Pro! 

Did we mention that you can also run the same paid ad on your Instagram Page by connecting your business’ IG profile to Meta Business Suite and Ads Manager?

Setting up Business Pages/Adding Pages to Meta Business Suite

One of the best things about the Meta Business Suite is that your profile page no longer has to be the central point, nor landing page. You still need a business Facebook profile to create a Business Suite account, but once you set it up, just use your username and password to log in at (https://business.facebook.com/). Meta Business Suite is the gateway to your Ads Manager and Pages. If you need to add an existing Business Page to Meta Business Suite, just go to Settings in the menu bar on the left. Select Pages, and then enter the existing page’s ID number or name. Once the info for your page populates, click Add a Page in the dropdown menu on the Add button. You can also create a new page from that drop down. 

Within the same interphase, you can add team members by entering their Facebook profile name and then assign roles. Team members will receive an invitation in their email inbox connected to their Facebook page as well as within their Facebook notifications. 

Overall Meta Business Suite is your hub for managing all things related to your business or fan pages. Setting up a paid ad might take a little investment in time at first, but it will be well worth the effort. Still not sold on why you should use Facebook advertising? Check out this read. 

Contact us if you would like help setting up your paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram!