Can I run Facebook ads for free?
There is no way to run a Facebook ad campaign for free. To run an ad, you have to pay for it. BUT . . . you don't have to spend thousands (or even hundreds) of dollars per month to run ads that will help you fill your course or membership.
Now, I'm not saying you can run ads directly to your course or membership with cheap ads but you can warm people up and get them ready to buy your course or membership with low-cost ads.
So, what types of ads can you run?
There are 11 types of ad campaigns available in the Facebook ads manager. Today we’re going to focus on the best practices for the three ad types that will give you the best bang for your buck.
Conversion ads for the purchase of a course or membership or to get people to your webinar or challenge will be some of the most expensive. (You can also use conversion campaigns to promote a freebie that will grow your email list & fill a FB group but we’ll save that convo for another day since those tend to cost a bit more than the three I’m focusing on today.)
While there is definitely value in this type of campaign, If you don't have a big ad budget, don't start there.
Smaller ad budgets can start with engagement, video view or traffic campaigns, for as little as $1.00/day and see good results.
Yep, that's right! It doesn't cost a fortune to get started with ads.
The first type of campaign we’ll cover is an engagement campaign. So what kind of ad would you want to use for an engagement campaign? And what's the purpose?
When you choose the 'engagement' campaign objective Facebook will send your ad to the most engaged people on Facebook (the people who like, comment and share stuff). This is the perfect campaign to use to grow a page and create custom and lookalike audiences.
[QUICK NOTE: Custom audiences are created in ads manager and you can retarget these audiences. We have a variety of options - from people who have engaged with your page to video views to website traffic, and more! Lookalike audiences are just like they sound, they are made up of people who 'look like' your custom audiences and can be used in targeting for your ad campaigns which helps Facebook to find the exact right person for your ads and offers. They are like GOLD!]
A quote graphic, like the one below, is the most likely to get likes and reactions and that's exactly what you want because you can invite all those likes/reactions to like your page. If you've never done this, you're missing out! Just click on the reactions on the post and you'll see a list of all the people who have reacted and if they haven't liked your page or been invited previously, you'll click the bold Invite button. They'll get a notification from Facebook that says, "XYZ page has invited you to like their page."
If you choose an engagement campaign Facebook will send your ad only to the people who are most likely to engage with it which means that you can fill your page with followers who are the most engaged people on Facebook!! And you know what that means? You benefit from the snowball effect. The more engagement you get on your posts, the more likely they are to be shown in the news feed. And those engagers tend to SHARE posts too, which means you are no longer posting to crickets.
If you go this route, only use a quote graphic that speaks directly to your perfect person and would repel others. Do not use a funny meme or inspirational quote that would appeal to everyone and their mother (or brother). And make sure the text on your image can be easily read on mobile devices since that's where 90%+ will see your ad.
I grew a page from 300 to 25k in less than a year with this strategy, spending about $2/day for nine months. The minimum spend is $1/day and you can run it for as little or as long as you want.
But remember, followers don't equal dollars. However, once you've created an audience of engagers, you can send ads directly to these people for your lead magnet(s) and/or products/services. You've already started to build know, like and trust with these potential customers so getting them to opt-in to your email list or buy from you is going to be much easier than it would be to a cold audience.
The second type of low-cost ad is a Video View campaign. These are perfect for course and membership creators who are already comfortable on video.
These don't tend to get likes, reactions and shares like a quote graphic does but you do get LOTS of data back on this type of ad that can help you as you plan videos and content in the future. You also can create a variety of custom audiences from video ads.
You’ll get the best results with short video ads that are 3-5 minutes long. Then you're going to collect the people who have watched 25% of these videos into a custom audience. These people have told you by their viewing that they are interested in what you have to say and that they are your perfect person. This custom audience is also great for building a lookalike audience so you can reach your perfect person easier and cheaper.
Just like with the engagement ads, you are going to be building know, like and trust with the people who engage with your videos which will make them more likely to opt-in to your email list and buy from you in the future.
The third type of low-cost ad you can run is a Traffic campaign. This type of ad is perfect for the course or membership creator who has lots of great content on their website. If you want to run this type of ad you'll need to have the Facebook pixel installed on your website so Facebook can send your ads to the right people.
If you run traffic ads you'll want to optimize them for Landing Page Views, not link clicks or you'll end up with a huge number of link clicks but no one actually viewing your content. Facebook is very good at giving you what you ask for, and in my experience, link click traffic ads are seen by people who accidentally click ads because they rarely result in landing page views and that means your content won’t get seen, which of course, is NOT the goal.
Just like video view ads, these ads don't tend to get many likes, reactions or shares but they are perfect for collecting an audience of your perfect people who you can later retarget with lead magnet or purchase ads. Also, these people are getting to know, like and trust you through your written content. You can also create lookalike audiences from people who have visited your website.
To sum it up, no, you cannot run Facebook ads for free but Facebook ad campaigns can be a powerful tool even if you don't have much money to spend on ads.
Keep in mind, that the more you spend, the more data you get back from Facebook and that can help you make better decisions not just on your ads, but on your messaging, your products/services, and landing or sales pages.
