October Registered Charity No Company Registration No

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1 October 2017 Registered Charity No Company Registration No

2 This document is designed to give you a step by step guide to setting up Facebook Ads. Several free school groups have asked us for more detailed guidance on this more technical element of using Facebook and some groups have used ads successfully to supplement their demand gathering online. Like any promotional tool however, it will only work if it works for your audience. So it is worth considering all your options before you decide whether Facebook Ads are right for you. NSN has already produced a guide to gathering evidence of demand for your school and engaging with your community and you might find it useful to review the advice here before you make a decision about Facebook advertising. Facebook Adverts in context Advertising on Facebook can be a good way to reach a very specific target audience for a specific task (e.g. filling in a survey) and speeding up the creation of a network of supporters. It is also relatively low cost. However, it is not a replacement for the organic element of managing your Facebook page. On the contrary, advertising will make your presence on Facebook much more visible so it is worth making sure your page looks good and is being regularly updated. More importantly, if your campaign is successful you will see an increase in traffic and engagement so you need to make sure your page is being monitored so that questions/comments are responded to quickly and effectively. Remember, Facebook is not the only game in town there are many other online channels that you may want to consider in conjunction with or instead of Facebook Ads. The best option for you depends where your audience can be most effectively reached, but you might want to consider some of the following. These sites are much smaller than Facebook in terms of reach but if they are well used in your local area can be a great way to access your audience. Streetlife calls itself the local social network and offers a free social network for local communities. Local Mumsnet and Netmums websites give a forum for parents to share advice on all aspects of parenting including education. These sites do charge for adverts but it is free to post on their forums.

3 Your Square Mile encourages communities to connect and share ideas about community engagement projects. It is also worth bearing in mind that your target audience may already be connected and discussing schools on Facebook: Local community or neighbourhood organisations will often have their own Facebook groups (public or private). Connecting with them/ asking them to promote your cause can be a great way to increase the impact of your presence on these channels. Facebook basics (setting up your page) From your personal Facebook page, you can create a page for your free school page from the drop down arrow in the top right of your screen. There are six different types of pages but the most relevant type is the Company, Organisation or Institution option. It is up to you what sub-category you wish to go for as a number of these could apply to your group (for example, School, Non-profit Organisation or Community Organisation ). The Set-Up a page wizard will guide you from here through each step to creating your page. Once you have finished you can edit your details at a later date from the About tab on your page. Creating Ad campaigns From your group s page, you can create a range of Ad campaigns to help increase your profile or to build on your evidence of demand. Facebook advertising allows you to target people based on a range of geographical and demographical factors. There are a range of Ad types available to you so it is best to think about what you want to achieve before you start advertising. For example, if you want to build your network then a Promote your Page campaign is your best option, but if you want parents to visit your website to fill in a demand survey then the Send people to your website option is more appropriate. Increasing Likes and promoting your group Once users Like your page they will receive your posts on their timeline, allowing you to give them regular updates on the progress of your application and encourage them to attend events, register their interest or get more involved with your group. It is also a useful platform for answering questions and engaging with potential supporters.

4 Getting started From your Facebook page, click on Create Ads (from the drop down arrow in the top right hand corner) Choose the Promote your Page option. This Ad type is aimed at generating Likes. Targeting Ads United Kingdom is the default targeting area for all Ads, you will want to make sure this is removed and the area your school will be located is there instead Facebook targeting only covers the larger population centres so there is a chance your catchment area will not appear. If so just pick the largest city/town nearest your proposed school You can target a wider area by choosing the location +10miles The size of your audience is defined on the right hand side under the Audience Definition sidebar

5 Once you have defined the location, you can target further by age, gender, languages and interests The most useful targeting however is under More demographics. From here you can choose to target All parents in your location, or be more specific and target just parents with children ages 0-3, 4-12, or So if you are hoping to open a secondary school, targeting parents with children between the ages of 4 and 12. Budgeting You can decide to set a per day budget, meaning you will never spend more than the specified amount a day, or a lifetime budget that means once you have spent your total amount the Ad will stop running. Also under budgeting is the option to schedule your Ads to run for a certain time period. Before scheduling make sure someone will be able to monitor the Ad campaign every so often in case comments or questions are posted. It is best to use Facebook s default options for Optimize for and Pricing (located under the Advanced options section) as this generally will deliver more Likes for your money. The

6 Estimated Daily Reach sidebar on the right will give you an estimate for how many people will see your Ad. To pay for your Ads, you can add a credit or debit card. A record of payments and invoices can be found under Manage Ads and then Billing in the left sidebar. Creating your Ad The first step to creating your Ad is to choose your images. You can use up to six images or a video with your Ads and as this will dominate most of your Ad it is best to get the most engaging images possible Make sure you have permission to use the images you want to use in your Ads Facebook limits the amount of characters you can use as text in your Ad (90 characters for the body text) so think carefully about the message you would like to get across and how best to phrase it, calls to action and simple statistics (for example Sheffield needs X new primary places often works well)

7 One last thing to be aware of: if you are using an image with text overlaid, it will fall foul of Facebook s Advertising guidelines if the words take up more than 20% of the image. You can test your image to check it is acceptable on the Facebook Grid Tool Once you are happy with the text and images, you can review the Ad before placing an order Once the order is placed Facebook then reviews the Ad before approving it. Approval usually takes no more than 30 minutes to an hour You can check on how well the Ad is performing or edit it under Manage Ads Increasing your evidence of demand If your website has an online form for parents to register their interest, Facebook Ads can be used to increase traffic to your site and has the potential to increase your evidence of demand. You will want to choose a page on your website with all the basic information about your school bid, preferably with a Register your interest form embedded or linked to from this page.

8 Getting started From your Facebook page, click on Create Ads (from the drop down arrow in the top right hand corner). Choose the Send people to your website option and add the URL you want users to land on. Targeting The same rules apply here as in the above increasing Likes guidance. Targeting the parents with children of the right age range to attend your school is more important here if you want to gather demand to show your school will be oversubscribed. Budgeting The same rules apply here as in the above increasing Likes guidance. It is also best to stick with Facebook s default options, i.e. Optimize for Click to Website. Creating your Ad As in the Increasing Likes Ad types, you are limited by the number of characters you can use. However, with this type of campaign you can use a headline (max. 25 characters) along with the body text. You may want to use this space for the name of your group or a line like New school for Sheffield to get across your group s mission Again, calls to action are effective in the body text, e.g. We want a new primary school for the Sheffield area. Register here to show your support You can also add a Call-to-Action button to appear on your Ad. This is optional but using the Learn More button adds another clickable link to the Ad and helps your audience understand what action you want them to take Once you are happy with the text and images, you can review the Ad before placing an order. Once the order is placed Facebook then reviews the Ad before approving it. Approval usually takes no more than 30 minutes to an hour You can check on how well the Ad is performing or edit it under Manage Ads. Boosting posts and promoting your free school bid The advantage of boosting existing posts instead of creating Ad campaigns is that you are not limited by characters. You can publish a post that sets out the vision and ethos of your proposed

9 school in detail, include a link to your website and an engaging image, and then promote it to parents who might be interested in learning more or registering their interest. Getting started From your group s page, write your post as you would normally and then publish Then click on Create Ads followed by Boost your posts. On the right should appear a drop down box from which you can pick the post you would like to promote Targeting The same rules apply here as in the above Ad campaigns. Budgeting The same rules apply here as in the above Ad campaigns, however you may want to change how you want to optimise the post. If you want users to Like, Share or Comment then Post Engagement is best but if you want your post to be seen by as many as possible then Daily Unique Reach or Impressions is best. Finally, if you have a link to your website in the post you would like users to click, then choose to optimise for Clicks

10 Creating your Ad Since you have already written the post to be promoted you can just review the content here and then place your order Like the other Ads, you can check on how well the Ad is performing or edit it under Manage Ads