The Schools' Guide to Facebook Ads: Why, What and HOW

Are you using Facebook ads as part of your school’s social media marketing strategy? If not, it might be because you’re not sure if it will be beneficial to your school, or how to get started. In this guide, we’ll cover WHY Facebook ads are an invaluable addition to your marketing plan, WHICH TYPES of ads might help you get the most out of your ad budget, and HOW to get started. (Note: Throughout this blog we refer to ‘Facebook, Instagram and other Meta-platform ads interchangeably as simply, ‘Facebook ads’).

Why should I use Facebook ads?

There’s a general consensus that Facebook (or, Meta's platforms) gives the best ROAS (return on ad spend) of any social media ads platform. You can choose payment options such as per click or per 1000 impressions, which gives you flexibility and peace of mind knowing that you’re spending mindfully.

Facebook houses a huge amount of data on individuals, which allows you to target your marketing based on sophisticated blends of demographic, geographic and psychographic information. In Facebook terms, you begin building your audience profile according to age, gender and language, and can then delve in the further details of location, interests and behaviours to really hone in on your target audience. For example, if you’re a prep school for day pupils, you’ll be looking to reach the parents of young children in your local area, and Facebook ads facilitates that.

Additionally, Facebook ads really help you craft your ads to bolster specific marketing campaigns – the ad platform allows you to select from a list of pre-determined ‘ad objectives’, such as engagement, traffic, conversions, or video views, and helps you to design the ad according to what you’re looking to achieve.

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Types of Facebook ads

Several formats are available for Facebook ads, with some being geared more towards product-based brands. These don’t necessarily perform well for schools, so for school marketing, we recommend these four types:

• Single Photo – probably the most straightforward format, with an image and caption - but clickable. It’s worth remembering, though, that as tempting as it may be to use an existing post as an ad, it’s much more effective to use a new design that’s targeted to your campaign, and not expect normal posts to do ‘double duty’.

• Video – with video content’s ability to capture audience attention, video ads are a great option; however, they can take more time and effort to put together and, as mentioned above, don’t make the mistake of thinking that the cute World Book Day video from your feed will be suitable for an ad – even if it’s performed well as a post. Videos for ads should be short, sharp and GRAB attention form the very first frame.

• Stories – Facebook describes this whole-screen ad type as ‘immersive’ – need we say more?

• Carousel - share multiple images and/or photos, along with several key messages about your school and brand in one ad. Direct to the same URL, or different ones depending on this ad’s specific goal.

Love to Learn image with yellow pencil

How to set-up for Facebook ads

Step 1: Create your new Facebook Business Manager account

1. Go to https://business.facebook.com/overview

2. Click Create Account

3. Enter a name for your business, and other information as prompted to complete the set-up process

Note: Be sure to VERIFY the email address you enter at set-up. Check your inbox and spam folders for an email verification email from Facebook, and follow the instructions within.

Step 2: Create your ad account within Business Manager 

1. In your newly created Business Manager account, click the blue ‘Business Settings’ button in the top right

2. Under ‘Accounts’ on the left, click Ad Accounts

3. Click the blue ‘add’ button that appears

4. Choose ‘create new ad account’

5. Insert an ad account name and click ‘Create’

Step 3: Connect your Instagram account

1. Under ‘Accounts’, click Instagram Accounts

2. Click the blue ‘Add’ button

3. Follow instructions to connect your Instagram account

Step 4: Assign payment method to your business manager and ad account method

Note: Depending on the amount of ad spend you will be attributing to your Facebook ads, please ensure the card you enter has a minimum monthly spending limit of £1,500.

1. Click ‘Payment Methods’ on the left

2. Click the blue ‘add’ button and follow the instructions

(Now you need to link this payment method to your ad account. This seems unnecessary, but you can in fact have several ad accounts within one business manager profile, so this allows you to link different payment.) 

methods to each ad account

3. Go back to the blue ‘Business settings’ button

4. Under ‘Accounts’, click ‘Ad accounts’

5. On the right you’ll see a blue link to ‘view payment methods’ - click this

6. Then click ‘Add payment method’ which will appear in the middle of the screen

7. You can then select the option ‘Payment method from Business Manager’

Step 5: Add people to your account

1. Click the blue ‘Business Settings’ button in the top right

2. Under Users on the left, click People

3. Click the blue Add button

4. Enter the email address of the person you’d like to add

5. Assign them Admin level access/full control

6. Repeat with others you’d like to be able to access the account, with the level of access required/desired

We hope this inspires you to start leveraging Facebook ads as part of your school’s social media marketing strategy. And if you’re interested in more in-depth information and hands-on training to get the most out of your Facebook ads, why not check out our Facebook Ads for Schools Training?