When you start creating ads to run on Facebook, there is this harmless-looking setting below that has a big impact on the effectiveness of your campaign.

You will subsequently choose your audience based on e.g. demographics, interests, location etc. For many of us, we will likely not have the budget to reach everyone in that audience. So, Facebook will help us choose more suitable people in our audience who are more likely to give us results we want.

For example, choose “Video views” if you want Facebook to show your ads to people who have in the past tended to watch videos, so you don’t waste your budget on those who don’t. By selecting “App installs”, Facebook will try not to waste your budget on those who have never downloaded apps after clicking ads.

Brand awareness/Reach: Show your ads to as many people as possible. This is useful for businesses with products/services which do not need much introduction e.g. restaurant, clothes etc. Or for introducing new things people have never seen before and you want lots more people to know.  Or simply for branding purposes.

Traffic: Show your ads to people in your target audience who are more likely to click on ads. This is needed when people generally need more information before they buy or enquire. So, you send them to your website to understand more.

Many advertisers will think “Brand awareness/Reach” objective will be best. We can think of it like a huge billboard in the subway (assuming we can afford it). Yes, many people see it, but do they do anything thereafter? It will be useful for a restaurant nearby, where people can just walk over. Or for branding purposes, where sales generally come later.

If however, most of your business deals are closed after following up on enquiries, you will want to reach those people who will click and go over to your website so they can send you the enquiry. You get more people who go to your website, hence more likely to enquire, though you reach less people.

For most small businesses, the biggest reason to advertise online is to get more enquiries or purchases for their business now. In these cases, “Traffic” will be the recommended option.

“Lead generation” objective enables people to easily send their contact details to you, however the leads obtained are generally less warm and will cause you to spend more time qualifying them. This is useful, though, for building an email list where you use automated emails to do follow ups.

With “Messages” objective, Facebook reach out to people more likely to chat with your business. Do get ready manpower or software to provide faster responses, as that will be the expectation of users for instant messaging. Also keep in mind, many will not have seen any or much content on your site before asking questions.

“Conversions” objective is powerful in that Facebook will try to show your ads to people who are more likely to send you enquiries or purchase. However, Facebook recommends you should be receiving around 50 enquiries/checkouts/purchases weekly for this to work well. Use the “Traffic” objective if this cannot be met.

“Catalog sales” is to show products from your e-commerce store’s catalogue to generate sales. “Store visits” promote your brick-and-mortar business locations to people who are nearby.

For more detailed coverage of all the important settings in Facebook ads, consider joining our Facebook Ads course!