Free Ads on Facebook 101 | All You Need to Know

A shoestring or having no budget might seem like a huge problem for marketers. Trying to run ads on Facebook, managing, and analysis makes it rightfully so. Facebook advertisements can be expensive, especially for startups. Depending on your usage, these ads can cost anywhere up to $500 monthly.

However, the engagement on Facebook ads is no joke. It is the third-most visited platform across the globe, with around 3 million businesses advertising. Hence, Facebook is your golden opportunity to reach a wider audience and get desired conversions.

The real challenge is to understand how to advertise on FaceBook while spending minimum. How does that work? Let’s find out in this article.

Part 1: Can I Run a Facebook Ads Campaign for Free?

Running a free Ad on Facebook actually means getting a certain ratio of ROAS. Let’s first discuss the pros and cons of spending on Ads on Facebook and then explain what free ad campaign means?

Return On Ad Spend and How It Makes Facebook Ads Free

Simply put, ROAS, or return on ad spend, is the revenue earned for every dollar you spend on the ads. It determines the effectiveness of your Facebook ad campaign. So, the higher the ROAS, the more effective your ad campaign is.

Let’s say you spent $100 on Facebook ads. But, you managed to pull a revenue of $400 with those ads. Hence, the ratio of ROAS is 4:1, meaning you made a profit of $4 on every $1.

The simple formula to calculate the Return on Ad Spent is; ROAS = Revenue from Ads/Cost per Ad.

But, how does it make Facebook advertising free? The key is to turn your existing ROAS into a profitable ROAS. That means you will have to get at least a ratio of 2:1. So, your ad spending will not outweigh your profit margin.

Many new businesses with no ad experience might get stuck at the break-even point or 1:1 ROAS. This ratio indicates that you have earned $1 on every 1 $ spent. However, it also means that you didn’t make any profit.

Here are some tips to convert your current ROAS into profitable ROAS:

• Price your product appropriately so that it has a margin to generate a higher ROAS.
• Target specific demographics with your ads to ensure a precise approach.
• Make engaging and interactive ads that resonate with people.
• Add CTAs (Call to Action) for a higher conversion to gain profitable ROAS.

Part 2: How to Advertise on Facebook for Free?

Here’s a step-by-step guide to running free ads on Facebook.

1. Make Your Facebook Business Page

Creating your Facebook business page should be your priority. It represents your business on the social media platform. However, making a page isn’t enough. Here’s everything you need to do:

• Optimize the page name, so it is easier to search.
• Fill in the required information, like description and contact information.
• Set up a profile and cover photo
• Add links to your website or other social media platforms

Facebook shows each stage toward the completion of your business page. The more information you provide, the better the user experience.

2. Make the Most of Free Meta Credits

Source: IMPROMOCODER

After creating your Facebook page, you will see some Meta credits on your profile. It is an excellent start for Facebook's free advertising for small businesses. You can use these credits to post free ads on your Facebook page.

The best part? It is not a one-and-done thing. Meta offers these free credits from time to time. How to make out most of them? First, install Meta Pixel (formerly Facebook Pixel). It provides insights about the effectiveness of your ads.

Additionally, you can use the Conversion API with the Meta Pixel. It gives you even more reliable analytics and results, for practically no costs. 

3. Invite Your Friends & Family to Like the Page

A page with more likes is considered more reputable for visitors. So, invite all the folks in your personal profile’s friend list to like your Facebook business page. Also, share your page link on your website and other social media platforms. The traffic from different sources will help boost your Facebook credibility.

4. Set Up Your Facebook Shop

Don’t know about Facebook shop? It is a feature that lets you create a storefront on Facebook. That means you can set up your entire product catalog on the social media platform. Additionally, you can optimize product names, descriptions, and photos for maximum reach.

A Facebook shop also allows setting up CTAs with your products. It can bring more traffic to your website and increase conversions.

5. Post Consistently On Your Facebook Page

Many people will tell you different methods to grow your Facebook page. While some tricks do work, the best practice is consistency. If you post consistently on your page, it will reach a wider audience.

The posts don’t necessarily have to be about your products. You can share helpful content relevant to your niche or products to help the audience. While at it, experiment with different posts and see Facebook analytics for results. It will help you determine which posts are working best for your followers.

However, make sure to follow a schedule for posting on Facebook. Make this schedule depending on your audience. For instance, if your followers are mostly students, avoid posting during school hours. Post at the same time every day to keep your audience hooked.

Lastly, create high-quality posts to create room for engagement among your followers. Focus more on video content as Facebook is actively pushing it. Don’t know how to create or edit videos? Use an AI tool like Virbo to create engaging scripts, voiceovers, and language translations.

6. Create Your Community

Facebook groups are an excellent place to kickstart your community. Many successful companies, like HubSpot, use Facebook groups to connect with their audiences.

Creating a Facebook group is simple. Choose a name, cover photo, and description. Then, invite all your followers to the group. Ask your customers to post reviews, feedback, and other content about your brand on the group. The activity will lead to your group showing on people’s recommendations, giving you more exposure. 

7. Join Relevant Facebook Groups

Do you see more Facebook groups relevant to your products or niche? You can join them and engage with people there. Post about your brand, promote your products, and invite people to like and share your Facebook business page. Offer incentives, like discounts, to attract more people to your brand.

8. Use Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace has over 1.1 billion users in 70+ countries. The best part? Most sellers on Facebook Marketplace don’t know how to optimize their listings.

You can integrate keywords in your listing's name and description. So, research high and low-volume keywords in your niche that work on Facebook. Secondly, upload multiple high-quality photos of your products to win customer trust.

Lastly, share your Marketplace listing on your Facebook page. It will help you get increased sales without your followers having to leave Facebook.

9. Engage with Your Followers

The Facebook algorithm promotes a group or page with higher engagement. How to engage with your followers? You can encourage them to post reviews and feedback about your products.

Like, share, and comment on the posts shared by your followers and customers. Reach out to them via Messenger and start a conversation. All these steps lead to a higher engagement rate on your page, providing your brand with more exposure.

10. Go Live!

The Live feature on Facebook skyrocketed post-2020 and increased by 50% in one year. Since then, live streams are still going strong on Facebook. The platform also promotes these live broadcasts.

As a brand, you can use these live streams to promote your products. It provides an opportunity to engage with your audiences in different activities, like Q&A sessions. Additionally, you can collaborate with micro-influencers on your live streams.

Don’t worry about paying a fortune to these micro-influencers. Many smaller ones can agree to promote your product if you send them a free package.

Part 3: Common Mistakes Made by Advertisers on Facebook

Let’s take a detailed look at some common advertising mistakes on Facebook and how to avoid them:

1. Boring Ads

There’s no point expecting a low-effort and boring ad to grab the audience's attention. Regardless of how much you spend on it, people are more likely to skip it.

Always spend more time creating engaging ads that resonate with people. Since the modern shift is towards video content, focus on that. Use robust AI tools like Virbo to make high-quality video ads that hook viewers from the get-go.

2. The Ad Fatigue

Running the same ad repeatedly causes fatigue. Especially, seeing such ads across platforms impacts the user experience and makes them bored, drawing negative associations to your brand.

Instead, create newer ones with significant adjustments. Take inspiration from successful brands and integrate them into your ads. The key is to not facilitate user experience, while seamlessly advertising your brand.

3. Targeting a Broad Audience

It may feel like a good idea to target a large audience, but it isn’t. Finding your specific audience helps your ad perform better. It only targets demographics where your product would excel. So, your ad will have a higher ROAS and conversion rate.

4. Wrong Campaign Goals

Before making your ads live, Facebook asks you to set campaign objectives. That includes Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion. Don’t just select random options that look more lucrative.

Instead, carefully select the objectives you wish to achieve with an ad campaign. Remember that different ads can have different goals. Some might just aim to increase your brand awareness, while others might be specific to a product. So, think carefully and decide on the campaign’s objectives. 

Part 4: How to Make Interactive Facebook Ads on a Tight Budget?

Making interactive ads for Facebook can be challenging without designing or videography skills. You would have to outsource this task. However, that can cost a fortune, especially for video ads.

One effective solution is to use AI video generation. A quality AI marketing tool like Virbo can handle everything from video script to voiceover. Its montage maker creates interactive visuals using your products’ URLs. Not only this, but you can also apply exciting music, sound effects, AI avatars, and engaging voiceovers to get the most out of your ads.

Plus, it has a large collection of templates that can be modified accordingly. Let’s turn one of its templates into an interactive ad for your audience.

But before you begin, install it on your device and log into your ID.

1. Select Templates from the left menu bar and pick Advertisement from the categories. Now, choose any template from the available options. For this guide, let’s go with Beauty Merchandise Promotion. Select it and click Create Video to proceed.

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2. Now, you have all the customization options at your disposal. Select the element you want to customize. For instance, let’s select the avatar. The right toolbar contains all the customization tools. Click Change to open the menu and pick another avatar.

3. Let’s change other video elements. Double-click any text content to edit it. You can customize the font style, outline, transparency, and animation from the right toolbar.

4. Is your ad ready? See how it looks by clicking the Preview button. Next, click the Export button at the top-right corner. You can save this ad on your device once your export is prepared.

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You can also make Facebook ads from scratch using Virbo. However, a beginner would find it difficult. Hence, using templates for ad creation or inspiration is an excellent way to start your journey.

Part 5: Budget-Friendly Facebook Advertising: Tips and Tricks

Posting free ads on Facebook using the tricks we mentioned can help you. But what if you want to start your advertising on a tight budget? Here are some must-know tips and tricks to follow:

1. Focus on ROAS

The return on ad spend can make your ads virtually free on Facebook. Your focus should be to turn your existing ROAS into profile ROAS.

Make sure your ads reach the right audience with interest in your product. Secondly, price your product appropriately, leaving a good profit margin. Aim for at least a 2:1 ROAS with higher conversion to earn more than your ad spending.

2. Set Clear Objectives

The target of an advertisement should be clear. Facebook ad campaign asks you to set objectives before launching your ads. Optimizing your campaign correctly can yield significantly better results.

For instance, some ads may specifically target higher sale conversions. Alternatively, many campaigns only aim to bring in more website traffic from Facebook.

3. Use Facebook Campaign Budget Optimization

Facebook offers a useful tool, Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO). It lets you select a budget for the entire ad campaign. The best part? It automatically distributes your budget between your different ad sets. You can set your budget for daily ads or the entire campaign lifetime.

4. Specify Your Audience

Facebook Ads Manager lets you narrow your target audience. You can select the demographics, behavior, hobbies, and interests to narrow your audience. Even better, Facebook allows uploading your custom list of people. These can be your followers, previous customers, or folks who interact with your page.

Final Words

Yes, you can technically run free ads on Facebook. The social media platform offers many options and tools that you can utilize to maximize the outcome of your ads. As a new business, having a tight budget can feel like a constraint.

Luckily, you can overcome this problem by posting consistently on your page, making interactive ads with Virbo, joining local groups, making your community, and engaging with your target audience.

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