Step-by-Step Instructions to Create a Facebook Ad (With Pictures!)

There are two things you need to do BEFORE you begin creating your ad:

First, you will want to create the graphic to go along with your ad. It should have as few words as possible but still convey your message. For some reason, Facebook prioritizes image over words and has denied ads that contain over 50% of the area of an image having text. Canva is an excellent free tool that will create a properly sized Facebook post image for you. Facebook has a page that lists the technical specs for ads, but in general, you'll want to use an image that is 1080x 1080 pixels.

Second, you need to write the text that goes with your ad. Your image can only tell part of the story, so you will need to add any additional pertinent details for your ad as text. The headline is limited to 40 characters and your primary text should be less than 125 characters. More text is allowed, but it will be truncated when viewed in the Facebook news feed. We suggest writing your ad text in Notepad or some other simple text editor, and not Word, so that there is no extraneous HTML code.

To start creating your ad, log into Facebook and look in the left rail for your pages.

If you have more than one page you manage, find it in the list and click on the name.

There are three ways to start an ad. You can go to the ad center, click on the “create and ad” icon, or simple create a post and boost it. However, we’ve found from experience that choosing the “create a post” option does not return results as the other two starting points.

Edit your goal. Choose the goal you want to achieve, click the radio button, and then click save.

Adjust the description for your ad. This is where the text to accompany your ad gets placed. Shorter is better so that all of your text can be seen at once, but more than 125 characters are allowed if they are needed.

Choose the media you want to display. The header for your page is shown by default. Click the “select media” button to be shown a list of what is available.

If you created a new image for this ad, click on the “Upload” button and locate on your computer where the file is located. You can choose up to five images that can make up a carousel.

To remove the header image, select another image to add. An “X” will appear on the image so it can be deleted.

After selecting your media, scroll down the page to the “headline” field. You are limited to 25 characters, so make it short and sweet.

Make your button. Right below the headline is a place to edit the button associated with the ad. Click on the down-arrow to the right to see the choices and then fill in the fields that go along with that choice. For this example, there is a signup button that goes to the URL for registrations.

The most important part of the ad is the audience you are trying to reach. The next section allows you to target your ad to certain demographics. Facebook includes random interests that may or may not apply to your ad. To edit the audience, click on the pencil icon, remove any interests that don’t apply.

Next, adjust the audience to what you want it to be. For our sample audience, we chose ages 18 – 65, a location with 11 miles of the non-profit, and parents of certain ages of children which are served by this non-profit.

Then save your audience definition by clicking the “save audience” button.

Right below where you select the audience, you choose the duration of the ad. Use the “”+” and “ - “ buttons and use the calendar to choose the end date. Click on the pencil icon beside the amount to choose your DAILY budget for your ad. Remember, this is not for the TOTAL of what you want to spend. If you’ve run ads in the past, you may need to reset the spend amount by clicking on the ‘reset amount spend” button.

Next, choose the placements of where you want the ad to run. If you have Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram tied together, you can run the ad in all three locations. You will then be prompted to enter your payment information. Once all of your information is entered, the last step is to click “Promote Now” at the bottom of the screen.

Click the “Go to Ad Center” button to be taken to the ad center where you can monitor your ad. You’ll note that the status is now “In review”. Once the ad begins running, you will receive a notification from Facebook that the ad is live. It may take 15 minutes to a few hours to be approved.

While there may seem to be a lot of steps, the process is quick and simple. Once you have your content written, the creation of the ad itself is easy. Of course, if you have any issues, you can always reach out to us at social@wte.net for assistance.