In the first part of this series, we learned how to create basic variations of ads and explored some of the concepts behind creating an attractive, relevant ad for your birth business. In this article, we’ll delve into how to create the ad in Facebook’s system and target it specifically based on the kind of person you want to attract.

Setting Up Your First Ad

For illustrative purposes, I’ll be assuming you’re advertising your own Facebook Page while walking through this – though most of the tips here work just as well for your external site. I highly recommend investing your resources in building a Page, though – it’s an unobtrusive way to get information out to people who may be passively interested in your services, and the more people are aware of you, the more business you’ll get!

If you have a Facebook account, you can go to the “Ads” section on the left hand side of your home screen. It may say “Ads & Pages” for some people – don’t ask me why.

Once there, go ahead and click on Create an Ad. You may need to set up your billing information prior to creating your ad – don’t worry about this, as you don’t get charged until your ads are approved and running, and you set the budget of your daily spend.

Make sure if you see the above options pointed out by the red arrows above anywhere while starting this process to set your daily budget (how much money you’re willing to spend daily) and keep your new campaign paused. Any ads you create under the paused campaign will never run until you unpause the campaign itself, so it allows you to test without accidentally putting unfinished ads out there.

Eventually, you’ll get to the meat and potatoes of the ad building, which looks like:

This is where you’ll put your main ad copy and pictures you’ve selected prior.

There’s some things to take note of here as indicated by the red arrows – specifically, the Destination – make sure it’s your Page or your website.

If it’s a Page, then you have another option: the Destination Tab. You can have a user land on your Wall tab, your Info tab or any other custom “tab” you’ve added to your Facebook Page. As you can see, my Facebook Page is currently set up with a custom welcome screen.

It’s a little more attractive than a simple Info tab and provides some instant information to someone who just clicked an ad and wants to know more. Some people don’t prefer them for a variety of reasons, but I find it adds a more personal touch for any new visitors that wander by, which I feel is an important factor when dealing with the very personal, relationship-based birth industry. Setting up custom tabs is a little tricky and technical, but it’s something I’ll be covering in a future article.

If you’re not the tech savvy type, don’t worry about it – if you have a lot of activity on your Page that could entice them to join, use your Wall as the landing page, or if you want them to contact you, you can point them to the Info tab – make sure it’s filled out with a lot of details, as it’s the first thing they’ll see!

Once you make sure everything fits and looks right, we can get past the meat and potatoes and move on to the delicious winterberry froyo of ads: TARGETING!

This is where you’ll find and isolate your audience. This is where you’ll attract new fans and gain traction for your business. This is where the magic happens!

So, the basic demographic:

• I currently target women only within a 25 mile radius of the businesses’ closest city.
• My ages range from 18-64.
• I generally split the ages up by 3 years to start, so 18-21, 22-25, etc. If you DO go with age groups, make sure to click the “Require Exact Age Match” checkbox, or Facebook will go out of your range automatically.

I have not attempted to target dads as my current budget doesn’t allow for it, but they DO have a presence that can be tapped to passively attract clients, so don’t rule them out!

Now, the real strength of the Facebook Ad system: the Likes & Interests section! Which brings us to…

Being Relevant

You’ll need to use the Interests section to target people you want to know about your services.

As of very recently, you have two options for Interest: Broad Category Targeting or Precise Interest Targeting. I highly recommend Precise Interest as it allows for far more precision, but if you’re not looking for a lot of maintenance and can live with the costs, Broad Targeting may work for you – I’d suggest the Family > Parents or Newlyweds category. For now, though, we’ll focus on Precise Interests.

You’ll utilize Precist Interests via a keyword like system that shows major likes/interests. This is where a clever mind can shine! So let’s take a look at the Targeting options…

There’s lots of useful tips in the picture above, so take some time to look them over and explore before you start building, you might just have a great idea!

When you start typing in a word in the Interests section, you’ll notice relevant words/phrases popping underneath the text you’re typing – this is Facebook’s attempt to guess your answer and show you a group based on the word you’re typing. You’ll need to click on that word in order to use it, or type the full phrase out – you can’t target anything that Facebook doesn’t offer you.

The key to effective advertising with Facebook is splitting your ads out into several main groups once you’ve got your core audience selected. Here’s some examples:

Core Lifestyle: Keywords contained in this group pertain exclusively to people who are actively involved in the birth industry or are aware of terms like “doula” and “midwife”. These are people who would not need to know what a doula is as they’re either a fan of it or mention it on their profile, so an ad doesn’t need to focus on explaining what a doula does – you can likely focus more heavily on your specialized services in the ad copy here, such as massage, aromatherapy, whatever unique skills or services you bring to your business. Remember, you can target whatever Pages people like as well, so organizations like DONA, CBI, CAPPA, and now that I think about it, Inspired Birth Professionals, are all useful terms in this group.
Example keywords: doula, midwife, dona

Core Related Lifestyle: What kind of mothers are you looking for? What kind of mom do you think would have passing knowledge or be interested in information about birth professionals such as doulas and midwives? People who have a holistic worldview tend to be more familiar with these terms, and in my case, these are the kind of people we want to target anyway. For other birth professionals, this may mean doing research into the type of client you wish to get – I’ve seen some birth professionals explicitly advertise as Christian, so this would be a good ad group to focus on specific religious groups if that’s the type of client you’re seeking. Ideally, this group should focus on hobbies/activities and groups/charities that your ideal client would support.

This is actually one of my strongest performing groups, as it casts a net over people who may not have considered a doula or may not have heard of the specific benefits of a doula – if they come across my ad and I supply them with quality content and information as a good first introduction to the concept, then they’re more likely to use the services I promote.
Example keywords: organic gardening, holistic living

Local Businesses: Think about it. You see expectant mothers all the time. They’re on the go. They shop! They eat! Think about the mindset of a mom who would want a doula – in all likelihood, she’s aware of your own local color and homegrown businesses and the best local dine ins. Ideally, you should focus on local, non-chain businesses with this group – look around, and see if they have a Facebook Page. See if you can target that Page. Tailor your ads to appeal to someone who loves a local business enough to list it as a ‘Like’ on their Facebook – they’re likely very passionate and loyal toward it. Talk to that part of them, and you can gain a fan. I usually break this out into restaurants and shops to see what performs better.
Example keyword types: yoga studios, craft shops, diners, local magazines

Kid Businesses: This one’s simple – someone who has kids, or may be expecting kids, may be interested in major children’s brands, be it stores or a brand like Gerber’s. I reserve most of this group for national chains such as Babys’R'Us, Motherhood, etc, but if you live in a large enough area that supports independent children’s stores then definitely break them out into a local group!
Example keywords: Gerber’s, Babys’R'Us, Motherhood

Childcare: Find the names of local childcare services in your area, and see if they have a Facebook Page that you can target. Moms are very good at recommending things to expectant friends, so even if you engage someone who’s not pregnant, you could via an eventual word of mouth referral!

TV: This is just another common sense target – expectant mothers will most likely be watching/following certain TV programs, or maybe you just want to find someone who watches the same stuff you do. Either way, targeting through TV is a good way to reach a lot of people – TV shows are among the biggest category of Pages liked on Facebook.
Example keywords: PBS, Nick Jr

Odd Phrases: This is your experimental ground. Remember, Facebook allows you to target what people list on their profile as things that they do, are a professional of, or are simply interested in. For example, I recently tested phrases like “i love being parent” and “i love stay at home mom” with specifically targeted ad copy to address/recognize that phrase. Be creative, try stuff and see what works, every local area is different so there’s limitless potential!

These are just some very broad examples, you can even continue to pare those down into further categories – at its core, Facebook allows you to isolate a person’s interests. These aren’t the only groups you can limit yourself to – there’s lots of other behaviors/interests expectant mothers indulge in, you just have to think it up and test it. Find out what kind of moms you attract – or if you’re a mother yourself, think about everything you read, saw, listened to or were interested in when you were pregnant. Use that and try to find other people with the same interests and get your message out there!

Let’s talk about what all this hard work is gonna cost you…

Before you publish your first ad, Facebook will suggest some methods of pricing for you shown in the image above – the two billing methods are: CPC and CPM. CPC stands for Cost Per Click, and charges you up to the maximum amount specified for each click. CPM is Cost Per Thousand, meaning you pay up to a certain price per thousand views or Impressions your ad receives. I often find that I start off with CPC to test concepts and identify what ad groups are getting traffic and clicks, then transition to CPM as my ads become more relevant and more people click on them. It’s a good way to get more eyes on your ad for less money.

You’ll see a suggested ad price – you can go with what Facebook suggests or play around with it a little – sometimes you’ll get lucky and your ads will run even when you go way below the suggested price, I’d only suggest doing that if you’re willing to watch it for a while and see how long it takes for that to happen, if at all. As you get more familiar with the Facebook Ad system, it’s a fun thing to play around with these variables to help cut down your costs, just remember you need to monitor it closely every day!

So you’ve got all your ads set up and they’re running and now you’re seeing stats pour in every day! What next? What does all this weird jargon mean? CTR? Reach?! Why are these pie charts flying at me at the speed of sound?! Why is there no actual pie?! Find out in the next article.

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Phil is an SEO, social media and marketing strategist by day and the Hamster-In-The-Wheel that keeps everything technical running for Doula Orlando. He blogs about life with a toddler, instinctive parenting and the occasional tips for small businesses.

These posts may also inspire you:

1. Facebook Ad Crash Course for Birth Pros (Part 3)
2. Facebook Ad Crash Course for Birth Pros (Part 1)
3. Joining Professional Groups For Business Growth
4. Ask Inspired Birth Pro: Is it Worth Doing Email Newsletters? It Depends.
5. 7 (plus 2) Questions answered by Inspired Birth Pros (not me)