How to Create a Facebook Ad for More Likes

Sometimes we all just need a little more traffic to our pages! If you are putting up consistently great content, but are ready to fast-forward growing an audience, a simple Likes Campaign on Facebook may do the trick.

Note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you buy from my link I might make a small commission. This does not affect the price you pay. See the full affiliate disclosure here.

What is a Likes Campaign?

It’s an ad that you set up through Facebook that encourages people to like and follow your page. Generally the ad will be served to people on the right-hand sidebar of their Newsfeeds. You may have noticed Likes Campaigns on your sidebar too!

You can customize the ad with your photos and text, and even choose detailed demographics of the people you would like the ad to be served to. This way you can put it right in front of your ideal customer’s eyes! (If you haven’t figured out your ideal customer yet, you can head here.)

Here’s a simply “How-to” on setting up your Likes Campaign.

(Note: There are a few different ways to go about this. So, if you are in Ads Manager and are doing this differently, that’s fine! This is just one simple way.)

1. Go to your business Facebook Page.

Simply log into Facebook personally, and then use the little drop down menu at the top to switch over to your business page.

2. Click on “Get More Page Likes”

Right under the box where you create posts, you will see some boxes with ad options. One of them says “Get More Page Likes.”

Click on that, and a pop-up box appears.

3. Edit the Ad Creative.

The Creative means the way the ad looks. At the top of the left-hand side of the box, there will be a section that says “AD CREATIVE.” Click on “Edit.”

You can now change the photo and text in your ad. Notice that, on the right-hand side, you are getting a preview of the ad the whole time. This way you can actually see what it will look like and tweak it.

4. Select your photo.

Click on the drop down menu and select whether you would like a Single Image, a Video, or a Slideshow.

If you are selecting a photo, notice that the photo will be a very widely cropped image, so select something that will look good that way. (You will be able to tweak the photo cropping after you load, so it does not need to be perfectly sized.)

If you select a video, it should also look good with a wide crop. It should be about 10-15 seconds in length.

If you upload several photos for a slideshow, you simply upload the photos and Facebook will make it into a little slideshow that fades through the photos.

After you’ve picked an option, you select to either use a photo that is currently loaded into your Facebook page (Browse Library) or else upload a new one.

Once the image is loaded, in the box you will see a little crop symbol in the lower right-hand corner. If you need to adjust the crop of your image, click there.

5. Write your text.

Write a succinct sentence or two about your page. Try to grab people’s attention and compel them to WANT to see your content!

You will be able to see a preview of the text on the side as you go.

6. Select the Audience who will see this ad.

If you have already created an audience that would work for this ad campaign, you will find it in the list of audiences right there. If you do not yet have one set up, now’s the time!

One nice thing about creating an ad this way is that Facebook has already selected to “Exclude people who already like your page.” This is obvious, but you don’t want to be paying to serve this to people who already follow you!

At the bottom of your Audiences, click on “Create New Audience”.

Name your audience. It could be “Likes Campaign,” or “Attract new followers,” or whatever you’d like! This is only seen by you, so name it in a way that you’ll remember what it is.
Now pick the demographics you would like to use. Think through your ideal customer, and tailor the ad to them.
Pick a gender (if you’d like) and an age range of people who may be interested in your page.
You can pick a location if you’d like. If you are a brick and mortar business, you may want to gain followers right around your store. You can enter your store’s address and select how many miles around you’d like the ad served to.

**Tip: If you have several locations, you can add them one at a time right under each other, and the ad will be served to all of the little “pockets” of people!

Select some interests that your audience may have. People will not have to match ALL of the interests, just one. So pick lots of things that your crowd would be interested in.
Save your Audience!

After you’ve made and saved your audience, it shows up as an option for your ad targeting. Make sure it’s selected.

7. Set your Budget and Duration.

Decide if you want to run the ad continuously, or select when the ad will end.

Select the daily amount you’d like to spend. It will give you an estimate for how many Likes you may get for each amount of money. (Keep in mind that you can type in ANY amount, even though they just show you a drop down menu of dollar options.

8. Make sure your payment option is correct.

Simply make sure it is set to use the right card. If you haven’t set one up yet, you can click and do so now. If you need to change your payment, that’s also an option right there.

9. Click “Promote”

In the very bottom right-hand corner, click on Promote, and you are done! Facebook will take a little bit to review and approve your ad. As soon as it’s approved, it will start running!

How to Keep Tabs on your Ad

To check on the results that are directly from this ad, you can go to your Facebook page. On the left-hand column, you will see “Manage Promotions.”

You will see all of the current results from any ad you are running here. You can see how many people this ad was served to, how many Likes it generated, and also how much you paid per like.

Your goal is to pay as little as you can for each Like.

Bonus Tip

Here’s my favorite way to test out my ads. I like to create 2-3 Likes Campaigns at once. Change them up slightly – maybe use the same text, but different photos. Or the same creative and different audiences. Etc.

Then, check on your results and see which one is performing better! Give it several days, and at that point you can cancel the one that’s not performing well. Also, you know even more about what your audience enjoys!

I would love to hear what kind of results you have gotten from your Campaigns!