Why The Education Sector Needs To Use Facebook Advertising?

Facebook advertising is a very low-cost and efficient way to get your education institute’s brand seen and heard online which leads to greater brand awareness and increased enrollment numbers. Facebook is the second leading online advertising platform in the world boasting an immersive 2.9 billion monthly active users. It has the capacity to allow you to grow your online presence and target key demographics in the region of your ideal prospective students, those who are most likely to read your adverts.

The majority of Facebook users visit the social network via a mobile device, so having your advertisements optimised for mobile devices is imperative.

Facebook advertising typically costs a lot less than traditional print media adverts and is one of the most effective ways to cultivate user engagement, promote your courses or feature content and also provide valuable information to your desired target audience.

Here are some tips on how to do it right:

1. Set up your account Go to Ads Manager, in Ads Manager click Create in the top left corner.

2. Choose a specific goal, such as increasing awareness, driving sales or Lead generation as your objective and name your campaign.

3. Choose your target audience, placements, budget, and schedule. Note: Lead ads cannot be targeted to people under the age of 18.

4. Choose your ad placements, this where your ad appears for your target audience eg you may choose to show your ad on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or the Audience Network. Facebook recommends using automatic placements

5. Select which types of ads you want to run, you can select carousel, single image, video, slideshow etc.

6. Add your headline, body copy, and a call to action that is engaging and relevant to your audience.

7. For lead ads in particular scroll down and click Contact Form. Here you can add a form title, add an intro, questions, your company’s privacy policy, and a thank you screen.

8. Click Finish in the top-right corner. Review your ad from Ads Manager and when you’re ready to publish, click Confirm.

9. Track conversions through Facebook Analytics or another third-party tool like Google Analytics.

10. Monitor performance over time using metrics like CPC (cost per click), CPA (cost per action), CTR (click-through rate), ROAS (return on ad spend), etc…

Building an effective social media marketing ad campaign is a major task in and of itself, but believe it or not, many of the foundations for a successful Facebook Ad targeting strategy are built before you even look at the platform’s options. You can design the optimal social media marketing campaign, complete with the perfect offer, sufficient budget, and creative content, only to be disappointed by the results. The problem is often due to not having a clearly defined target audience in mind amongst the plethora of targeting options as it requires practice, strategy, and precision to target your ideal prospects among the platform’s monthly active users.

To overcome this define and develop the appropriate descriptions of your target personas' qualities, background, motivations, and expectations beforehand so that it's simply a matter of matching your Facebook ads audience to the goals of what you had in mind. A good point to consider are factors which will aid in making your campaign laser-focused. Audiences such as your ideal student prospects' keen interests, hobbies and publications they might read, and even their digital habits like device usage and browsing behaviour.

Organic posting is on continuing a decline and doesn’t have the reach it used to for education institutions to result in admissions therefore it is increasingly essential that schools, colleges, universities or education businesses use Facebook and Instagram to promote their offerings, curriculums, and student achievements to ensure your education institutions visibility on the social network.

Conclusion

Facebook advertising complements your other digital marketing strategy so if you're an educator looking for new ways to reach your ideal prospective students, then this article will help you out. We've covered everything from what Facebook ads are, why they're useful and how to use them effectively. In conclusion, I'd just say that these types of ads can be extremely effective for any business, especially those in the educational sector. All it takes is some research into which type would best suit the needs of your school, college, university or education business.

Princeps Digital can create customised Facebook advertising campaigns that will increase your education institute's overall online visibility, better establish your brand identity, and generate meaningful interest from prospective students leading to increased admission numbers.