10 steps to easy Facebook adverts that attract international students

If you’re here, you’ve already taken the first steps to create a social media presence and share some organic content. But now you’re ready to invest some money to reach new prospects and generate leads for your business actively.

Facebook is a great platform to help you get started. It has the largest audience of all the social media platforms and is particularly popular with international students in South and South East Asia.

Here, we’ll break down in simple steps what you need to do to create an effective Facebook advert (ad) – and avoid wasting your investment.

1. Create a Facebook Business Manager account

Note: you can skip this step if you have created a Facebook Business Manager account already.

Before getting to the nitty-gritty parts of creating an ad, you’ll need to go to https://business.facebook.com/ and create a Business Manager account.

You’ll need to fill in a few basic details about your business and verify your email address to access your newly-created business account fully.

Once that’s all done, you just need to add your Facebook business page…

…And your payment method. 

Now let’s get started!

2. Facebook Ad structure

When running Facebook ads, the main tool you’ll use is the Ads Manager. This is where you will create, manage, and measure your ads.

Let’s navigate to your Ads Manager. Facebook makes it quite easy for advertisers to find all the tools they offer; all you have to do is click the icon on the left navigation panel.

The Facebook Ads Manager is broken down into 3 segments:

Now that we know how to navigate the Ads Manager let’s start creating our first ad.

3. Select the type of Facebook ad

Facebook offers various styles of advertising. The type you select depends on your goals.

However, when it comes to collecting details from potential students, a Lead Generation Ad is the simplest way to get started. It’s easy for you to set up, and with Facebook’s autofill feature, students won’t feel hassled by filling in basic details.

4. Define how much money you want to spend

The more money you spend, the more Facebook pushes your ads in front of your target audience to help you generate leads. But you can start with as little as US$1 per day for a basic awareness ad. 

You can set up the ad budget either in the Campaign section or the Ad Set section of the Ads Manager. Facebook recommends you use Campaign Budget Optimization.

Facebook gives you complete control over your budget. You can limit your budget based on the following:

•  The total amount you want to spend for your campaign by setting a Lifetime Budget and End date for the ad.

Since you are looking to generate leads and this is the first ad you will be running, we propose you use Facebook’s daily minimum for a Lead Generation Ad of US$11.

For example, let’s say recruiter ABC has a budget of US$110 for an ad; the recruiter can either set up the ad for a Daily Budget:

OR, he/she can set it up as a Lifetime Budget:

Note that Facebook will never spend more than the budget given.

5. Define who should see your ad

Facebook gives you a lot of control over who you can target to see your ad. 

You can define a new audience from scratch by selecting these variables from Facebook’s audience creator:

◦ Demographics: their Field of Study, Job title, or Industry

◦ Interests: other Facebook pages they like/dislike, for example “likes Times Higher Education”, or “likes travel”

◦ Behavior: someone who has friends or family that live abroad

You can also create a lookalike audience based on your existing customers. The feature allows you to upload a spreadsheet of your existing customers, which Facebook will analyze and automatically create a new audience that matches the characteristics of your customers.

Whatever method you choose, the more specific your audience is, the more effective your ads have the potential to be.

The biggest mistake beginners make is selecting an audience that is too broad. This results in cost wasted on people who are not interested in what is being offered.

> Learn more about Facebook Audiences

6. The caption: define what makes your business unique

Your advert is a sales pitch to prospective students about why they should pay attention to your ad and your services. 

Firstly, you need to define what makes your services unique and better than your competitor. Start by making a list of what you do better than your competitors. For example:

Next, be succinct and simple with your words. Students will scroll through many posts trying to get their attention, so you need to deliver your sales pitch quickly.

PRO TIP: avoid being too formal – write as a student would speak.

Lastly, you also need to use words that are relevant to their needs. Include keywords in the caption that will catch a student’s attention and help them recognize this ad is relevant to them, such as studying overseas, name-specific institutions, or intakes.

> Read examples of copywriting best practice

7. The image/video: this can make or break your ad 

You can use an image or a short video as the main artwork for your ad. 

No matter how much money you spend or how narrowly you target your audience, bland or generic artwork can ruin it all. The best way to find the right artwork is through experimentation. 

Run multiple ads to the same audience but each with different artwork, and see which was most effective in generating quality leads. Then invest more in the most effective artwork.

Some artwork ideas to get you started:

PRO TIP: Social media is a visual-oriented medium. Use color, people, and illustrations to grab the student’s attention. Avoid heavy use of text – students will tend to scroll past this. But a single statistic or number can work well when paired with a great image.

> Get more helpful info on best practices for ad creative

8. The CTA: what you want the student to do next

When it comes to the call-to-action (CTA) for lead generation ads, Facebook has a few options that you can choose from: 

There are 3 main things you need to think about when picking one of these.

Firstly, what are you promoting? For this example, let’s say you promote free counseling for bachelor's degrees in Australia.

Secondly, what does your ad copy say? We’d imagine your caption and image/video copy should talk about the expert counseling that your agency provides.

And thirdly, what is the action you want them to take? In this case, you want them to request your services.

In this example, only 3 of the options available to you will work. You can either use:

9. Creating an Instant Form

After a student clicks on the CTA, they will be redirected to Facebook’s built-in form. Here you can collect the student’s information that is most relevant to your business.

A Facebook Instant Form is composed of six elements:

PRO TIP: It is very crucial to follow up with your new leads at the earliest. Our Facebook lead integration automatically syncs leads to your Adventus.io workspace, so your team can interact with them in a timely and personalized manner.

The details you can collect from a Facebook Instant Form are endless. 

Knowing what information you need to collect is a vital part of creating the form. In most cases, it is enough just to collect the basic details, such as the inquirer’s name, phone number, and email address. 

PRO TIP: It is recommended that you ask at least one Short answer question, such as their Highest Level of Education, Preferred Area of Study, etc. This will require them to type in an answer to proceed. Having only pre-filled questions may increase the likelihood of getting low-quality inquiries.

If you recruit students for more than one destination, you also have the option to insert a drop-down option where students can choose their preferred destination.

10. Track the performance of your ad

Once your Ad is active, there are different things you can track to measure its performance.

The Facebook Ads dashboard has many specific metrics:

It’s essential to track these metrics regularly. This will help you to understand the success of your strategy and also improve future campaigns. 

PRO TIP: Metrics are not the only thing you need to track. You need to speak with your sales team/s and check the quality of the leads generated.

> Get a deeper understanding of Facebook Ad metrics

11. Test again & again

Facebook gives businesses powerful tools to create, target, and measure advertising campaigns. The only way to make the most of it is through experimentation and continuous testing.

Test everything:

This can be overwhelming for beginners, so start small. 

Experiment with the creative by creating multiple ads with different images or captions. And experiment with the audience by changing the demographics or interests. 

You don’t need a large budget to experiment. Start with the minimum allowed by Facebook and run small tests.

The more you test, the faster you’ll find the right formula that works for your business and the results you want to achieve.

Adventus.io Recruiter customers can easily set up any leads received from a Facebook advert campaign. Details will be instantly loaded into your Adventus.io workspace, so you can receive information in real time, making it easier to follow up with prospective leads.