Getting Started Spending Money on Facebook

Dustin Comm

Director of Media & Marketing for Good To Go Media

Today, having a church Facebook page is the norm. But beyond serving as an internal family slideshow, how is it helping you reach the people of your geographic community?
 
Enter Facebook Ads. With over 2 billion monthly active users worldwide, Facebook is so widely used and contains so much detailed demographic info, you have the benefit of accessing the most extensive marketing database in the world.
 
Have a community event coming up? Have an engaging short video? Want to network with other organizations in your town and cross-promote events or resources? Facebook Ads can connect your church to the right people at the right time, and create real relationships.
 
Starting an ad campaign might sound complicated or daunting, but it really boils down to one major question. And unfortunately I’ve seen a lot of leaders who are so excited to start a campaign, they rush into it and see no results because they skipped the question:

What is my objective?

You shouldn’t be putting funds on the line until you’ve determined your objective.
 
One reason this is so important is that Facebook will automatically optimize your ad to be shown to people who are most likely to respond to that objective. It’s a wonderful system to use because as long as your audience is large enough you can count on your objective being reached.
 
There are currently 12 objectives you can choose:

• Brand Awareness – Increase awareness for your church by reaching people who are likely to be interested in it.
• Reach – Show your ad to the maximum number of people.
• Traffic – Drive people to your website, app, or Facebook Messenger conversation.
• Engagement – Get more post responses (comments, shares, page likes, etc.).
• App installs – Get more people to download your app.
• Video views – Get more people to view your video.
• Lead generation – Gather info on people interested in your church.
• Conversions – (not the spiritual kind, yet!) Drives actions on your website or app (like signing up for a newsletter or event).
• Product catalog sales – In a church context, you could display a variety of opportunities people could view (like sponsoring a homeless shelter, donating to an orphanage, or signing up for a mission trip).
• Store visits – Get people to visit your church’s physical location

 
Which objective jumps out for your church? As you can imagine, defining your objective dials your ad down to a very focused purpose. It also directs how you create your visuals and “copy” (fancy advertising term for “words”). And with a clear objective, your path laid out for the rest of the campaign components.
 
“But Dustin, we don’t have any money for this kind of intangible experiment!” And yes, maybe your church has absolutely no budget for much of anything, which I get. However, I also see many churches spending thousands of dollars on outdated evangelistic methods that yield poor results. So what if you allocate a portion of your evangelism budget to a Facebook campaign and take advantage of a method proven to reach the exact people who are likely to respond? I challenge you to give it a try!
 
Example Campaigns:

• Create a “Traffic” campaign sending people to your Facebook Messenger app where the individual can ask spiritual questions or receive prayer.
• Create a “Store visits” campaign to promote a health fair or cooking class happening at your church building.
• Create a “Conversions” campaign sending people to your site to sign-up for your newsletter.
• Create a “Video Views” campaign to show your “about us” video to as many people as possible.

 
There is so much more to discuss when it comes to a great ad, but hopefully this gives you an overview to get you started. Make sure to check out Facebook Blueprint to learn more about the power in Facebook Ads.

Check out the free #DigitalEvangelism course on how to run a social media campaign.

Download our free step-by-step course on placing Facebook ads.