Facebook Ads for photographers: learn how to create ads that attract customers

Do you really know what Facebook Ads for photographers is all about? Nowadays almost everyone knows what social networks are and that you can create a series of advertisements to promote a product or service. So far, so good. But from there to knowing how to use Facebook Ads for photographers correctly and not waste the money invested in your ads are big words.

Facebook has become a huge showcase for companies that want their products to have a place on users’ walls. So, if you want to know how your ads can stand out from the rest of your peers, today we’ll tell you everything you need to do to plan them correctly.

Learn how to use Facebook Ads for photographers and monetise this social network with so many followers.

What is Facebook Ads for photographers?

Facebook Ad for photographers is a service that you can use within this social network where by creating a series of paid ads you can achieve greater visibility and reach for your publications.

This type of advertising is perfect for announcing a new seasonal campaign, offering a discount or simply promoting your reports that you offer all year round.

For your Facebook campaigns to be effective, you should ideally connect your photography website to Facebook. To do this, you will need to install the Facebook Pixel on your website.

>> How to install the Facebook Pixel on your photography website created with Arcadina

Structure your Facebook campaign

When it comes to using Facebook Ads for photographers, it’s important to understand how the structure of Facebook Ads for photographers is organised so that your campaigns are as successful as possible. So before we help you plan your Facebook ads, we’re going to explain how that structure works based on campaigns, ad sets and ads themselves.

Facebook Ads Campaign

A Facebook campaign is made up of a series of ads. It is hierarchically in charge and where the objective of the campaign in question is defined, as well as the overall budget parameters.

Set of advertisements

Ad sets are the audiences you select to run your campaign. In the ad set you define: the audiences, the dates the ads will run, the placements (whether you want the ads to appear only on Facebook or only on Instagram) and the budget to be used.

Announcements

The ads, as the name suggests, are the ads themselves and will be the place where you will have to add images, text and choose the type of ad.

It is important that for each campaign you define several ad sets to monitor the data of each one and know what is happening. This will help you to know what is working and what is not. This way, over time, you will be able to improve your Facebook advertising results.

How can you organise a Facebook Ads campaign that delivers results?

When creating a Facebook ad, you need to consider a number of more technical aspects, such as: the objective of your campaign, the money you want to spend on it, and the type of audience you want your ad to reach.

On the other hand, you will also have to define the ad itself: text, photo and call to action button.

Let’s start detailing the more technical aspects of your ads.

Decide what is the main objective of your network ads

As with almost all marketing actions you do in your photography business, the first thing you have to do is to plan your Facebook Ads campaigns. That’s why the first step before creating a Facebook ad is always to define the objective you want to achieve with this particular campaign. Here are some ideas:

• Drive traffic to your photography website.
• Watch a video where you explain one of your photo shoots.
• Fill in a form to get leads.
• Promote an article from your photographer’s blog.
• Etc.

In addition to thinking about the purpose of the post, when creating the Facebook ad you will also find a box where you will have to choose the objective of the post. At this point, you will be able to see all the options available to you. In any case, although Facebook will always offer you a series of varied objectives, your own objectives should always be along the lines of: selling your products or services, getting an email address through which to send your newsletters or carrying out promotions in order to finally make a sale.

How much do you want to spend on Facebook Ads for photographers?

In addition to being clear about the objective of each ad, another important factor to consider is the amount you want to spend on each campaign.

Over the last few months Facebook has tightened its policies for advertisers and it is becoming more and more difficult to do a proper targeting so that your campaign reaches as many people as possible with the least amount of money. For this reason it is important that you carry out a correct segmentation of the types of audiences. We are going to explain this in the following section.

Facebook Ads ad targeting

As you already know, thanks to Facebook you can reach practically everyone who is using it, which currently corresponds to about two billion people. Not bad, right? With this figure it is clear that you must learn to segment the advertising you do on the internet, because you can’t, and shouldn’t, reach everyone.

When creating a good audience segmentation, the first thing you have to look at is your own business.

Are you a freelance photographer, are you a commissioned book photographer, are you a social or wedding photographer, etc.?

Your target audience is most likely to be in your country or even in your own city. If on the other hand you sell your photographs as an image bank so that they can be reused or you are a destination wedding photographer, you can widen your segmentation circle further and start playing around.

Defining audiences on Facebook

You may think that if you target too broadly, your ad will reach too many people. But the truth is that by doing so, you run the risk of your ad reaching people who are not interested in your services.

So what you need to do is to choose an audience that matches your campaign. On Facebook you can segment your target audience according to a number of parameters, such as: age, gender, location, demographics (education, financial situation, job, personal situation, etc.), interests (business, family, sport and wellness, food and drink, hobbies, etc.) and behaviour (digital activities, shopping behaviour, mobile device user, etc.).

To create a much more effective segmentation that is true to who your real customers are, you can help yourself with Google Analytics. On this page, which you can also connect to your photography website, you can obtain all kinds of data about the people who visit the different parts of your website.

>> Google Analytics for Photographers: Information we can obtain with Analytics

>> Configure Google Analytics

>> How to migrate Analytics from UA to GA4

On the other hand, there are 3 types of audiences you can work with on Facebook:

• Saved. These are the ones that are created when you choose the type of segmentation yourself.
• Personalised. Facebook collects information from users who have already interacted with your brand and already know you.
• Similar. Facebook will search for a lookalike audience through a custom audience.

Create a Facebook Ads campaign that really catches the attention of your audience

Once you have the more technical aspects of your campaign set up, it’s time to move on to the more creative part where you choose a striking image to match the content and create a text that captures the attention of your audience.

Photos for your Facebook ads

Have you tried carousels or galleries? These are two different ways to insert several images in the same ad. It’s a good way to show your photo shoots in a broader way, although as a photographer you will know that a large image will always be more eye-catching than several small ones, especially in this type of ad where users download them in a matter of 1 or 2 seconds.

In addition, in the single image mode you can tell Facebook to alternate up to six different images to show to your audience. Afterwards, you can see which of these images has worked best for the campaign in question in the administration panel.

Strategic texts for your Facebook advertising          

The photograph is, without a doubt, the most eye-catching part of the ad, but the text you include in your campaigns must also accompany the image. Because once you have captured that first attention with the photo, the text will be the key part of your ad that will make the user click or not and access your website.

At this point it is important that you try to use a series of copy and marketing strategies to get the click of your audience. And as we know that this part is the most complicated for you, Arcadina would like to give you some recommendations:

• Try to use short sentences that invite further reading, do not reveal from the advert itself all that you are capable of doing.
• Use emojis 😀  to give air to the text and emphasise certain concepts.
• As you have already selected your ideal audience it will be easier for you to know what kind of language they use and how they like to be addressed. Selling your services as an extreme sports photographer is not the same as selling your services as a photographer for children on excursions.
• Keep in mind the maxim that everyone likes to buy, but no one likes to be sold to. Don’t write text that is too sales-focused. Such ads are not likely to attract, especially when users are surfing the net. Instead, create text that evokes curiosity.

Example of an advertisement

As for the types of text you will have to define within your ad, these are the ones you will have to define:

• Headline or headline: Eye-catching title of the advertisement. Explain very briefly and as directly as possible what people who access this advertisement can get. This text will be placed just below the photo.

• Description: a very brief explanation of the type of content of the article. Here you can highlight the timeframe, for example, of a temporary campaign or some other interesting information. This text will go just below the heading.

• CTA or call to action button: this button usually contains the URL of your website or a landing page with information. Facebook will allow you to choose between several types of texts already defined. This button is always located at the bottom right of the ad.

• Image or video: sometimes you may find it interesting to include some kind of text in the image itself to reinforce the message. You will have to add this type of information outside Facebook, for example in Photoshop to upload the photograph with the text already included. The photograph is placed just above the headline.

• Text: this is the top part of the advert and, although the photograph will be the most eye-catching part, it is important that you include in these paragraphs all kinds of information that can be eye-catching and useful for users. In this part you can add emoticons, links to your website and hashtags.

• URL: in addition to being able to include the URL in the button, you will also be able to include it just below the photograph.

What are you waiting for to fill your diary thanks to a good Facebook Ads planning for photographers?

Using Facebook Ads for photographers can be very interesting and profitable if you know how to set up your ads. And remember to always have your website connected with the rest of your sales channels such as social networks.

Did you know that on your photography website created with Arcadina you can create a gallery where all the photos you post on Instagram will be displayed? In the following article we will tell you about it.

>> Learn how to integrate Instagram, WhatsApp and SMS galleries into your website

Today we want to share with you the testimony of the photographer Daniel Ayala who has a website and networks very carefully.

>> Daniel Ayala, professional fashion photographer: Arcadina has helped to improve my photography business

And here’s the last question: What do you find most difficult to set up on Facebook Ads for photographers? We’d love to help you in the comments.

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