How To Create Ads With Facebook Power Editor [Tutorial]

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Have you run Facebook ads to promote your business page?

If not, you could be missing a powerful opportunity. Facebook advertising allows you to get really targeted, focusing directly on your ideal customers.

The Facebook Power Editor is a browser plugin available for Google Chrome that you can install to yield higher returns (when used correctly) with greater advanced targeting. You will gain access to several advanced options that are not available by selecting the ‘Boost’ option, including:

Advanced demographic targeting options
Placement options (whether it will reach the mobile & desktop, etc.)
Bidding
Bulk ad creation
Export data and create reports

Using the Power Editor provides so many more options for making sure the right people are seeing your ad at the right time versus just clicking the ‘Boost’ button. If you’re looking get the most out of your Facebook marketing budget, achieve higher click through rates and get more conversions then Power Editor is a must-have in your toolbox.

Did we also mention that it’s free?

How To Install Power Editor

Open your Google Chrome browser or download it here (you must use Google Chrome)
Visit your Facebook Ads Manager
Click the Power Editor tab on the left side of the Ads Manager
Install the Power Editor application
Once you launch the Power Editor application, click Download and follow the onscreen instructions

From here you can now choose to download all of your accounts or select specific ones.

Despite its lack of user-friendliness, the Power Editor has six main features that make up the prime reasons behind you why you should stop clicking the ‘Boost Post’ option and start incorporating the Power Editor with all of your Facebook advertising campaigns.

1. Unique Features

Facebook Ads Manager was created for the more mainstream marketer that isn’t ready for more advanced tools and features. As a result of this, new features are first rolled out to the Power Editor and often might not make it to Ads Manager at all.

By using Power Editor you will keep up to date with all the new features as soon as they are available.

The following features are examples of some of the options that weren’t available to the standard platform but have been rolled out to Power Editor:

Custom Audiences
Lookalike Audiences
Saved Audiences
Partner Categories
Conversion Tracking
Conversion Specs
Domain Sponsored Stories
Sponsored Search Results

2. Advanced Placement Options

If you are using the “Boost Post” button you have no control over where the ad will appear. Within the Power Editor, you can choose any of the following placement options:

All Facebook
Desktop
News Feed (Desktop and Mobile)
News Feed (Desktop Only)
Mobile Only

All of your marketing campaigns should incorporate split testing. Without split testing you cannot find trends and determine which ads convert best in a reliable manner. The success of your ads can drastically change depending on its placement but this also affects the cost involved.

It’s important to remember that not all apps, websites and pages are mobile-friendly so if you are promoting a contest or promotion of some kind, you want to make sure you are sending traffic to a destination they are able to interact with.

3. Bidding

When you click the “Boost Post” button, Facebook assumes you don’t understand or want to use the price-bidding platform so it automatically sets it to ‘Optimized CPM’. You get pretty much no choice with the cost of your ad and often the price is set much higher than what it should be.

With Power Editor, you can choose your daily budget as well as CPC (cost per click) bidding, CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) or Optimized CPM, which is essentially Facebook’s way bidding on your behalf and making some decisions on what might be best for you.This gives you much more choice with the cost behind your ad and offers you the valuable ability to split test. Often we find running the exact same ad in CPC or CPM will yield different costs. This is why I would encourage doing your own experiments to determine the best results.

4. Advanced Targeting

When using the “Boost Post” option you are sending an ad out to Facebook with essentially zero targeting. Targeting is paramount in any advertising you do to ensure the people who see your ad are in your target demographic.

You can easily target people who have liked a specific page with the ‘Precise Interests’ section in both Ads Manager and Power Editor. This means you can target pages with similar audience types to yours, a crucial feature that you cannot access by selecting the “Boost Post” option. Using the ‘Boost Post’ option means you also can’t target exclusively to your own fan base, which is one of the best ways to skyrocket your CTR and ad engagement. The real money with Facebook advertising lies within mastering the Power Editor where you have access to exclusive targeting features such as:

Create a Custom Audience
Create a Lookalike Audience
Target by Partner Categories

By using the Power Editor instead of the ‘Boost Post’, you can really narrow in on your target audience or your fans and make sure each penny spent isn’t wasted.

PRO TIP: If you want to quickly figure out other pages that might be good to target, use Facebook Graph Search and type in “Pages people that like YOUR-PAGE-NAME like”. This will bring up results showing pages that are commonly liked by people who like your page.

5. Bulk Ad Creation

Creating a single ad within Facebook Ads Manager is quick and easy but if you are creating multiple campaigns for different products or audiences with dozens of ad variations then this becomes very tedious.

Power Editor can save you a ton of time and stress. The main reason for this is that duplicating ads is an easy process and takes very little time. You can also use Saved Audiences to avoid the process of picking each demographics characteristics (age, country, city, gender, education, etc).

6. Exporting Data

The last feature exclusive to Power Editor is that it will work in conjunction with Microsoft Excel and other such spreadsheet applications. You can easily export the data from your ads campaigns to and from Excel, making it very easy to keep track and log your results.

Facebook’s Power Editor is a mighty, yet mysterious resource to any Facebook marketer. At the very least, it is guaranteed to get you more value for your money than choosing the “Boost Post” option.

Have you used Facebook Power Editor? Share your experience and tips in the comments below.