Opening the Facebook Ad Centre

Switch to or log into your Facebook Page, then on the left-hand side of your screen click Ad Centre (click See more if you can’t see the Ad Centre option on-screen):

Then once the Ad Centre loads, click the blue Advertise button at the top-right of the page, then choose an Ad Type:

Creating a new Ad from scratch or Boost Existing Content

If you don’t have any relevant existing posts or reels, click the Create a new ad option, or if you have a post relevant to your campaign, click Boost Facebook Content.

For the purposes of this guide, both options follow the same steps, Create a new ad just requires you to fill in some written content and upload some GIFs and Videos to create a new post:

Choosing a Goal

Setting a Goal for your advertisement will help Facebook tailor your ad to reach your intended audience, click the Change button to open the list of goals, we then recommend selecting the “Get more website visitors” option, then click the blue Save button at the bottom-right of the panel:

Uploading GIFs and Videos

If you are creating an Ad from scratch or want to add more content to your post, inside the Ad creative section, click on the + Add media button. This will open a panel displaying content you have already uploaded to your Facebook page, click the grey Upload button at the top-left of the panel to add new media from your device:

Once you’ve uploaded or picked additional media, set a Headline, we recommend an eye-catching Call-to-Action like “Auction open now!” or “Bid now!”. If this is going to be a continuous ad (not tied to an individual auction or event) we recommend “Bid with [your-company-name]”.

Set a Button label and Link

If you chose the “Get more website visitors” goal, your ad template will feature a button you can link to your website. Click the Button label option and choose one of the options from the list, we recommend Learn more, Shop now, or Buy now.

Beneath that, we recommend adding a link to the page housing your Auction Portal, or a direct link to an Auction:

Set an Additional contact method (optional)

If you would like your bidders or buyers to be able to reach out and ask questions or engage with your team, choose one of the options below (we also recommend connecting your WhatsApp account to your Facebook page):

Setting your Audience (Critical)

The most crucial step of creating a new ad, Facebook allows you to edit your Audience options to maximise the potential reach and focus of your campaign. Click on the Edit icon and the Edit Audience panel will appear. From here you can set a Gender/Age Range preference, Locations and Detailed targeting tags:

Audience recommendations

Set regional Locations to ensure you are targeting potential bidders and buyers within your operational area (for pick-ups or postage), we recommend setting multiple Regions and Cities closest to you.

Detailed targeting is the true key to leveraging your ad and targeting interested parties, you can click Browse to choose from a defined list or start typing in general interests like Online shopping, Auction, and other tags that are relevant to the items in your Auction or available on your Marketplace.

Campaign Duration

Beneath the Audience section, you’ll find the Duration section. This allows you to define whether your ad will run until manually disabled, or run across a set date span.

Continuous ads are an efficient way for you to direct continuous engagement to your website and Auction Portal, whilst Choose End Date best suits your individual Auctions (either running up to your Webcast’s Live Bidding start date, or until your Timed Auction’s End Date):

Daily budget

Once you’ve chosen a duration format, you can use the budget slider to choose your per-day spending rate. The higher the daily budget, the further your reach will be, but in this case we recommend setting a balanced budget that suits the duration of your campaign. You’ll see an updated Payment summary at the top-right of your screen each time you change the Daily budget.

Advantage+ placement

We recommend leaving Advantage+ placement enabled, as this will allow Facebook to display your ads across Meta’s multiple platforms (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and more), all of which we recommend you make a dedicated account for:

Check your Payment method and Publish

Make sure you have a valid Payment method attached to your Facebook account, and when you’re ready, click the blue Publish button at the bottom-right of your screen:

Meta will now review the content and link in your campaign, you’ll then receive a notification confirming when your campaign is live and visible.

You can now return to the Ad Centre, from which you can monitor the approval status of your campaign, and later the performance of your ad.