How To Create Facebook Ads In Kenya [Complete Guide]

Last updated on January 3rd, 2023 at 12:19 pm

Today, I’m going to show you how to set up Facebook ads in Kenya.

In fact, this is the same procedure I use daily.

Before you set-up your Facebook ads, you need:

• A Facebook business page
• Working credit or debit card. I suggest you use a debit card (ATM). Almost everyone with a bank account has it. Deposit at least Kshs. 500 Inside. I will show you later how to use it for your ads.
• Two great images relevant to what you are selling. Don’t just pull anything off the internet. Why two? Well, let’s just say for now you don’t know which one will attract more eyes. So we better test.
• Customer research. You need to know who you are selling to. Here’s an article I wrote detailing why and how to research your customer before advertising on Facebook in Kenya.

Once you tick all of the above boxes, you are ready for the next step

How to set up your ads

If you have executed the above steps seriously, there’s a high chance you are going to hit a home-run in this step, especially with the customer research step.

Be warned, you will be wasting your money if you don’t know whom you are selling to.

I repeat, do not use Facebook ads in Kenya if you don’t know enough about your potential buyer.

otherwise, let us dive right in.

Step 1: Open ads manager

Open your Facebook account and click on the (+) button.

Then tab on AD.

You will be redirected to the Facebook ads manager.

Step 2: Choose your advertising objective

Next, you’ll be given the option to choose your goals (which is now called an ‘Campaign Objective’).

You see, Facebook wants you to be all set from the start that is why they are asking you to choose your objective.

To do that, simply answer the following question,

What do you want to achieve by advertising on Facebook in Kenya?

Here are some of the objectives you will be presented with.

1. Brand Awareness – Show your ads to people who are most likely to remember them

• Reach – Show your ads to the maximum number of people.

2. Consideration – encourages the customers to search for more information about your business

• Send people to your website
• Get installs of your app
• Get video views
• Collect leads for your business
• Get more messages

3. Conversion – encourages your target audience to purchase your products.

• Increase conversions on a website
• Increase engagement in an app
• Get people to claim your offer
• Promote a product catalog
• Get people to visit your shops

What objective will you choose for your ad?

If you have a brand new business, for instance, it makes more sense to choose awareness objectives. Here, you may opt to promote your business to reach more local people or promote your page to get likes.

It actually depends on the level your customers are as far as your business is concerned.

Truth is, you can’t start a new business today and sell your products using Facebook ads immediately.

It won’t work.

Why?

Your target audience does not know who you are, meaning they don’t trust you.

Research shows that people buy from those they are familiar with. So, first, familiarize yourself with the audience before selling to them.

Therefore, take a minute and think before choosing a Facebook ads objective.

• Do the audience know who you are?
• Do they trust you?
• Do they need what you are trying to sell?
• Do they have the money to buy?

If the answer is no, go for the first objectives: Brand awareness.

Step 3: Campaign details

It is now time to set your budget. This is the point where you set the cost of running your Facebook campaigns in Kenya.

But first, give your campaign a name:

Next, leave everything as is in here.

Unless you know what you are doing, do not touch anything here.

For example:

You can set the campaign spending limit. Just click on ‘show more options.’

Tick the box to set the limit.

The ads will stop when they reach this limit, thus saving you from overspending more than you are willing to.

Next, testing ads.

If you feel the need to test at least two ads to see which one performs best, use the A/B testing section.

Time for campaign budget optimization.

Leave it turned off.

Click Next to start editing the ad set.

Step 4: Editing Ad sets (Budget, audience, and Bidding strategy)

This is where you set the budget, do the targeting, and ad delivery optimization.

Start by giving the ad set a name:

Have a naming system to ease the ads management process later on. See, it may look easy now, but once you start running hundreds of ads, you will understand what i am talking about.

Next, pick a page

Or create a new one by clicking on the plus button to your right.

For A/B testing purposes, turn this on;

But if you are just running one Facebook ad in Kenya, leave it off.

Ads budget and cost

Next, setting budget and end date.

For example:

If you have say $20 to spend on ads, you have two options: set daily budget as $2 or total budget of $20.

How much should you set?

First, you need an understanding of how the Facebook system works. Because it determines the cost of the ads.

The cost can be defined by the overall amount you want to spend or by the cost of each result you get from the ads.

Facebook has two ways of charging you. Based on

• Impressions – 1000 views or
• Per result – example per page like, per link click, or per message

To determine the cost of all of these, facebook holds an auction. But wait a minute; it is not the auction you are used to where the highest bidder takes it all, nope.

With facebook auction system, the highest bidder doesn’t necessarily win. There are some other factors to consider. 

Fortunately for you, I wrote an article diving deeper into the cost of advertising on facebook in Kenya and how this auction works.

Read it first.

When it comes to the cost of advertising on facebook in Kenya, I sometimes find myself exceeding my budget. And to avoid this, I set limitations to my campaigns.

Actually, there are two rules available for budgets

• Daily budgets – choose this to instruct facebook to stop the campaign once this amount is reached. For instance, you can set your daily budget at kshs. 300 per day
• Lifetime budget – here is where you tell facebook to run your ad till all these amounts of money are exhausted. E.g if I’m running my facebook campaign for 10 days, I can either use the daily budget Kshs. 300 or lifetime budget of kshs. 3000.

Remember, once the set budget is reached, the ad will stop running.

• Daily budget is Facebook’s daily spending limit
• Lifetime budget is the total limit for the entire campaign period.

Set start and end date

Unless you want the ad to run forever, you need the end date. If you use a lifetime budget, you don’t need an end date because the ad will stop as soon as that limit is reached.

Next step is choosing the audience.

Step 5: Who do you want to see your ad?

The next step is choosing your target audience. These are the people you want to reach with your ad.

If you choose the wrong people to show your ads, you will be wasting your money.

Why?

You are asking the wrong person to do a wrong task, that’s why.

For instance, if you are selling women shoes, you don’t want your ad to be shown to men, do you?

Can you sell a wedding dress to a single guy? The answer is no.

While in town, have you seen those Maasai guys selling their open shoes to men? 

Why? 

They understand their target customer.

So if they do, how about you?

Facebook has the answer: targeting option. It enables you to sell directly to those people who are more likely to be interested in your product.

The big question is how do you identify them?

Types of audiences

There are three categories of choosing who to target with your ad

1. Core audience – here you manually choose who you want to target using a detailed targeting tool. You choose those people who are more likely to be interested in your product.
2. Custom audiences – here you use pixel data or upload a customer contact list (emails) and facebook will use the data to see if they are on facebook. If they find a match, you can then go ahead and target them with your ads.

• Lookalike audience – here is where you use an already existing audience to look for others (who look like them) on facebook.

The last two audiences are very powerful and profitable. Here’s an article showing you how to leverage them.

For now, I want to show you how to use option (i)

How to sell to those who are interested in your product/service using Facebook ads in Kenya

The answer to the above riddle is to answer these questions:

• Who is your ideal (perfect) customer?
• What do they like (interests)?
• Age?
• Gender?
• Location?
• What are some of the challenges (pain) he/she experiences daily?

The secret is to answering the above questions is to perform an in-depth customer research.

That is right.

And the right tool for the job is this animal right here, Facebook Insights Tool. One of my best customer research tools that I use to help me better understand my customers.

I wrote a detailed article on how to use facebook audience insights tool and I suggest you go read it first before you continue.

Here’s what I’d do

Now, to show you how to use the information you got after using the insights tool, let’s assume I’m selling Blenders in Kenya.

So, first I’d go to insights tool and research about the people in Kenya who like Blenders.

And this is what I found;

1. There are over 400K people who like blenders in Kenya

1. Mostly women

• Aged between 25 and 34

1. Most of them work in management positions and sales

1. And they like other pages such as Nairobi Home Appliances, Appliances Kenya, Vituzoet.com, and HotPoint among others

1. Most of them like clicking ads, commenting and liking posts

Their pains?

• Blenders not lasting long. I got that by reading authority blogs about blenders. So I will use it in the ad copy
• They want modern blenders

The information above is enough for me to set up a very effective ad that will capture their attention and motivate them to buy.

When it comes to targeting, I already know who I want to reach

• Location: Kenya
• Only women
• Aged bracket 25-34
• Interested in Blenders, household supplies, Nairobi Home Appliances, and Appliances Kenya among others.

As for the ad copy, look at step 6.

Step 6: where will your ad appear?

After choosing who you want to see your ad, the next thing is to decide where you want to run the ad.

Facebook has a number of options (under edit placements) of showing your ads

• Mobile (newsfeed, messenger, and Instagram)
• Desktop (right column and newsfeed)
• Other facebook owned properties and mobile apps (Facebook audience Networks)

What you choose here depends on who you want to target. For instance, if most of your target audience uses mobile phones, then choosing Instagram and messenger might deliver the best results as compared to desktop.

If you don’t know what to do in this step, just leave it at AUTOMATIC. Facebook will choose the best placements that will most likely deliver the best results.

Next, choosing the ad delivery optimization strategy. What event do you want to optimize for?

For example:

If you choose link clicks, Facebook will show your ad to people who are most likely to click the ad.

Also, depending on the objective you picked, delivery options will be different.

Set the bidding control cap;

This is the amount you are willing to pay to get single results.

For example:

If you are willing to pay KES 10 and not more to get one message, 10 is your cap.

It is optional, so you can leave it all to Facebook.

Finally, the frequency gap. Set how many times one person can see the same ad.

You can set once per day. By default, it is set once per 7 days, which means a person will only see the same ad after 7 days.

Step 7: Designing the ad

Give name to the ad:

Double check the page is correct and consider connecting to your Instagram account if you have one.

Decide whether to create a new ad or use existing post (page posts)

Pick suitable format

If you choose carousel, it looks like this:

They are scrollable images. With this kind of layout, it utilizes sliding features to showcase your ad. Doing so gives you more advertising room

Upload an image or video

If it’s an image, you can turn it into a video. Don’t want images? you can use a video.

But remember KISS for Facebook ads in Kenya. Keep it short and simple.

You don’t want to make things so complicated, considering that you are just getting started. Too many details can bog you down.

But again, if you know what you are doing, be my guest.

For the sake of those who don’t, let’s go ahead and start with a single image ad.

Hit ‘add media’ or change image. Either upload your own images or choose from the free stock images. 

But be warned, you can run into legal trouble if you use other people’s images without their permission. To avoid this, always use your own images.

You do not have to worry whether your image is right or not, Facebook will provide some guidelines.

One quick note.

Facebook used to have a 20% rule. Here, Facebook wouldn’t approve the use of images with text covering more than 20% of the image.

But of late, they have loosened the belt a little bit.

This doesn’t mean that you can get away with it though; you should always stick to the rule. Actually, the fewer texts on your images, the better on Facebook ads.

Instead of gambling with this 20% rule, go ahead and use wordless images. Such types of images show what people are going to get.

Or use the ones that convey the emotions that you want your target audience to have (happy, smiling, scared, etc)

But if you must use text on the ad image, here is a tool to help you determine if passes the 20% rule. (Update, Facebook has relaxed this rule)

Also, who said you can’t use your headshot in the ads? That’s right. It is the best option especially if your business is a personal brand.

After cropping the image and formatting it correctly, you can now proceed to write the copy and choose the CTA.

Creating ad copy;

Tell people what the ad is about. Use convincing language. First read Facebook advertising policy, because there are some words you cannot use.

What to put on the headline

This is the first thing people read when they come across your ad. So make sure it grabs their attention.

How do you achieve that?

Good question. The trick is to tap on the underlying motivations that make people sit up and pay attention. These motivations make them stop what they were doing and pay attention.

Such feelings include:

• Joy
• Sorrow
• Guilt
• Greed
• Fear
• Lust

An average human being experiences some of these emotions on a daily basis. And some of the best headlines tap into these feelings.

For example:

Marketing a business is tough and takes time.

What if I told you you could market your business easily under 1 week and make money, will I have your attention?

Definitely. 

This works because I’m taking something you are struggling with and offering to give a shortcut to tackle it.

How about selling? 

Selling is hard, isn’t it?

What is told you there was a 2-step formula to selling anything to anyone, would you be interested?

Below the headline is the ad text: here, you need two things

• A call to action CTA
• And some social proof

Here’s a guide on how to write – The aim is to get only the right kinds of people to click!

So that means you need to use a heading that will attract attention only if someone is interested in the product.

You also need to do this while working within some quite strict character limits.

Facebook ads have a headline limit of 40 characters, while the primary text has a recommended limit of 125 characters (but you can exceed it).

This is all going to be a little tricky when trying to make your product sound highly compelling but with a little creative thought, you should be able to come up with something.

Tips to create profitable ads

Here are some tips that will help…

• Honesty is the best policy in Facebook advertising in Kenya. When it comes to getting clicks only from people who are likely to buy from you, the most important thing is to make sure you are upfront and straightforward in describing the product. Selling watches for kshs. 1000? Then say that it is 1000 right in your advert!
• Try to eliminate objections and barriers to sale. Barriers to the sale are things that prevent people from wanting to click ‘buy’, even though they might theoretically be interested in what it is you’re selling.

For instance, if you’re offering to sell something online, people might feel they’re in too much of a hurry to want to order.

They don’t want to have to put their details in and they don’t want to have to spend a long time reading text.

Thus, a simple line added to your link saying ‘Easy Purchase With One Click!’ can make a huge difference.

• Think about what it is that your customers want to get out of the product you’re offering. The value proposition describes the way that a product changes someone’s life.

Website URL if you have a landing page or driving traffic to a specific link.

CTA buttons: actually, there are a ton of such buttons available. 

For instance

Download vs. Buy Now, Sign Up vs. Learn More.

Luckily, there are a number of studies that have been done to find the best CTA button that converts well.

One such study is by Adroll, and they found out that using LEARN MORE is more effective since it converts the best.

Here is an example;

Headline: Free ebook now!

Text: the 4-step process I’ve used to generate over 40 leads every month through Facebook ads in Kenya

News Feed Link Description: get the secret system I use daily to cheap but quality leads so you can too scale your business faster.

When you are done, proceed to

CTA: Learn More (and link it to your landing page)

Other formulas to use to write effective Facebook ad-copy

• Problem
• Solution
• Benefit

Start by stating the problem/pain you are trying to solve in the headline. Remember to punch those emotional buttons we talked about earlier.

Remember the methods I showed to identify main problems/pain experienced by your target audience? Its time use it.

But if you’ve forgotten, go back to customer research and reread it, helps you nail your Facebook ads in Kenya.

Example:

Frustrated with cash flow in your business?

On the Text section, offer the solution to the stated problem and tie it around the product/service you’re selling

Example:

Find the easiest and proven tool & systems that enable you to sell more with less work. These are the actual blueprints I use myself to generate over 100k every month for my 4 businesses

And as for the call to action (CTA), use Learn More and link it to your landing page. I have already shown you why you should use this button and not the others.

If you are partnering with other brands, you can tag them on the ads.

Finally, if you want to track events, use these buttons.

Step 7: Place the order

Preview how your ad.. This where facebook shows you how your ad will look once it’s live.

Going through the headline, does it capture attention? 

How about the image and the text (copy), are they all awesome?

If you like what you see, it is time to Publish. So hit that button.

Your ad will be submitted for approval if you’ve already linked your debit card (payment/billing method).

Approval will take at most 15 minutes. And you will get notified if your ad is approved. If it is not, don’t freak out. Facebook will tell you why they turned down your ad.

Next

Step 8: Split testing Facebook ads in Kenya

What is it, and do you need it?

Well, split testing is the process of trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t in your campaigns.

The truth is, whenever I set up facebook campaigns, I have a freaking idea if it will bring the results I project or not.

Actually, no does.

So, what do you do?

You guessed right. You do testing. You test change some few aspects (parts) of your ads and compare results to see which one is the best.

To succeed with testing facebook ads (split testing), duplicate the main ad and change 1 thing.

For instance, you can change the

• Ad copy or
• Image or
• Call to action button
• Or the interests (targeting).

Once you do that, leave the two ads to run for at least 24 hours and then review the results.

Here’s what I’d do for Facebook ads in Kenya

If I’m running a campaign with maybe 4 interests, I will target each interest with a single ad.

Sit tight for 24 hours.

Then compare results and drop the poor ones.

Then what?

Time to scale your facebook ads in Kenya

Scaling campaigns is like adding more petrol into a fire.

That’s right. You take what’s already working and give it all you got. At the end of testing, you should have the following data

• Best image
• Best headline
• Best ad-copy
• Best CTA
• Best audience

And when I say best, I mean they are converting very well.

Now when it comes to scaling, you take the above proven parts of the ad and pump more money into it.

Or just simply create another ad with the best parts (image, copy, audience, headline, and cta). And increase the budget since you now know that what is working.

Rinse and repeat

By now you know how to create Facebook ads in Kenya, you know how to research your target audience and how to target them.

I also just showed you how to split-test and scale the ads. So it’s your turn. Go and take action.

Will you get it right at first try? Probably not.

Will you learn? Yes.

Unless of course you’re a fool. Fools are those people who repeat the same actions and expect different results.

That kind of person who never learns from his mistakes.

I bet you are not, ‘cause if you were, you’d be long gone by now.

You’d be out there seeking sympathy and talking of how Facebook ads in Kenya is a waste of time and money.

Actually, it is a waste of time and money for those who don’t know what they are doing.

This social media marketing game is all about testing. You test everything to find out what is working and what is not. Then do more of what’s working and less of what’s not.

And buddy, that is the secret of creating effective Facebook ads in Kenya.