How to Create a Brand Awareness Campaign on Facebook

Building a brand that sticks in people's minds doesn't happen by accident, and Facebook, with its billions of users, remains a powerhouse for getting your name out there. This guide breaks down exactly how to set up, run, and measure a brand awareness campaign on Facebook, step-by-step. We'll cover everything from defining your audience and nailing your creative to understanding the metrics that actually matter.

First Things First: Laying a Strong Foundation

Before you even open Facebook Ads Manager, a little prep work will make every dollar you spend go further. Nailing down these basics turns a good campaign into a great one.

Define What "Awareness" Looks Like For You

A successful campaign starts with a clear goal. "Brand awareness" can feel a bit vague, so get specific. What do you want people to do or think after seeing your ad? Your goal will help you choose the right campaign objective.

• Brand Awareness Objective: Facebook shows your ad to people who are most likely to remember it. This is great for building initial recognition and getting your message to stick.
• Reach Objective: Facebook shows your ad to the maximum number of people possible within your budget. This is perfect for when you just need to get in front of as many new eyes as possible, like for a local store opening or an event announcement.

For most brands starting out, the Brand Awareness objective is the perfect place to begin. Facebook optimizes for "Ad Recall Lift," a metric that estimates how many people would remember your ad if asked within two days.

Get to Know Your Target Audience Inside and Out

You can't build awareness if you're talking to the wrong people. The beauty of Facebook is its incredibly detailed targeting, allowing you to get your message in front of the exact person who needs to see it. Take some time to build out a profile of your ideal customer.

• Demographics: Start with the basics. Where do they live? What's their age range and gender?
• Interests: What pages do they like? What are their hobbies? Are they fans of your competitors or complementary brands? Think about magazines they read, influencers they follow, or TV shows they watch.
• Behaviors: What do they do online? This includes things like their purchasing behavior, what devices they use, or if they're frequent travelers.

Don't just guess here. Use Facebook's Audience Insights tool, look at your existing customer data, and check out the followers of your competitors. The more specific you are, the more effective your ads will be.

Choose How You Want to Spend: Budgeting and CBO

You don't need a massive budget to make an impact. Even $5-10 a day can generate significant reach if your targeting and creative are strong. You'll need to decide between two primary budgeting strategies:

• Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO): You set one overall campaign budget, and Facebook automatically distributes it across your different ad sets to get the best results. This is highly recommended for beginners as it lets the algorithm do the heavy lifting for you.
• Ad Set Budget: You set a specific budget for each ad set. This gives you more manual control but requires more management to ensure your money is being spent effectively.

For most awareness campaigns, starting with CBO and a daily budget is a simple, effective approach.

Crafting Content That Captures Attention

An awareness ad's job isn't to make a hard sell, it's to make an introduction. The goal is to stop someone mid-scroll and give them a small taste of your brand's personality and value. This is where your creative becomes your most important asset.

Show, Don't Just Tell, With Video

If you want to grab attention on Facebook in 2024, video is your best bet. It's dynamic, engaging, and performs incredibly well, especially in short, vertical formats perfect for Reels and Stories.

Great video ideas for awareness include:

• A Brand story: A short 15-30 second video introducing who you are and what you stand for.
• Behind-the-scenes content: Show how your product is made or introduce your team. This builds trust and humanity.
• Quick how-to guides or tutorials: Provide value by teaching your audience something related to your industry.
• User-Generated Content (UGC): Share videos from happy customers using your product. It's authentic social proof.

Always design your videos for mobile-first, sound-off viewing. That means using vertical formats (9:16 aspect ratio) and including captions or on-screen text.

Use Striking Images and Carousel Ads

Static images can still be highly effective when they are bright, high-quality, and on-brand. Avoid cluttered stock photos and opt for authentic imagery that reflects your brand's personality.

Carousel ads are another fantastic tool for storytelling. They allow you to use a series of images or videos in one ad. You could use a carousel to:

• Showcase different features of a single product.
• Tell a step-by-step story.
• Feature multiple products or testimonials.

Write Copy That Connects

Your ad copy should be clear, concise, and focused on making a good first impression. Since this isn't a sales ad, you can be a bit more conversational and friendly.

• Lead with a hook: Start with a question or a relatable statement that grabs interest.
• Keep it brief: People don't read long blocks of text on social media. Get straight to the point.
• Focus on value, not features: Talk about the benefit or transformation your brand provides.
• Use a gentle Call-to-Action (CTA): Instead of "Shop Now" or "Buy Now," try using "Learn More" or "Watch More." Your goal is to invite curiosity, not pressure a sale.

How to Set Up Your Awareness Campaign in Ads Manager: A Step-by-Step Guide

With your strategy, audience, and creative ready, it's time to build the campaign. Follow these steps carefully.

1. Select Your Campaign Objective

Open Facebook Ads Manager and click the green “+ Create” button. In the objective window, select “Awareness.” This tells Facebook your goal is to introduce your brand to a new audience.

2. Configure Campaign Settings

Give your campaign a clear, descriptive name (e.g., “Q4 2024 Brand Awareness - Story Video”). Underneath, you'll see the option for Campaign Budget Optimization. If you want Facebook to manage your budget across all your ad sets, toggle this on and set your daily or lifetime budget.

3. Build Your Ad Set

This is where you define who will see your ads and where they will see them.

• Audience: In the Audience section, enter the location, age, gender, and detailed targeting options (interests, behaviors) you defined earlier. As you add criteria, watch the "Audience Definition" meter on the right to make sure your audience isn't too broad or too narrow.
• Placements: This determines where your ad will appear (e.g., Facebook Feed, Instagram Reels, Stories, etc.). For ease, you can select “Advantage+ placements” (formerly Automatic Placements) and let Facebook show your ads where they're likely to perform best. If you have creative designed for only one format (like a vertical video for Stories), you may want to choose "Manual Placements" and select only that option.

4. Design Your Ad

This final level is where you upload your creative and write your copy.

• Format: Choose whether you're creating a single image/video ad, a carousel, or a collection ad.
• Ad Creative: Upload your video or images. Add your Primary Text (the main caption), a compelling Headline, and an optional Description.
• Destination: Add the website URL you want to send people to if they click. For an awareness campaign, this could be your homepage or an "About Us" page.
• Call to Action: Select a button from the dropdown menu that matches your goal, like “Learn More.”

Once everything looks good in the preview, hit the green “Publish” button. Your campaign will go into review and should be live within a few hours.

Are People Noticing? Measuring Your Campaign's Success

Running the campaign is only half the battle. Now you need to track your results to see what's working. For an awareness campaign, you'll focus on different metrics than you would for a sales campaign.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Brand Awareness

In Ads Manager, go to the “Columns” dropdown and customize it to show these metrics:

• Reach: The number of unique people who saw your ads. This is your primary measure of how far your message is spreading.
• Impressions: The total number of times your ads were viewed. One person can see your ad multiple times.
• Frequency (Impressions/Reach): This tells you the average number of times each person saw your ad. For a new audience, you want to keep this number relatively low (around 1-3) to avoid annoying people who aren't familiar with you yet.
• Estimated Ad Recall Lift: This is Facebook's prediction of how many additional people will remember seeing your ad. It's the most direct indicator of whether your awareness objective is being met.
• Video ThruPlays / Video Average Play Time: If you're running video ads, these metrics tell you if people are actually watching and for how long.

Check these metrics every few days. If your costs are high or your ad recall is low, it might be time to test new creative or adjust your audience targeting.

Final Thoughts

Executing a successful brand awareness campaign on Facebook comes down to a simple formula: reach the right people with compelling creative that makes a memorable first impression. By laying a solid foundation with clear goals and a defined audience, crafting content that connects emotionally, and measuring the right metrics, you can introduce your brand to thousands of potential new customers.

Putting together a single campaign is one challenge, but orchestrating your entire social media presence is another. We built Postbase because we know modern marketing relies just as much on consistent, engaging organic content as it does on paid ads. Our visual content calendar helps you plan your organic posts around your campaigns, while our rock-solid scheduling for video and Reels ensures your message stays cohesive across platforms. It's the tool we always wanted to manage everything in one, uncomplicated view.