This article provides a comprehensive, in-depth and up-to-date overview of advertising activities (running Ads) on today's leading digital platforms. The article will delve into the definition, role and detailed analysis of the process of setting up, optimizing, and measuring the effectiveness of advertising campaigns on Facebook, Google, TikTok and Zalo.

Readers will be equipped with basic to advanced knowledge about charging models, budget strategies, typical advertising forms of each platform, and valuable practical experiences. Furthermore, the article also analyzes common risks such as account errors, policy violations, and "running away" behavior, along with solutions to handle them.

Finally, we will provide objective advice on whether to run ads yourself or hire a service, helping businesses and individuals make the most appropriate strategic decisions for their business goals.

What is advertising? Why is it an effective sales strategy?

Definition and role of digital advertising

Advertising is a paid form of marketing that allows businesses and individuals to "display" their products and services on online channels to reach a large number of potential customers.

This activity is carried out by advertising professionals, also known as advertisers. Their job is not simply to press the "run" button, but an in-depth process that includes market research, analyzing target customer portraits, building advertising strategies suitable for each channel, and finally designing and implementing the campaign.

In the modern business context, digital advertising has become an essential tool to bring products/services to the right customers, thereby increasing coverage, boosting sales and optimizing profits.

The demand for recruiting advertising staff is always abundant, showing that this is not only a sales channel but has become a profession, a specialized and competitive service industry. The strong development of this market also entails risks and complexities, requiring advertisers to have extensive knowledge and practical experience.

Analyze the goals of running ads

A common misconception is that advertising is only for selling. In fact, major platforms like Facebook and Google Ads offer a variety of campaign objectives, tailored to different stages of the customer’s buying journey. Accurate objectives help the platform’s algorithms deliver ads more effectively.

• Awareness Stage: The goal in this stage is to increase brand awareness, getting your product/service in front of as many people as possible, even if they don't have an immediate need to buy.

• Consideration Stage: At this stage, the goal is to drive customer interest and engagement. Campaigns typically focus on increasing website traffic, increasing post engagement (likes, comments, shares), or lead generation through information collection forms.

• Conversion Stage: This is the most direct goal, focusing on generating sales, increasing app installs, or encouraging customers to complete specific actions on your website or landing page.

Choosing the right objective from the start is key, determining how the platform delivers your ads and how you measure their effectiveness later.

The most popular digital advertising platforms today

Facebook and Instagram Ads

Facebook Ads, including Instagram ads, are a highly regarded paid advertising system thanks to their detailed targeting capabilities.8 Ads are delivered based on a variety of criteria such as geographic location, interests, demographics, and user behavior.

To evaluate effectiveness, advertisers need to track key metrics:

• Reach: Total number of people who saw your ad at least once.

• Impressions: The total number of times an ad was shown. This metric is usually higher than Reach because a person can see an ad multiple times.

• CPC (Cost Per Click): Average cost for each click on an ad.

• CPM (Cost Per Mille): Cost per 1000 impressions.

• CPA (Cost Per Action): Cost for each conversion action (eg purchase, form filling).

• CPL (Cost Per Like): Cost for each page or post like

Instructions for running Facebook ads from A to Z, The process of running ads on Facebook is standardized through the following 6 steps:

• Create a campaign and choose an objective: Go to Ads Manager and choose an objective that fits your marketing strategy.

• Account Settings: Set up basic information like country, currency, and time zone.

• Identify your target audience: This is the most important step where you target based on your customers' location, age, gender and interests.

• Choose ad placements: You can choose automatic delivery (for Facebook to optimize) or manually edit to remove ineffective placements.

• Set a budget: Choose a daily or lifetime budget for your campaign. A daily budget allows you to set a fixed cost per day, while a lifetime budget sets a total limit for your entire campaign.

• Create an ad: Write content, add images/videos, and preview the look before paying and running your ad

In addition, Facebook also provides the feature of running ads on personal pages by switching to professional mode, however this feature has just been launched and the success rate of opening is not high.

Popular Facebook advertising formats

Facebook advertising formats are categorized by objective and format.

• Segmented by objective: Awareness, traffic, engagement, leads, and sales

• Classification by format:

  • Boosted posts: Increase the reach of your fanpage to users with relevant behavior

  • Video Ads: Use vivid video content, very effective on mobile devices

  • Carousel Ads: Display multiple images or videos in a slideshow, allowing customers to view multiple products at once

  • Messenger Ads: Connect directly with customers via text messages, suitable for consulting and closing deals

  • Conversion Ads: Promote specific actions on the website/landing page. To optimize this form, Facebook Pixel is an indispensable tool.

Facebook advertising optimization strategies and experiences

To advertise effectively, it is necessary to focus on the following optimization factors:

• Content and images: Ad content should be short, concise and appeal to the viewer's emotions. Images need to be eye-catching, comply with Facebook's standard size and limit the amount of text.

• Budget and audience: For beginners, it is recommended to start with a small budget (about 20,000 - 50,000 VND/day) and increase gradually, no more than 15% per day, so that the Facebook algorithm has time to learn and distribute stably. Limit targeting too much detail at the beginning because this can shrink the audience file, causing bids to increase.

• Using Facebook Pixel and A/B testing: Pixel helps track user behavior on the website and create similar customer files (Lookalike Audience), thereby optimizing advertising effectiveness. A/B testing is an effective method to compare different advertising templates and find the best version.

• Understanding the Algorithm: A common mistake is to constantly turn ads on and off. This is bad because Facebook needs at least 24 hours to learn and deliver effectively. Interrupting this process will skew results and reduce campaign effectiveness.

Google Ads and YouTube Ads

Overview of Google's advertising ecosystem

Google Ads is one of the most powerful online advertising platforms available today, allowing advertisers to customize their campaigns for maximum effectiveness. Key benefits of using Google Ads include: reaching the right audience at the right time, flexible cost control, detailed performance measurement, and easy campaign management.

Main types of Google Ads advertising

Google's ecosystem offers a variety of advertising formats, serving a variety of business goals:

• Search Ads (Google Search): This is the core form, ads will be displayed in text form when users search for keywords related to products/services.

• Google Display Network (GDN): Banner ads appear on millions of Google partner websites. GDN has low click-through rates but is very effective for increasing widespread brand awareness

• Video Ads (YouTube Ads): Displayed on the YouTube platform, suitable for promoting products through vivid, engaging video content

• Shopping Ads (Google Shopping): Display products (images, prices) directly on Google search results pages, ideal for retail businesses

• Guide to setting up and optimizing Google Ads campaigns

To set up an effective Google Ads campaign, there is a strict process to follow:

• Define your goals: Start by clearly defining your campaign's ultimate goal.

• Keyword Research: Select a list of keywords that potential customers often use to search for your product/service.

• Create an account and set up a campaign: Sign in to Google Ads, select an ad type, and set up basic parameters.

• Write compelling ad copy: Write short but informative ad copy that includes key keywords and a clear call to action.

• Optimize Landing Page: Landing pages need to load quickly, have clear content and have strong CTA to increase conversion rates. Advertising is just the first step, the user experience on the landing page is the deciding factor in effectiveness.

• Use Remarketing: Set up to reach customers who have visited your website but have not purchased. This is an effective strategy to increase conversions.

The cost per click (CPC) on Google Search depends largely on the competitiveness of the keyword. An optimal strategy is to combine both: run Search for direct sales goals and run GDN/YouTube to build brand awareness and create remarketing files.

TikTok and TikTok Shop Ads

Advantages of advertising on TikTok platform

TikTok is becoming a potential advertising platform thanks to its huge user base, especially among young people. Short, creative videos on TikTok have the ability to spread strongly and are often less competitive than other platforms.

Instructions for running effective TikTok ads from A to Z

The process of running ads on TikTok is similar to other platforms, including 4 main steps:

• Prepare resources: Need a TikTok Ads account, Visa card and a promotional video about 15 seconds long.

• Create an ad account: Go to TikTok Ads Manager to sign up for an account

• Create a campaign: Choose the right advertising objective, such as "Conversions" to optimize for sales

• Set up ad sets and ads: Set budget, target audience, and upload ad videos

Typical advertising formats on TikTok Shop

TikTok Shop offers unique advertising formats to drive sales:

• Video Shopping Ads: Increase impressions on videos featuring TikTok Shop products. When viewers click, they'll be directed to the product page to make a purchase.

• Live Shopping Ads: Promote Livestream sales sessions by displaying them on the "For You" section. Customers can interact and make purchases directly on the live session.

Experience running LIVE ads on TikTok

To optimize live advertising, focus on content and timing:

• Compelling livestream script: Content plays an important role in attracting and retaining viewers. Prepare a detailed script, including sharing product usage experiences or giving away discount codes.

• Set up your ads early: You should set up your ad campaign about 1 hour before your live stream so TikTok has time to approve and distribute it in time.

TikTok users have a high demand for entertainment, so advertising content needs to be creative, attractive and have the element of "retaining" viewers from the first seconds. Similar to Facebook, TikTok's AI needs a learning period (at least 50 events in 10 days) to complete, so the runner needs to monitor and optimize regularly during this period.

Zalo Ads

Benefits and features of Zalo Ads

Zalo Ads is an effective advertising platform, especially for the Vietnamese market. It allows you to reach potential customers in the Zalo ecosystem, including Zalo app, Bao Moi and Zing Mp3. The outstanding advantages of Zalo Ads are the ability to easily set up campaigns, control costs well and interact 1:1 with customers through Zalo Official Account (OA).

Popular forms of Zalo Ads advertising

Zalo Ads' diverse advertising forms include:

• Website Advertising: Increase traffic to your website or landing page

• Zalo Official Account Advertising: Increase the number of likes for OA accounts. After gaining likes, businesses can reach customers again completely free of charge, this is a huge competitive advantage.

• Video & Article Ads: Increase brand awareness and conversions through engaging, visual content

• Message Advertising: Collect customer information, consult and close orders right on Zalo. Can use chatbot to support automatic response

• Instructions for setting up a Zalo advertising campaign

The process of setting up a Zalo Ads campaign includes the following steps:

1. Access Zalo Ads: Log in to your advertising account.

2. Choose advertising goals: Choose the form that suits your business purpose.

3. Targeting: Select location (limited to Vietnam only), gender, age and other demographic criteria

4. Set bids & budgets: Set cost per click, impression, or contact

5. Create ad content: Fill in all information, upload images and ad captions (maximum 90 characters, no phone numbers or direct links)

6. Submit ad approval: Send the campaign to the Zalo Ads operations team for review and approval

Cost analysis and effective budgeting strategies

Factors affecting advertising costs

Advertising costs are not fixed but depend on many factors:

• Industry and marketing goals: Each industry has different levels of competition, leading to different costs.27

• Content quality and advertising content: Good content will help reduce advertising costs.

• Running times and competition: Costs can increase during holidays, major events or prime time slots.11

• Popular charging models

Advertising platforms use different pricing models:

• CPC (Cost Per Click): Pay for each click on the ad.

• CPM (Cost Per Mille): Pay for every 1000 impressions.

• CPA (Cost Per Action): Pay when a customer performs a specific action.

• CPV (Cost Per View): Pay for each video view (usually 3 seconds or more).10

Price list and reference costs

Advertising costs are a variable number that fluctuates in real time and with competition. Here are some reference tables (based on experience and internal statistics) of costs on the platforms:

Advertising budget optimization strategy

To optimize advertising budget, some strategies can be applied:

• Lifetime vs. Daily Budget: Choose the budget type that fits your goals. Daily budgets are more flexible, while lifetime budgets are suitable for long-term campaigns with big goals.

• Smart Bidding: Can bid 60% lower than the platform's suggested price to save costs, accepting slower ad delivery

• Data-driven optimization: For conversion campaigns with tight budgets, it is recommended to optimize for clicks first so that the platform has enough data, then increase the budget to optimize for conversions. This helps avoid wasting money when the algorithm does not have enough information to work effectively.

Run ads yourself or hire a service?

Analyze the pros and cons of the two options

This is a common question for businesses. Each option has its own pros and cons.

• Self-run ads:

  • Advantages: Completely proactive in all decisions, no additional service costs, can build and control own remarketing strategies

  • Disadvantages: Time consuming to learn and experiment, prone to mistakes, costly to start with, and requires expertise from the implementer.

• Service rental:

  • Advantages: Save time, get professional strategic advice, reduce risks and mistakes, and potentially achieve higher efficiency due to the experience of experts.

  • Disadvantages: Additional service costs (usually calculated as a % of budget), easily passive about indicators and may encounter inexperienced units causing waste

When to run it yourself and when to outsource

The decision should be based on your size and goals:

• Should run by yourself: When the budget is small, the needs are simple, or when you want to be autonomous and in control of everything. Starting with small campaigns to gain experience is a wise strategy.

• Should outsource: When you need to run a campaign urgently, have a large budget, or when your personal account is constantly locked/restricted. Hiring a reputable Agency also buys stability and reduces risk. Agency Business Manager (BM) accounts often have higher spending limits and fewer restrictions than personal accounts, which is especially important for large campaigns.

Risks and how to handle them when running ads

Decoding advanced terminology To better understand industry risks, it is important to master a few terms:

• Payment Threshold: This is the maximum amount of “debt” a platform like Facebook will allow you to reach before requesting payment. The higher the account reputation (based on payment history), the higher the payment threshold will be.

• Running ads without paying the platform. This is a serious policy violation. The consequences of "running without paying" are not only the account being locked, the Visa card cannot be used again, but the fanpage can also be permanently restricted. This behavior also negatively affects the entire advertising community, making the review process more stringent and increasing CPM (bidding).

• Common errors and how to fix them

• Ads take a long time to review: The reason may be a system error or the ad content has signs of violation. You can complain, optimize the content, or create a new similar campaign to refresh the queue.

• Locked/restricted account: This error often occurs when violating the platform's advertising policy. The solution is to complain (you can use a personal account with high reputation or foreign IP) or simply create a new fanpage/advertising account and avoid the old errors.

• Unable to add VISA card: This error may be due to insufficient balance, no international payment function, or the maximum payment threshold has been reached. You need to check your card again or contact the bank for support.

Conclude

The digital advertising market is constantly changing, with new algorithms and policies being updated constantly (for example, TikTok regularly updates its policies). Therefore, constantly updating knowledge is vital to maintaining campaign effectiveness and stability.

Advertising is not just a technique, but a smooth combination of understanding the market, grasping customer psychology, and creativity. Mastering the core principles of EEAT (Expertise, Experience, Authority, Trustworthiness) and constantly improving and adhering to the principles will help you become a true expert, creating successful and sustainable campaigns.