Using Facebook Ads to Reach the Lost

This morning I was interviewed on a podcast called iPreach. It's a podcast co-hosted by Dale Jenkins of the Spring Meadows church of Christ and Adam Faughn of the Lebanon Road church of Christ. You can listen to the podcast below and it will help add some context to everything else in this posting.



This post is designed to help you go step by step through the process of setting up Facebook Ads for outreach. The first thing you need to do is login to your facebook page (If you don't know how to do this then learn it and come back). Once you have logged into your facebook page I recommend you create a “fan page” for your congregation if you don't already have one. After I show you how to create a fan page I will give you instructions on how to create a Facebook Ad.

To create a fan page:

1. Scroll down to the bottom of your page and lick on "advertising"






2. On the left side click on "pages"

3. Click "Create Page"

4. Select category, enter a name, and click create

5. Now that your page is created you can click "edit page" to make it all fancy.

6. Once you are done with that click "suggest to friends" and select all the members of your congregation


7. Drink a Dr Pepper and celebrate you have made it this far!

To Create an Ad:

1. Scroll down to the bottom of your page and click on "advertising"

2. click on "create ad"

3. Now you have to design your ad.

     - Decide where you want the people to end up at when they click your ad. If it's your website or something on your website enter the address in the "destination URL." If you want people to end up on your Facebook Fan Page or Event Page click on "I want to advertise something I have on Facebook."

     - Give your Ad a Title that will stand out, get peoples attention, and gives an idea of what your ad is all about

     - Give a brief, interesting, informative description of whatever it is you are advertising

     - Choose an image. Image size is limited to 110v80 pixels. Make sure your image stands out and is related to what you are advertising!

4. Select your target audience for this Ad (Listen to Podcast for details on these factors)

5. Select the Method of Advertising

     - By naming the campaign you can group your ads together. Maybe you want to run three different ads for one event. They would all go in the same campaign.

     - Set your daily budget. How much is the most you are willing to spend PER DAY on this entire set of ads in your ad campaign

     - If this is for an event, or you know when you want the ad to stop, click "run my ad only during specified dates" and specify the dates. Otherwise leave it how it is.

     - Now you have to decide if you want to pay on a cost per click basis or a cost per 1,000 impressions basis. There are benefits to both... again... listen to the podcast and I will explain some of that.

     - Now select your bid. The suggested bid amount gives you an idea of what ads are going for to your same target audience. Remember, the higher you bid the more likely your ad will be displayed. The amount you enter is the most you are willing to spend on a click or per 1,000 impressions (it may be lower than this amount).

6. Click Create

7. Drink another Dr Pepper and pray that the Lord blesses your efforts to reach the lost. You can always get back to your advertising by clicking on the "advertising" button on the bottom of the Facebook screen. This will allow you to track all the details of how your ads are performing, as well as edit, add, and remove your ads.

I hope this has been somewhat helpful to you. If you have used Facebook Ads before, or you are going to be using them, PLEASE contact me and let me know what you have done that has worked and what hasn't worked. Hopefully we can use this as just another one of many tools to reach the lost.

Sow the Seed,

Caleb O'Hara

The Proper Care & Feeding of Husbands

On a fairly regular basis I pick up books to add to my counseling collection. A couple weeks ago I added another, The Proper Care & Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura Schlessinger. The first thing I did when I got home was get on Facebook and ask if any women had read the book and if they did what they thought about it. Here are some of the comments I received:

• “I think every woman should read it before the wedding and on every anniversary there after! Excellent!”
• “As a woman, it says some stuff that is hard to hear and hard to do. As a guy, [my husband] said that it was dead on in what women need to do for their men. [He] loves the book and I do to. It really showed me how to better care for my man!”
• “[I] never read it but always disliked the title--like you're taking care of a dog or houseplant or something.”
• “It definitely gets to the heart of the matter, thinking beyond ourself. Like most books, If you can go away with one good thing to implement to make your marriage better.....I think it is worth the cost of the book. I think you can go away with several things from this book.”

The book is written in a very easy to read, and very easy to follow style. The dialogue of the book is largely based on calls Dr. Laura has received on her syndicated radio show, as well as comments and stories people sent to her specifically for this book. I'm not a fast reader and I digested the book in one evening and one morning.

The main idea behind the book as that in a marriage relationship women need to look out for and provide for the needs of their husbands, in a way that only a wife can. This is an entirely biblical idea, “Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:21). Dr. Laura accurately explains how various cultural influences have led many women to aquire false ideas about what their role is in a marriage relationship. As a result, there are many marriages that are suffering because of wives not fulfilling their role in the marriage. Want details? Read the book.

She deals with topics that we often don't want to talk about in the church. Subjects like Men's feelings, nagging, guy time, and even sex. I've never really understood why we don't want to discuss these subjects (the Bible talks about them), but would rather learn what's appropriate on these matters from TV, magazines, and movies – secular ungodly sources.

There are few negatives I came away with from the book. First of all Dr. Laura occasionally uses language I would not approve of using. Second is the fact that it may be easy to come away from this book thinking that the only problems in relationships are the result of women. It would be easy to think that if only the woman would change her act all marriages would be perfect. This of course is not true. Sometimes the man is the problem and will refuse to change. It does, however, show that even in those situations if you do your part you will be fulfilling the words of God in 1 Peter 3:1. You are creating the optimal atmosphere to persuade him to change without speaking a word of it to him.

All in all I would highly recommend this book to all married women or those who will potentially get married. It's well worth the time, and I believe it could help make more marriages Godly. The result would be a better homes and better churches serving God. If you read it I would love to hear your thoughts.

Evil Doesn't Advertise As Evil

I haven't yet figured out why we still don't get that evil always tries to look good. If you were presented with a juicy T-Bone or a plate full of maggots the choice for dinner would be easy. But Satan doesn't operate that way—he never has! The ruler of this earth knows what people on this earth like, and he tries to use whatever we like against us. Are we really surprised at this?

It's when you like a person you let down your guard of good judgment; you stop thinking critically. Actions that if committed by a person with a ski mask on and gun in his hand would obviously be taken as evil, are now considered by us to be actions with a good intent all because the guy looks like... you know... something we like. He says what I like to hear. He dresses the way I like him to dress. He smells the way I like him to smell. He makes me comfortable. Now is the time to watch out! Used car salesmen don't wear shirts that say, “I'm here to sell you what you don't need, can't afford, and makes me a big commission.” They don't dress in slouchy shorts, ripped t-shirts, worn out shoes, and forget to do their hair or brush their teeth. They dress like... a person you would like! Beware!

Paul had to warn the Ephesian elders “[S]avage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock” (Acts 20:29). Oh they surely were obvious. They stood up on the hill and we could see them coming from miles. All the sheep knew they were being attacked by evil, right? Nope! Well, where did they come from? “From among your own selves” (vs. 30). Jesus said, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15). They look like what we like to see. They look like a harmless sheep. They look just like me!?!? At no time can the Christian lay down his discerning eye; never ever! Especially when it looks good, sounds good, taste good. That's precisely when we know it's time to do a deeper examination.

One of the best paragraphs I've ever read on this theme, I read in a book this last month. It said, “Perhaps the greater disservice of Hollywood movies is their cartoonish villains. In real life, I promise you, the devil will look more like Julia Roberts than Snidely Whiplash. Evil does not arrive with a flashing neon sign: MEPHISTOPHELES! LUCIFER! SATAN! FOR ETERNAL DAMNATION, APPLY HERE. Evil arrives packaged as a winsome movie about a long-legged brunette who manages to marry a rich, handsome bachelor and live happily ever after—all by turning tricks on Hollywood Boulevard! There's a reason Beelzebub is known as the prince of lies.” I'm going to violate a major rule and not reveal the source of this quote because I don't want the source to taint your view of what it says. All I can say is that it's right on.

What does this all mean? I think you are all smart enough to figure it out. If you like something or someone (or anything or anyone), put your guard on high alert because Satan knows you like it. And if you like it he is going to try to use it to destroy you. That sounds... well.. EVIL doesn't it? Now you get it!

He's Baaaaaaaack

This morning my friend Ron tells me that it's time to start blogging again. He also told me to get a haircut so what does he know? Well I think he is right about the blogging (and probably the haircut too). So Ron... this blogs for you!

It was a long weekend. Wednesday night after class the whole family headed down to Visalia. We stayed at my wife's grandparents house. It was great getting to spend Thursday and Friday with my friend Cliff. While I was down there I also got to train with a great group of guys at Elite Jiu Jitsu in Visalia. Tom Knox is a great instructor and one of the nicest guys I've met in the Jiu Jitsu community. I'm looking forward to trying out some new sweeps he taught me.

Friday night I did the lesson at the Youth Rally. My title was, "Committing to God with Your Worship." The opening part of the presentation was given in five minutes. I had twenty slides that automatically advanced every fifteen seconds; it left very little room from error. It's a new teaching technique that I'm experimenting with. I think it went pretty well. Right after the lesson we had to head home. We rolled into town at 12:30. The problem was that I got a grande caramel frappuccino at Starbucks to keep me awake while driving. It successfully kept me awake until 3:30 in the morning. The alarm went off at 8:00 and we headed out to soccer. I'm coaching Caleb Jr's soccer team (16 crazy 5 year olds). The first drive Caleb took the ball, dribbled around the defenders, and kicked it right into the goal! Dad couldn't have been more proud.

This morning I continued my current sermon series, "Back 2 School." This morning's lesson was, "What is faith and belief?" Tonight's lesson was an introduction to the book of Acts. Every Sunday night before worship we have a fifteen minute bible exercise that one of our elders leads. It's a great program for teaching our little ones (and us adults too) where information is in the Bible. The card he is going over right now is "Events in Acts." The sermons will go hand in hand with our exercise.

Now I'm home, exhausted, and about to start a crazy diet and exercise program with my wife in the morning. Target closes in fifteen minutes so I have to jam over there and get some stuff for our diet. That means I'm finished!

Good Night & Sow the Seed!
Caleb O'Hara