Short of a Super Bowl commercial, it would be difficult to find a more far-reaching way to advertise than on Facebook. In December 2011, Facebook reported 845 million active users in that month alone. Advertising on Facebook can broaden your customer base, increase visibility, and, ultimately, improve your bottom line. However, you cannot reach every user with a Facebook advertisement, nor do you want to. A well-researched, targeted campaign can enhance the effectiveness of your Facebook advertisement.
Target the Ad
Facebook’s advertising tools allow you to target the ad to specific demographic groups. Doing so can help you promote your service, product, or organization to the group that would be most interested in it. Do not waste your advertising dollars on Facebook users in countries outside of your organization’s reach. Instead, analyze the market and focus your advertisement on specific Facebook users. Given the large amount of information Facebook users provide on their timelines, you have a significant amount of information about potential consumers available to you. You can select a target audience for your Facebook advertisement based on users’ locations—down to the zip code—ages, educational backgrounds, and employment histories. Target potential consumers based on their gender, relationship status, and interests. The more specifically you target the ad, the more effective it will be.
Advertise to Current Followers
If your organization already has a Facebook page, start your campaign by advertising to current followers. These advertisements have the potential to be the most influential because this target audience already has an interest in your product or service. Simply select Connections Targeting when designing your Facebook ad. You can target just those people who already follow your page, or you can also target those people along with their friends. By targeting friends of connections, you can broaden your reach to potential consumers who likely share similar interests and demographics with your current followers.
Design Multiple Ads
Facebook gives you the opportunity to design several rotating ads on the website. Take advantage of this option, as it allows you to identify what ads are most effective. Use different images and text to see which ad attracts the most interest. This way, you can use different advertising strategies to gauge your target audience and identify the most effective ways to build your customer base. At the same time, multiple rotating ads are more likely to pique Facebook users’ interests.
Use the Ads Manager
Facebook’s useful Ads Manager allows you to constantly evaluate the effectiveness of your ads—and make changes accordingly. You can export reports, such as the Advertising Performance Report or Responder Demographics Report, to reveal helpful information about your ads. You can discover what type of users are clicking on your ad—their age, location, and gender. Assess how many impressions and clicks your ad created, and see the performance of your ad over time to evaluate trends. Information gleaned from the Ads Manager can help guide your long-term advertising strategy on Facebook and beyond.
Conclusion
Advertising on Facebook can be successful if you use the site’s advertising tools smartly. Target your ad to specific Facebook users, and constantly evaluate your ad’s effectiveness to boost your profile. Advertising on Facebook is an interactive process that can benefit both consumers and organizations selling products and services.
Guest Post by Beth Cooper
Post contributed by Beth Cooper, on behalf of Design Contest, a crowd sourcing company using Logo Design Contests to supply unique and affordable designs.
Sending ads to Facebook Pages should cost less than external links. Those promoting sweepstakes for the purpose of collecting likes or opt-ins can get incredibly high CTRs, which can drop click costs to under 10 cents.
These are sound advice. To add to the “Create and Check Several Ads” area, I would suggest getting top-performing ads and developing new ad categories with relevant ad copy/pictures. This decreases your expenses because your ad team has an improved CTR.