If you are a business owner, chances are that you have heard of Facebook ads. You may even have tried using them to generate some interest in your product or service. But what exactly is a Facebook ad and how does it work? This blog post will explore in-depth Facebook Ads and why your business must use Facebook ads to reach out to your target audience.
What are Facebook Ads?
Over a billion users choose to connect over Facebook every day, and companies of all sizes are beginning to realize the incredible potential it presents for marketing their products and services. With so many individuals using this powerful social networking platform, the sky’s really the limit when it comes to promoting your brand!
In Facebook ads, you will be able to show your ads to a specific audience, whether it be just in the United States or you want to target people from Taiwan and Singapore. You may want your ad only shown by females between ages 18-25 that live within 10 miles of major cities. You can also show ads only during certain times of the day on weekdays when many people are online utilizing their phones to access social sites like Facebook.
By using Facebook’s incredibly powerful platform and related advertising services available through it, you’ll have an incredible resource at your fingertips for offering your goods and services to virtually anyone with access to a computer connected to the Internet or mobile device.
What are the benefits of using Facebook Ads for your business?
The benefits of using Facebook ads for your business are many. Some are even free! You will be able to gain a huge audience reach which hopefully, in turn, means you can show your products or services to thousands of individuals who otherwise would not have been able to see them.
One thing that is also very important when dealing with marketing campaigns is the ability and knowledge to track and measure results. When you use Facebook’s advertising service, they provide you with detailed statistics on how effective your campaign has been so you’ll always know what works best for your business and what doesn’t work as well. Many things can factor into why ad campaigns don’t seem to do quite as well as expected, but at least being able to evaluate these statistics will help you be able to more adequately plan your next campaign.
What are the different types of Facebook Ads?
There are a number of different types of campaigns you may choose for advertising via Facebook (reach out to https://www.facebook.com/ads/create for more information).
Facebook Advertising Campaign Types:
- Acquisition:
The purpose of this campaign is to increase your number of fans or followers who may then click on your ads and become customers. You can get likes on Facebook through these ads, but the main point of the ad is to gain exposure and recognition from potential new users. This type of ad will not return any results that help you make money (increase sales or leads, etc.) - Image Ad:
A standard image with a headline and description taken from a webpage or document file on your computer–similar to an online classified ad pulled into Facebook’s advertising platform. Image Ads are typically used as announcements events or seasonal ads. - Link Ad:
A link ad is simply a text-heavy Facebook ad that directs users to your website or landing page — similar to an online display ad pulled into Facebook’s advertising platform. In this case, the headline and the body are more important than the picture, so you’ll want to take time writing something that will inspire readers to click on your link and become fans of your business page (or view other content within the site). Link ads can be created by copy and pasting existing links into the space provided for you in FB’s interface. - Page Post Engagement Ads:
One of the newer options available when promoting a brand or business on Facebook is Page Post Engagement ads which allow businesses to promote posts from their Facebook page. These ads tend to perform well for businesses that have a strong Facebook presence and whose posts frequently receive a lot of attention and interaction from fans. The purpose of this type of advertisement is to direct new fans to your page and ultimately improve the organic reach of your content. - Pay Per Click:
Pay-per-click ads on Facebook help you get in front of a highly targeted audience that already has interest in your product or service. You pay for each click on an ad, so it’s important to ensure that the subject line and headline are enticing enough for users to actually click through from their newsfeeds (the more time someone invests in reading your text, the more likely they are to take action). When creating PPC ads on Facebook, you can choose whether you’d like the ad images shown next to search results or if you only want them shown during specific times throughout the day.
In addition to the different types of Facebook ads, you can also choose your targeting options. You might be interested in promoting a brand-new sale or event and want to target locals within 10 miles that are “interested in” your type of business (targeting those queries, for one thing, will exclude users searching for other things). Perhaps you want to reach out to blue-collar workers that live nearby with an ad about a new product for contractors featured on Craigslist’s home page.
Here are TOP Best practices for running an effective campaign:
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Be Targeted!
When creating your Facebook campaign, you want to be as specific as possible with the intent of each ad. You can do this by using segmentation tools that help you reach out to people based on their interests, physical locations, workplace, and more. If you’re trying for a large-scale audience (e.g., everyone who lives in New York), then it’s best to set up a standard advert that goes straight out into the newsfeeds of users everywhere.
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Have a call-to-action
Having an actionable CTA is essential when running Facebook Ad campaigns and should always be at the heart of your efforts. Whether the end goal is leads or engagement, every message needs to have an objective that’s clear and concise.
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Do the research
It’s no secret that Facebook is the largest source of social information on everyone who is alive in North America. Take advantage of their resources by using their demographic breakdowns to figure out which users within your target audience are available and most likely to respond to a message you’ve created. Include these insights in your advert or campaign so that you’re able to speak directly with those people who’ll be more interested in what you have to say.
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Don’t let vanity get in the way
Just because this is an online ad doesn’t mean it can’t look good! People always notice when things appear professional, especially when interacting with something as ubiquitous as Facebook advertisements. Be you, but be you on a good day.
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Don’t forget to promote yourself!
It can be hard to convince people of something that’s not necessarily true, even if it’s what they want to hear. If you’re able to come up with a unique message that could possibly catch someone by surprise and interest them in your product or brand, then all is fair game. This could also help in the future when you use this ad again – users will recognize your business as one that uses new creative methods for engaging their audience.
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Promote Something New Regularly
Facebook ads are great because they allow you to directly target an interested audience with relevant content at any given time. As long as you can avoid alienating those users who may already be familiar with what you have to offer, it’s up to you when and how often to run a new campaign. Don’t let people get used to something that they’ve seen before!
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Have a budget for each one
Though many users are still unaware of whether or not Facebook offers ad targeting based on age and gender, it’s still a good idea to allow for financial differences that you may need to make between each ad. A message about an exclusive purchase tied into a sale might draw users in with low targeting costs but could also have little chance of generating any significant returns.
When it is time to stop running your campaign?
If you can’t think of a new way to approach your campaign and you’re not getting any engagement, then it’s time to stop running it. No matter how “great” or “accurate” the algorithm is (and trust us, it’s been getting better), there are still plenty of ways that people will see, like, and share things on Facebook without ever even seeing your adverts. Having good ads isn’t enough – you need them to be seen if they’re going to be worth the investment!
Tips on how to use Facebook ads effectively for your business:
- Whenever promoting a sale or an event, always include photographs and videos. These images act as visual compliments that can inspire a user to take action.
- When advertising multiple products at once, always separate them with clear section breaks so that users know what they’re looking at and then direct them towards the one they might be interested in buying!
- If you have plenty of other written content on your website or elsewhere, include links within your advert to these pieces for additional context. You’ll provide more information for each visitor who is potentially interested in your business and also promote yourself as someone who’s eager to share new knowledge.
Why should you not use Facebook ads for everything?
Inevitably, every company will want to aim all of their spendings into Facebook ads because of how easy it is to run an effective campaign that taps an exact demographic. However, it’s important to remember that Facebook still has plenty of competition in the form of Google Ads and local newspapers. Make sure you can’t reach every customer you could ever imagine from another platform before making all of your advertising decisions!
Examples of the good campaign:
Tinycards is a free app that features flash cards that allow users to learn their new vocabulary more easily. They are already popular, and Facebook ads provide them with an increased level of exposure as well as helping them find the appropriate audience in order to increase their downloads.
Example 1: Tiny Cards’ first ad looks like any other post you’d see on your typical Facebook user’s page. The link goes straight to the download for a quick install, but it also ensures those who don’t want to mess up with apps won’t be forced to do so.
Example 2: As Tiny Cards’ popularity continued growing, they started using different types of visual content within the ads themselves rather than just focusing on downloading links. The use of photographs and video clips gives the product a personal touch that keeps users interested even when they don’t want to download anything.
Example 3: Tiny Cards’ Facebook ad campaign is successful because every post draws on a different sense of urgency or exclusivity. Sometimes, it’s only for a limited amount of time before those who do not install the app will be unable to continue using it. Other times, they make sure to include an image directly from the app itself so that those who look at the ad can see exactly what they’re missing out on by not downloading it!
Examples of bad campaigns:
A local grocery store in Canada running an ad campaign meant to boost sales during the holiday season made one big mistake: choosing to use their ads as an opportunity to reinforce the idea of shopping, rather than using it as a marketing tool. By focusing on the sale itself instead of making sure that people who see ads will be inclined to buy something from them (and even if those things are related to other items on the website), they’ve missed out on their greatest opportunity for growth in the new year.
Example 1: This ad doesn’t have a clear sense of what product is being advertised or any sort of visual content within it. It’s unclear whether this was simply an oversight or whether there was some sort of error with Facebook’s advertising algorithm and this was all they ended up with – either way, these are huge mistakes that can end up costing you major money and interactions in your future campaigns!
Example 2: Social media marketing should never be used for selling products. People are there to socialize, not to buy more things; if the latter is something you need to do, please take this post as a hint that you might have too many products and should probably cut your stock down.
In summary, Facebook Ads are a powerful tool that can be used to increase your business’s online presence. With the right strategy and enough time dedicated to monitoring your campaigns, you’ll see an increase in customer engagement.
I hope you learned a lot from this blog post.
Please let me know if you have any questions or anything you keep asking about. Remember every blog matters! Don’t forget to share this post with your friends who might benefit from it too.
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