Enter Facebook.
Facebook is currently used by millions of users who log
into their accounts every day to communicate with friends and family, to network
with businesses and to post updates on their personal and business lives. It's
one of the fastest growing sites online, with over 400 million user-created
accounts and receives a greater number of page views every month then even
Google!
With this mass exposure and incredible outreach, Facebook
has quickly become the leading contender in the paid advertising scene, giving
anyone serious about marketing their business the opportunity to tap into their
target audience quickly, easily and most impressively - CHEAP. In comparison
with traditional pay per click marketing, the actual costs to advertise on
Facebook are well below industry standard, PLUS even more importantly perhaps,
Facebook actually has fewer advertisers then Adwords or other PPC marketplaces.
That means that you are have less competition to worry about and will be able
to reach your target customers faster, easier and at a lower cost than with any
other advertising network.
How Facebook Advertising Works
With Facebook, their advertising channels are based on
DISPLAY rather than per SEARCH . What this means is that instead of users having
to enter in specific search terms or keywords, your advertisements will be trigger
to appear based on the page content that the user is reading. Another factor
that plays a part in the advertisements that are shown to Facebook users is
based on whether they "vote" for current advertisements. You see,
with every advertisement featured within the Facebook network, there is a
'thumbs up' icon that appears below the advertisement that allows someone
viewing the ad to 'vote' for it. If someone votes for an advertisement, it indicates
to Facebook that they should display additional advertisements of the SAME kind
(based on category, keywords and overall relevancy), ensuring the best
experience possible for Facebook members. As a Facebook advertiser, you will
also be able to promote your products and services using images, a feature that
is not usually available within traditional PPC marketing.
Images are an incredible asset in maximizing conversion
rates because you can tailor the images used in your ads to push the "right
buttons" or pull at emotional triggers that you know will have an impact
on your average customer. For example, if you were placing an advertisement
that offered a teeth whitening kit, you could place a simple image of a
"before" and "after" that offers the reader with a visual
aid that leaves an incredible impression. Images can ultimately be one of the
LEADING motivators in getting targeted customers to click through your
advertisements and explore your offer. So, how can you start exploiting the
popularity and massive outreach of the Facebook network to gain maximum
exposure for your business?
Here are a few tips to
help you get started:
Target Your Advertisements
You want your entire advertisement to be heavily targeted
towards your average customer. This includes any images that are featured
within your ads as well as the advertising text that is featured below the
image. With Facebook, you are able to set up a very targeted advertisement,
including targeting specific age groups, locations, education levels, what
people have indicated that they are interested in based on their profile
summary, and can even target primarily men or women. The more carefully you
create highly targeted advertisements, the better your ads will perform, so
make sure you spend a bit of time crafting your ads so that they effectively
target your customer base.
Create Facebook Compliant Advertisements
Facebook wants to maintain a user-friendly community and
in order to do this they are very strict with the types of advertisements that are
allowed to be circulated throughout their network. This means that you cannot
use slang; improper grammar and you must refrain from using any images or text
that could be considered offensive.
Don't look at these guidelines as a downside to using
Facebook but instead, consider how this quality control will HELP you create
higher converting advertisements that are genuinely targeted to your customer
base.
Keep An Eye On Your CTR
CTR which stands for Click Through Rate and you want to
keep an eye on how well your advertisements are performing. Your ads should
never go below 2%, and if you notice that an advertisement is starting to fall
below that level, you will want to tweak your advertisement and reconsider who
your advertisement is targeted to. Are you asking the right questions in your
advertisement? Using the right image?
Make sure that you spend time evaluating the effectiveness
of your advertisement to generate maximum conversion rates and avoid having
your advertisements paused or removed.
Choose The Appropriate Time To Run Your Ads
You can choose to run your advertisements continuously
throughout the day or based on specific start and end dates. You will want to run
your advertisements throughout the day continuously, unless you need to pause
it for a specific reason such as if you are going away on holiday, or you find
that specific times of the day are converting better (based on the locations
you are interested in targeting).
Set A Reasonable Maximum Bid
You will want to set a maximum daily bid that you are
comfortable with and fits within your budget. Facebook will provide a suggested
maximum bid based on the content of your advert isement and your target ing configuration.
Consider setting your maximum bid slightly lower than Facebook's recommended minimum
and adjust it as you need to based on your advertisements conversion rates and
overall exposure.
Choose CPC Over Impressions
You can also choose to pay for impressions or per click.
It's always best to choose CPC (cost per click) for the most part, especially during
your testing phase. You can always change this later on if you need to.


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