Advertising on Facebook has the potential to exponentially increase leads and sales for your business. After all, with over 200 million users logging in every day, a few of them are bound to check you out.
Of course, this can only happen if you do it right! There are many tools and techniques that can help you make the most of this opportunity. And, even beginners can do it. Take advantage of these tips for advertising on Facebook, and harness the awesome power of social media to grow your business:
1. Know the rules. Yes, Facebook has guidelines for advertising. But, don’t let this deter you. These are common sense rules regarding ad content, creative elements, positioning and legality. In other words, no spam, no “get rich quick” schemes and no annoying audio, please.
2. Target your ads. Targeting is a good idea for any advertising campaign. Facebook allows you to target ads to specific audiences so that they perform better (on average, 2 to 1 over non-targeted ads!). You can target by:
- Location
- Age and birthday
- Interests
- Education
- Connections
3. Spend time on creative. Creative is ad-speak for the graphic design of your ads. What do they look like? Colors, fonts, images and the size of your ads all play into whether people will click. Since Facebook only allows one image, be sure to make it enticing!
4. Don’t spend more than you need to. Facebook makes it possible to advertise for as little as one cent per click and 2 cents per impression. While this may not get the advertiser big results at first, it gives anyone on a limited budget the chance to start out small and ramp up later, as they can.
5. Use ad space wisely. Facebook only allows you 25 characters for an ad title, 135 characters for the body and one image. That’s 30 more characters than Google allows for its PPC ads. So, take advantage of this extra space by creating ad content and images that really pop. Think of your ads as mini landing pages—people won’t click if what they see is not clear, concise and compelling.
6. Monitor results. Your Facebook advertising efforts, like any marketing campaign, should be monitored on a regular basis. Facebook makes this easy with Ads Manager and Reports. These features give you real-time measurements that help you improve ad performance and get more for your marketing dollars.
7. Use the resources. Need a little help? Have a question? There are many ways to get assistance with your Facebook advertising campaign, so avail yourself of the resources. Facebook blogs and forums abound, and contain everything from news and solutions to tips and tricks. Facebook itself has a Help Center and Facebook Tips on its blog.
Advertising on Facebook gives you access to a whole new audience for your marketing message. Whether you want to build your brand, increase conversion rates or establish your authority with consumers, Facebook is a simple and agile way to do it—even for newbies like you!
