Facebook Marketing

The Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Advertising

If you are considering Facebook advertising but are not sure if and how Facebook ads work and how effective they are, this blog post will answer these questions.

You often hear Facebook being neglected, comments like “Facebook is dead now” or how “Engagement is 5 times better on Instagram”.  Most businesses that fail at advertising on Facebook, blame it on the platform but in reality, it’s their own struggle to understand their target audience, lack of campaign objectives and poor sales pitch. Our series of guides on Facebook Ads are designed to help you with that.

 

How do Facebook ads work?

Ads are purchased on an auction basis where you are charged based on specific actions taken, clicks or impressions. Advertisers can show their ads to very segmented and precise groups of Facebook users, targeted by using the information on their Facebook profile.

There are also several different ad formats to choose from, you can see some of the most common ones below.

Facebook gets a ton of data from their users. Most people on Facebook voluntarily enter information on their profiles (things like interests, age, location, etc.) which gives Facebook a pretty good idea of who their users are, what their interests are and much more. This gives them the ability to serve them targeted ads, showing them brands that they are likely to engage with, sites they are likely to visit and products they are likely to buy.

Facebook, unlike other paid advertising medias, has integrated their ads into the experience of the platform in a very seamless way. The ads are just part of your news feed, you can choose to click or look at it, or continue scrolling down. Your experience remains uninterrupted, something that other channels like YouTube for example, are yet to figure out.

Why advertise on Facebook?

Reason1: Facebook is huge, and your audience is on there somewhere

As you can see below, Facebook has the biggest user base, reaching 2 billion monthly active users since June 2017. This makes it the largest social media platform in terms of logged-in users.

Facebook Monthly Active UsersSocial Media Platforms Monthly Active Users Comparison Graph

So what does this mean? No matter who you are trying to target, they’re on Facebook. Facebook is now the largest opportunity for advertisers to reach the right people, since Google Adwords. The stats we shared above speak for themselves, and just like you check your Facebook several times a day, so does your customer.

Reason 2: Facebook’s Razor Sharp Targeting

Facebook’s ad targeting capabilities can get your ads in front of a very specific segment of your audience, giving you the power to reach out beyond your CRM database. From targeting audience segments by hundreds of different purchasing behaviors, to life event targeting options such as wedding, funerals and anniversaries, you can use a dozen of different ad formats and thousands of possible ads targeting parameters. It gets even better: You can layer different targeting options to make your audience very specific. You can use combinations of different behaviors, demographics and geo targeting to narrow down your audience to as little as one person. If you can understand your customer’s intent, you can use Facebook’s powerful targeting to tap into any audience, no matter how niche.

Reason 3: Facebook Ads are Cheaper than Google AdWords

Although both Google AdWords and Facebook ads are viable options, in most cases, the average cost per click (CPC) is significantly higher for Google AdWords than for Facebook ads. According to AdEspresso, the average cost per click for Facebook Ads in the United States was $0.28 in the third quarter of 2016. WordStream reported an average cost per click for Google Ads in 2016 of $2.32. There are rare occurrences where AdWords can work with smaller budgets, however it’s safe to say that if you have a small budget that won’t be able to compete on AdWords (this varies for each industry) Facebook is a channel you should consider.

These razor-sharp targeting options, combined with a broad range of content you are able to promote on Facebook, from posts, photos and albums to videos, events and links to your website makes Facebook a good alternative to Google AdWords. Once you master this medium you can start getting clicks to your website for next to nothing, and new sales for a few dollars.

Looking for more information?

If you are wondering how to setup your first Facebook ad account or how to use Facebook’s tools like Ads Manager or the Facebook Business Manager, look for our next blog post that will give you a step by step instruction and cover everything you need to know to set up a successful Facebook ad campaign.

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