Build your Customer Base through Facebook Advertising
The potential of Facebook as an advertising tool should not be underestimated. Currently, Facebook has more than 400 million users and many of these use the site on a daily basis. It makes sense to consider that there are many potential customers among them. Many businesses already have a Facebook page and using targeted Facebook ads can also help you to drive more potential customers to your own page or website.
Facebook allows businesses to put small ads in the sidebar of the pages and profiles on Facebook. These can be targeted by selecting through a few variable factors. You can use keywords, target by location, age, education and gender in order to reach the type of customer that you’re looking for.
What do you want the customer to do?
When you start a Facebook advertising campaign you need to decide if you want to direct customers to your own webpage or send them first to your Facebook page. You might want to use the advertising to draw attention to an event or a special offer. By directing people to your other activities on Facebook the ad can also include a button that allows an instant response from the customer so that they can ‘like’ the page or ‘RSVP’ to an event. Remember that some of their actions can be seen on Facebook by their own friends and followers and this can help you to reach even more people.
Keep an eye on the budget
The ads work by bidding for keywords and then you compete so that your ads appear. You have to make sure that your keywords are effective. There is a CPC (cost per click) model or you can opt for a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) model. Research suggests that CPC is much more effective. Work out your bid per click and then set a daily budget (the minimum is $5 per day). Facebook will suggest amounts, but you need to consider if this is going to be effective for you. Budgets can be adjusted at any time.
Give it a trial run!
Set your first ad up and give it a test run! You can create multiple ads and then work out which are the most effective. You should also make sure you follow the guidelines set out by Facebook for using their advertising service, but they will review your ad before making it public anyway. Test out the image too. If a specific ad is not performing as you expected, then change the image and see if that improves the conversion rate.
Remember that when you put your ad together there is not a lot of space. Your headline, for example, should be no more than 25 characters so short and snappy is important! The body of the ad is just 135 characters – again you need to use them wisely. The option to upload an image is there and you should do this as this could be what catches the eye of the customers.
For additional Facebook tips, check out our Top 5 Tips for Facebook Marketing.