Facebook advertising is the simplest form of advertising, because it allows you to create and control everything, from the image you use to the target audience and daily costs.
If you wonder what good it is to you, since your company already has a Facebook page, here are a few sobering statistics:
- There are over 30 million business pages on Facebook;
- 1.5 Million businesses target audience through mobile advertising on Facebook;
- Companies have increased their Facebook ads budget by 122% since last year.
No More Free Promotional Posts
And to add one more bad news for you if you think your can sneak around advertising, starting from November 2014, Facebook penalizes purely promotional organic posts. This penalty targets:
– posts that have the sole purpose of a sales pitch;
– posts that promote the installation of a mobile app;
– posts that have the same content as ads.
These being the harsh realities of Facebook marketing and promotion, here are 7 quick tips to prepare you for a cost effective and efficient Facebook ads campaign.
1. Start with simple goals
Your first goal after creating a Facebook page is to get as many ‘Likes’ as possible. More page likes equal more engagement and more traffic driven to your website. So start with an ad campaign inviting people to Like your Facebook page. You can let it run for one weekend or less and the results are visible almost immediately.
2. Have a clear call-to-action
You do not have a lot of copy space available in a Facebook ad, so go straight to the point and tell people what you want them to do in short and simple words. Imagine that you’re in a speeding car and you pass by someone standing by the road and want to give them a message.
3. Choose your audience carefully
Remember: the more specific the audience, the greater the click-through rate and the smaller your expenses. If you sell razors and shaving cream and you target the whole population of the United States, your daily ad cost will be significantly higher than if you target males between 18 and 60.
4. Promote special and seasonal offers
Ads including words such as “special offer”, “50% off” or “Christmas sale” typically trigger curiosity and have high click-through rates (CTRs). The CTR also increases during the holiday season, when the spirit of giving is high and consumers rush to e-commerce portals looking for gifts. Facebook ads are the perfect tool for your business to promote these special offers.
5. Use creative images
Use brightly coloured images, and, as appropriate to your products, images of children and pets. These types of images get the highest number of clicks on Facebook.
6. Promote links outside Facebook
Facebook ads don’t have to lead to a specific post on your Facebook company page. You can create complementary promotions which lead people directly to a landing page for a special sales campaign or your online store.
7. Use ads to promote your mobile app
If you have a special mobile app for your business, Facebook ads are great to promote it, since more than half of daily Facebook users access this social media platform from a mobile device. Do not forget to test all your Facebook ads on a mobile phone or tablet to make sure that they are mobile friendly.