If your company deals in consumer goods or services, Facebook can be a gold mine for marketing and advertising. However, it can also become a money-drain if you don’t know how to find and convert your target audience. It is easy to spend thousands of dollars on ads that result in little or no tangible benefit. When you hire an advertising company to promote your company on Facebook, make sure that they are experts at using the platform.
The reason that Facebook works so well as a way to reach consumers is that members offer up details of their lifestyle each time they use the site. The Facebook membership is now filled with working adult consumers who use it to keep in touch with family, friends and acquaintances. These people are the meat of the consumer market, adults who have discretionary income to spend and personal and household needs to fill.
It used to be easier to reach customers through free Facebook marketing. Facebook has made this increasingly difficult to do. However, if you are going to market to your customers on Facebook, the first thing you should do is create a business page. A business page is your main Facebook contact page for customers. Business pages appear on search engines, giving your company another way to draw in customers in general, and allowing your Facebook customers to “like” your page. When a member clicks the “like” button for your page, they become a follower. Your page posts enter their news feed which they can view whenever they wish.
A Facebook page is a good springboard. However, be aware that your followers will not see all of your posts in their feed. What the page does offer is information about your business, including contact information, a potential for interaction and a way to disseminate information for free. To ensure that your message gets to your target market, it is necessary to used paid advertising.
Using Facebook Advertising
In order to get the most out of Facebook advertising, you need detailed preparation. Work with an expert to determine your ideal customer. Determine the demographics of this customer. Ask yourself questions such as:
- Are they male or female or either?
- What age is this customer?
- Where do they live?
- Where do they work?
- What are their hobbies, preferences?
- Where do they spend their off-time?
By compiling a list of details from these questions, you can fine-tune your demographics.
The next step is to hire a freelance writer and graphic artist to create the image and copy for your ads. Optimally, you will need several ads that can be exchanged and tweaked as you tally the response to them. On the Internet, pictures are extremely important to grab the attention of your customer, and copy will drive them to your landing page. Most ads on Facebook aim to drive customers to do one of these things:
- Like their Facebook page.
- Buy a product or service on their website.
- Buy their application.
- Join their email list.
These are all tangible, measurable results that can be tracked.
Placing the Ad
Once your ad is ready, it is time to place the ad. When placing your ad, choose the advanced options feature. This gives you a slew of additional choices to hone the list of people who will see your ad. You can choose gender, age, hobbies, interests, relationships and language. Choose the length of time the ad will run and your budget. Select the result that you desire from the ad. Add your image and copy. You can preview the ad, and then once it is ready, send it for approval. Approval is generally completed quickly and efficiently.
Results
Once the ad is running, you can adjust it. Watch the results for a set amount of time, and tweak it until you get the best results possible. When you figure out which ad works the best, you can increase your spend to meet your advertising budget.
Paula A is a freelance writer who has been writing on the Internet since 2008. When she is not writing, Paula creates and maintains websites, searches for handmade art treasures and nibbles on chocolate to keep herself motivated.
