Anything that people spend a lot of time doing provides a great marketing opportunity. Nowadays, people spend a lot of time updating their statuses, chatting, spying on long-lost acquaintances, cultivating their Farmville crops, or otherwise interacting with that famous white screen…
Enter Facebook Ads.
America’s Favorite Way to Procrastinate
Now that Facebook is everywhere, advertising on Facebook is a super way to reach out to the world. While folks are browsing their friends’ posts and profiles, they are simultaneously viewing advertisements that Facebook positions on the right side of their screens. These clickable ads make it easy for a user to jump over to the website or Facebook page of any company whose ad piques his interest.
Hit Your Targets Dead On
But here’s the thing. Not only do Facebook ads provide clickable advertisements to a group of people who are most likely just killing time, but they also can provide these ads to people from very specific demographics. If you think about your Facebook profile, the information you share gives away a lot about you. Many people openly share their interests, their educational background, their employment history, their marital status, and more. This is information that marketing list maker types used to have to dig around to get, but these days many people are happy to broadcast it to the Facebook world. So without doing any snooping, Facebook can make sure that your ad pops up on the screens of people who are most likely to respond to it. This is target marketing at its most precise.
In the case studies tab on their advertising page, Facebook gives a pretty solid example of how this can benefit business owners. Since Facebook users often share their relationship status on their profiles, it’s easy to market specifically to people who are engaged. The page shows an example of a photography company who benefited tremendously from advertising on Facebook to women who had chosen “Engaged” as their relationship status.
What’s the Price Tag on These Magical Ads?
We can’t tell you exactly how much it’s going to cost, but you can tell us. Like PPC campaigns through Google, the cost of advertising on Facebook varies based on your budget. Facebook offers a PPC-style option which allows people to pay only when a user clicks on the ad, and once you’ve reached your predetermined daily budget, Facebook stops displaying your ad for the rest of the day. Another option is to set up a Cost Per Thousand Impressions (“CPM”) campaign where you pay a flat rate every time your ad is displayed 1000 times. Either way, it’s up to you how much you want to spend, making it possible for businesses large and small to take advantage of Facebook ads.
So if you’re looking for a way to advertise your page to specific targets at a price you set yourself (AND to justify spending more time on Facebook at the same time), give Facebook ads a try.