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How often do you see a billboard? Unless it's along your daily commute, your answer is probably 'infrequently'. Now, ask yourself, when was the last time you were on a social network? For most of us, our answer likely ranges from minutes to hours ago.
Traditional advertising methods have gotten us this far, but aren't necessarily all they’re cracked up to be. They're often stationary and static, but in this modern world you need to get dynamic. In order to be a successful marketer, you need to be where your audience is. Digital advertising is the way to meet your audience where they are, effectively.
One of the best ways to catch up with competing brands in your industry is by running Facebook Ads. By using.png?width=300&name=Untitled%20design%20(15).png)
this helpful feature on this massive social platform, your business will be able to see results and get ahead of your competition in no time. We're here to give you the summary on what the benefits are of running Facebook ads for your brand. Before we explore them, here's a quick rundown:
Facebook is already a well-known and powerful tool to promote your product or service. In addition, it is also one of the easiest and cheapest ways to build your audience— specifically those who may be genuinely interested in your brand—through paid advertising.
Over two billion people around the world use Facebook every month to connect with friends, family, and businesses. Facebook advertising, naturally, should be a frontrunner in your strategy in order to start attracting new customers and build awareness for your business. Using their ad platform, you can create campaigns and follow their performance, allowing you to see the progress you’ve made and what you need to improve.
Simply put, organic Facebook posts are ones that aren’t paid—they can be text, video, and image posts. When you are following a particular page, generally you will mainly see organic content. All Facebook users are able to make these types of posts on a daily basis.
Previously, you could get a fair amount of mileage out of an organic post, but times are changing and the odds of you reaching a large number of people using an organic post are slim to none. Realistically, organic posts are a thing of the past since social media has become “pay to play." In recent years, Facebook’s algorithm has decreased the visibility of business pages’ posts on their followers’ news feeds in order to keep the platform more “social” and less promotional.
Increased reach is one of the biggest perks of investing in Facebook advertising. The amount of people you are able to reach organically on Facebook doesn’t even come close to who you would reach with a paid advertisement. On average, you’ll reach just about one percent of your followers with your organic content—that's not a lot of eyes on your content. In comparison, depending on the audience, you can reach tens of thousands of people with an ad.
There are two types of paid advertising through the platform—Facebook Ads vs boosted posts. They are similar, but there are a few key differences in the ways that they perform.
A boosted post starts out as an organic post on your page. To boost it, you have to put a small budget towards targeting a select audience. You can select the demographics for your ad to show up for as well as a timeline for the ad to run.
Boosted Facebook posts are still considered ads but are different from ads created in Facebook Business Manager, as you don’t have the same customization options. It’s a quicker way to promote a message than building out an entire ad set. Because of this, the benefits, targeting options, and variations available in Business Manager aren’t as diverse as they would be if you were to create an ad on the backend.
Facebook Ads, on the other hand, are a more in-depth way to reach a wide audience. You are also able to specifically target who you would like to see and interact with your post, from what their interests are, to their age and gender, and even what industry they work in. These customization features give you the opportunity to really find your niche and see who is most likely to interact with your ads.
You can also select your goal when creating ads through Facebook’s Business Manager. Whether you’re looking for conversions, building brand awareness, or generating leads, Facebook can help you create the right ad to reach your goal. You can choose from video ads, image ads, and carousel ads as well. The customization gives you free reign to optimize the content you’re putting out there.
Social media ads are cheaper than almost every alternative source of traditional advertising. One of the perks of creating a budget on this platform is that you are able to change the budget as needed. You are not locked in to spending a specific amount which can be especially helpful in case of an emergency or a sudden change in plans.
Speaking of budgets, you can create your own! You don’t need a huge budget to reach a large number of people. By starting small, you can experiment with numbers, interactions, and feedback you have received. If you spend only $50, your message can reach 5,000 to 10,000 people. You can start your social media advertising strategy off with boosting content that is performing well organically, then moving into more sophisticated targeting once your budget allows.
When you see ads on Facebook for products that you were recently shopping online for, it’s no coincidence. That is called retargeting. Retargeting re-engages visitors who have shown interest in your business. They may have visited your website in the last 90 days, or they made it to the check out page without actually completing a purchase.
These users are usually easier to convert as they have already shown they are interested in what you have to offer. They may need one more push or reminder to finalize their purchase, which is the purpose of this ad tactic. Stronger connections ultimately leads to more conversions, benefitting your bottom line.
To take action, consumers need to interact with your brand anywhere from 3-7 times before making that anticipated purchase. Retargeting is a powerful way to grow your business, especially when you use Facebook Ads.
Facebook Ads are helpful in narrowing down your target audience. Online ads not only boost online traffic and sales, they can drive people to brick and mortar locations to make offline purchases.
When using Facebook Ads, the targeting options you have available are precise. You are able to target previous customers, website visitors, and specific demographics to make sure you are reaching your audience. To dive even deeper, you can narrow your target based on interests, behaviors, age ranges, connections, locations, and more. These advertising objectives will allow you to hook potential customers and drive conversions.
To go a step further, you can create Lookalike audiences through the platform. Lookalike audiences are groups of consumers that are similar to your existing clientele that are most likely to purchase from you. This new audience is based on the audience already engaging with your content. This tool is excellent to convert prospects into leads by using data that already exists.
Facebook Ads, without a doubt, will work wonders for the expansion of your business. Take note that when starting out, there will be some trial and error. Test different methods of advertising against each other, like video versus photos. Create audiences and see how they respond. It can take some time to know what works best for your business. By measuring the performance of your campaign, you’ll get a true feel for what works. It should be noted that advertising on social media will not benefit you in the long run if you don’t take the time to analyze performance and optimize. Through cost-effective, thoughtful, and personalized ways to reach your audiences, you will be able to transform your leads into customers.
Our team at Modern Driven Media has expertise in social media marketing and advertising. If you’d like more guidance in creating a social media marketing strategy or figuring out the best ways to advertise on Facebook, contact us to learn how we can help.
Facebook Removes Text Limits on Ads
