Facebook is becoming one of the most effective and cost-effective forms of online advertising. If you’re not doing it, you should, and here are 5 incredible reasons why.
1. They hit the target.
Advertising to people who don’t care is a waste. You’re not going to make a lot of money selling skateboards to seniors. Even so, many advertising methods have surprisingly low target audience reach. For example, online impression campaigns reach about 38% of their target and newspapers can be even less than that.
It takes a lot of time, effort, and money to advertise to everyone in hopes of hitting your audience. It’d be like Batman punching everyone he saw in the face and hoping that eventually he’d hit the Joker.
Facebook Ads, on the other hand, hit their target audiences an average of 89%. Why such a big difference? Since Facebook users voluntarily place their information on the site, Facebook in turn uses this info to give advertisers (like you) the tools needed to be as effective as possible. You can filter who sees your ads by age, gender, location, interests, work history, and even spending habits.
If you wanted, you could specifically target 29-year-old, male, Alaskan, Taylor Swift fans, who work in finance and buy fishing gear.
… Not that I recommend it. I’m just saying you could.
2. They’re cheap.
If you’re anything like basically every other company, you have a limited marketing budget and you have to squeeze every possible ounce of value out it. Luckily, Facebook Ads are the dollar menu of advertising. You can get a lot for a little.
Let’s compare. The average cost for 1,000 people to see a newspaper ad is roughly $32.00. Not bad right? Well, actually, yes it is. Facebook’s cost to reach 1,000 users is only $0.25.
In other words, you can advertise to 1,000 people for roughly the same price as Ramen Noodles.
Facebook Ads also allow the users to take immediate action by simply clicking. While online other forms of online advertising offer this as well, Facebook has the distinct advantage of offering users the ability to like an organization’s page instantly.
Once a user likes your page, you’ll be able to push your messages out to them for free, which is obviously even cheaper than the $0.25 per 1,000 views you were paying before. Each page like has stand-alone value as well. It’s estimated that each person who likes your page is worth around $174 to your company. Multiply that number by each person who likes your page, and you’ve really got something. Even if you spend $2-3 on ads to gain each like, you still come out way ahead in the long run.
3. They work.
Simply put, Facebook Ads work. If they didn’t, the largest (and smallest) brands in the country wouldn’t be using it. Here’s some stats to make you believe me:
- 77% of business to consumer companies have acquired customers directly through social media. Don’t you want to be like them?
- 93% of consumers buying decisions are influenced by social media. Think about it, how many cool things have you seen on social media that you ended up buying?
- Social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing. You are in business to close sales, right?
Believe me now?
4. Everybody is doing it.
I’m fairly certain you knew this already, but everyone is on Facebook (unless you’re hipster like John Scianna). The real numbers look like this:
- 77% of adults are on Facebook. Even my grandma uses Facebook, and she doesn’t know how to open an email.
- Facebook gets 1 billion visits monthly. That’s like all of China visiting Facebook every single month.
- The average user spends 40 minutes per day on Facebook (compared to 17 minutes reading newspapers and mailers). 39 of those minutes are probably on company time.
What this means is that you can reach almost any target audience effectively through Facebook Ads.
5. You can track everything.
It can be tough to track ROI on social media. What exactly is the return on someone liking my photo or sharing my post? While it may be tough to track the payoff of maintaining a social presence, Facebook Ads make it easy to see the exact results of your investment.
It’s nice to know what you spent your money on, isn’t it?
Here’s the kind of stuff you can track on the Facebook Adverts Manager:
- Impressions – Number of times your ad was shown.
- Actions – Number of likes, engagement, comments, and shares.
- Cost Per Click – Average amount spent to create a click.
- Cost Per Like – Same as above, but for likes.
- Cost Per Conversion – Same as the two above, but for conversions. Duh.
Not So Fast!
Now that I have you all excited to start advertising on Facebook, there a couple things you have to keep in mind before starting. Facebook Advertising isn’t as easy as just saying “Buy my stuff!”
First, you need to have a Facebook page for your company and have the time dedicated to managing it. Whether that’s someone in your office, or someone like us, it’s vital to have a consistent social presence or all the value of gaining likes instantly evaporates.
Second, you’ll want to define your target audiences in detail for the best results. You’ll want to tailor your entire ad to that specific target, so the more you can narrow it down, the better. Keep in mind, it’s fine to have multiple audiences, you’ll just want to run separate ads that focus on each one.
Lastly, you want to make absolutely certain your design and content are top-notch. There is a lot of interesting stuff out there on Facebook (and the internet in general). Your ads need to be instantly engaging, deliver your message simply and effectively, and have a clear call to action.
Ready to make your marketing budget go further with Facebook? We can help. Shoot us an email at [email protected] to get started. Unless of course, you want to fail …
