A TV or newspaper ad used to be the best way to reach an audience. You knew who it would reach based on what media you selected and spent more or less depending on how conveniently timed or sized your advertisement is. Today, that has changed. With 70 percent of Americans on social media and 77 percent owning a smartphone, social media sites like Facebook and Instagram have become increasingly popular mediums for businesses to target potential consumers.
A whopping 76 percent of social media users check Facebook daily, and the younger they are, the more often they check it multiple times a day. You now have an unbelievable amount of access to your customers, which makes advertising on Facebook a financially savvy move. But to develop a Facebook ad campaign, you have to keep in mind key tips to best take advantage of the site’s available ad space.
Figure Out Your Target Audience
When you launch a Facebook ad campaign, you now have the option of selecting what demographic and group of people your advertisement will target. Thanks to Facebook’s Audience Insight, you can research into different demographics in order to learn what their interests, political leanings, budget and willingness to spend as a general group is. This allows you to hunt for audiences best suited to your message and research what audiences exist for you to reach out to.
In addition, you have the option of developing a targeted ad campaign for a particular demographic, which is guaranteed to have more success than a campaign made generically to appeal to as many groups as possible.
Tweak Your Message as Needed
Once you have a solid insight into the audiences Facebook has mined, you can develop multiple aspects to your advertising campaign that appeal to multiple demographics. For example, by using Facebook’s tools you can select between audiences based on their gender, age, location and registered interests on Facebook.
You can target women in their 30s in the midwest interested in sports, or men in their 20s in an urban city interested in bars. And if you want your product to appeal to multiple demographics, you can develop different ads or tweak your standard ad campaign depending on which audience you’re targeting in order to best appeal to them.
Develop a Bold Visual for Your Campaign
Facebook has a 20 percent text to image ratio – that is, only 20 percent of any images you use can be text. This encourages you to develop a bold visual that stands out, and let the text be added to your post or advertisement.
Take this rule as a chance to search for an eye-catching image that focuses on strong visuals in order to attract attention. Something with a strong central focus, a dramatic color scheme or a unified look will draw and please a viewer’s eye, encouraging them to give you more of their time and attention. A striking image will put more eyes on your advertisement.
Budget Your Advertising Costs
Facebook has you bid on ad spots in order to earn them. This can be a tedious and expensive way of winning ad space. But by using Facebook’s Optimized CPM tool, you can set a maximum budget and specific goals and desired outcomes and allow Facebook to take care of the placement for you.
This ensures that your spending always remains where you can expect it. But it also limits where your ads will end up. You should evaluate your Facebook ad reach based on your budget and determine if it’s not hitting as many customers as you need it to in order to consider raising your advertising budget.
Link to Your Main Page As Much As Possible
Linking to your landing page rather than directly to a product or sale can give customers an extra chance to absorb your business information, like your page or interact with your other copy before continuing on to whatever task your advertisement enticed them to complete. By bringing customers here, you increase the likelihood that they’ll Like or Subscribe to your page, which can drastically increase the chances of a repeat purchase.
Your typical marketing campaign is not suited to Facebook. Instead, your Facebook ad campaigns should take into account the tools the site offers, the way people use the website and what access you have to customers through this medium. With smart planning and insight, your Facebook campaign can be a significant boon to your business.
