Online advertising for businesses has been popular for many years now, but one of the more recent trends which has proven to deliver a fair amount of success has been social media advertising and, in particular, Facebook advertising.
Call Tracking software providers Ruler Analytics breaks down how you can use Facebook Ads to convert new audiences.
Facebook advertising is exactly what it says: a series of targeted advertisements through Facebook. The idea is that your business, via the official company Facebook page, chooses how much to spend (a low amount generally speaking, but the more you spend, the greater the chance of success as you might imagine), then based on your location and your sector, Facebook will identify a particular number of potential customers and, from there, your advertisement will appear on their Facebook pages.
The intention is for the most relevant users to be targeted so, if you are a holistic therapy provider based in Liverpool, for instance, you are far more likely to have your adverts seen by a user who has previously commented on or liked another holistic therapy business in Liverpool rather than a user at the other end of the country who has possibly never even heard of holistic therapy. Of course, the main goal is that some of these users might be interested and enquire about what you do, resulting in you generating new business, making money and paying for your Facebook ads in one or two sales.
That’s the simplest explanation, anyway. However, it doesn’t just happen that easily. As with any form of advertising or marketing, you have to provide as much information as possible, not only about what your business does but also who your ideal target audience is, in order to increase the likelihood of a positive outcome. Even then, success is not guaranteed, and you have to be prepared for the fact that it might not work in order to take the chance that it could.
But what steps can you take to have a better chance of your Facebook advertising being worthwhile?
Well, you have to identify your target customer as we’ve mentioned. But it’s worth padding your Facebook page out with other content which might generate likes and might identify potential customers tailored to your business. Educational pieces or explanatory articles are best to post, but anything which can boost impressions and interest would be suitable. You also require some strong, clear images; pictures which are eye-catching but also a perfect illustration of what you do, or even who you are. Let’s face it, people are more likely to click on an advert with a striking image than they are for a dull, grey textbox with no keywords. Speaking of which, include as many keywords, in a logical and reader-friendly format, as possible, so that the message is hammered home as to what you can provide.
Special offers are another ideal way to hook interest; people who are already aware of your business, but who may not be impressed by the costs or who haven’t got the time, might suddenly consider your services to be right down their street if there is a special offer, or if you can tie it in with a particular time of the year or another related event going on in the world. These offers, and all ads for that matter, need landing pages on your website, because there’s no point advertising offers if people can’t use them. Oh, and make sure that you have actual contact details! There’s nothing worse for a potential customer who does happen to be searching for a service that you provide to locate your business, go through the rigmarole of browsing through your site and identifying what they want, only for the email address to be non-existent or for the phone line to remain engaged. Sure, they could message through via Facebook – that’s the medium that you advertised on, after all – but Facebook is most effective when it moves the process along rather than becoming the process.