Should You Advertise on Facebook?

Why Not To Choose Facebook

Starting with the privacy issues and ending with issues over your data - that's why. Recent news shows that no one can be trusted. They are only having to explain to the Senate Committee and to governments around the world because they got caught.

Unbelievably, Facebook still get away with storing and using mountains of your data. Giving Facebook anything more than the absolute bare minimum of data is madness - so what will that mean for the future of advertising with Facebook?

If You Insist

There’s little doubt that social media as a concept is booming in recent years. Sites such as Facebook have seen a huge surge in the number of users joining up, starting as a relatively small and localised project, the site now has close to 1 billion active users – and the figure seems to be continuing to grow.

To this end, it’s no surprise that many businesses decide to advertise on Facebook – the potential the site has as a sales and marketing tool for businesses seems to be limitless. It is now possible to connect with a huge audience, both on a local and global basis.

Demographics & Location

If you are thinking about ways to advertise on Facebook, you will need to understand how advertising on the site actually works. It’s perhaps a good idea to think of Facebook users as ‘potential customers’. When put into this context, you are provided with a staggering number of prospects that are ready and waiting to hear about your business and the products/services that you can offer to them.

Of course, it would be unwise to target the entire user base of the site when you advertise on Facebook – and that’s where demographics and user specifications come into play.

Facebook provides businesses with on-line tools to advertise on Facebook; you create an advert and then aim it specifically at a targeted (narrowed down) number of users. In many ways, when you advertise on Facebook, you use the website as a marketing analysis tool – it allows you to pre-determine the kind of users that may or may not be interested in your products or services.

A tried and tested method, this can be a great way to ensure that your marketing budget isn’t blown on an audience who are simply not likely to be interested in your business – you only reach users who fall into your target demographics.

Guaranteed Success?

As with any other marketing or sales method, the success of your Facebook advert will largely depend on the words that you focus on. Often referred to as ‘keywords’, they can determine whether or not a user decides to click on your advert.

There are many differing opinions as to which keywords work best, so a little research may be in order before you commence with your Facebook advertising campaign. Generally speaking however, ‘target’ keywords should be placed at the top of your advert (in the title and opening sentence) and many people also recommend the insertion of keywords towards the end of an advert.

Start with a Company Profile

After you have researched the kind of content that you want to put in your advert, it’s time to create a company profile page on Facebook (if you haven’t already done so). This is a very easy process and profiles can be built-up over time. You will also need to set a budget for your advert campaign – choose an amount that you are willing to spend each day on your advert(s) and stick to it – you will also need to choose whether you want to pay only when people click on your advert (CPC) or every time a user sees your advert (CPM).