Social media has opened up a world of affordable, highly visible advertising. Understanding this world requires a solid grasp on marketing and computer science. Facebook advertising offers more than one form of audience-specific advertising platforms, each of which has its own legal, fiscal and promotional considerations.
1. Custom audience advertising makes your company look big
For as low as $50 per month, Facebook will put your ad onto a viewer's feed. Facebook advertising charges per impression, or each time the ad shows on a page, so it is important to put the ad on the page of someone who will care about it. The best place to start is with people who are already familiar with your services. Facebook's custom audience ads let you upload your customer email list, so your ads only show on these people's feeds. Because the users do not know that you specifically targeted their page, it gives the illusion that you have a successful business and the marketing budget to support it.
2. Lookalike audiences are the next step
After you have your base audience secured, it is time to bring in new customers. This is done with Facebook's lookalike audience package. The lookalike audience program takes your custom audience and finds others that match their profile. Lookalike audiences have all of the compatibility of custom audiences, but they are new to your marketing message. Be certain to tailor your Facebook advertising to people that have never heard of your business.
3. ROI is still key
One of the criticisms of social media marketing is that it is difficult to make a direct link between the campaign and sales. A primary reason for this is that, under relationship marketing theory, it is not the sale that is most important. It is the relationship that is built that will lead to brand recognition and ultimately increased revenue. The return on the advertising investment should be calculated against brand awareness and loyalty metric, not against sales. However, it is easy to go over your marketing budget, as these ads add up quickly. Use an online accounting software, such as Sage One, to monitor your budget and cash flow. Sage One links your bank accounts, credit cards and other payment tools, so you can track your money all in one place. This will help you monitor your advertising cash outlay and track your results with pre- and post-testing.
4. Social media is more social than you can imagine
Tracking your Facebook advertising campaign may have deeper tentacles than you first thought. Because social media links to so many different digital communication methods, tracking is defined as measuring the composite user activity over all digital media, including websites, email and text. Facebook uses a special JavaScript code, called a Facebook pixel, that follows the advertisement wherever it goes and reports the results back to you. This information should be used to evaluate and refine your campaign for greater impact.
5. FTC applies to Facebook advertising
The Federal Trade Commission regulates advertising. Ads must be accurate, truthful and distinguishable as an advertisement. Because of the conversational nature of Facebook and the ability for friends to share information, it is easy to mistakenly create ads that can be misinterpreted as news, reviews or unsolicited opinion. Be sure to make your Facebook advertisement obvious as a marketing tool.
With so many people on Facebook, it has a huge potential for your marketing campaign. From creating custom audiences to tracking your results, you have to keep up with this fast-paced world to make it worthwhile.
