Many business owners will claim that one of the problems they have regarding digital marketing is that there are so many options and marketing channels available online that they are overwhelmed by the huge number of choices they have. That is understandable and one of the reasons that digital marketing consultants advise that businesses should start by focussing on a few choices such as seo and social media, rather than using too many marketing options.
One of the digital marketing channels which many business owners consider is Facebook and in particular, their paid advertising. This has been known as Facebook Ads for many years although, with Facebook in the process of transitioning its branding, it is now branded under their “Meta For Business” platform.
So, if a business was considering paid advertising on Facebook, what might influence their decision? The first should be whether their business is a type that Facebook Ads allows as there are certain products and services which are prohibited. Examples include firearms, CBD products and adult content.
As for the types of businesses and products which most benefit from Facebook ads, these include direct response businesses, e-commerce stores, educational and information products, and local businesses. These point to a key attribute of Facebook Ads and that is they can be adapted and targeted in so many different ways and this is what allows such a wide variety of businesses to use them.
The objectives that you set for your Facebook Ads are also flexible which means that your business can use them for multiple purposes. For example, Facebook Ads are a great way to establish and build your branding and increase brand awareness. However, if branding is not as important to you or your brand is already well-established, then another goal is lead generation. A third purpose could be generating sales by sending your ad traffic directly to a sales or checkout page.
One of the reasons that Facebook Ads has been so successful is that they allow laser-targeting of audiences. Unlike some advertising models where the audience is relatively broad, such as newspaper or magazines ads, with Facebook ads you can specify who sees your ads with such specificity that the conversions depending on what goal you set should be extremely high.
This is due to how Facebook gathers the data it has for everyone who uses it. This includes demographic information that would otherwise cost you thousands of dollars if you were to employ a data or consumer research company. Instead, for the cost of your ad, you can create a target audience by age, gender, employment, income, marital status, location, and most importantly by what products and services individuals have previously indicated they have an interest in.
Being able to target your ads with such precision, minimises ad budget wastage such as your ad being shown to those who have zero interest in what your business offers. Also, Facebooks Ads give you the ability to specify how much you are willing to pay for each click or each view of your ad, This enables you to manage your ad budget almost to the exact dollar.
Finally, Facebook Ads has one more exceptional benefit to businesses who use it and that is the ability to measure, analyse and then optimise every ad they create. This not only helps you to improve ad performance but also ditch the ones that fail, and boost the ones which are working well.