The social media landscape is rapidly changing, but it’s still clear that Facebook is a powerhouse when it comes to advertising. There are still tens of millions of people that use Facebook every day, which makes Facebook advertising services an extremely lucrative tool for any business if you know how to use them.
The problem is, in an increasingly competitive market, it’s becoming more important than ever to understand the ins and outs of Facebook advertising services before you begin to use them yourself; otherwise, you stand to sink a lot of money into the platform and not see anything in return.
With more competition comes the need to optimize and refine ads, target your potential customers better, and ultimately grasp the platform on a deeper level than your competitors. There are thousands of stores and businesses on Facebook each using ads to gain the attention of users and hopefully convert them to customers.
If you don’t know the platform, however, you’re not going to make those conversions. There are certain concrete steps you have to take with Facebook in order to see proper returns on your investment. It’s not like Google where you simply pump money into a certain keyword you want to rank for. Facebook as a platform is far more focused on connecting your ads with the proper audience, to reduce poor user feedback and engagement.
It’s one thing on Google for a user to ignore an ad; an improperly targeted ad is just search result noise and doesn’t really bother people all that much. However, a spammy or improperly targeted ad on Facebook can not only get your post flagged by upset users who don’t want to see your content, but it can also put you on the outs with Facebook itself and your account may receive a temporary suspension or ban.
Though the prospect of learning and using Facebook advertising services may seem somewhat daunting, this guide will clear up your misconceptions and help you understand the basics of the platform so you can start connecting with your customers and making sales.
Facebook Advertising Connects You With Your Customers
The most important thing to know about Facebook as a platform for advertising is that it’s a way to truly connect with your most potentially loyal and valuable customers. Your goal is to establish a connection with the users most likely to appreciate and purchase your product once they are introduced to it.
This is the exact opposite of traditional advertising, which often has a much wider net to catch anyone who is potentially in earshot and convert them through sales tactics.
It’s not a great idea to strictly “sell” to people on Facebook if you want great results. As a rule, people online down like to feel like they are being sold to. They don’t want to read ad copy and are typically suspicious of ads and posts that come off as being too salesy.
If this is the case, how are you supposed to gain a user’s trust and bridge that gap?
The key to making your advertisements work is all in the targeting. It’s here that you will bridge that gap and connect with the users on Facebook that are most likely to respond to your ad and possibly even give you a sale. This is done through a combination of matching product to behavior and interests, and strong knowledge of what works and what doesn’t in terms of imagery, video, and text. Once you have these elements down, crafting the perfect ad is much easier than you think.
What you have to keep in mind throughout the entire process of building your ad is to keep everything simple and focus on making that connection. The real human element of your ad is what will go the furthest toward making it work.
You obtain this human element by having a deep understanding of the behaviors and interests of your potential customers. Where do they live, what kind of income do they have, what is their gender, what are their hobbies? All of this information can be targeted on Facebook and even refined further if necessary. You can niche down with Facebook advertising, and this is why it is such an amazing tool for any business, especially if you are in eCommerce and have a digital storefront.
If you aren’t yet fully aware of the interests and overall behavior of your potential customers on Facebook, start making a list and doing the necessary research. Search for products and pages in your niche, and take note of who is interacting with those pages. Look at the ads of your competitors and study the interests and behaviors of everyone who likes and comments on them. This might seem tedious but it is extremely useful knowledge that can have a direct impact on your business if used properly.
Through studying user behavior, you can get a sense of what works and what doesn’t on Facebook in general. Many marketers fail on Facebook because they assume that just because they know how to run an ad, that they are going to make money. At the end of the day, the highest converting ads on Facebook are the ones that look the most like ordinary relatable posts. It stands to reason then that if you are going to create an ad that converts, you have to gain a better understanding of how to make a great Facebook post in general, not just as an ad.
Pay attention to what your competition is doing and what their customers are doing on Facebook, as well as the users that interact with your page. All of this information can be put to good use once you start building your ads.
Once you have a better idea of who you are targeting, the next step is to acquaint yourself with Facebook’s ad creation tools. There are several ways you can run an ad campaign on Facebook, from advertising single posts to creating massive multifaceted campaigns using the Facebook Ad Manager.
Rather than diving into the deep end and going over the myriad points of interest and complexities of the Ad Manager, there are much easier and effective ways to get into Facebook advertising services, especially if you are trying to get a firm grasp on the platform.
How to Easily Jump Into Facebook Advertising
If you are looking for an easy and efficient way to get your product or service in front of more eyes, and specifically in front of targeted users, all you need to is locate the Boost Post button on any one of your Facebook page’s posts.
This simple button is your gateway into the core of the Facebook ad experience. It allows you to access the fundamentals of Facebook’s advertising tools without bogging you down with features and options.
For the best experience, create a tailored post for your Facebook page that you want to promote and treat like an ad, publish it, and then click the blue Boost Post button when you are ready to begin.
This will take you to the boost post screen, where you will see an array of options for advertising your post. If you aren’t familiar with boosting Facebook posts, there’s really only two parts that you have to think about: the audience targeting and the ad parameters.
You can access the targeting options under the “Audience” section, by clicking Create New Audience. This will bring you to the area where you can edit your audience, which is where all of the information you gathered during your user research comes into play. Here you can input all of the interests, behaviors, and demographics of the users who best represent your potential customers. As you type into the field, Facebook will even give you potential and related matches, which can help bolster your audience.
Ideally, you want to narrow your audience down until it is in the middle of the green area. This means that you are targeting a healthy number of users without being too broad, and will give you the best chances of maximizing your ad spend.
Once you have crafted your custom audience, you want to set the duration and budget of your ad. This is as easy as it sounds, and only requires you to set the amount of days you would like your post to be boosted, and the amount of money you are willing to spend per day.
Here you will also be able to see the potential amount of people your post will reach. This number can of course vary depending on the quality of your ad, and how well you are targeting users in your niche.
It’s at this point where you can hit boost and allow Facebook to approve your ad. Yes, running an ad on Facebook can be this easy, and it can still have a dramatic impact on your business and generating potential sales.
As long as you do your homework beforehand, this simple method of running Facebook ads can be extremely effective. Though you are not using the full power of Facebook’s advertising platform, you are still taking advantage of their most essential tools.
With these kinds of simple boosted ad posts, you can drive targeted traffic to flash sales, specific products and offers, your mailing list, or even a recent blog post. If you are running an eCommerce business on Facebook, it can be useful to boost posts to encourage likes on your page or traffic to your blog, because it’s that human connection you’re after. The more people interact with your brand without feeling like they are being sold to, the better success you will have on the platform.
The Power of Professional Facebook Advertising Services
Of course, you can take your Facebook advertising efforts one step further by hiring a professional agency to help you utilize the full power of the platform.
Facebook has been making strides toward simplifying their advertising services, but the fact is that the Ad Manager is extremely complex and is designed to be utilized by agencies, not individuals. Facebook comes equipped with a full range of high level advertising features and tools that can be used to run impressive and meticulous ad campaigns that span weeks and months, with specific targeting and options per ad set.
If you are interested in running simultaneous ads or a more sophisticated ad campaign, you are encouraged to use the Ad Manager. This almost always entails utilizing some level of professional expertise to make sure you are not only targeting the right users per ad set, but that you are also running your ads correctly in general. The number of options and settings available to maximize the efficiency of your ads means that the Ad Manager is not something you can just casually approach.
This is where the knowledge, skills, and expertise of a professional agency comes into play. We here at Genius eCommerce take Facebook advertising seriously, and know what it takes to optimize your ads and get them in front of your specific audience. Facebook advertising is simple on the surface, but underneath it is a powerful and complex tool that is only effective in the right hands. You need the right strategy and a team that will work closely with you to understand the particular needs of your brand and audience.
Trust in an agency that can get you the results you need to positively impact your business and generate traffic and crucial sales for your store. Our team has perfected the art of connecting users with products through meticulous niche research and laser-like targeting, to produce amazing results.
Interested in taking advantage of the full power of Facebook for your business? You can get in touch with us by email here at info@geniusecommerce.com or by phone at 267-225-1946. Our experts are waiting to help take your business to the next level.
