An Introduction to Facebook Advertising

Any business owner understands that social media is a great way to promote your business. This is particularly true for Facebook.

In fact, Facebook is the biggest of all the different social media platforms. It is thought that it has somewhere in the region of 1.59 billion monthly users.

So, with these huge numbers in mind, it really makes sense for you to setup a Facebook business page. But what you may soon realise is that, without the right approach and the right tools, these billions of users are simply not going to find you. Not amongst all the other pages, groups and profiles that are on there.

This is why Facebook Ads were created. They are not a new thing, in fact Facebook has offered advertising as far back as 2004. However, back in those early days of poking and status updates, ads were not quite the smooth marketing tool that they are today.

The modern approach to Facebook Ads

Before you start to decide on your own Facebook advertising campaign, there are a few questions that you will need to ask yourself.

• What are you trying to achieve with this advert?
• Who do you want to reach?
• What budget do you have?
• Will any photos or videos feature in the advert?

Once you know the answers to these questions then, it is time to start forming the advert ready to post on Facebook.

What are you trying to achieve with your advert?

Knowing the objective for even sending out your advert is key. It isn’t always about sales, in fact you could simply want to increase the awareness of your brand, or encourage people to download an app.

Who do you want to reach?

One of the best things about Facebook ads is that it allows you to really target the ad to the right people. You can narrow this down to things such as age, location and a whole host of other things that identify and represent your key audience.

What budget do you have?

Facebook know that every business has a budget, which is why they give you the opportunity to operate a bid facility. You can enter either a daily or lifetime budget and the time period that you want your advert to run. Facebook will then calculate how many times that your ad will be displayed.

Will any photos or videos feature in the advert?

Words are great, but the real advertising power comes in videos and images. Facebook ads allow you to add in both single and multiple images and videos. All to make sure that your advert captures the attention of your audience.

Then it is time for the advert to go live. Facebook sends it to an advert auction which will direct it to your audience and you can then keep an eye on how your ad is performing with some integrated tools.

Facebook isn’t only a place to look at funny videos and pictures of cats. It is also a place to make or break your business. Take advantage of Facebook Ads and you will soon find that you get a boost to your success too!

About the author

Digital Marketing Consultant and founder of JD Business Marketing.