How to Get the Most from Your Facebook Advertising
Spreading your company’s message on Social Media is an important part of your marketing mix. And the fun starts right here:
Establish your goals. Actually, you wouldn’t want to do any kind of marketing without a goal. Online media, including social advertising, is even more goal-oriented because it’s also supremely measurable.
Do you want more website visits? More Likes for your Page? More Comments from your audience? At different times, any of these could be your goal, but on most occasions, contractors using Facebook to generate leads want website visits. When your Facebook ad promotes special offers, send them to your landing page, and there you’ll be able to heavily highlight benefits and stress the urgency for their action.
Facebook ads are also used as branding or TOMA, in which case a “Like” is a good result because it maintains the social connection. If you’re new to Facebook advertising, promoting Likes is a good first step. Likes help make you look popular. (And who doesn’t want to look popular?)
Whatever result you are seeking, include a call to action. Make sure you let customers and prospects know what they need to do.
Budget your costs. As Facebook will tell you, their ads work on any budget and can be priced in a variety of ways. Generally, that means you’ll need to select a bidding option based on your objective – clicks, impressions, Likes, etc. – and then set a daily or lifetime budget for the campaign.
Pursue your target. Facebook’s targeting options can’t be beat. You can target by location (important for a service area), as well as age, gender, education, etc. Some of these will be more relevant than others. Geographical location is more pertinent than, say, relationship status. Also, as you gain Likes and followers, you can target your Facebook ads to individuals who already have a relationship with you – or even more helpful, their friends.