Should I Advertise on Facebook?

As I’m sure most people engaged in online marketing are aware, Facebook presents a fantastic advertising plafrom from which to engage with existing customers or even attract new ones. With this in mind, I thought it might be useful to put together a brief overview of what to consider when advertising on Facebook.

Why Should I Advertise On Facebook?

First off, one of the most attractive propositions Facebook has to advertisers is the range of detailed statistics they possess relating to their users. This includes age, date of birth, general interests and likes, location and sex amongst others. With all this data available, advertising can be set up to be as broad or detailed as needed.

For example, a coffee shop located on Southampton high street could set up advertising promoting a discounted cup of coffee to anyone having a birthday that month. The advertising could then be set, for instance, to display only to females, between 16 to 35 living within 15 miles of Southampton who like coffee. Furthermore, you could set the days and times of day for your advertising to display.

How Does Facebook Charge Me?

Facebook’s charging model is similar to that of Google AdWords, charged on per a click basis with advertisers setting a daily budget and a maximum cost per click. With so much control available, like AdWords it’s fairly straightforward to keep costs under control.

How To Go About Setting Up A Facebook Ad

Setting up Facebook ads is fairly straight forward too, the important thing to keep in mind is that you need to write targeted ad copy to convey your message. An advert’s ‘title’ contains up to 25 characters (displayed in bold and blue) and must contain a working destination URL or a page on Facebook. The images included within each Facebook ad have a maximum size of 110 by 80 pixels with larger images automatically resized. Finally the body text of the ad can be up to 135 characters.

Like Google AdWords, I would recommend that you set up multiple adverts varying the images, body copy and title to find an advert that works best for your campaign.

In Conclusion

Advertising on Facebook takes an investment your time or that of a knowledgeable pay-per-click advertising professional. Get the advertising right and for many Facebook can present a viable alternative Google AdWords, helping to deliver targeted traffic in a cost effective manner. If you’re looking for more advice on advertising on Facebook or other forms of social media, have a look at our social media services pages.