Why Facebook is a Small Business Owner’s Dream
Writing ads for magazines, radio, TV and direct mail campaigns can be painful, not to mention extremely risky. The process is basically a one-shot deal, involving no rewrites or second chances. You write and design what you hope is a riveting, irresistible ad. Then, you send it off into the world. If it’s a magazine ad, you’ll have to wait months for it to be seen by your audience, since magazines typically plan issues several months in advance. If you’re running a TV or radio ad, you have no idea if your audience is even paying attention to the spot. For all you know, your audience used the commercial break to leave the room and do something else.After your ad goes live,you may have to wait even longer for customers to actually respond. Meanwhile, you hope and pray you can recover the thousands of dollars you spent upfront in ad costs.
Those are the perils of traditional marketing.
But we don’t live in a traditional world anymore. And we certainly don’t advertise, share, communicate and interact in traditional ways.
Online ads have changed the playing field completely.We’ve got plenty to say about the merits of online advertising overall. But for this article, we’re talking specifically about Facebook advertising.
How do Facebook ads differ?
Facebook is a small business owner’s dream for many key reasons. Here’s the short list:
- You don’t have to wait months for campaign responses and input. For many business owners, responses to Facebook ads start flowing in within hours or less.
- Facebook ads offer laser precise targeting of your audience.
- It’s not a one-shot deal. You can instantly make changes to text and photos and then resubmit your ad.
- The costs associated with Facebook ads a redirt-cheap.Most small business owners will see success with super low $10 per day campaigns.
- Facebook ads boast the “share-ology” factor. They have a social quality, enabling them to travel far beyond your target audience, or go “viral,” through sharing. Every time your ad is liked, commented on or shared, it receives increased exposure via their friend network.
- They’re not as intrusive as banner ads. They can mimic organic content, appearing in the news feeds of your target audience.
- There are plenty of easy tools to help you measure your campaign’s success so you can refine it for even more precise audience targeting and even more phenomenal results.
And did I mention dirt-cheap?
So when a new client asks me what the best platform is for growing a business, I always stress Facebook advertising.
Here are the facts:
- Facebook has more than 2 million active advertisers, the majority of them small and independent firms.
- Facebook says it currently has 40 million small businesses with pages.
- Facebook ads are quick, cheap and easy – if you know how to use them.
With Facebook ads, you’ll reap ridiculous conversion while you sleep –if done correctly
Facebook ads conversion
True, Facebook is one of the least expensive, but highly valuable marketing platforms available.
Unfortunately, it is also one of the most incorrectly used by small business owners.
Big companies have an advantage. They have savvy marketing departments, huge ad budgets and outside agencies to lead the way. However, small businesses, such as restaurants, car dealerships and boutiques, typically don’t have that luxury, forcing them to go it alone. They don’t have the time, experience or knowledge of how pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns work.
The result is a whole lot of small business owners using Facebook ads in ways that are totally incorrect from a direct response marketing perspective.
The good news is that all of the things that the big brands do online can be achieved for small and medium-sized businesses, as well – without the big price tag.
Here are five fast, straightforward beginner’s tips that you can use right away to plan an effective Facebook ad campaign.They just involve a little bit of your time. The rest is pathetically simple to do.
Five Facebook advertising quick tips to get you started today
Facebook advertising quick tips
QUICK TIP #1 – Define your goal
You can use Facebook for advertising a page, app, site or even an event. Do you want to push your audience to your website? Do you want traffic to go to a sales page? What about an opt-in offer? Are you looking to achieve more Facebook likes? Choose your main objective up front. The Facebook ad type you end up choosing will depend on what you’re trying to achieve. If you’re not sure, don’t stress. Facebook offers recommendation on ad formats based on your goal.
QUICK TIP #2 – Just talk
You don’t have to be an expert copywriter to create tantalizing ad text. Your audience craves authenticity, trust and connection. Rely on your own unique voice when writing ad copy. Great ads invite the audience into the conversation by provoking curiosity or stirring emotions. The people who succeed with Facebook ads get to know their audience intimately, think about where they live emotionally and simply write as though they’re conversing with a close friend. Write just like you would talk to someone.
QUICK TIP #3 – Tell them what to do
Spend ample time thinking about your call to action (CTA). What do you want your customer to do? Start your CTA with a power (action) verb and provide clear direction on next steps.
QUICK TIP #4 – Pictures, please!
For maximum engagement (clicks, likes, shares and comments) and to help your ad stand out from the crowd, don’t overlook graphics. Facebook PPC ads with imagesachieve much higher engagement than those without. Also, test out multiple images to determine which work the best. On image ads, be sure to keep text under 20% (including logos and slogans).Facebook has a grid tool to help ensure that your ad’simage follows Facebook guidelines.
QUICK TIP #5 – Use advanced targeting techniques
You won’t find Facebook’s level of unique targeting options on any other platform. You can target audiences by location, interests, age, gender, workplace, relationship status, language, education and the list goes on.
Bonus tip: Remarketing and Retargeting Ads
Remarketing ads are a major DO! To close a sale, your customers need to see your content multiple times. That’s the intent of retargeting ads and that’s why they should be a part of every small business owner’s ad campaign.
How does it all work? When a new visitor arrives at your sales page via a Facebook post, a tracking pixel is deposited on the visitor’s computer. Then, an ad you’ve created in advance begins appearing on other websites that they subsequently visit. They’ll see that ad repeatedly – it will seemingly “follow” them wherever they go online! See how retargeting ads work overtime behind the scenes to help you land the sale?
As with other Facebook ads, retargeting ad costs are at bargain basement levels. Through retargeting, you can achieve hundreds of thousands of website visits for as little as $50 or less (or .01-.03 per click). That’s insane ROI!
The beauty is that you only pay for the visitors who actually come to your website. There is no competition with anyone else for ad spend.
Remarketing ads don’t give your audience a chance to forget you. Your business will be visible all over the web, on Facebook and all of their 3rd party sites. Google also offers retargeting ad capabilities, so for even deeper online saturation, retarget on both Facebook and Google.
If you’re still unsure about DIY Facebook ads, here’s one more solution…
Facebook ads solution
Even if time were not a factor, I still hear a lot of the entrepreneurs and business owners say that they feel Facebook Ads would be too complex orintimidating for them to try out.
Even with all of the advice, classes and tutorials out there, we know online advertising can be intimidating. We know your reputation and brand is on the line so you want to get it just right. That’s why we opened Northlake Digital. Our job is to get small businesses over the various hurdles that prevent them from using online advertising and using it effectively.
If you aren’t doing ads for your brand yet, let us teach you how to cut your ad spend in half, while reaching customers in your niche and micro niche.You can achieve leaps and bounds in your business with as little as $10 per day or less.
If the DIY thing just isn’t your style, let us manage your entire ad campaign for – from copy writing to conversion tracking to measuring campaign effectiveness. Click here and we’ll get you started . Partner with us today and you could be getting customer responses by the end of the week.What’s holding you back?
Until next time, here’s to your massive online success!
