Facebook Ads - A Quick Introduction and Walkthrough
Facebook Advertising is now one of the most effective tools for growing your business, cultivating loyal customers, and generating leads and sales. Over 3 million companies are now advertising on Facebook, and there has never been a better time to start.
Facebook’s advertising platform has evolved. Users can now conduct a marketing campaign or run advertisements. Furthermore, it optimizes your ad to use the best-performing one, giving you valuable insight into which type of advertising strategy works and what doesn’t.
Let us give you a quick introduction and walkthrough of the world of Facebook ads as a powerful marketing tool.
What are Facebook Ads
Facebook ads are paid messages placed on Facebook by businesses. This gives you the chance to write in your style. Furthermore, as explained in the social network’s beginner’s guide, you can reach out to the most important people.
The word “paid” is critical to this definition because anyone can post on their Facebook page for free—but you never know who will see your post.
A paid ad allows you to target a specific demographic, and you can be as straightforward or as broad as you want.
Almost 96 per cent of social media marketers believe that Facebook provides the best return on investment of any platform available (ROI). There’s a reason for this:
- The most popular search term in the world is “Facebook.”
- There are 2.4 billion Facebook users on the platform and more than 7 million advertisers.
- People use it for 35 minutes per day on average.
With that amount of reach, you’d think Facebook marketing would be prohibitively expensive, but it isn’t. Not only can you set a maximum spend on Facebook, but it also charges lesser to achieve the same amount of people as another platform.
Facebook Ads vs Google Ads
Facebook Ads and Google Ads have distinct business goals. It’s best to use Facebook Ads to raise brand awareness for products or services people want but don’t necessarily need (or don’t need right now), such as a new high-tech espresso machine. However, Google Ads works best for increasing sales of products or services that people are actively looking for, such as an electrician.
While both Facebook Ads and Google Ads are pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platforms with a competitive bidding structure, they operate differently. Facebook Ads are classified as paid social advertising because they are displayed to users on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or the expanded Audience Network. However, Google Ads are paid search ads that appear in Google’s search results.
Pos and Cons of Facebook Ads
Facebook offers business advertising for this reason – to help promote your business (healthcare practice in this case) and gain new followers. If you’ve never used Facebook advertising before, we’ve put together a list of the pros and cons so you will know if it’s the correct and right strategy for you:
Pros:
1. Wide Customer Reach
Facebook is the most used and known social media platform in scope, with over 2.6 billion monthly no signs of slowing down active users. Because of its diverse demographics and ages, Facebook is the best place to reach a large number of people with your message.
2. Creativity
With immersive ad sets like Facebook’s instant experience advertising, users can be instantly transported to an app-like brand environment. The full-screen interactive concept allows brands to tell an engaging story while highlighting marketing content that would otherwise go unnoticed on a website.
3. Target Your Audience
Advertising on Facebook can help you gain a new audience for your medical or dental practice. Using Facebook data, you can target your ad to potential patients interested in your approach based on their interests, gender, or location.
4. Conversion Measurement
You can use a Facebook pixel to track user’s actions after seeing your ads on various devices. By including a Facebook Pixel to the pages on your site where conversions occur, you will be able to see who converts from watching your Facebook ads.
5. Automation and Simple Guided Options
It can be challenging to start with Facebook ads if you are new to them. As a result, Facebook provides advertising solutions for users of all skill levels. You can automate various campaign steps within Ads Manager, such as having Facebook set your audience, daily budget, and ad placements. More experienced users can fully customize their campaigns and go deeper into performance reports. Facebook Ads can expand in tandem with your marketing and technical knowledge.
Cons:
1. Money can be wasted due to a lack of knowledge.
Like many other digital marketing tools, Facebook Ads have a learning curve. Unfortunately, attempting to understand Facebook ads can cost you money. Marketing dollars are wasted when mistakes are made in audience selection, ad placement, and goal tracking.
2. You must follow the Facebook Advertising Policies.
When you create and execute an ad, it is checked against Facebook’s policies. These guidelines aid in determining whether your content is permitted. If your ad is rejected, you can edit it and resubmit it for review.
Some businesses cannot advertise on Facebook due to wording, product, and service restrictions. Becoming acquainted with Facebook’s policies is a good idea, mainly if you work in the health, finance, or relationship industries. These industries are considered “sensitive” topics on Facebook; there are many rules to follow when advertising about personal attributes such as gender, health topics, or money. Working with policies can be difficult for some businesses.
3. Limited Advertising Possibilities
Some industries are prohibited from advertising on Facebook. This is done to provide Facebook users with a safe experience. Before appearing on Facebook, advertisements must go through a rigorous approval process, which can take up to 24 hours. So, think twice before advertising your shady services.
4. You only reach out to Facebook users.
However, if you want to reach users outside of this specific social media platform, Facebook advertising cannot help you.
5. Facebook is more of a social media platform.
Many people use Facebook to socialize rather than conduct product research or purchase. As a result, Facebook and Instagram ads will convert at a lower rate than Google Search Ads or email marketing. This is not to say that you cannot succeed with social media ads, as many have. Setting realistic goals for Facebook ads and planning to capture or retarget leads is critical. It is necessary to remember when designing and writing your ads so that they do not come across as annoying spam.
Conclusion
Facebook advertisements are incredibly effective marketing tools. They allow you to create and post ads that target particular customer segments at a low cost.
Remember to take advantage of the platform’s capabilities and interactivity. Make prospective customers active participants, and you’ll generate the kind of engagement that both Facebook and your bottom line will appreciate.
