Facebook ads! Seven reasons why they might be GOOD for YOUR business!
Written by Julia Bickerstaff // March 3, 2015 // Daily Juice // No comments
Oh um. Facebook ads. Some people love them, some people loathe them. But I think if you’re running a small business they’re SUPER- useful! YES!
Before I go on though, I know you might find the thought of any “advertising” as a bit yucky. I get that. In fact I remember as a little girl pointing to a shop display which said “As advertised on TV” and saying to my Dad “If it’s that good they shouldn’t need to advertise on TV”. Kinda true in a perfect world but in OUR world life’s a little more like this……
Right, now we’ve got that out of the way, and before we start on why Facebook ads are GOOD I just want to make sure you know I’m not a Facebook marketing expert-y guru person! Nah! I’m just a small business gal who’s learned a LOT from using FB ads and listening to lots of small business friends who use Facebook ads! Facebook ads for small businesses
And, look, I don’t usually write about Facebook because there are plenty of other people who do that REALLY well. But over in our Healthy Income Program community we’ve been having lots of conversations about Facebook ads – Do they work? Are they expensive? How do you do them? – that kinda thing, and goodness, suddenly I had so much I wanted to say!
So, today I thought I’d share some of the reasons I like Facebook ads with you! And maybe you’d like to share your thoughts in the comments too?
Seven reasons why I like Facebook ads:
Here are some reasons why I like Facebook ads! Not a complete list but a good beginning!
1 You can show your ad to the right people and only the right people!
Oh My. Facebook is VERY good at this because it knows SO much about us Facebook users. And while I do think that’s a bit creepy, it makes for very fabulous advertising. So let’s use it. Yes?!
So with Facebook you get to show your advert to the type of people who you want to see it. And this is good because you’re not spending money showing your ad to the wrong people.
You can target by location (from country all the way down to a small suburb), by gender, age, interests (eg people who ‘like’ Martha Stewart), education, parent-status and digital activities. All sorts.
It does take a bit of playing with Facebook to get the most out of selecting your ‘audience’ and you’ve probably seen belly-achingly-odd ads like this one that appeared in my newsfeed.
But all the same. If you put a bit of effort into selecting your audience it works!
2 You can show ads to people who visited your website but left before doing anything!
This is a clever little thing! Did you know you can send adverts to people who visited your website but didn’t sign up or buy anything? This is called retargeting and it’s an ace way to get a would-be customer back in your loop!
I know that sometimes I’ve visited a website, got distracted and then forgotten to go back to it until Facebook has popped an ad for it up in my newsfeed and reminded me!
To do retargeting you need to put a thing called a “retargeting’ pixel on your website. It’s just a bit of code that Facebook gives you but once you’ve done that it’s easy!
3. You can show ads to people who want your stuff but don’t know that they want it!
Facebook ads are VERY good for businesses that sell stuff that people don’t know they want! This makes it super-useful for businesses who sell handmade, quirky, niche stuff or new concepts. Things you wouldn’t Google for!
So, for example, I’ve bought handmade dresses for my daughter,joined a running group, and had homemade meals delivered….all things I didn’t know I -um- needed until they popped up as an ad in my Facebook newsfeed!
4 You don’t have to spend much money!
Oh how I love this! You don’t have to spend much money to start advertising on Facebook! You can start with just $1! If you’ve ever advertised in a magazine you’ll know how amazing it is to be able to start small!
5 You can experiment!
Running little Facebook experiments is super-useful. Why? Because designing a good Facebook ad is a bit harder than it looks! Not in a technical way – but in getting the right look and feel. But the good thing is you can find out what works and what doesn’t by experimenting! And it’s easy! Just test your ads with different words and images on a teeny budget and then pick the one that works best to spend your proper budget on!
6 It’s easy, once you know how!
Facebook ad’s are easy to set-up and monitor once you know how! REALLY!
7 They save you time!
I know some of us prefer to spend time working our Facebook pages and using that to spruik our products, rather than using Facebook ads. And that’s fine! Fabulous in fact! But it also takes T-I-M-E. And for those of us who don’t have much of that, well Facebook ads are a GOOD shortcut.
I’ve done both (ads and worked my page) and now think that my time is better spent doing other business-y stuff rather than working The Business Bakery page. But I still LOVE our Facebook page! Love it! It’s just now I do it for FUN, rather than obsessing about spending time on it to get our posts into your newsfeed. Hurrah!
♡ YOU! ♡
Do you use Facebook ads? Do they work well for you?
Facebook-ads-made-easy-class!
I’m running a little Facebook-ads-made-easy class for our Healthy Income Program members and you are very WELCOME to join us TOO! There’s a bit more info here. It’s going to be FUN, GENTLE and HELPFUL! Fancy joining us?!
MORE!
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