You’ve been successfully targeting customers organically and through AdWords for years, but could it be time to jump into Facebook ads, like over 3 million other businesses are currently doing? The fact is that there are over 1.79 billion registered active Facebook users, and that number is growing every day. Some of these people could be your next customer.
But then there are the reservations—Facebook ads can be difficult to manage and the ROI can come in the form of additional referrals, more work from existing customers, or a long delay between liking your page and becoming a lead. It’s not the type of direct response you might be familiar with on Google organic and Adwords.
The Facebook ad platform is becoming more powerful each day, and for some businesses it can be a great way to grow, but how do you know if it’s right for your business? Read through our questions below to help decide if Facebook advertising is right for your business.
But First, What’s the Difference Between Boosting a Post & Regular Facebook Ads?
The Boost option gives you an opportunity to reach a larger audience.
Before we jump into those questions, it’s important to understand the difference between “boosting” posts and regular Facebook ads.
When you make a post to Facebook, you will often see that blue button that says “Boost Post.” Clicking this button gives you the opportunity to reach more people for a small budget. So spending $5 may give you the opportunity to get your post in front of a lot more people.
While boosting is great for increasing content views and engagement, it doesn’t present you with as many advanced options as a regular ad campaign. A regular ad campaign differs from a boosted post because regular ad campaigns have:
- More options for targeting
- A number of objectives to choose from (increase conversions, gain video views, etc.)
- Call-to-action buttons, like “Shop Now,” “Learn More,” etc.
- More options for scheduling and managing a number of ad campaigns and audiences.
- Advanced placement options, like showing ads in the sidebar or on Instagram.
- Additional bidding options.
So in general, a boost is like a short burst to get your content out there to a selected audience, while a normal ad campaign is more of a long-term play with a specific goal in mind.
We often tell our clients, if you are taking the time to create new content for your website, it at least makes sense to boost the post to your audience. If it takes you 30 minutes to create a post, and your time is worth $50/hr at your job, then it’s really silly not to spend an additional $10 to get it front of 800 people instead of 80.
And Now, 5 Questions to Ask Yourself
So now you understand the fundamental differences between your two options. Boosting is very simple to manage and is great for most businesses who are producing content, but having a complete ad campaign isn’t worth it for every business. That’s where our questions come in!
Can You Define Your Audience?
Facebook has more than just geographic and age targeting options; you also have the ability to target by interest, job title, purchasing behavior, income, and more. These unique options give you the opportunity to reach people at any time. They might not be interested in your products and services now, but showing your ads to these people will help to increase your brand awareness among your ideal audience.
If your audience is too big, it’s going to be difficult to fine tune your targeting. Consider making separate audiences to focus in on different types of customers with more tailored content. You may also be able to try the remarketing audience. Setting up a remarketing audience allows you to reach people who recently visited your website. If your website gets a lot of traffic, setting up a remarketing campaign could be a good way to grow your Facebook audience.
If your audience is too small, you aren’t going to want to spend a ton of money on promoting content to Facebook. There’s a good chance the same people are going to see your ads over and over and may eventually become a little annoyed by your frequent posts.
Do You Have a Goal?
When you go to set up your Facebook ads, you will be overwhelmed by the number of “ad objectives.” If you are looking to grow your Facebook Likes, then you can optimize for that. Trying to send people to a new blog on your site? Optimize for clicks. Looking to reach people who are most likely to convert? Then go ahead and optimize for conversions.
If you don’t have an end goal in mind, then you’re going to have trouble setting up a successful campaign. Take a look at your options below and decide if one of these goals makes sense for your business.
Do You Have Engaging Content?
So you have your audience picked out and a goal in mind, but what are you going to share with them? “Like our page because we’re great” probably isn’t going to cut it. The type of content you share also has to do with your objective. If you’re trying to get clicks to your website, then you need to make your image & headlines standout, which is difficult in today’s Facebook news feeds. Trying to get video views? You’ll need to create a video ad that people actually want to watch.
If your industry is boring, it’s going to be challenging to create meaningful ads, with a clear call to action. If your ads don’t perform well, you’re going to end up paying a higher cost for ad clicks. Facebook assigns your ads a “relevance score“–the higher the number, the better your ad is performing, and the less you are paying for engagement.
Are You Going to Spend the Money?
For many of our clients, we tell them that for as little as $1/day, they could be expanding their reach on Facebook, but that’s often not enough. To really see success, you are going to want to set a daily budget of at least $5/day to start. Your daily budget is the average amount you’re willing to spend each day to promote your ads. Sure, $1 here and there will expand your reach, but you aren’t going to see many measurable results by limiting your budget. A budget of $5/day on AdWords wouldn’t really get you anywhere, but on Facebook it’s usually enough to get you some impressions.
Can You Communicate With Your Customers?
If you’re new to Earth, then you might not know this, but Facebook is all about engagement. It’s a place where people rant and rave, and it presents the unique opportunity for customers to engage with businesses they like. This can be great for some businesses, but not so great for others. If you aren’t going to take the time to respond to questions on your business Facebook page, then you might not want to grow your reach on Facebook. If your page is full of bad reviews and negative posts from customers, you also aren’t going to want to draw any additional attention to the page.
Business owners who take the time to respond to customers and post unique content will give off a better impression to people who end up on the Facebook page.
So, is Facebook Right For You?
Facebook advertising is a great way to establish contact with your customer base, add depth to your brand voice, and engage with potential clients. There are plenty of options for customization and you have the ability to target your audience using specific criteria.
However, deciding on the particulars is trickier than meets the eye, since Facebook is a unique platform. Answering the above questions before settling on your Facebook campaign will help to ensure success.
