RECENTLY, it looks like everyone and his/her parents have a Facebook page. In Nigeria, about 10
million unique visitors flock to the social network every month. Many are business
owners, using their Facebook
profiles to promote their companies and create customer communities. For
some establishments’ owners, entrepreneurs, social networks have also become a
useful advertising platform. Martins
Chima, CEO of Information Library,
a Nigerian–based Publisher
of Books, Projects, Seminars, Articles, Journals e.t.c, says that ads on Facebook are an affordable
alternative to the high pay-per-click rates for acne-related keywords on
Google's AdWords. "For me, the economics of
Google just don't work," he says. But
it's not very easy to make your ad stand out among the Facebook status updates,
party photos, and comments. Here are four tips to help you get started.
1. Choose your
specified targets
Everyone who uses social networks often divulge a plethora
of personal information in their personal profiles, which can really prove very
helpful/useful to all advertisers. Facebook lets you pick and choose which
groups you would like your ads to reach. Companies can target ads based on a
user's profile information, such as age, gender, location, college,
relationship status, and interests. You can choose to target people who are
fans of your company's Facebook page or friends of your fans. Or avoid your
fans altogether, if your goal is to broaden your pool of customers.
DO YOU NEED TO PLACE AN ADVERT ON FACEBOOK?
You can also advertise only to Facebook users who mention
certain words in their profiles or status messages. For example, Chris Chima, CEO and owner
of CHRIS FARM NIGERIA occasionally
targets new and existing commercial farmers whose pages mention the names of agro
products such as fish feed machines, piggery tools, poultry equipments tractors
etc, in on a specific audience lets his customers get the most products for
your advertising buck, but be careful about narrowing your focus too much. When
Martins Chima, founder of www.martinslibrary.com, an Information Library
based in Nigeria,
attempted to target specific colleges and universities in an ad campaign, he didn't get many clicks.
"I thought there was a chance to cordon off influencers in some way,"
he says."It isn’t easy."
2. Test, check, review and
test some more
All Ad prices on Facebook are determined by auction, as they are
on Google AdWords. You can pay based on either the number of timespeople see
the ad or the number of times people actually click on it. Themajority of
Facebook advertisers choose the latter, says Tim Kendall, Facebook's director
of monetization. Still, it's worth testingboth payment types to see which is
more cost effective, says David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media
and innovation for 360i, a digital marketing agency. Hesuggests spending about
$20 or so for a small ad buy using both methods. "It's incredibly cheap to
run tests," says Berkowitz.
DO YOU NEED TO PLACE AN ADVERT ON FACEBOOK?
Testing various target demographics is also a good idea,
says Adam Golomb, the head of e-commerce at Eat'n Park Hospitality Group, a
Pittsburgh-based company that runs a chain of 76 restaurants. Golomb launched
an ad campaign last spring, hoping to draw more visitors to Eat'n Park's
Facebook page, where the companyposts surveys, contests, and coupons. In
testing, Golomb found that an ad targeting women performed better than one that
targeted both sexes. "The click-through rate dropped dramatically when we
went out to both," he says. After he began advertising only to women, the
company was able to add nearly 1,000 new fans over a two-week period.
3. Do your own
personal tracking
The platform of Facebook keeps tabs on how many times your ads are shown and
the number of clicks they receive. But it doesn't track what users do after
they click -- did they make purchases or just browse and move on? That's the
largest drawback of Facebook's ad service, says Lindlandof Cordarounds.com.
"Return on investment is not immediately trackable," he says.
Facebook's Kendall says the company is working to include more information in
its reporting tools. Until that happens, it's critical to do your own tracking.
"The beauty of microtargeting an ad buy based on location, age, and sex is
the data you're going to get out of that," says Michael Kahn, senior vice
president of marketing at the digital marketing firm Performics. "To not
take advantage of that would be a terrible waste of an opportunity."
Sawits of Frutels uses two analytics programs: Google Analytics, which isfree,
and HitsLink, which starts at about $10 a month, to track which Facebook ads
result in purchases. Sawits, who spent $50,000 on Facebook ads in 2009, says
her rate of return is about 2 to 1.
DO YOU NEED TO PLACE AN ADVERT ON FACEBOOK?
4. Make your ads
pop-up
Many different Companies write their own ads, which may include a short
headline, an ad copy of 120 characters or fewer, and a small image. Ads must be
crafted carefully, because it's tough to get noticed. Typically, three ads from
different advertisers run next to one another. And, of course, thereare photos
and messages from friends that compete for Facebook users' attention. "It
is a social network, so if you put up a traditional ad, you're going to be
pushed to the side," says Goldklang. Edgy advertisements, he says, seem to
work best for his hair salon, which caters to a young clientele. One
advertisement that performed well last year proclaimed,"Springtime is
here. Time to get waxed." "I find just being irreverent and trying
not to write in traditionalcopyspeak connects us the best withpotential
clients," Goldklang says. Since he started advertising on Facebook a year
and a half ago, the number of new clients who discovered the salon online has
risen 21 percent.
Please be informed that Facebook will reject your advertisement if you use an image
that is deemed too risqué or language that is deemed offensive or lewd. But it
usually pays to push the envelope. Martins
Chima says one of Information
Library's Facebook ads
that includes a photograph of a woman licking a lollipop gets the most clicks.
For Facebook's list of common advertiser mistakes, go to
facebook.com/ads/mistakes.php
Written by: Martins Chima
DO YOU NEED TO PLACE AN ADVERT ON FACEBOOK?