An increasing number of businesses have been running direct
response and branding campaigns through Facebook due to the fact that Facebook
is a very popular medium with a huge number of users and page views. It is
really quite easy to target internet users on Facebook however, in order to
succeed it is important that you know that advertising on Facebook is
fundamentally different from search engine advertising. This difference is what
makes advertising on the world’s largest social media site a bit challenging.
As you probably know, when someone is searching on one of
the major search engines like Google or Yahoo using a specific keyword, a
related ad will pop up. The user will then click the ad (if it interests him)
wherein he will be taken to another site. This is what the user expects to
happen. But, when people are using Facebook, they are basically there to
socialize – to look at photos, to enter their status updates, read their
friends’ status updates, etc. Facebook users generally plan on staying on Facebook
and do not plan on being taken away from the site by clicking on ads.
To illustrate how you can take part ineffective Facebook
marketing, let’s say that you are trying to promote a supplement that helps to
build and retain muscles after working out. With Facebook advertising, you can
target the age, gender and location of who you want your ad to be seen by. For
example, if you want your ad to be seen by men who are 24 years of age in the
United States who ‘like’ the gym, working out, fitness, etc., your ad will be
seen by this group of Facebook users.
The ideal Facebook advertisement includes an image and a
catchy phrase or statement which will grab the attention of your targeted group
of Facebook users. It is very important that your ads remain fresh because
Facebook ads quickly become stale which causes click-through rates to drop
dramatically. Remember that you are targeting essentially the same group of
people so if you are showing them the same ad day in and day out, the interest
they show in your ad will dramatically drop. You can certainly sell the same
supplement over the long term but you must change your Facebook advertisement
regularly in order to gain click-throughs.
Considering the fact that Facebook users do not want to
leave Facebook,you have to know where to send users. Sending them directly to
your website is not your best option as most users will simply close that tab
because they do not want to be taken out of Facebook.
This leads us to what does work well with Facebook marketing
which is to send users to a Fan Page that features a ‘Buy it Now’ button.
Clicking that button will take the user away from Facebook, but at this point
it is all fine and good because obviously anyone clicking the ‘Buy it Now’
button is interested in making a purchase.
In conclusion, advertising on Facebook is drastically
different than advertising on Google. People go to Google to connect to other
information. Facebook users on the other hand do not go to Facebook to be taken
to another website. Your ads must be very appealing so that users will want to
click through for more information about the product you are selling.