Utilizing Facebook Advertising to Grow Your Business
Most everyone has come to understand the importance of social media in marketing a business, but starting an account and posting occasionally might not get you the reach you want. Social media platforms have huge audiences, but it’s hard as a newcomer to immediately start reaching a substantial audience.
There is huge potential with social media, but having a page is kind of like the chips and salsa. You’ll get a good understanding of the opportunity that exists, but it isn’t until you pay for the steak burrito that you can start reaping more benefits.
(ENTER: Facebook Advertising)
Facebook Advertising is an enormous opportunity for marketers, but it can be a little overwhelming. Below we have broken down some statistics for current usage, some specific use cases for your business, and what we recommend you try when you are first starting out.
Statistics
· From 2014 to 2016, social advertising spend doubled, with the United States spending the most on social advertising. (1)
· Social media spending is expected to hit $17.34 billion by 2019. (2)
· Desktop Facebook advertisements have an 8.1x higher click through rate than other online advertisements, even though they make up a small percentage of online ads. (3)
Use Cases
There are many compelling events that would be a great way to dive in to Facebook Advertising.
Event
An event like a networking group or a webinar is a great reason to run a short ad campaign. With targeting, you can reach people around your event with interests specific to your market.
Product or Service Launch
A new product or service gives you the opportunity to launch and talk to a bunch of new people who may have had no idea what you do.
Specific Content
If you have a specific blog (Hi everyone who found this article from a Facebook Ad!!!) or series you want to promote, ads are a great way to get the word out there.
The Difference
Advertising content or an event helps build brand awareness which can lead to a sale, instead of advertising a product or service which is directly trying to sell.
Use for Growth
Don’t plan on selling through Facebook ads unless you have a single awesome product and you are using a video to demonstrate how useful it is. Instead plan on using Facebook advertising to increase brand awareness and grow your audience.
Especially when selling services, you need to have so many “touches” before a sale can happen. Social media is a great way to break down that barrier and start getting some touches out of the way. Normal social media is great at this, but you can get to a point where your audience growth is stagnant. Use Facebook ads to get out of that plateau.
Best Practices
The $5 Trial
The beauty of Facebook ads is you get to decide the maximum you’re willing to spend and then you can’t go over that. Do a few $5 trials to determine what a certain audience will do. If a certain audience garners more engagements than another, continue to build that one out.
You can use your $5 trials to test out audience interests, locations, demographics, and ad wording/images. Get the most out of these by changing single aspects at a time and documenting all your results! #science
Specific Targeting
Facebook’s targeting ability is kind of amazing. There are dozens off interests, behaviors, and locations you can use to target people.
Tie your targeting into your buyer personas to target a very specific audience with a dialed in message. Your message to the Baby Boomer CXO and the Millennial CXO *should* be very different, even though they have the same role in the company.
Vertical Breakdowns
In coordination with your targeting, you can target specific verticals. You can have an ad go out to only plumbers or only tech companies using targeting. Although these two industries might both need business insurance, it needs to be marketed to them differently to be effective.
Wrap Up
Tons of business are investing in advertising on social media and now is the time to hop on the trend.
References
Statista: Social Media Marketing
Statista: Social Media Marketing Expenditure
About Leeward Business Advisors
Leeward Business Advisors is a Wisconsin-based corporation that provides business strategy planning, business improvement implementation, and full IT operational support. They offer world class Cloud Computing services, Cloud brokerage, Managed IT services, and a full US based Support Service Desk (called Quick Answers). Michael Polzin, CEO has 20+ years of enterprise business and technology experience gained while working at Allstate Insurance and Microsoft Corporation. Jason Klein, CTO has 15+ years delivering effective and efficient technology to Midwest companies.
