Mastering Facebook advertising

Fortunately, the leading social network is kitted out with some very useful features to help you promote your products and services – and each can be tailored to your budget.

Your success will often depend on choosing the right options for each campaign, so here’s CE’s handy guide to advertising on Facebook.

1. Promoted posts

This option makes a normal status update more visible, which is great if you want to advertise an event, announce some important news or share a creative campaign.

You can target two types of Facebook user:

a) Those who already ‘Like’ your page. Promoting a post will bump it up their news feeds.
b) Those who don’t currently ‘Like’ your page, but might do if you capture their interest.

If their other ‘Likes’, location and connections match your customer profile and type of business, your post will appear in their news feeds.

If you choose the right posts to promote, you’re likely to see an increase in ‘Likes’ and shares – and might even see your post become viral. Facebook calls it ‘boosting your posts’.

2. Facebook offers

Instead of just talking about offers in posts, you can use Facebook’s dedicated template, which is designed to make people more likely to pursue them further.

A Facebook Offer appears in the news feeds of those who already ‘Like’ your page, with a short description and a ‘Get offer’ button to motivate users – who can also choose to like the post, share it or comment on it.

It’s ideal if you have a great offer to share, as it rewards existing customers and encourages potential customers – thereby giving your sales a quick boost.

3. Ads

These usually appear in the right-hand column of users’ Facebook news feed, featuring a headline, short description and link to a website – or an option to ‘Like’ your page.

You can choose the audience you want to target. For example, if you run a dating agency in Cheshire, your primary audience will be local singles – so Facebook can show your ads to those with a matching relationship status.

This can be a great starting point if you have a new page, increasing your ‘Likes’ and web traffic; and converting these to sales.

Take a look at how we helped a new branch of Toby Carvery using Facebook advertising.

How do you target the right audience?

The three options above all give you the option to target the audience you want to reach – so there are various factors to consider.

These include:

Location – Where does your target audience live? This can be useful if you’re a local business, but also if you’re a national chain that sometimes needs to communicate with customers of a particular branch or venue.

Age – Many products and services are age-specific. For example, if you run a bar or pub, you can avoid under-18s.

Gender – You can split your campaign to focus on men and women (in different ways), or just one or the other.

Interests – ‘Likes’, keywords in status updates and chosen apps can all reveal what users enjoy – so you can be confident your ad reaches the right people.

Connections – You can choose whether your existing ‘Like’ audience sees your posts – which is handy if you’ve got a special promotion for new customers.

And if you REALLY want to get into the nitty-gritty…

…there are several more options to assist advanced advertisers, once you’ve got the hang of the basics. These include:

Behaviour targeting – Facebook has trusted third-party providers which monitor users’ device-based activities (with their permission), such as the way they use their smartphone or tablet; how they make purchases and their travel preferences. This information can be harnessed to make Facebook advertising more effective.

Ad exchange – If someone has expressed an interest in a product on a website, Facebook can help advanced advertisers target the same user with similar products.

Custom audiences – If you already have a contact list – for example, with phone numbers and email addresses – you can add it to Facebook and choose to target those specific people. If they’ve already expressed an interest in your business via a different channel, they may well wish to connect with you on Facebook once they realise you’re there.

Lookalike audiences – You can also use your custom audience list to target people with similar interests.

If you want to find out more, take a look at our eguide: the importance of investing in social media