Facebook is the most popular social networking website, with over 400 million active users. Because of its reach, advertising on the site can be a profitable way to advertise your business. This guide will show you how to advertise on Facebook.
Advertising on Facebook
This video discusses the process of applying for a Facebook ad, and highlights the different questions you will be asked regarding the way you want the ad to look, as well as who you want the ad to be targeted towards. There will be an option for the age range of the people you want to reach, for example, as well as the types of interests you would like these people to have. In order to get an ad placed on Facebook you will first need to sign up for an account, and then click on the create ad icon to begin the process. Keep in mind it may take as many as 15 tries to get your ad accepted to Facebook.
Introduction
- Advertising on Facebook is a highly interactive way to spread the word about your business. Facebook allows you to design your ad using uploaded photos, to target your ads by key demographics and attach social actions to increase your ad's relevance.
Step 1: Design Your Ad
The first step includes creating a title for your ad. Facebook will allow up to 25 characters (including spaces) for the title, and another 135 characters for the body of the ad. One useful feature of Facebook advertising is that, as you are working on it online, a preview will be visible onscreen.
Once you have written your ad copy, you will need to decide whether or not you want to include a picture. You can upload a photo from your computer by clicking on "Choose File" from the "Ad Image" section of the Advertising page.
Next, you will choose a destination URL which will direct people who click on your ad to your website of choice. You can choose your business's website or, if you don't have one, to a Facebook page, application, group or event.
(Creative Commons photo by cambodia4kidsorg)
Step 2: Target Your Audience
- Facebook helps you pinpoint the people who will see your ad. Though the Facebook default target setting is all users 18 and older, you can adjust this by choosing from among nine demographics:
- Location
- Age
- Sex
- Keywords
- Education
- Workplace
- Relationship Status
- Relationship Interests
- Languages
Step 3: Set Your Price
- Facebook Advertising allows you to schedule how frequently the ad will run , depending on your marketing budget. There is quite a bit of flexibility here; you can choose to pay per click-through or per view, and you can choose to run the ad continuously or only during specific dates. There is a "Daily Budget" field that gives you the option of choosing the maximum that you are willing to spend each day, and you can bid on how much you are willing to pay per click or per view.
Step 4: Review the Ad
Before you submit the ad to Facebook, the site will allow you to review the design, verbiage, targeting and budget of the ad. If the ad looks acceptable to you, the next step is to pay for the ad via credit card. Facebook reserves the right to reject any ad based on their own guidelines.
If the ad has been accepted, you must determine whether or not it is an effective vehicle for promoting your business. This can be determined by analyzing how many unique views your website has received, how much sales have increased or your individual marketing budget.
Conclusion
Advertising on Facebook can be an effective, low-cost way to spread the word about your products to friends, groups or the public at large. Because it's fairly inexpensive, you will quickly be able to determine its usefulness for your business. The low cost and precise targeting give Facebook's advertising application an advantage over many other types of web marketing, and its ease of use can make it appealing to even the smallest of firms.
