This is the second part of the Small Business Owners series I started recently. Last time I talked about harnessing the power of social media. Today, we’re going to focus on the biggest social network and I’m going to reveal to you a few strategies on how to deploy Facebook advertising in order to boost exposure, onboard more of the right prospects and clients, and increase sales.
Facebook is the most powerful social platform on the planet. The company’s portfolio includes major apps such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.
Facebook has 1.86 billion monthly active users as of December 2016 and 1.23 billion daily active users on average. More than half of Facebook’s advertising revenue comes from mobile; that’s over $1 billion in mobile revenue. The social network continues its solid performance, which means that Facebook is likely to be around longer than some analysts might think or predict.
By now, I assume you know that you can have a personal Facebook profile and create several Facebook Pages where you can share the latest news about your business. You can post articles, upload images and videos or do a live webinar. You can highlight your services, create offers and events, add job postings and of course, advertise your business.
There are tons of features and Facebook keeps adding new ones on the fly — which often causes overwhelm.
In this article I’d like to focus on the advertising aspect of your business while putting an emphasis on the fact that you will get better outcomes if you leverage and integrate both sides of Facebook (organic and paid). This being said, let’s dive deeper into Facebook advertising.
Why Advertise on Facebook
Let’s start with the most important question first: Why should you spend money aka invest on Facebook?
- Because your ideal audience is most likely on Facebook — unless of course you’re in China or selling to kids / young teenagers who spend the majority of their time on Snapchat for example.
- Because Facebook provides you with the most powerful targeting options ever available, allowing you to micro-segment and put your message in front of those who’re most relevant to your business.
- Because users on Facebook are willing to buy and have the ability to buy. Active users on Facebook are valued at an average of $122 as opposed to $70 for active users on Twitter and $63 for LinkedIn users. (Forbes, May 2014)
For a detailed list of reasons why you must add Facebook advertising to your list of marketing weapons, I invite you to read my blog post 10 Eye-Opening Facts About Facebook Ads.
The Small Business Owners Dilemma
Wait a second: I’m a small business owner, I have ten employees running around in my local store, I have to generate cash flow to pay the bills and on top of everything else, you tell me to do Facebook advertising?
As a small business owner, you have more important things to do than posting cute pictures on Facebook or hitting that boost post button. As a matter of fact, your number one job as a small business owner is to get more of the right customers through the door so that you can increase turnover, maximize profits and grow the business.
I get it!
Therefore, here are a few options you can choose from when it comes to…
Who Can Do Facebook Advertising?
1. Outsource
For one, you could outsource this task to an agency, a freelancer or a digital advertising geek with a proven record.
Agencies tend to charge a lot of money (especially larger ones) and aren’t necessarily a good fit. Smaller agencies that specialize on specific markets usually have reasonable prices for what it is that they provide. Freelancers and geeks can be a smart choice if you’re familiar with Facebook advertising yourself but don’t have the time for all the nitty-gritty.
2. Delegate
The second thing you could do if you’re the owner of the business and don’t want to get your hands dirty with Facebook ads — you could delegate this to one of your employees or hire somebody to deal with online advertising and keep your social media presence up-to-date.
3. DIY
The Do It Yourself option is the opposite of the first two suggestions listed above, yet it’s one that I have encountered quite a few times during the past years.
Now, DIY doesn’t necessarily mean you do 100% of the job. On the contrary, it means you do some or a combination of the tips mentioned below, so that you can leverage your time, shortcut the process and boost your experience fast:
- Join digital advertising groups on Facebook (or LinkedIn) to stay up-to-date
- Subscribe to all kinds of Facebook materials (e.g. Facebook newsroom, Facebook Blueprint webinars and tutorials)
- Join a Facebook advertising membership like the Social Advertising Academy that I’m in charge of, so that you can leverage other Facebook experts’ experience and apply what really works in the online advertising space
4. Combination of the Above
This is a great option for small business owners with a higher affinity to Internet marketing and especially social media.
BTW, some of my clients prefer a combination of DIY and Delegate because they enjoy the game. They really love the process and want to know what’s going on in the world of Zuckerberg, Gates & Co. This is how they ensure that they stay ahead of the pack while also maintaining the feeling of “I’m in control”.
What There is to Know About Facebook Advertising
I’ve written several articles about advertising on Facebook. You’ll find most of them here on my blog, others on LinkedIn for example.
Here are some topics I have covered and where to look for them:
- TARGETING TIPS: 3 Highly Relevant Audience to Target Using Facebook Ads or 2 Ridiculously Powerful and Highly Relevant Audiences to Target with Your Facebook Ads
- AD TIPS and HACKS: 4 Facebook Ad Tips to Maximize Conversion Rates, 5 Facebook Marketing Hacks to Increase Your ROI or Facebook Carousel Ads: Increase Your CTA and Lower Your Cost per Action
- INSTANT ARTICLES: 3 Steps to Becoming a Publisher on Facebook (Monetization aspects included)
- FACEBOOK AD MISTAKES: 3 Dangers to Avoid or 3 Facebook Ad Mistakes You Should Avoid
What’s the ONE Thing?
If you give people a list of the 10 most important things to do, heck, even if you give them a list of 3 items, they will still come back to you and ask you: “What’s the most important thing out of the 10 (or 3)?”
It’s human nature to look for the easy things in life. The brain likes to do one thing and go to sleep aka turn to autopilot as soon as possible.
Having said that, after all these years I have been advertising on Facebook, I’ll give you the one thing that I find has that cutting edge advantage when it comes to running profitable ads on Facebook or any other platform for that matter. That one thing is TARGETING.
You can have the best marketing message in the world. You can have a fantastic product or service. You can even pick the best marketing media possible. And yet, if you put all the above in front of the wrong people, you’ll get burned.
Targeting the right people is definitely one of the keys to successful advertising on Facebook.
And for those of you who have been in business for a few years and know your audience really well, the statement I made will be obvious.
If on the other hand, you’re just starting out, you’ll need to put your energy and resources into building a highly relevant audience so that you can maximize the performance of your marketing triangle market-message-media match and get the ideal lead / client for your buck.
Stepping Up Your Facebook Advertising Game
You or your team have been running ads on Facebook for quite some time now, you’ve been reading all kinds of blogs and materials, you’ve been applying different strategies and tactics shared in the Facebook Blueprint course but you still can’t get tangible results on Facebook?
If this applies to you and you’re one of those savvy small business owners who know that there’s more to Facebook advertising than getting random likes, shares and comments — to be more precise, you WANT measurable results (relevant leads and sales), than you’re a perfect fit for my Social Advertising Academy.
I’m obsessed with results and if so are you, then I look forward to welcoming you to my exclusive Facebook advertising membership.
