Benefits of Facebook Advertising (and Does it Actually Work?)

You may or may not have heard of Facebook advertising before. However there are many reasons why Facebook advertising could help your business. Having social media profiles for your business is an effective promotional strategy. However through Facebook you can also further promote your business through advertising methods. Facebook adverts themselves include interaction on business’s social media pages and divert potential customers to their external website pages to find out more. One key benefit of this type of advertising is that it is a low cost method, therefore can benefit many different businesses whatever your budget may be.

Why Facebook advertising?

1) Cost effective

There are so many types of internet advertising options available which involve larger budgets. However Facebook advertising is open to many business owners as it is low cost and cost effective.  Your business either pays every time someone clicks or your advert or every time someone hovers over your advert. You can also set a daily budget so that you ensure you stick to your business budget. If you are looking to increase the awareness of your brand Facebook advertising can also help you achieve this.

2) Helps Grow your Facebook Likes

When fans firstly see a Facebook advert they will be given the chance to like the page that relates to that particular business or brand. This helps to increase your fans and followers. Additionally when people like a page their friends will also be able to see what they have liked - extending your exposure. Facebook adverts help expand the awareness of businesses and brands. Additionally regular engaging posts or marketing promotions will also encourage potential customers to like your page, your posts and interact and comment creating a platform for you to build up strong business relationships.

3) Drive People to your Website or Blog

Through Facebook advertising not only are you trying to increase your fans directly through social media, you are also encouraging them to your website and blog. Once you have these visitors or you website they are likely to search through a few pages to find out more. They may also search through your blog articles to gain further guidance. You may also gain further enquiries through your website for a particular type of product.

4) Build your Business Awareness

Facebook advertising will expand your brand awareness. It is important to include a range of digital marketing strategies for your business in order to maximise the enquiries and sales you can gain for your business. Additionally with Facebook advertising you can regularly change the design of your adverts to keep potential customers regularly engaged.  With Facebook advertising there is also the opportunity to target your different customer types. You may want to run one campaign for certain types of customers then focus on another type of your customers. For example you may want to announce a particular special offer or explain particular product benefits for a certain group of customers.

5) Target your Different Customer Groups

Many businesses will have more than one type of customer. This means that different customer types may have different reasons why they may be likely to buy from you. Therefore creating adverts which relate to individual customer groups should increase your followers and enquiries. Through your advert headlines, copy and images you can try to effectively micro target new potential customers.

6) Not Only One Advertising Option 

There are different Facebook advertising options so you can choose the option which is most suitable for you. If you are wanting more visits and likes on your social media page there are certain options available. Likewise if you want to encourage redirects to your website itself, there are other techniques you can use.

The main traditional type of advertising is the adverts which are included on the right hand side of news feeds. These are designed to encourage potential customers to view your website directly. Additionally there are adverts known as page post adverts. These adverts allow you to take something you have posted on your Facebook page and turn this content into an advert itself. You may choose a photo, link, video, event, question or text update to use for your adverts.  Then when people who are not already fans see the advert they will have the opportunity to ‘Like’ Your Page.

Sponsored story adverts are also a possible option for your business. These types of adverts are more conversational and encourage participation with your fans. These types of adverts also highlight actions taken by fans on your Facebook page. Additionally there are also promoted post adverts which allow you to push your important posts higher in news feeds. Therefore this will increase the likelihood of your potential customers seeing your adverts. 

Article by: Laura Morris-Richardson