Tips on How to Advertise on Facebook

Facebook Ads can be a very lucrative investment, but only if you know how to advertise on Facebook will you see success.

“According to recent research from MerchantCircle, 22% of small businesses have used Facebook Ads, and 65% say they would use Facebook Ads again, citing ease and flexibility as the top reasons to run another campaign. But not everyone enjoys success with Facebook Ads — among the one-third of users who say they wouldn’t run another campaign, nearly 70% say that it didn’t work to acquire new customers.”  http://mashable.com/2011/08/29/facebook-ads-tips/

Thats why we recommend that you learn these 5 techniques on how to advertise on Facebook, before you purchase Facebook Ads:

How to Advertise on Facebook | 5 Techniques

Set Goals and Plan Your Campaign – There are about 4 different approaches that you could take with Facebook Ads: build awareness, drive traffic to your site, promote an event, or generate sales.  You’ll want to clearly define your objective before committing to Facebook Ads.  Its important in understanding how to advertise on Facebook that the options you choose in setting up an ad will determine your entire campaign, so choose wisely.

Standard marketplace ads are good for businesses trying to build that initial fan base, because they allow the user to like your business directly from the ad.  If you already have an impressive fan base then you may want to consider a “Page Like” story, which displays the user’s friends that also “Like” your page.

My new favorite marketing tool on Facebook Ads is definitely “Sponsored Stories,” which allow you to sponsor recommendations happening on your wall and publish them instantly in your fan’s News Page.  Anyone interested in how to advertise on Facebook needs to check out “Sponsored Stories.”
Get Creative with Tagging – You know the old-school marketing slogan, “more is better,” well throw that one out the window when learning how to advertise on Facebook.  Its much better to target about 1000 very interested users than 10000 users that could care less.  The great part is that its very easy to target a very niche group with your Facebook ads.

Facebook’s interface makes it simple to define your audience by sex, age, location, education, and interests, but it’s also capable of finding even more specific groups.  Check out this tip from marketing expert, Fralick.

“When targeting local audiences, Fralick also recommends that you look beyond self-reported location and ‘use every possible angle to find those locals,’ since not everyone lists their city in their profiles. ‘Put the names of popular local businesses, colleges and clubs into the ad manager to find the people that city and zip code doesn’t,’ Fralick says.”

Make Your Texts and Images Pop – The last thing you want to do with your Facebook ads is make them dull and dry, one thing you must know about how to advertise on Facebook is that your ads leave your brands image, highlight unique offers, and have good color contrast.  Let’s take a look at how to do just that.

Even though your add can be up to 135 characters long, you don’t necessarily have to fill up the entire space, you’ll want to make sure that your ad is clear and concise, if not your message will not resonate with your viewers.

You’ll want to avoid ads like, “Greg’s Grocery has the Best Value,” rather you’ll want all of your ads to have a call-to-action, such as, “Like Greg’s Grocery for %50 off Coupons.”  See the difference?  This technique will drive many more users to your page, because you are offering them a reward.

Also when learning how to advertise on Facebook, you’ll need to pick a photo that complements Facebook’s interface, that means adapting your logo or stock photo to fit Facebook’s color scheme.

Create and Test Plenty of Ads – A common misconception businesses have when discovering how to advertise on Facebook is that you can only run one specific ad for each campaign.  This is not only false, but also potentially damaging to your success.  You’ll want to run a variety of ads to see which ones are the most effective and then switch between your most successful ads.

Its easy to do as well, you can switch ads mid-campaign by going to “Create a Similar Ad,” from there you can switch your picture or text.   After you run several ads over the course of a few days, measure your success by viewing your ad statistics.
Don’t Neglect Your Wall – Just because you’ve nailed how to advertise on Facebook, you’ll need to spend an equal amount of time updating your page’s wall and responding to your new traffics comments and questions.  You’re only as good as your wall and interaction with your “Fans.”  If you want people to frequent your page, then you need to create relationships!