Why should you choose advertising on Facebook?
Every day, nearly 2 billion users visit Facebook. And that’s a compelling argument for including this social network in your company’s marketing strategy. Advertising on Facebook can be one of the key drivers of sales and business growth. The most important thing is to do it right. We will explain in detail how we increase the profits of our clients through advertising on Facebook.
Facebook stats entrepreneurs need to know in 2023
What type of business do we recommend Facebook ads for?
Advertising on Facebook is suitable for almost any type of business, as long as the products and services comply with Meta’s rules. And there is a logical explanation for this: whether you sell directly to customers or work with company representatives, promote mass-market goods, or specialize in niche products, ultimately, you are selling to people. Among the nearly three billion platform users, there are certainly those who might be interested in your offerings.
When promoting on Facebook, the sphere of your business is not as crucial as how well-prepared your business is for running ads. The success of an advertising campaign depends on the following factors:
- Having a competitive offer.
- Quality of the landing pages specified in the ads.
- Understanding the target audience (socio-demographic characteristics, interests, behavior, goals, and pain points of potential consumers).
- Relevance of creatives to the target audience.
If your offer is generic and the creatives can easily be confused with dozens of other ads, the click-through rate (CTR) will be low, even if the promoted products are in high demand in the market.
What can’t be advertised on Facebook?
Despite the «versatility» of Facebook as an advertising platform, Meta Corporation has its own list of prohibitions and restrictions for certain business niches. The following are prohibited from being promoted on the social network:
- Weapons and explosives, including paintball accessories and fireworks.
- Tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars, hookahs, and vapes.
- Narcotics, including certain types of medications.
- Intimate services and products.
Strict restrictions apply to the advertising of online pharmacies, gambling, and lotteries. Official permission from Meta is required in these cases. To promote cryptocurrency, at least one of the 27 licenses approved by the company is necessary.
We have extensively discussed the rules and requirements of the advertising accounts system in the article: Why does Meta block advertising accounts and how can they be restored?
What audiences do we use for Facebook advertising?
The choice of the right audience and the relevance of the content for that audience are key to successful advertising. When setting up campaigns, we specify the following characteristics:
- Socio-demographic (age and gender, marital status, education level, occupation, and income)
- Geographic (place of residence and recently visited locations)
- Behavioral (recent purchases and online actions, including visits to similar business pages on social media and external websites)
- Interests — this parameter is directly related to socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics. For example, for stay-at-home moms who regularly purchase children’s products and browse recipes, interests can be specified as «toys» and «cooking».
- Technical (types and models of devices, language interface on users’ smartphones)
To increase the effectiveness of Facebook advertising, we combine different characteristics in one ad group. When setting up audiences, we go beyond the general parameters available in the Facebook Ads Manager and offer a more precise targeting approach for your customers.
We create look-alike audiences based on the data uploaded to the ad account, allowing ads to be shown to new users who closely resemble your existing subscribers, for example.
We also conduct retargeting campaigns to re-engage users who have already interacted with your company. Our priority is personalized (dynamic) retargeting, which involves displaying ads based on users’ previous actions.
What formats of advertising campaigns do we create for advertising on Facebook?
Our specialists work with all available ad formats on Facebook, but when analyzing your brand and target audience, we determine several of the most relevant types of creatives for your business. In general, you can set up the following formats on the social network:
- Photo ads — the most popular ad format that is suitable for achieving various goals: brand awareness, engagement, and sales.
- In-Stream video ads — short videos (usually up to 15 seconds) displayed in the Facebook News Feed.
- Carousel ads — a circular gallery where you can add up to 10 photos/videos. This format is often used for promoting online stores.
- Stories ads — an ad format that we almost always use for advertising on Facebook. Taking up the entire screen, Stories ads capture the viewer’s attention and have high engagement rates.
- Instant Experience ads — an ad format that opens in full screen on a smartphone when clicked, providing an immersive experience for viewers.
- Collections — a catalog of products displayed directly in the Facebook News Feed. This format is prioritized for online stores.
When creating creatives, we don’t limit ourselves to a single template but create diverse and distinct designs for a single ad campaign. During the testing process, we select the variations with the best performance.
Benefits of targeted Facebook advertising over Google contextual advertising
Despite the fact that Google’s contextual advertising and Facebook’s targeted advertising can solve practically the same objectives: attracting traffic and leads, increasing sales, and collecting contacts, they are displayed on different platforms and differ significantly in their principles of operation. Targeted advertising on Facebook utilizes audience characteristics from social networks, while in contextual advertising, ads are sorted based on the user’s keyword query. Therefore, there is no inherently more effective option between the two types of paid advertising; it all depends on the specific characteristics of the business.
Targeted advertising on Facebook works better for companies that do not have their own website but want to introduce their brand to the audience and build long-term interaction with users. Additionally, this type of advertising often requires lower costs, making it suitable for entrepreneurs with a relatively small budget for promotion, such as small business owners.
For some clients, we recommend taking a comprehensive approach and launching parallel campaigns on both Facebook and the search engine.
How does targeted advertising impact other marketing channels, such as SEO?
Targeted advertising does not directly influence a website’s positions in the organic search results of a search engine. However, there are several indirect factors that can help improve SEO performance.
- Behavioral factors: If a campaign is set up effectively and the landing page contains useful content, visitors who click on the ad will stay on the site and engage with internal links, which Google considers when ranking websites.
- Diverse traffic: Search engines favor websites that receive traffic from various sources, especially if it is high-quality traffic with a low bounce rate.
- Brand-related searches: Not all users who click on ads immediately take the desired action. However, some users may remember the brand name and later search for it, resulting in branded traffic.
Therefore, an advertising campaign can indirectly influence search engine rankings, but only if the ad directs users to a landing page on the website.
How much does advertising on Facebook cost?
The cost of advertising on Facebook is determined by two factors:
- Advertising budget to fund the Facebook ad account for displaying ads. The cost per click on Facebook can range from $0.5 to $5, depending on the business niche, market competition, specified location, and other parameters. According to statistics, the average cost per click in 2022 was $1.7.
- Fees for specialists who will set up and optimize the ad account, launch and optimize campaigns, track performance, and provide reporting.
In our marketing agency, we offer several pricing plans depending on the current situation, needs, and goals of the business. During the initial consultation, we conduct a briefing to assess the required investment in advertising. The chosen pricing plan is fixed before starting the collaboration, and additional expenses are excluded.
Why should you order Facebook targeting in a marketing agency?
Using the services of a marketing agency is the optimal choice for entrepreneurs who want to achieve guaranteed results in a relatively short period of time. There are several reasons for this.
- Team of professionals: Marketing agencies rarely have inexperienced employees because their reputation in the industry is important to them. If there are junior specialists, they work under the supervision of experienced targeting experts who oversee their actions and are accountable for the results.
- Legal obligations: Another advantage of digital agencies is the security of the transaction. The company provides guarantees that the funds will be used for the provision of services and will remain in contact even in case of force majeure events.
- Wide range of services: If needed, you can request comprehensive promotion from an agency, including not only targeted advertising setup but also contextual advertising or social media page management, for example.
- Transparency of financial investments: You contribute a fixed amount that excludes additional expenses, such as paid analytics tools or design services. This allows you to have a clear understanding of the final cost of the advertising campaign and have full control over the overall budget allocated for business development.