Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

October 29, 2008

Why Would You Want to Use Facebook Advertising?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 1:15 pm

by Guest Writer Alexis Brown

Last night, I learned I am the only person on Facebook.

Really, it’s true - according to a 30-year-old, female home-based business owner (also known as my sister).

As flattering as it would be for the world’s fastest-growing social network to exist solely for my benefit, I found myself more concerned than amused by her statement. Forget the constant barrage of buzz concerning how social media has turned traditional advertising on its head for big companies, like Colgate.

She – like quite a few freelancers, consultants and other small entrepreneurs - just didn’t get that social media has tremendous business value on a small scale.

Prospects in your own backyard are in reach through social media and – when reaching people in your backyard would normally cost money – getting in touch with them doesn’t have to cost a thing.

We were having this conversation because I explaining to her how to get free ads from Facebook. Since July of this year, The Visa Business Network has been offering USD$100 worth of free Facebook advertising through its social application. Facebook Ads allow advertisers to easily target people by age, gender, workplace, school, personal interests and any location around the world in order to create an ad for anything about you have to offer. I have nothing to do with Facebook, but I would encourage anyone to get on board with this because of the results I’ve had.

Sure, anyone can advertise on search engines or blog network ads (although, not for free), but these ads are targeted with more relevance based on information people put in their Facebook profiles.

Take this example – a very small campaign, from my own experience a few weeks ago, brought in more than 170 visitors in a weekend.

On the other hand, her traffic?

Zilch.

Her site brings her no new prospects and definitely no new business.

To boot, her hosting company just raised its prices.

You’d think a lot of people in this same position, would jump at opportunities to test and measure free marketing opportunities they can understand.

Understand face-to-face networking? Get into online social networking.

Understand classified ads? Get into Facebook Social Ads.

It seems, however, that no matter who builds it – if business owners don’t get it, they won’t come.

Your customers want you to get it.

According to the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study:

The great news? “Getting it” with Facebook means up to $100 of targeted advertising at no cost! Although a credit card is required to sign up for an ad, the advertising costs are charged to your Facebook Ad Credit, as seen below. Anything in excess of $100, per account, is charged to your card. You can use daily budgets and maximum spending limits to control how much your ad performs, each day.



Writing a Facebook Ad is similar enough to writing an effective classified ad - just online.

With a good call to action, whether the goal is to get people to contact you or initiate a subscription, Facebook Ads can point people straight to any opt-in you have on your site.

In this example from the same campaign, one such goal received a 33% higher than normal completion rate with traffic originating from Facebook Ads.


Because the traffic is relevant, they have higher interest in your content than most sites and are more likely to leave their personal information, which equal more leads to begin moving down the sales funnel for more profits.

Last night, I learned I am the only person on Facebook. How do you advertise your business? Do you use social media?
________________
Alexis Brown writes about social media strategies for business owners at ActionCOACH Business Coaching. Her passion is being as plugged in as possible and helping others through social media and education!
________________

Thanks, Coach! Alexis, you won’t be the only one for long!

–ME “Liz” Strauss





Filed under Successful Blog |




C'mon. Let's talk!

7 Comments to “Why Would You Want to Use Facebook Advertising?”

  1. October 29th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
    Maria Reyes-McDavis Social Networking said

    Such great information for all businesss, small and large. For a short time, people didn’t think relevant context was going to cut it in advertising… I have many clients who will tell you that Facebook ads work :-)

  2. October 29th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
    Alexis said

    Absolutely! I was explaining to a massage therapist that social media can get more than clicks - it can get phones ringing or meetings attended, plus much more!

  3. October 30th, 2008 at 8:04 am
    Brad Shorr said

    Thank you for sharing this story. Facebook is still a mystery to a lot of business folk, but concrete examples like yours are the best way to explain.

  4. October 31st, 2008 at 11:09 am
    Must Read Blog Posts from Across the Net said

    [...] Why Use Facebook Advertising a guest post on Liz Strauss’s blog. [...]

  5. January 16th, 2009 at 1:27 am
    Must Read Blog Posts from Across the Net | Maria Reyes-McDavis said

    [...] Why Use Facebook Advertising a guest post on Liz Strauss’s blog. [...]

  6. June 3rd, 2009 at 8:47 pm
    Facebook Experiments » Blog Archive » Facebook Campaign Results 1 said

    [...] why-would-you-want-to-use-facebook-advertising [...]

  7. July 9th, 2009 at 4:47 am
    Experiments in Facebook Social Ads | Social Media Guidelines said

    [...] why-would-you-want-to-use-facebook-advertising [...]

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

C'mon Let's Talk!