Why I’m mad for Facebook Ads

I’ve been banging on about Facebook Ads to my clients for the last six months and brought this up for the first time in our Achieve More Online workshop last week in Joondalup, Western Australia (Perth).

I’m super bullish on Facebook advertising particularly for businesses who are already doing TV, magazine, print, radio or other forms of print more more traditional advertising. Some of them think I’m nuts, but when I explain my reasoning, they’re all jumping at the chance to get on board.

FB ads are dirt cheap

Firstly, Facebook ads are dirt cheap, not much different (sometimes a lot cheaper) than Google Adwords at anywhere from 50 cents to $1.50+ a click….sure, yes this does sound like a lot to some business owners (in fact I had a bit of a disagreement with one who thought $50/day was a lot to spend on clicks) but if you’re already paying, $3k, 5k or $7k+ for a quarter or half page ad in a newspaper like SMH or The West Australian or an industry related magazine, then Facebook ads will seem like nothing in comparison.

Facebook advertisements can create demand where Adwords & SEO can’t (most of the time)

Adwords & SEO are fantastic for capturing demand, THAT ALREADY EXISTS. Without that demand (ie people typing search queries into a search engine for your product or service) then you’re going to struggle to make Google Adwords or Search Engine Optimisation work for you.

FB ads are extremely effective Display Ads – other online display ads like banner ads or the Google Content network have nowhere near the control, reach, demographic & psychographic targetting that FB does.

Amazing market reach, way more than many traditional display advertising channels

Usually, opening up the advertising management console in Facebook and doing a demo for clients is enough to get them on board. I also use this to convince clients that its time for a business page on Facebook.

Check out the stats below for Perth & Sydney markets, more than 530,000 Facebook users over the age of 25 in Perth and over 1.8 million in Sydney over the age of 25….and don’t forget Facebook advertising gives you the ability to slice and dice the potential market size and serve up ads to only those customers, ages, marital, interests, demographics & psychographics that you specifically want to target.

Perth – 530,000+ Facebook users

Sydney – over 1.8 million Facebook users

Here’s some great examples of ways you could splice and dice and target specific markets:

• a commercial photographer with a specialty in wedding photography could target people who are engaged in a specific geographic location – there’s over 29,000 people in Perth who’s marital status on Facebook is showing as engaged at the moment….a massive opportunity
  
• a guitar store having a one-off sale could create a one-off campaign to target people in Sydney who like guitars
  
• an accounting firm with a unique approach could create a campaign to target business owners & company directors
  

Small businesses are ignoring Facebook

There’s a huge first-mover advantage for small businesses who can leverage the Facebook ad platform. There’s still a misconception that Facebook is for kids or nobody uses it. This is wrong and the smart business owners are already jumping on board.

Check it out for yourself at facebook.com/ads or if you don’t believe it can work for your business, drop me a line, tell me what market you’re in and I’ll come back to you with some ways you can effectively leverage the plastform.