Before I get into the top benefits here, I think it's important to outline why Facebook is such a great advertising platform. Over 7 million businesses advertise on Facebook, and this number is consistently growing. I find this is also reflected in the work we're doing here at CC Digital. Over the last 12 months, we've seen a significant increase in the number of enquiries we receive from businesses looking for help with Facebook ads. 

Facebook ads are incredibly cost-effective. Of course, the average cost per click does vary by industry, but I often find they are below the £0.50 mark. This, combined with strong targeting and a great landing page, can lead to high ROAS (return on ad spend).  

So with the why's outlined, let's take a look at the top 6 benefits:

Specific targeting options

Similar to other PPC platforms, Facebook allows you to control who sees your ads. Inside Facebook Business Manager, you can create audiences based on the types of people you want to see your ads. 

So what targeting options are available?

Firstly, you can target by demographic. This includes thing such as age, gender and more advanced settings such as "recently engaged: last six months" or those with birthdays in the next couple of weeks. 

A second key targeting option is location targeting. You can choose to target specific towns, postcodes, cities or countries. You can also radius target around key towns and cities. For example, you could set a 20km radius around London to capture most of London (geographically). 

Targetting by interests involves targeting people by what they like according to Facebooks data. For example, if you're an estate agent, you could target people who display an interest in "new homes" and 'help to buy". 

Use job titles to target higher-income earners and exclude lower-income individuals. Directors, executives and CEO's are all more likely to be higher-income earners. We'll touch more on exclusions below, but you do have the option to exclude people with generally lower-income job titles e.g. "cashier" or "waitress". 

On the opposite hand, you can also exclude people in any of the categories mentioned above too. Learn more about using Facebook exclusions here.

Conversion Tracking

As with any digital marketing campaign, it's super important that you can track return on investment and the results of your campaign. What's the point in running an ad campaign if you don't know how many of the sales and leads you receive in that time have actually come from that ad campaign? 

Facebook Pixel alongside Google Analytics makes it easy to measure the results of your campaign/s. Conversion tracking should track ALL leads and sales and not just some. Even if you're e-commerce, ensure you're also tracking phone calls and website form submissions where appropriate. An ad could lead to a phone call from a potential wholesale deal that could change your business! 

When set-up correctly, your conversion tracking should be able to identify exactly which ads have lead to which conversions (leads and sales) you've received. 

Content Promotion 

Facebook ads aren't just for selling products and services. You can promote content (your social media content or blog content) on here too. By running ads and boosting posts on the content that you write, you can get thousands of more eyes on your work than you would organically. Great for brand awareness and growing a following on your social platforms. 

If you're looking at boosting some of your organic Facebook posts, you may be tempted to go for the ones that are performing poorly to get a more even spread of views. However, Facebook's advertising algorithm rewards more engaging content, and so choose to push posts that are already generating a large amount of engagement. 

Note; some social media management tools such as Social Pilot and Hootsuite allow you to boost posts directly from their platforms. 

Built-in lead generation

Lead ads allow you to collect information from potential customers directly from the ads. When people click on your lead ad, they'll be prompted to fill in a short Instant Form to send you their contact info. The information you can collect includes, but isn't limited to, names, email addresses, phone numbers and more. Also, you can ask people custom questions that you care about.

Remarketing

Does it ever feel like you're being followed by an ad? This is likely the result of remarketing. Remarketing works by using Facebook pixel and/or Google Analytics to track visitors on your site and then show ads back to the visitors on various website across the internet and on social media. 

Remarketing can be simple or highly in-depth, depending on who you want to target. Some people simply target everyone who has been on their site, but we advise taking your time to set up more detailed audiences. You can target people who have visited specific pages of your site, such as the contact page, or target those who have added items to their basket and left (these are known as shopping basket abandoners). You can get further in-depth and target those who have visited specific pages AND spent more than x amount of time on your site. There really are endless possibilities.

If you're looking for help with your Facebook ads, contact us today!