Benefits of Facebook Ads for Small Business Owners
Facebook is for more than just socializing. Did you know that when you run a Facebook Ad for your small business that it will be exposed to 155 million people in the United States? Is your newspaper and radio ad doing that for your small business? How do you know?
When running an ad campaign, it is important to know if your money is well spent. Facebook Ads are an excellent way to know exactly how many people are looking at or clicking on your Facebook Ads. Plus with Facebook Ads, you can target or focus ads to people who are interested in your products or similar products.
Currently, the Facebook Newsroom reports 901 million users. 526 million are considered active on a daily basis. Facebook has more than 500 million active mobile users. In the United States, Facebook has 156 million users between the ages of 13 – 64.
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Let’s break this down to the state of Missouri (where Distillery Web Design is located). In Missouri there are 2.8 million users. That’s a lot of potential customers. Let’s break it down even further and look at the Springfield, Lebanon, and Osage Beach areas of Missouri. There are roughly 188,000 potential customers that you can specifically interact with on Facebook with the use of Facebook Ads.
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From the above image, you can also see that not only are you able to designate specific states and cities, but also Precise Interests and Broad Categories. This helps to laser focus your ad to customers who are already interested in your type of product. In addition, the more specific you get typically the smaller the number of people reached. After focusing the ad by demographics, keywords, and interests, there may be only 200 people in your Audience. At least you know your ad is being seen by 200 people. Can you say that with newspaper or radio ads?
A large audience base and/or a specific audience base are not the only benefits of running Facebook Ads. Below are more reasons why Facebook Ads will help promote your small business and, at the same time, be cost efficient.
- Targeted Advertising
- You can use keywords, demographics, and Facebook likes (including interests and products) to help focus your ads. This is most beneficial for local business owners since you can focus advertise to those individuals.
- In addition, when someone clicks on your ad then Facebook Ads can capture demographics such as location, age, gender, and interests. Such information can help target or focus future ads.
- Flexible
- Facebook Ads allow for longer character length and image-based ads than other search advertising.
- Ads can be reworked at anytime, so you’re not stuck with an ad that isn’t getting results.
- Multiple Ad Views
- Ads can be placed in News Feed so friends see it, called Sponsored Stories.
- You have the ability to run multiple ads at the same time. This will help to determine what is working and what is not. Then, you can take what is working and use that type of ad in other more traditional advertising campaigns.
- You can keep your ads fresh by changing images, wording, and target audience.
- If you are pushing a special promotion, then run multiple ads in a variety of ways.
- Focus on the positive results, but keep in mind the negative results too. Not every ad will garner the desired results.
- The beauty of a Facebook ad is it can be changed. Unlike a newspaper ad or radio spot that runs “as is” for a specific amount of time.
- CPC or CPM Options
- CPC is Cost Per Click. Also known as PPC or Pay Per Click. You determine how much to spend, so for many businesses this is a cost efficient way to advertise since you’re only charged when someone actually clicks on the ad. The downside of CPC is if no one clicks on the ad, then Facebook could quit running it.
- CPM or Cost Per Mille charges a set amount for every 1000 times your advertisement is displayed.
- Inexpensive
- Compared to more traditional advertising such as newspaper ads and radio, Facebook Ads are a cost efficient. With Facebook Ads, you have the ability to reach more people for less money.
- Smartphone Compatible
- It’s important to be mobile compatible since people are relying more on their mobile phones to look up information. According to a study conducted by Google “93 percent of smartphone” owners use their phone at home. The same study showed that when customers are searching for places or products on a smartphone, “a whooping 82 percent notice[d] mobile ads and 74 percent [made] a purchase.”