There’s a very simple reason that Facebook ads have become a prominent – if not integral – part of the marketing and advertising landscape: they work.

The reasons they work are not quite that simple … but they’re not that complex, either.

Firstly, the vast majority of consumers – your potential customers – are on Facebook daily. More than that, they are extremely comfortable browsing all sorts of content, and so are more likely to look at something with an open mind than when they are online with a purpose and/or a short attention span.

Secondly, Facebook has done an amazing job of collecting data about those users, which means you can target people by any combination of location, age, marital status, things they like, and much more.

There are other peripheral factors, but those two are key: lots of people are on Facebook and you can reach the ones you identify as most likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

Where Google Adwords is great for putting yourself in front of people actively searching for what you do or sell, Facebook ads are more proactive, in that they get out there and put themselves in front of people who might be interested, but are not in the act of searching.

Facebook ads can work for most businesses, but they work particularly well for certain businesses, especially those whose product or service is aimed at a particular sort of person (for example new mothers on the Gold Coast, couples looking to buy a house in Brisbane, or small business owners within 20 kilometres of Newcastle).

The five main reasons Facebook ads are an ideal fit for almost any business

As mentioned on our Facebook Advertising page, because nearly all of Facebook’s billions of dollars in annual revenue is generated by advertising, it should be no great surprise that they’ve developed an extremely effective platform. They really want it to work well and be used a lot.

Here are the main things that make it so good:

1. The ease of creating an ad (or a variety of ads) specifically designed to achieve your goals;

2. The ability to target who should see your ads by location, demographics, online activity and more;

3. The simplicity of creating a visually appealing ad without needing graphic design or copywriting skills;

4. The detailed reporting on the performance of your ad;

5. The capacity to edit the ad, based on the data and feedback, to make it even more effective.

What Facebook has been able to do (and probably should get more credit for) is make advertising far more accessible to businesses of all sizes, particularly those which couldn’t justify the expense of engaging an old-school advertising agency to create, place, monitor and manage their ads.

In addition, they are offering a very strong alternative to traditional mainstream media – television, radio, billboards, glossy magazines – which may either not be the best fit for a small-to-medium enterprise or, again, is far too expensive.

What should a Facebook ad look like?

While there are many different ways to create Facebook ads, most successful ads have several – if not all – of the following features:

1. An image with an obvious focal point to draw the eye of the prospective customer;

2. An enticing value proposition;

3. A prominent link to the business or brand making it clear who is advertising;

4. A reward or “pay off” for reading the ad (interesting information, a positive feeling, excitement, etc);

5. A key point made succinctly and memorably;

6. A tone that reinforces what the business or brand is all about;

7. A clear call to action.

Having said that, it is a case of horses for courses. The same approach doesn’t work for every business, so we use our knowledge and experience to determine what sort of advertising suits each client, and tailor an approach that we believe is most likely to get the results you’re looking for.

It doesn’t take long to see results

When we find out what audience a business is targeting, we usually create three ads designed to appeal to that group of people.

Then, over the course of just two to four weeks, we start to see the results and analyse the data so that we can see which ad is performing best.

Given that insight, we then optimise the campaign to ensure that more – if not all – of the budget is committed to giving the best-performing ad a good run.

Over the course of three or four months, we can significantly refine and refocus a campaign to achieve an even greater return on investment.

It takes a little time and effort, but it is almost always well worth it.

If you’re thinking about it or, better yet, ready to go, give us a call and we’ll figure out the best approach for your business.