So it's been close to 3 years since I signed up for Facebook. Over those three years Facebook has added a lot of functionality to their platform. One of the real game changers that I think they added in the last year was the Facebook Fan Page. In the U.S. alone, about 100 million unique visitors flock to the social network every month. Many business owners are among them, using Facebook Fan Pages to promote their companies and create customer communities. However, when you have a fan page, you have an opportunity to promote your page with an ad in Facebook. (you can also promote a website outside of Facebook).
Over the last year I have been experimenting with them and I must say I am very impressed with how affordable the ads are compared to Google's related keyword ads. Now I am not saying it is a piece of cake and everyone will flock to your page, however I think if it is done right you can get some very nice results. Here are 3 quick tips on getting started.
1. Pick your target
Just like taking a shot on net...pick your spot, take aim and fire. Facebook has a huge advantage on Google and other networks, because for some unknown reason users are willing to share huge amounts of personal information on Facebook. Therefore, when you use Facebook Ads it lets you pick your target by Location, Age, Sex, Keywords etc. Because of this you can really drill down to exactly what niche you want.
2. A picture is worth a thousand words
The picture you use for your ad will literally make it or break it. We just launched a new ad for
The Hockey Zen with a new photo. We are using what we think is a great photo of fans celebrating a goal at a hockey game. only time will tell if this works. We had great results with just using our logo. It's important to use something that definitely does not blend in with the facebook site.
3. Keep your ad simple
Create your ad so that it is as simple and easy to read as possible. Avoid long sentences or complex punctuation. Use simple, grammatically correct, complete sentences and language. Use proper punctuation, punctuate the end of sentences, put spaces after periods and commas, and don't use hyphens in place of periods.
Don't try to fit every detail about your product or service into the ad. Make it clear what your product or service is so a user can tell what your website will be about, but save the details for your landing page.
Bonus tip: It costs $0 to create an ad. So what are you waiting for? Give it a try and you might be surprised.
I think what the key aspec twith advertising, and it is especially easy with Facebook ads, is tracking. You need to test different ads, colours, pictures, copy etc. for conversion. If you don't test, you'll never know! At bare minimum, use a simple A/B split test and start tracking it. It might cost a little more to get enough data for testing, but in the long run, I'd rather have a high performing ad that I KNOW works.
Just my $0.02.