How Much Does Facebook Advertising Cost and Why It Could Make or Break Your Ad Campaign?

Like Google PPC ads, Facebook advertising (or social advertising) is a relatively new pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform. Ad expenses on Facebook are typically significantly lower than those on Google, but you must still be cautious. You could waste much more money if you aren’t careful with social advertising platforms. I’ve put together some suggestions for getting your social media advertising campaign.

Facebook Ads Vs. Google Ads: What You Need to Know

Taking a cue from Google’s playbook, I figured I could easily replicate their advertising strategies and use them to promote anything I chose. I started similar efforts on Google and Facebook and used affiliate websites to try to expand referral sites. While I got nowhere with two separate social media marketing efforts, my Google ad campaign more than covered its costs. I thought social media advertising would be less expensive than Google’s. What gives, then?

People join social networks for the express purpose of interacting with others. They aren’t shopping for a product but socializing with friends and sharing experiences. When I ran the affiliate marketing test, I used a Facebook ad campaign to promote content that didn’t exist on Facebook (the affiliate site’s sales letter). When people were directed to this sales letter, many quickly abandoned the page.

Promoting an event or activity on Facebook is an excellent use of social ads. Put another way; you want to promote your organization, app, or fan page. Unlike other social networking efforts, these advertisements are not meant to make direct sales. Using social ads, you may attract more people interested in your product or service to this social networking site. Directing people to a Facebook page (even if it was a product page) saw a far higher conversion rate for me than sending them to an external website.

Is Your Company Prepared for Social Media Marketing?

Now that you know social advertisements are meant to promote your social activities (like your company page), you need to make sure your business page is something people would genuinely be interested in joining.

Making sure your page is where people can interact and grow with your brand is the first step to a successful advertising campaign. People won’t bother engaging with you if your fan page has merely a link to your website and no other content. Also, no one will want to be your friend if you post promotional links and ads on your fan page.

You should treat your fan page as a community and work to expand your fan base via social media advertisements. We are not promoting direct transactions, so please remember. We’re promoting a community where people can discuss and buy into your specialization. Quite the opposite. If your page isn’t set up for user engagement, no amount of advertising will help. Once you’ve established a following for your page, it’s time to start promoting it through social media.

The Ad and the Opt-In Are Facebook Marketing’s Two Most Valuable Components.

The advertisement should feature an attractive image and a line in the text encouraging readers to “like” the advertised product or service. If you’re running an ad on Facebook, the “like” button will appear directly underneath it, allowing users to quickly and easily show their support. Asking folks to like the page in the Ad has resulted in a considerably greater conversation rate for me. For instance, I ran an ad campaign to promote guitar instruction videos. There was an advertisement. Click “like” below for free guitar lessons aimed at guitarists of all skill levels and “take your guitar playing to the next level.” In addition to encouraging people to like the page, the ad also described the content they could find there.

Your advertisement’s image is the second most crucial element. There’s a lot of conflicting guidance on this topic, but I prefer to keep things straightforward. To get people’s attention, I use Photoshop to make a graphic with some text on it. For the advertisement for guitar classes, I doubled up the words “Video Guitar Lessons” and set them in orange type on a blue background. This was interesting enough to get people’s attention without going over the top. The emphasis was placed on the commercial.

A landing page is the last puzzle piece to boost your conversation rate. You should never direct people to your page’s wall. Create a landing page that promotes your fan page and encourages visitors to join it using the FBML application. In addition to explaining your services, the opt-in page should encourage visitors to “like” your page. Landing pages are beyond the scope of this post, so I’ll stop there.

Campaign Targeting

Ad campaign targeting can be complex because it varies significantly from one market or industry to the next. The best way to see what kind of clicks you get is to start with a tiny budget (five to ten dollars a day). Ads should be removed after a day, and targeting and keywords should be experimented with until a successful combination is found. The AdWords Keyword Research Tool on Google (type that into Google.com) is another valuable resource for finding relevant keywords.

Also, try to think laterally. It was relayed to me that a local photography studio successfully attracted many “engaged” women as customers for weddings. Ideas like this give Facebook ads an edge over Google Ads, which would be challenging to implement.

At Last…

These examples are simply the tip of the iceberg when it comes to social media marketing. The actual expenses of advertising on Facebook are often overlooked because it is utilized to garner fans rather than existing customers. The primary goal of your advertising efforts should be community building, not direct revenue generation. Remember that, unlike Google advertisements, these ads target based on terms in people’s bios, ages, interests, etc., rather than those actively searching for your area. Just because something is written down doesn’t indicate that somebody is constantly considering it. Finally, before launching a massive advertising effort, conduct small test runs. It’s preferable to waste $5 on an ineffective ad than $50. The key to advertising success is to start small and expand as you gain traction.

A Response to Jerry Nihon

Do you want to know the TRUTH about increasing your online fan base and social media following? Visit http://www.jayninelessons.com/csnj for a FREE video that exposes the most critical factor in achieving RESULTS from your social media marketing efforts.

Successful social media strategies and campaigns have been implemented with the help of Jerry Nihen, a Social Networking Consultant who has worked with various businesses and individuals.

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