Let’s start this by dismissing one common misconception about social media marketing– IT’S NOT FREE! Granted, the basic social tools are generally free or freemium (free for basic usage, pay for additional features) but if you want to use these tools properly and run a successful social media campaign, you will need to invest some of your marketing dollars into the effort.
Now that we are on the same page, lets proceed into today’s topic- Facebook advertising and why it is so critical to building a successful Facebook page or app.
Throughout my years in the digital marketing world, I have found that the best approach to creating a successful Facebook engagement is when you combine engaging page or app content with creative, targeted advertising. Content is the most important element of your campaign, but almost equally important is identifying who your most likely audience is and marketing your page or app to them.
In the early days of Facebook pages, it was easier to get people to like your page. The competition for that like was much less than it is today. You would be hard-pressed to walk down a main street in your city or town today and identify many businesses that don’t have a Facebook page. In fact, according to Facebook execs, there are 50 million likes per day for brands!
With so many businesses competing for the same likes and with all of the ‘noise’ in Facebook’s news feed these days, you need to find a proven method of getting your message out. Advertising is the way to do it.
A key feature of Facebook advertising is that you can highly target who sees your ads. When creating the ad, you will be able to target it based on geography, age, sex, interests, education, etc, giving you a great opportunity to bring your message directly to your core audience. You can even segment your audience and run separate ads with different messaging to each segment. Facebook also offers in-depth analytics so that you can monitor, measure and retool your ads based on their effectiveness.
There are three basic Facebook advertising units for pages and apps- Standard Ads, Sponsored Stories and Premium Ads.
Standard ads are just that- your run-of-the-mill Facebook advertisement that may feature an image, a small amount of text and a link. This type of ad unit is a critical component of getting your page or app out to the Facebook world and building your base. Standard ads are also helpful in advertising new initiatives, events, products, etc to whichever targeted demographic the campaign warrants.
Sponsored stories are ads that include a social component. You are able to advertise through your fans and tell their friends that they like your page or use your app. These ads are best used once you have established your page or app and have a solid fan base to advertise through. Sponsored stories are something of a social referral from a friend and studies have shown that their click through rate (CTR) is 46% higher than standard ads.
Premium ads are the newest units made available by Facebook. These are larger ads that actually incorporate the benefits of standard ads and sponsored stories. Sponsored stories pull info from the page or app that you are advertising and do not allow you to edit text or image. With premium ads, you are able to create a sponsored story and then include custom text and imagery. Premium ads are most used by businesses with larger advertising budgets that want to get their message out to a broader Facebook community.
I have found that the best formula for a successful Facebook page or app campaign is to:
- Create the page or app and populate it with compelling, engaging, original content;
- Use targeted standard Facebook ads to drive your core audience to your page or app;
- Continue to listen and engage your fans;
- Use sponsored stories to market your page or app to the friends of your fans;
- Continue to use standard ads to target your current fans (only 3-7.5% of your fans will see your posts) with key announcements, events, deals, etc.