If there is one thing that Facebook has gotten good at over the last few years it is in its ability to generate publicity and to create growth for themselves. This is true for many reasons and continues to occur. Due to the extensive increase in ads on Facebook, and mind you these are only self generated ads on the homepage, not even outside ads, they have surpassed Yahoo and Microsoft in their number of impressions. This just shows, not only how much they have grown, but also how much they do and how well they relate to their customers if they are willing to click and use them.

One thing that many people do not consider when they are going to their favorite page or they log onto Facebook are the ads, however, apparently enough people are doing so that this is becoming a larger than life revenue source for the company. When you think about how much time you are there and all of the different things you say and do while there you need to ask yourself why you do not need to pay for this. What you need to realize is that the people who are paying to advertise on Facebook in order to be able to advertise all of us who are so entrenched and wanting to use this service are providing a great source for people to go to and in many ways be attracted to what it is that they have to offer.

What we do not realize, is that even if we do not spend our money on one of the products advertised or shown at that time, the fact that we have been made aware of it, or we remember what we saw has already worked to the advantage of the company with the ad. Consider that you will more likely buy something if you recognize the name and have at some point seen it somewhere before. If this happens because you saw the ad on Facebook, then the money that was spent to put the ad there was a success. What many of us do not realize is the number of ads on Facebook because we just assume it is a normal part of the page. That is because they are well disguised into the page and do their jobs very effectively.

What we are seeing is an internet phenomenon that is not only limited to Facebook as Yahoo and Microsoft have been doing it for far longer, but what we are seeing is the takeovert of the ads by Facebook as their revenues continue to climb. Just think, in essence you are paying for Facebook, if you are paying for any of the products advertised there. Your money will at some point in some way end up paying for the ad that was there in order for you to purchase the product. A vicious cycle if you think about it.

What are your thoughts on Facebook advertising? Have you tried it? Have you clicked on an ad yourself?

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When Microsoft invested $240 million to take a small stake in Facebook, the deal almost more about securing an ad deal as it was an equity investment. Now, almost two years later, Microsoft is starting to see some of its advertising pulled as Facebook continues to create its own ad options and revenue models.

According to BusinessWeek, Facebook has dropped Microsoft’s banner advertising in several international markets, and is now considering the same in the U.S. markets. Microsoft serves fairly generic banner advertising on Facebook. As the display advertising market continues to innovate, Facebook is also pushing more engaging formats, like brands promoting their Pages and encouraging Facebook users and their friends to become fans as well.

It seems that Facebook’s social ads are performing well and it is likely we’ll hear more news about advertising innovations and advertising options in the coming months. It will be interesting to see if these changes begin impacting Bing powering web search results on Facebook – which was included in the deal.

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There is a cool new feature we noticed on our Facebook Page yesterday – the ability to target updates to users in specific locations users accessing Facebook via a specific language.

This feature is a welcome addition for those folks looking to better target their fans without overwhelming the collective with unnecessary information.
Here’s how to use it: next to the “Share” button there is a new pull-down with the option of “Everyone” or “Customize.” Use “Everyone” to post a message to all of your fans as normal. Utilize the new Customize option to enter in a specific location (all the way down to the city level) and/or a specific language. This will send an update only to your fans with that setting.

For now, it doesn’t appear you can create more than one custom group. As a result, you’ll need to edit your targeting settings each time you want to target a specific location or language. You can however target multiple locations and languages simultaneously.

Have you tried these new settings? Are you more likely to consider using Facebook as a targeted marketing channel? Let us know in the comments!

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Do you run a Google Adwords campaign? Are you considering Facebook advertising or currently running a campaign? Then this tip is for you! You probably don’t think of these two forms of advertising as going hand in hand, however, you can use the Google AdWords Demographic Performance Report and ad version reports to your advantage.

The Demographic Performance Report will provide a relative estimate of the age, sex and country demographics that are driving conversions and traffic to your site.  The ad version report will provide you with in-depth data into the creative(s) that are driving those conversions.

By leveraging these reporting insights, you can get a big head start on your Facebook campaign.

• Target the age, country and sex fields in Facebook that matched your AdWords reports.
• Use similar images/creatives for your ads. (You can pick up a free $100 facebook voucher code here).

Remember, Facebook uses CTR data and historical CTR data as a major factor on how oftenyour ad is displayed. As a result, if you are going for a branding campaign, use the Google Adwords ad version report to capitalize on creative that is driving the highest CTR vs. conversions. The higher your initial CTR for a new campaign the better.

Have you found alternative ways to leverage your Adwords data? Share them in the comments!

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As with all marketing channels, you must consider the mindset of the user. Unlike advertising on Google or Yahoo you need to think about targeting a user (or group of users) who is part of a demographic rather than a specific keywords.  The concept of targeting a ‘query’ needs to be thrown out the window! Rather, target a group!

So what are the benefits of  advertising on Facebook?  The simple answer is it’s cheap and targeted.  The average CPC across the board is around 20-30 cents. One of the benefits of the Facebook ad platform is that it isn’t completely clear on what someone might be buying (think trademarked  or branded terms in paid search). When this comes to branded terms, you can really tell if you’re bidding on a specific brand in Google/Yahoo!/Bing and your keyword could be declined/deleted as such. However, this is NOT the case in Facebook.  By leveraging “interests” for advertising, you can bid on users that might like your competition, and it would be nearly impossible to find because it isn’t query based.

Similar to pay per click advertising, you should always test your ads.  Put simply, test everything: alternative landing pages, different phone numbers and most importantly make sure you have analytics in place to track your results.  One word of caution, “interest targeting” can provide a great return but watch out for burnout.  Sending the same message to the same group of people over and over again can stop working quickly so be sure to vary your messaging every so often. A potential alternative is to send people to your fan page because you get higher viral multipliers.  By taking them and turning into a fan, you can get more and more life from your spend.

We recommend viewing Facebook’s suggested best practices and these common reasons for ad rejections prior to getting started!

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