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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