Facebook Advertising

Advertising on Facebook – is it effective?

Advertising on Facebook is not the most effective means of incorporating social media into your marketing strategy but it can be effective for certain products or services. Social media is a hugely influential online medium and one that modern businesses in Australia should be capitalising on as part of an effective search marketing strategy. Facebook are the undisputed kings of social media, especially in Australia where approximately 60% of all internet users visit Facebook at least once a month.

While a social media strategy is now an essential element of marketing campaigns for most businesses, advertising on the likes of Facebook lacks the wholesale success and credibility of search engines such as Google. However for certain niches such as fashion trends and products aimed at youth, Facebook advertising can be an effective means of ensuring your brand remains in the mind of your target market.

How Does Facebook advertising work?

Facebook advertising is a simple, low-cost form of online advertising. Advertisers can opt for either pay-per-click (PPC) or per thousand impressions cost structures for their ad campaigns. There are two types of Facebook advertising: Premium and Marketplace with Marketplace the more commonly used self-managed platform.

Ads are ranked based on the bid, ad quality and the past performance of the advert (if applicable) and similar to search engine advertising, ads can be scheduled for preferred periods. Facebook ads can also be split-tested to determine how effective one version of an ad is in relation to another and this can help to improve the cost-effectiveness of a campaign.

Facebook offers guidelines on how to advertise and presents reports based on ad performance, demographic and social metrics. This is an insight Google currently doesn’t match so it’s one distinct advantage Facebook advertising has over other forms of online ads.

What Does Advertising On Facebook Cost?

Similar to search engine ads, Facebook ads have no set cost and the price of advertising will vary significantly depending on your industry and other factors such as the extent of your target audience.

Marketplace Advertisers are billed frequently, often daily, upon reaching a $25 limit. Daily budgets and spend limits can be applied to advertising accounts so no fees in excess of those limits are accrued.

Advantages of Advertising on Facebook

The main advantage of advertising on Facebook is that you can target your ad to a very specific audience. With the extensive profiles Facebook has built on its users, you can deliver your ads to specific demographics including age, gender and marital status. This profiling cannot presently be matched by search engines.

The other key advantage of Facebook ads is the low cost. The ad fees are small relative to search engines for most industries so it may be relatively inexpensive to discover whether or not it works for you.

Disadvantages of Advertising on Facebook

Ads on Facebook generally don’t receive the same click through rate (CTR) as other platforms such as search engines, primarily because Facebook users are not actively searching for a product or service like they are on Google.

Facebook ads also lack a certain credibility as an advertising platform. Users generally don’t like the ads and see them as a nuisance and the low CTRs support this notion.

Should I Advertise On Facebook?

If you have a trend-setting niche product aimed at young demographic groups (Facebook’s biggest users), it may be worthwhile. The peer influence has a significant impact on fashionable items, so it’s one area that can benefit from direct Facebook advertising.

Beyond that, direct advertising on Facebook is limited, however since it’s low cost, it may be worthwhile testing the waters, particularly if you have a brand that young people associate with to some extent.

Regardless of industry, an online social media strategy is vital for Australian businesses in 2011 and beyond. Get proactive with how you market your business online – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and StumbleUpon all add value in terms of generating a steady flow of new and repeat traffic to your website. They may not all work for every type of business, but engaging in social media to some extent will have a positive impact on increasing brand awareness.

If you would like to know more about advertising on Facebook and social media optimisation in Australia, or would like to avail of our new Facebook Optimisation service call roi.com.au today on 1300 650 274.

Posted on May 3, 2011