It’s safe to say that Facebook is here to stay. With an estimated 15 – 20 million monthly active users in Australia alone, it’s not hard to see why Facebook is such a powerful advertising platform for businesses. Facebook has definitely become a pay to play platform, with organic reach declining considerably over the past few years however, don’t let this deter you. The power of Facebook ads to connect businesses directly with their ideal customers is truly incredible and if executed properly, Facebook advertising is extremely cost effective and can produce massive ROI for businesses. Facebook Ads can be used to increase brand awareness, improve brand loyalty, increase web traffic, gain more leads, increase sales and conversion rates and build customer relationships. If you’re still unconvinced, here are a few more reasons why now is the time to run Facebook ads.

Be where your audience is

Did you know that the first thing that approximately 60% of Australians do nearly every day, before they even get out of bed in the morning, is check their social media. it’s also how they finish their day too! Almost two-thirds of Aussies use social media while watching TV and we are spending an average of 10 hours per week on Facebook. Marketing is all about capturing your audience’s attention and with impressive figures like this, its obvious that their attention is on Facebook.

Extremely high level targeting

Facebook has arguably the best targeting capabilities of any other advertising medium. Want to target newly engaged women who live in Sydney and earn $75,000 per year? Done. What about beard loving, kale smoothie drinking, hipsters from Surry Hills? Easy. Or maybe it’s married couples who love watching The Block, are interested in home renovations and visit Bunnings on a weekly basis? Simple! The massive amount of information gathered by social media platforms like Facebook mean that your targeting options are nearly endless. You can target your ideal customer not only by age, gender and location but also by specific details like their favourite TV shows, foods, magazines, blogs, careers, income and even other Facebook pages they’re fans of (yes this mean’s you can directly target fans of your competitors pages. I’ll give you a sec to let that sink in….). All you need to do is clearly define your ideal customer (check out my FREE ideal customer avatar worksheet here) and start targeting!

The magical art of re-marketing

Have you ever been browsing an online store, added an item to your cart but for whatever reason didn’t complete your purchase? Then, you start noticing ads all over Facebook for that exact item you were looking at (in my case a luxury escape to Fiji)? I bet more often than not, you eventually gave in and followed through with your purchase. This is called re-marketing or re-targeting. It’s an incredibly effective tool that allows you to re-market to highly qualified people who’ve expressed interest in your website. Re-marketing enables you to focus on the people who are in the market for your product or service, allowing you to remind them how amazing your product is or why choosing your service is the right decision. To do this, you’ll install a snippet of code, known as the Facebook pixel, on your website. This code sends information back to Facebook about which of your web pages have been viewed and by whom. Then, using the custom audience feature, you’ll have the ability to re-target different segments for example, people who’ve visited a particular page or people who’ve added items to their cart but not finalised a purchase. Re-targeting is a powerful tool for increasing conversions through re-engaging potential customers and providing them with another opportunity to make a decision about your product or service.

Amazing testing capabilities

Picture this. You’re 3/4 of the way through a traditional marketing campaign, whether it be radio, TV or newspaper advertising and all you get is crickets. No new leads, no new sales, no new traffic. You’re wondering what might have gone wrong. Was it the messaging, timing, targeting or production? It’s near impossible to figure out exactly what. This problem is easily avoidable with Facebook advertising. Facebook has a sophisticated live reporting function that provides you with detailed information about every aspect of your campaign. This means that you can test your campaigns before investing large sums of money into your advertising. Run your ad for a minimum of 3 days (the time it takes for the algorithm to work) and see what happens. If you notice good results, you can extend the campaign. If not, simply tweak your ad and test again. Be sure to experiment with your targeting, testing different audiences, copy and images until you find the sweet spot for your campaign. Learn how to do this properly and you’ll generate massive ROI for your business.

It’s clear to see why Facebook advertising is loved by marketers around the globe. The combination of it’s massive audience, high level targeting and amazing testing features makes it by far one of the most powerful advertising platforms in existence.

Now I want to hear from you. Have you been using Facebook advertising to promote your business? How has it worked for you? Let me know in the comments down below or send me a DM on social.