Facebook is one of the more powerful marketing platforms out there today, and the social media giant has made significant progress in better serving advertisers and businesses. When compared to virtually every other social media website, none come close to the audience sizes and advertising prowess of Facebook.
Facebook Ads is an increasingly popular paid advertising service from the social media giant, which allows companies to target specific customers across the site, as well as the firm's subsidiary Instagram.
Here are a few of the basics involved in Facebook Ads to get you started.
Display options
Facebook Ads are relatively customizable, and businesses have several options with respect to delivery.
For placement, you will have the following options:
If you have never used Facebook Ads, you might want to start your initiative by targeting desktop and mobile news feeds, and then build upon the strategy to include the right sidebar and Instagram. Make sure to measure performance every step of the way, as this will enhance your ability to properly target certain audience members. The Facebook Ads portal will provide metrics in terms of visibility, clicks and other interactions. However, you can expand upon that measurement by viewing your own website's statistics, specifically looking for the sources of traffic.
The art of targeting
Perhaps the most exciting additions and improvements to Facebook Ads of late have come in the form of targeting options. When you properly measure performance of each ad, you will have access to tools that can further improve the conversion and engagement rates of Facebook Ads going forward.
Marketing Land published a blog post from digital advertising specialist Brad O'Brien who offered the following guidance to advertisers who want to use the full spectrum of targeting options:
Again, for these enhanced targeting methods to work properly, marketers must be properly measuring performance and leveraging quality customer data.
Facebook Ads is an increasingly popular paid advertising service from the social media giant, which allows companies to target specific customers across the site, as well as the firm's subsidiary Instagram.
Here are a few of the basics involved in Facebook Ads to get you started.
Display options
Facebook Ads are relatively customizable, and businesses have several options with respect to delivery.
For placement, you will have the following options:
- Desktop and mobile news feeds: For news feed targets, the ad will include the name of the business, social information, images, videos, a call to action and any text deemed necessary to entice the audience.
- Right column: The ad will appear in the targeted audience's main homepage in the right sidebar where marketing components are always displayed. This one will be a bit more limited, including only images and videos along with a small amount of text.
- Instagram: These ads will show up as sponsored content on the mobile Instagram app and include the company's handle, images, videos, text and a call to action.
If you have never used Facebook Ads, you might want to start your initiative by targeting desktop and mobile news feeds, and then build upon the strategy to include the right sidebar and Instagram. Make sure to measure performance every step of the way, as this will enhance your ability to properly target certain audience members. The Facebook Ads portal will provide metrics in terms of visibility, clicks and other interactions. However, you can expand upon that measurement by viewing your own website's statistics, specifically looking for the sources of traffic.
The art of targeting
Perhaps the most exciting additions and improvements to Facebook Ads of late have come in the form of targeting options. When you properly measure performance of each ad, you will have access to tools that can further improve the conversion and engagement rates of Facebook Ads going forward.
Marketing Land published a blog post from digital advertising specialist Brad O'Brien who offered the following guidance to advertisers who want to use the full spectrum of targeting options:
- Custom audience: Facebook now offers a tool through the "Ads Manager" portal, which is located on the marketer's main profile page, that allows marketers to plug in a higher number of data points. Data points can range from previous interactions and metrics related to your audience's behaviors to conversion rates and beyond. Those pieces of information have been found to boost engagement and effective targets by between 50 and 80 percent.
- Engagement-based targeting: O'Brien also pointed out that visitor behaviors can now be leveraged to better target ads as well, including how long they spend on landing pages, if they make a purchase, their locations and more. This is automated, and marketers can find the feature, as well as more information and guidance on how best to use the feature, through the "Custom Audiences" section on their accounts.
Again, for these enhanced targeting methods to work properly, marketers must be properly measuring performance and leveraging quality customer data.
