The Beginners’ Guide to Facebook Advertising
With a reported 864 million active daily users, it’s easy to see how important Facebook is for a business’ marketing strategy. Savvy business owners are likely already leveraging the social network by establishing a presence with an optimized brand page and solid content for posts, but few may be aware of the traffic that Facebook advertising can drive to their online properties.
As a feature that was rolled out just a couple years ago, you might be wondering how it works and how it can help your business grow. With that in mind, we’ve put together the following guide to help you get started with Facebook advertising.
Step-by-Step Facebook Setup
First and foremost, you will need to have a personal Facebook account linked to your business account. While it is possible to create a business page from your existing personal profile, it might be best to create a new profile to keep your business and personal social pages completely separate.
To start a new profile, follow these steps:
- Go to Facebook.com and set up a personal profile by clicking the “Sign Up” button.
- Fill in your name, email, password, date of birth and other information. Once you create your profile, you can add as much or as little supplementary information as you wish (e.g. favorite books, special timeline dates, etc.).
- After completing your new personal profile, go to Facebook.com/pages/create/ to create your business page.
- Choose the appropriate category for your business. For the “Local Business or Place” category, you will need to provide a non-P.O. box address.
Optimizing Your Facebook Page
Once you’ve made your Facebook business page, it’s time to make it useful. Completing your Facebook profile is a great way to get relevant information about your business in front of potential and current customers.
Provide your business’ address and telephone number, as well as a link to your website or portfolio. And be sure to complete the information in the “About” tab, which is a great way to feature keywords relevant to your business while telling customers a little more about what makes your brand and its offerings unique.
If your business is photogenic, don’t let the “Photo” tab go to waste. Businesses can use it to feature ads, behind-the-scenes shots of your establishment or even photos of customers enjoying your product or service (just be sure to get their permission before you do).
Also, don’t forget about your business’ profile photo. The ideal size of your profile photo is 180 x 180 pixels; ideally, it should feature your business’ logo or a picture of your storefront. The cover photo, which is the larger rectangular image at the top of your page, is ideally sized at 851 x 315 pixels. Your profile photos are where your brand can get creative, so have fun with the content and don’t be afraid to experiment; just be sure that the visuals are consistent withyour branding.
Effective Facebook pages will feature quality content posted at a steady schedule. Finding the right posting frequency can be tough, but it’s worth taking the time to find the right balance between effective advertising and shameless spamming.
Some people say that you should post at least once a day. Some say you should post ten posts per week, whileanother study showed that, “When a brand posts twice a day, those posts receive 57% of the likes and 78% of the comments per post. The drop-off continues as more posts are made in the day.” As you can see, opinions vary, but once you find your preferred frequency, stick with it.
Growing Your Fan Base
Before putting any money towards advertising, try inviting your friends and family to like your page. This can give your page some traction before you start promotions. You can also create fliers to put in your storefront to let current customers know that they can connect with you on the site.
There are plenty of ways to advertise on Facebook, and each way can help you accomplish a different goal. If you want to generate brand awareness, start with Facebook page promotions. Through these promotions, you can target a precise demographic by selecting an age range, gender, location and other criteria.
The promotions help your page get more likes and grow your current audience by raising your brand’s profile. Facebook also provides tracking services for your ads, which allow you to identify the ads and promotions that work best for your business. Start small at the beginning, and run A/B tests to see which keywords and messaging is most effective; once you figure that out, you can increase your budget and watch your brand grow.
You can also “Boost” your posts to promote special events, offers or news about your business. A boosted post targets more people because it’s displayed in the middle of their feeds. You can also provide specific Facebook offers to increase sales in your store as well as your page’s engagement. To begin any of your Facebook promotions, go toFacebook.com/business/products/ads.
A good rule of thumb is to not over-advertise your Facebook page. Facebook users crave engagement, so give them something to engage with. For inspiration, take a look at what your competition is doing, or just ask your customerswhat types of businesses they like to follow on Facebook. Offering some kind of coupon or discount is a major reason why fans become fans, but consistently providing interesting content is a big reason why they stay engaged with a brand and keep coming back for more.
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