Most business owners in Canada have heard of Facebook Ads, but a surprisingly low number of these businesses actually use them. Perhaps it is due to the perceived complexity of the advertising platform. Perhaps it is because of cost concerns. While there are some businesses that run complex Facebook campaigns with massive budgets, most businesses find Facebook ads to be a simple and affordable way to advertise.
At Lendified, we believe every small business owner should explore and test Facebook ads. Here are our top 5 reasons:
1. Low Entry Cost: In terms of cost effective advertising, look no further than Facebook Ads. In general, $50 can get your ad out to anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 people, which is affordable for any small business! It is easy to regulate how much you spend on the ads by setting either a daily limit or lifetime budget, with which your ad will run continuously until the money runs out.
2. Size of Facebook’s Platform: In Canada alone there are over 19 million active Facebook users, 14 million of which log in every single day! This vast, untapped reservoir of potential customers is also extremely varied, with people of all demographics using it. There are also currently around 2 million active advertisers which is a startling low number considering how popular Facebook is, making it an ideal place to begin advertising.
3. Targeting: Facebook has an incredibly intricate targeting system, in which you can go deep into the specifics of your target market with age, gender, interests, behaviours, location, pages liked, relationship status, language, education, workplace, connections, and countless other categories. This allows you to target very specific groups of potential customers which is a more effective marketing strategy than broad targeting. Ads geared towards specific demographics will outperform others, and you can continuously adjust who you target with your ads in order to optimize ad performance!
4. Calls to Action (CTA): Facebook’s call to action feature is extremely effective at getting conversions for your business by linking the person who clicks it to any destination that meets your business goals, be it a phone number, website, or survey. Currently, there are 7 options for Call to Action buttons: book now, contact us, use app, play game, shop now, sign up, and watch video. In terms of directing customer traffic exactly where you want it, CTA is a vital tool at your disposal with Facebook Ads.
5. Opportunity to Get Free Exposure: When you use Facebook Ads there is always the potential of users sharing your ads, thereby generating free promotion for your business. You may think people rarely share ads, but they do, and chances are the people sharing your ads have a roster of Facebook friends that are ideal people to view your ads as they often have similar interests and needs.
Bonus Resources/Tools to Help Make Using Facebook Ads Easier:
Lookalike Audiences: Facebook offers a tool designed to help businesses create audiences based on those who already visit their web pages and the profiles of their preexisting customers. This can be extremely useful when attempting to narrow down the target audience for an ad, and serves as a launchpad into expanding your user base through finding “lookalikes” of your current customers.
Canva: This incredibly easy-to-use graphic design tool lets you utilize millions of stock photos (as well as your own) and fonts within a simple drag and drop editor. Plans start as low as $9.95 per month and there is no graphic design experience required!
Social Stats: Social Stats offers a way to visualize your Facebook audiences potential based on your selection of locations, gender, age, employment, interests, and other targeting points. This allows you to get an estimate of how many potential customers you have in a certain region, which will not only help to plan your advertising campaign but could also help you if you consider opening a new location.
Regardless of the size or nature of your business, Facebook provides a cheap and effective way to get in front of potential customers. With many great tools at your disposal there is every reason to give it a try!
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