Advertising is always expensive. Logical. But we live in a world where you can watch, try, read and download almost everything for free. No wonder there are many entrepreneurs who opt for paid content on Facebook ads or other social networks. Paying for the marketing of a company or product, if you can simply use corresponding content on their own social media channels, sounds very stupid, right? The content will spread by itself. I’m sorry we have to tell you that, but no, in most cases it will not.
Sooner or later, you will find that it is almost impossible to reach your goal organically. That’s because the average social media user is bombarded with about 1500 different types of content every time they log in. So you can certainly imagine why your post is not seen in the flood of content.
To make your content more visible, there is only one solution: you need to serve ads. You are still not convinced? Then we’ll give you six reasons why you should advertise specifically on Facebook.
Your target group is on Facebook
Facebook has 2.23 trillion active users who have logged in at least once in the last 30 days. Of these, 32 million users are currently active in the USA. They also spend an average of 40 minutes a day on the platform.
Facebook ads are not expensive
We have already clarified that it is very difficult to reach your goal organically. Fortunately, ads do not cost a fortune. And the advantage of Facebook Ads: You can always limit your spending to a specific budget. Compared with other platforms, the cost-per-click on Facebook are generally much lower.
Even with just one euro a day, which you put on Facebook ads, you can reach an average of 4000 people per month. Including people who have never heard of you and will not buy anything from you before they have heard of you. Sounds logical, right? And let’s face it, who among us does not have 30 euros left per month?
Facebook Ads help grow your business
Investing in social media marketing pays off (attention, pun!). To prove it to the unbelievers among you, there are now two success stories for you:
HomeChef, an American company for meal kits, wanted to test video ads with the goal of increasing its website conversions and attracting new customers. After helping various agencies, they launched their advertising campaign in Q1 / 2018, targeting US adults over the age of 25. Additionally, they’ve tested different types of videos, offers, and call-to-action to determine which ad works best and encourages their audience to buy. After only three months, HomeChef has been able to increase its website conversion rate by 13% and reduce its acquisition cost by 23%.
HomeChef is not the only one who has benefited from Facebook Ads. A Canadian online retailer for sustainable fashion called Tentree has come up with a great new concept: ten trees are planted for each item sold. To reach a larger audience that will hopefully buy more products, allowing more trees to be planted (an eternal cycle), they use different types of ads. For example, with Carousel Ads or Dynamic Ads, they targetted individuals who are either interested in sustainable products or already existing customers and Lookalike audiences based on that customer list.
The pretty impressive result: Tentree tripled its Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) and gained 50 retail chains as new customers. As a result, they were able to create more internal jobs, further boost corporate growth, and increase the number of trees planted by 280 by one month. Ads can even protect the environment! Sometimes…
Facebook Ads can give your “maybe / maybe not leads” the last nudge
Is there a better audience than people you already know and recently visited your website? No. That’s why in most cases using a retargeting strategy is worth the last push. In the figurative sense, of course. Because some people just need it to remember you and your products or services.
See it as a second chance after a first date, which did not go out well then. The other person may still be interested in you, but the external circumstances simply did not fit. Your counterpart had a bad day, did not sleep well and the food in the restaurant was quite over-salted. In other words, maybe the need for your product or budget was not that big back then. Or your potential customer just really had a bad day. Who does not know that? With retargeting, this time around, you can show your best side to finally convince your audience of you and your product. And then it says, “Do you want to come in for a coffee?”
But let’s face it, not every first date has the potential to develop into a longer-term relationship. Nor does not every one of your website visitors have the potential to become a new customer. So the most important tip for retargeting is: Target your website visitors, but use your custom audience as a filter. So you will find the relevant audience for you from the large pool of visitors. For example, you can choose a specific location or age group to ultimately filter out those people who not only already know you but also most likely buy your product.
Over the years, Facebook has continued to limit the visibility of corporate pages, which has greatly reduced the organic reach of posts. Most social media studies show that the organic reach per post across all industries averages 2%. That’s almost nothing. Every content creator’s heart is crying.
So you can have the awesome mega content, the best deals or the hottest event – all of that will not reach most of your target audience organically. So, by investing money within your reach, you’re “honoring” your content as more people see your awesome mega-content. And your content deserves it. What do you say so beautifully: honor, to whom honor is due.
So Facebook Ads gives you the perfect opportunity to reach people who are likely to find your content relevant and share it. As a result, your content will be visible to even more users without investing more in your ads. The beautiful domino effect, right?
For this effect, for example, Facebook events are very good. If you apply, you’re more likely to get more people involved, or at least click “Interested.” This is reflected in the contacts of these people, in a very organic way, and they may also participate in your event. After all, you trust your friends. Mostly. And so your event will find your way from target to target to target without having to put a lot of money into your ad.
One more tip: Apply for the posts that have already performed better than your remaining content. Because that shows that this content was already valuable for the small part of your fanbase, who saw it organically in the newsfeed. Therefore, the chances are higher that it is also relevant to the rest of your target audience that you reach through Facebook Ads. And that in turn increases the chances of many interactions on your post and a few new fans.
Facebook Ads let you find new audiences
After many, many attempts and failures, you will hopefully find a target audience that likes, shares and comments on your content like crazy. So what are you going to do next? Quite simple: Find even more people that suit your target group and thus enlarge them accordingly. How do you do that? With the Lookalike Audiences from Facebook.
With this kind of audience, Facebook uses your Custom Audience to identify the same qualities that people in your audience have and uses these qualities to search for new people. People who are more likely to find you, your content and your products interesting.
Lookalike Audiences are easy to create in the Facebook Ad Manager. You just have to choose a custom audience as your source, like your current list of customers, your Facebook fans or a pixel-based audience, and Facebook will deliver your new audience.
While this is a very advanced targeting option, it is probably most effective in generating new fans or customers. Unlike interest-based targeting, your original Audience target audience can help you achieve better, more controlled results in your Lookalike Audience. It sounds complicated, but it is.
Summary
Ads on Facebook are incredibly efficient. There are many options, a long list of benefits and, ultimately, they are the best and most cost-effective investment you can make. Social media advertising has become an integral part of any business strategy and it has never been cheaper to build a brand and grow it. So if you do not have ads on Facebook, what are you waiting for?
