Why and when should you use Facebook Ads?

Did you know that it is almost impossible to get organic traffic on Facebook? Without using Facebook ads, your business page is lucky if it is seen by just some of your friends and family. Facebook has gradually evolved into a low cost advertising platform, and it works! Millions of people use Facebook everyday and they really do click on the ads.

Before we dive into the detail, a note on the ‘boost’ button. Stay away from that! It looks tempting, and is certainly easier than setting up a more thoughtful, precise advertising campaign via Facebook Ads Manager but it is a very blunt tool. Using the boost button takes away so many of the best options available for Facebook ads. You can’t choose your objective (engagement only), your audience targeting options are limited and you can’t test different options to maximise return on your investment. In short, you’re likely to be wasting your money.

Let’s have a look at the benefits of using Facebook ads in a little more detail:

1. You’ll reach far more people than is possible with organic posts.
Over the years Facebook has decreased the visibility of business pages so that now only a tiny fraction of your followers would see any of your posts. To grow awareness of your business on Facebook in any way, you need to advertise. Your budget doesn’t have to be huge, but you do have to have one.

2. You can target your exact audience

I don’t think anyone would accuse Facebook of not being incredible in this area. The ability to target your ads to the people most likely to be interested in your business is amazing. Location, interests, behaviours, age range and slightly cheekily, even fans of your competitors! I don’t think you can get this level of detail anywhere else which helps make Facebook ads a safer place to invest your marketing budget.

3. You can create ads with a specific objective

Do you need more likes, comments or shares? Do you need more people to click through to your website or sign up for your newsletter? Or maybe you just want more followers? Facebook ads allows you to have a clear objective for your ad and your ad will be optimised to achieve that objective.

4. You can re-target people who have already interacted with you

Someone who has already looked at your product is likely to be considering buying, or at least warm to you. By retargeting them (when an ad follows you around the Facebook / Instagram ecosystem) you give them a reminder and are more likely to convert them.

5. The Facebook ads platform offers in depth analytics so you can refine, learn from and improve each campaign

The analytics behind Facebook ads are brilliant. We all make assumptions about what will and won’t work but these analytics help remove the assumptions and the guesswork, meaning that your investment is more likely to be well spend and achieve your objectives.

In conclusion, if you have a business page on Facebook and are looking for growth in some form, Facebook ads are an essential part of your marketing strategy.