Best Practices in Facebook Advertising

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GBX Digital
  • Date Published
  • Categories Blog
  • Reading Time 3-Minute Read

Learn the basics in social media marketing, specifically, how you can leverage your Facebook page towards gaining more business.

Facebook continues to be today’s top social networking site. According to Mark Zuckerberg himself, as of the first half of this year, the Facebook community is 2-billion strong. Additionally, based on the past numbers, the growth rate is pegged to be at 20 million more users each month. Any business that is not exploring Facebook as an advertising platform is missing out on the golden opportunity to tap into this large market. What are some of the best practices in Facebook advertising?

Here is a quick list:

Think in the long-term. The use of any advertising platform should be planned in terms of a long-term strategy, which features a list of clearly stated goals which would correspond to concrete actions. The same should be true when publishing even the most straightforward Facebook ad: it should be clear to the company’s marketing team which strategy such action contributes to, and where to draw the budget for it. Additionally, the advertising strategies may be categorized in terms of the company’s product or service offerings. The key is to account for each small advertising action, and being able to directly link it with the bottomline goals.

Be realistic and systematic when setting goals. When crafting the goals for Facebook advertising, the marketing team should be aware of what can and cannot, in fact, be achieved through Facebook. Goals should be set based on where the company is in terms of building its online community. The following are good questions to ask: How many of the followers can distinguish the company from its main competitors? How many of the existing followers were drawn organically, and how many were attracted through paid efforts? How many of these actually belong to the company’s target market? Making these distinctions are important if any dollar spent towards the effort is to count. It may well be the case that the company’s goals would be to establish its brand well first on the platform, or targeting a local market, or creating international awareness.

Plan the activity based on your goals. Again, the state of the company’s Facebook presence should determine the goals, which should in turn determine the type of activity to pursue. For those that are looking to increase the number of followers, page like ads would be the more sensible action. For those looking to sell a particular product, the answer would be Facebook lead ads. And for those holding an event, Facebook allows for paid post promotions on the Events tab. Budgeting for these activities will also have to depend on the goals. If the company is still trying new things, it is best to stick with small average spend per day, and closely observing the metrics to know if it is worth committing to.