Where are the greatest opportunities in online advertising right now? My votes are for local search, video marketing and then the one opportunity that dwarfs all others:
Facebook PPC (Pay Per Click).
As the social media explosion continues, Facebook reigns supreme. The numbers are staggering:
Over 400 million users. 260 Billion pageviews a month. 1 in 4 US Internet pageviews are on Facebook. FB users average 7 hours per month on the site.
As impressive as the numbers are, the true power of Facebook advertising lies in its database of demographics.
You know all those questions Facebook asked you when you first signed up? Where you went to school, what your hobbies are, are you single, engaged or married, what’s your favorite book/movie/music, etc.
This is all under the guise of helping you connect with “friends” on Facebook. And, yes, it’s very effective at doing that. But the demographic information that Facebook has accumulated in the process is a goldmine for marketers.
This data is unparalleled. There has never been a more complete and accurate collection of demographic information for such a large group ever made available to advertisers. And you can take advantage of it today using Facebook’s PPC advertising platform.
Here are some of the ways you can target Facebook users:
1. Location (Country, State, City)
2. Gender
3. Age
4. Education (College Grad, In College, High School)
5. Workplace
6. Relationship (Single, In a Relationship, Engaged, Married)
7. Language
8. Birthday
9. Keyword (this is where things really get interesting – think book titles, Facebook fan pages, TV shows, political causes, etc.)
The true power of Facebook PPC is in combining different demographic data to drill down and run ads to a highly targeted group of individuals who are your ideal prospects.
Here are a few examples:
1. Imagine you own a restaurant in St. Louis. These are some of the options available to you with Facebook pay per click.
- If you want to attract more of the “Foodies” crowd, you can target a campaign to people in St. Louis who indicate they’re fans of the Food Network and/or specific cookbooks and/or celebrity chefs and/or some of your competitors’ restaurants.
- Is your restaurant near Boeing? Run ads that promote a lunch special to people whose profiles indicate they work for Boeing and live in St. Louis.
- Target people in St. Louis on their birthdays to offer a special discount.
- Say your restaurant is near Washington University and you want to target the college crowd. No problem. Simply target people who indicate they are “in college” at Wash U to reach that key young demographic (this is a great option whether you’re a restaurant or any business targeting the college crowd).
2. Let’s sell your restaurant and open up a jewelry store. You can run ads promoting engagement rings targeted to men who indicate they are “in a relationship.” You can also run ads promoting wedding rings to men and women who indicate they are engaged.
3. Now say your jewelry business was a huge success and you’ve sold it for a tidy profit (congratulations!) and now you want to share all the keen business insights you’ve learned from running your restaurant and jewelry store. Use keyword targeting to promote your book, coaching program, online video training course, etc. to get your ads seen by people who indicate an interest in entrepreneurship and/or are fans of “The E-Myth Revisited” and/or “The Apprentice” and/or major(ed) in Business and/or the sky’s the limit.
Hopefully this gives you a taste of what’s possible with Facebook PPC and what makes it so extremely powerful. The possibilities are mind-blowing, but it gets even better…
Right now there are relatively few advertisers taking advantage of this FB advertising opportunity. The competition is not nearly as fierce as it is on Google these days and the costs per click are generally much lower.
(Speaking of Google, while Facebook’s advertising platform is not so complex as Google’s AdWords platform, a familiarity with running a PPC campaign on Google AdWords will go a long way toward success with Facebook PPC. Particularly, an understanding of testing ads and landing pages, tracking results and key metrics as well as the ability to craft a persuasive pay per click ad is as essential on Facebook as it is on Google.)
How long it takes before more advertisers see the opportunity and send click costs on Facebook soaring, I have no idea. What I do know is that the big Internet marketing gurus have just started to catch on and are drooling over the possibilities of Facebook pay per click. And once the big guns get in the game, it usually means others will soon follow in droves – cluttering the competitive landscape and driving up bid prices.
With a potent combination of 400+ million users, unparalleled demographic targeting capabilities and a (currently) relatively low level of competition, Facebook PPC is an extremely compelling opportunity for small business owners.
Especially if you know the demographics of the ideal prospects you’re trying to reach, take advantage of this opportunity while the gettin’s good!
And if you need help setting up a Facebook PPC campaign or consulting to help you accelerate your learning curve, my St. Louis Internet Marketing firm can help.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
nice idea.