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Billions of users reside on Facebook. The targeting is so specific, you can even turn off ads to people who have clicked on them before. It can also be pretty inexpensive if you know what you’re doing. No wonder it’s one of the top advertising platform for marketers.
The results of Facebook advertising can happen very quickly. It’s not unusual to see sales start after 24 hours of running an ad. As a small business owner, you can use Facebook to your advantage. Here’s how.
What About My Budget?
You may have heard Facebook advertising is expensive. It can be. But it can also be very inexpensive.
As a small business owner, we know you’re interested in saving money. The three methods we’re going to show you can save you a lot of money. This is important, especially if you’re new to Facebook. You don’t want to sink $500 in ads only to find out they didn’t work.
These methods will all cost you under $100. In some cases they can cost you as little as $20. Imagine the return you can get off of one $20 ad on Facebook.
With each of these methods you’re going to learn how to increase your reach without increasing your budget.
Using Local Awareness on Facebook
Local awareness is a type of ad that is run specifically on Facebook. It is designed to help local businesses bring in customers. It works by targeting people in your local area within a certain radius.
The logic behind local awareness is simple and two fold. For starters, people would rather go somewhere close to get what they want (or need) than somewhere far away. If you entice them with a deal, and they find out you’re in their area, they’re more than likely going to come visit you and buy from you.
Secondly, people who read an ad don’t usually click on it. That can be discouraging to someone who thinks clicks are everything. But in this case, you aren’t going for clicks. You’re going for reach.
You’re paying a few dollars per cpm (1000 impressions). What you get is the best reach available for your money. Most of the people won’t click on your ad or even like your page. But you don’t need them to do that in order to make a sale. You just need them to see the ad.
These ads are specifically designed by Facebook to be inexpensive and effective. So take advantage of them. Run one and gauge your results. You may wind up pleasantly surprised.Have you enjoyed reading so far?
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Using Facebook Offers
If your page is over 1 month old and you have at least 50 likes, you can use a Facebook offer to increase sales.
The option to create an offer is in your page’s timeline. To create the offer is free, but to promote it costs money.
Offers are simple to create. You just enter your offer, the expiration date and the claims limit, then submit it. Once someone claims your offer, they will be sent an email from Facebook about how to redeem the offer at your business.
This is great for two reasons. For one, you get your offer directly in front of people. For two, your offer gets people in your store, which is what you want.
If you want to run a Facebook offer but don’t meet the requirements, you can submit an appeal. I’m not exactly sure how long it takes to hear back from them, but the option is there. Alternately, you can try our third method.
Boost a Post
If you’ve read that boosting a post is a waste of time, I’m going to correct that thinking. As a small business owner, page boosts are perfect for you. If you’ve got a massive audience (over 2000 fans) then it’s probably not. But then again, if you use it the way we show you how, it may be good for any business size.
When you boost a post, you aren’t just limited to your fans. You can target certain demographics, just like an ad. Most people don’t know that. They think boosting is just for your fans. If you’re just boosting to your fans, you may be wasting money. If you target it like an ad, you’ll be getting the most out of your boost.
You can choose your demographics based on age, location, age and interest. In this case you want to target people in your local area. You can play around with the other options, but location targeting is key. This way your post will be seen by people in your local area.
What kind of post should you boost? Try one that’s talking about a product or your latest sale. You want to entice people to come into your store or contact you. If you want them to contact you, be sure to put your contact information in a boosted post.