Social media is all the rage these days and all businesses need to jump on this bandwagon in order to reach more people in their target audience. Local businesses are seeing the benefits of social media because it’s so easy to connect with people in a certain geographic location. Facebook also makes it very affordable for businesses to advertise their services or products to millions of users each day.
The easiest way to get started using Facebook is to create a Facebook fan page. This option is free and reserved specifically for local businesses, places, institutions, brands or products, public figures, entertainment or causes.
Keep in mind that this is different from a personal profile and their uses are very clear. A personal profile is intended for personal use – connect with old classmates, neighbors, family and friends. A fan page is more business-oriented and meant for building a community and engaging with customers. Businesses that start off with personal profiles run the risk of having their account suspended.
Once a fan page is created, the page administrators should optimize it properly with keywords, website URL, and a full description so viewers know exactly who this page belongs to. Well-optimized pages will also show up in online search results so choose keywords wisely. Local businesses should include keywords using their region, town, or county names.
The Next Step: Purchasing a Facebook Ad
The beauty of Facebook ads is the ability to target your chosen market with laser precision, thereby increasing your Return On Investment. This is done by choosing narrowed keywords and knowing exact demographic details of your ideal customer.
Even though the ad setup is extremely easy, be aware that Facebook does not charge a flat fee per ad. Before making this purchase, plan a strategy and a budget for your Facebook ads; otherwise you risk wasting money and having poor results.
Your first choice of ad is the Cost Per Click (CPC), which means you only pay for however many clicks your ad receives. So if your ad receives 1,000 impressions (or views) but only 10 people clicked on the ad, you only pay for the 10 clicks. The CPC ads are best used for advertising a product or driving traffic to an external website.
The second type of ad available is the Cost Per Thousand (CPM), which means you will pay a certain price for 1,000 impressions (or views). So instead of paying for clicks, you are paying for your ad to be viewed 1,000 times, regardless of whether people click on it or not. This type of ad is best used to advertise Facebook fan pages where you want to collect as many “Likes” as possible.
In both of these ad examples, the prices of the ads are based on how much you are willing to bid for certain keywords. Facebook states that the minimum bid is $.01 but in reality you will need to set your bids higher.
You can set a daily limit as well as an individual limit per keyword but in either case it is worthwhile to start off slowly and measure how quickly your limits are being used up compared with what results you are getting.
If you don’t have time to setup a fan page or ad campaign and these tasks have fallen to the bottom of your long to do list, consider hiring an internet marketing consultant to do the job for you. Delegating this type of work to an expert will save you hours of frustration, allowing you to better serve your customers and clients. You will still be involved in the strategizing but internet marketing consultants know how to complete these tasks quickly and efficiently.
Don Johnson
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