Tammy Hudgin is our featured Facebook expert who talks about Facebook Ads:

Facebook Ads

Working your Facebook Business Page numbers can be tough, because of the algorithms Facebook has implemented. It’s harder than ever to reach out and connect with your audience. There are some tricks that you can do to reach more people at no cost, but it is important for us to understand that there are times when you are going to need to spend some money on Facebook Ads. You will want to set aside a monthly marketing budget to get more out of your business page. Just know, that as a small business owner, $20-$30 can go a long way in Facebook.

Facebook offers two types of ads: Boost Posts and Sponsored Ads

When we talk about boosting of posts, this means that you are taking an existing post, from your Business Page wall and boosting it to reach more people.

For Sponsored Ads, there are a variety of Ads that you can create that are geared to your ultimate goal, over and above any existing posts you have.

It is important that you consider these key elements when creating ads within Facebook.

1. Visual:

When creating ads, you NEED to add some type of visual to go with your ad. Facebook has some requirements in place with regards to how much text you can have in your visual. They work with a 20/80 ratio, 20% text, 80% visual. Recently, Facebook changed this to state that it was not a requirement anymore, however, I highly recommend you stick with this 20/80 rule as you will still run into a possible situation of Facebook rejecting your ad.

2. Target Market:

One of the elements of creating ads is that you get to hand pick your target market. Imagine being able to reach people in Facebook, based on your exact target market (pretty awesome). Before starting to create your ad, you will want to sit down and determine exactly who this target market is going to be.

You want to think about the age group, where they live (you can break this down by city if you wish), type of profession they are in, what their interests are, etc. This is very key, otherwise, your ads could be going into news feeds of people who have no interest in what you are offering, so definitely take the time to understand your target market for that specific ad.

3. Costs:

Knowing your marketing budget, will help you to determine how much you want to spend on aspecific ad. You can ultimately, choose to spend $1 per day for as many days as you wish, or you can choose to do a total budget that will be dispersed over a number of days. As you enter your target market and costs, Facebook will give you an idea of how many people you will approximately reach, so keep an eye on this number to see if you need to invest more or less money.

4. Links:

You want to make sure that you add any LINKS that are significant to your ad. Are you wanting them to download a free copy of a document; send them to your website; send them to your YouTube channel; wherever you want them to go, make sure to add the link. You definitely don’t want to do an ad that ultimately leads your target market to nowhere.

5. Type of Ad:

There are many different types of ads that you can choose from. Again, you need to understand what your ad is ultimately trying to do.

Are you looking to generate Leads
Offer a discount for your online webstore
Get more visibility on your Business Page
Raise attendance at an event you are hosting

These are just a few examples of the types of ads available for you to create and understanding what your end result is, will determine the best ad type to use. Personally, I love the Leads Ad, as it allows me to generate email address which I can use for future use.

And here is one for a limited time offer (courtesy of Hubspot):

For examples of great Facebook ads, click on this link to see other top picks from Hubspot.

Utilizing the ads element that Facebook offers us business owners, is essential in reaching more potential clients. Understanding the key elements listed above, will help you to create an ad that will return results based on your end goal.

Tammy Hudgin is a Facebook “nut” who works with Small Business Owners in
creating their presence in Social Media. She currently writes for a
quarterly women’s magazine, is a monthly guest speaker on Rogers TV,
speaker at Conferences and Networking Groups/Events, manages other
Business’s Accounts, helps Business Owners get their business page going as
well as offering online Facebook Training.
www.tammyhudgin.com