Using Facebook Advertising for your Business
To really get the most out of Facebook as a business unless you have great content that is likely to get shared lots then you'll no doubt be looking at using Facebook advertising or 'Boost Post'. This is the boost button which appears under each Facebook status update.
Before diving into Facebook Advertising for your Business it's worth noting that unless done correctly it can be costly and you can see very little return. I would strongly suggest you get everything else in order before you go down this route. For me, advertising has almost been a last resort.
That might be a slightly negative statement...let me explain.
Free Facebook Tips
The companies I've worked with on increasing their Facebook reach have had very limited budgets so we've looked at all the 'free' options first and built on them.
The free options are the following
Create interesting and informative posts
Make sure staff and yourselves are liking and sharing the businesses posts
Join relevant groups and if allowed share the post with them
If you have this as a base then that's a good start, along with this it should be mentioned that being consistent with when you post is also important. Set yourself a schedule, or I can help with this and try to stick to it.
Building the post
Right now you're considering Facebook Advertising for your Business, so now we need to construct the post you'd like to boost. When you start down the route of advertising it's all too easy to just pick the latest post and use that one. You need to plan, firstly use an image that is relevant to the post, if you need one it'd recommend heading to Unsplash and using one from their library of high-quality images.
Having a goal
The next part of building the post is to have a clear goal in mind. What is it you want to achieve, people visiting your business, getting them onto your site, messaging? Have this goal set then gives you direction in what the caption needs to be and the photo to follow.
The Caption
The caption needs to be concise and to the point. Don't write a paragraph when only 20 words will do. Much longer and you'll notice a 'Read More' will appear, this means the key points need to be within that 20-word window. Adding an emoji actually adds more interaction strangely enough. It is also worth noting that Facebook isn't too keen on having prices in the caption, a link they also suppress slightly.
Then once you have the wording add a photo that catches the eye but is also relevant and making sure that the image isn't covered in words, another thing Facebook doesn't like.
Building the Audience
Facebook has made it easy for you to quickly boost the post and automate everything. This works fine and will get eyes on the post but not perhaps the eyes you want. I fully recommend building your own audience, this will help get a return on your investment.
At this moment you want to 'Create New Audience'. You can then sort of build your ideal customer, selecting the gender, age range, locations, and then certain topics. If you have a physical store you can select a radius from a central location. People 50+ miles aren't probably going to visit you, if it's a digital or website then you can be more flexible.
You'll see a graphic at the bottom which lets you know the potential reach and whether Facebook thinks your audience size is good.
Set the budget
Once the audience has been identified the budget is the next stage. When at the 'Total Budget' window as the change £ it will let you know the estimated reach, it's easy to select a high budget thinking it's a winner but this is a dangerous slope. Pick a value that you are happy with and then the duration of the advert to run for. If it's a quickfire sale then make sure it doesn't run past the sale finish date.
With budget, audience and duration for the first advert, it might need a little tweak afterwards to fine-tune it. You can set up multiple audiences depending on the post that you're boosting. You can now preview the post and check for any errors.
If this is the first time you've used Facebook Advertising for your Business you'll need to set up payment, either card, PayPal or bank transfer.
Then the boost is done, sit back and enjoy. Well...now make sure you keep an eye on what happens, did it work? Were you happy?
When used correctly it is a powerful tool. If you need help setting up your Facebook account please get in touch and we can work together.
