Read the following excerpt from my book ‘The NZ Small Business Superhero’s Marketing Handbook’ and discover how Facebook advertising can help increase traffic to your website…
The reason is that the numbers are hard to ignore, but if you need any reassurance, just ask yourself: how many people do you know who are on Facebook? How many on Twitter? The typical answer for most people to the first question is: “a lot”; and to the second question: “not many”. Therein lies the reason why Facebook provides the most bang for your social media buck. That is where your customers already are. All you need is an effective way to tap into accessing them, and their networks.
Facebook is an absolute online phenomenon and is the only significant rival to Google as the dominant force on the internet. There are also very real opportunities for small business owners to take advantage of Facebook as a marketing tool. One of the most fundamental opportunities and a no-brainer for many local businesses is setting up a Facebook page for the business.
Facebook advertising – What we will deal with here is Facebook advertising. Because so much of the New Zealand population (just over two million of us as of 2012) spends so much time on Facebook, there is great potential to get exposure to your markets. Facebook ads can be targeted geographically and demographically making this ideal for many local businesses. For example, a pest controller could target all adults over the age of 25 in the greater Wellington region. Clickthrough rates for Facebook ads tend to be significantly lower that Google clickthrough rates, but the sheer number of people on Facebook means that the overall cost per visitor can be as good, if not better.
Setting up a Facebook advertising campaign – The first thing you need is a Facebook account so if you have avoided this up until now, it’s time to take the plunge. Once you’ve set up your Facebook profile and you’re logged in, click the small “Advertising” link at the bottom of your home page. Then click the green “Create an Advert” button. Facebook will then step you through the process. You choose a destination URL for people to click through to, enter a title (up to 25 characters), a description (up to 135 characters) and upload an image if you have one.
Then you select your target market. For example, those on Facebook over 25 who live in the greater Wellington region – number around 142,000. The final step before your ad is ready to run is the pricing and scheduling information, where you select your budget, bid per click and when your ad will run.
You can then access your statistics to monitor the response to your ads and make any adjustments to ensure a healthy return on investment.
To read more, you can purchase my book ‘The NZ Small Business Superhero’s Internet Marketing Handbook’ by clicking here.
