Social Media and Facebook Advertising

Social Media Advertising

At the beginning of it, social media was used for entertainment, but in time it evolved to a strong marketing tool. It’s primary purpose is to connect people, but there is also another important role and that is to connect marketers with current and potential customers. (Statista, 2022).

Today, the use of social media in marketing purposes got to a significant point. For example, according to Statista (2022), 91.9 percent of U.S. marketers in companies largest than 100 employees were expected to use social media.

In simple words, Social media advertising can be defined as advertisements served to users on social media platforms. User information are being collected by social networks and then used to with the purpose of serving relevant advertisements based on it interactions within a certain platform. Therefore, social advertising can produce high increases in conversions and sales when applied properly. (Haylee Reed, 2022)

For instance, an important aspect to consider when advertising on social media, is for sure to determine the target audience, and then the message intended to this specific audience so a proper connection is assured. In other words, to guarantee the success, a business needs to know what works for each generation so their advertising efforts target the right consumer base. (Rebecca Kowalewicz, 2020)

Considering that currently there are more than 4.2 billion active social media users around the world, the benefits for businesses are numerous. Therefore, they should take full advantage of it by making it a big part of   their digital marketing efforts

When it comes to brand building, social media advertising can have a positive impact. Some of the benefits to mention here are increase brand awareness, humanize the brand (the ability to create real human connections), or establish the brand as a thought leader. (Stacey McLachlan, Christina Newberry, 2021).

Some other advantages of social media advertising which should be considered (Sam Medlicott, n.d.):

Improved brand loyalty - Social media advertising can be a great demonstration of social proofing, and this can improve brand loyalty and turn one-time visitors into a permanent customers.

Higher conversion rates - Social media advertising can help a business generate more conversions

Boost leads for your business - social media advertising is a great way to get a business in front of more people and expand a business’s customer base.

Low cost advertising - social media advertising can be a cost-effective solution for a business.

User-friendly interface - Most social media networks offer a user-friendly advertising platform.

In-depth analytics – advertising through social media gives the privilege of having access to a wealth of analytics and statistics.

Facebook Advertising

1.      The key objectives that can be satisfied with Facebook Advertising

When creating a Facebook ad, it is important you know what you want people to do when they see it, and that is actually your objective. In other words, you need to know exactly what you want to achieve through your ad. But before determining the objectives, first you need to determine your business’s goal. There are three main goals and under each of it there are a series of key objectives as follows (Meta Business Help Centre, n.d.):

-        Awareness includes those objectives through which your ad can generate interest in your product or service. Brand awareness and Reach are the objectives under Awareness goal.

-        Consideration includes those objectives that may get people to search more information about your product or service.  Objectives such as Traffic, Engagement, App Installs, Video views, Lead generations, and Messages can found under Consideration goal.

-        Conversions includes objectives that might motivate people to buy your product or use your service. Here we can count objectives as Conversions, Catalogue Sales or Store Traffic.

These objectives are usually set according to your business’s growth level. At the beginning, your campaigns goals may be directed to building awareness, but later on these may be focused on encourage people to buy your products.

2.     The main Facebook advertising formats available

Facebook Advertising offers six types of ad formats which might be used according to the advertising objectives. You can choose photo ads, video ads, carousels, canvas, collections or slideshows, in order to attract your target audiences’ attention.

Image ads helps you to present your product, service or brand through a single photo. By using this format, you can increase interest in your brand, raise awareness of your products or deliver a simple message. (Meta Business Help Centre, n.d.)

Image Ad Example. Source 
 Meta for Business

By using the Video format, you can show off your product in a unique way, or tell your brand story, you can quickly capture audiences’ attention, or make people take action by delivering a simple message.   (Meta Business Help Centre, n.d.).

Instant Experience  Ads represents the full-screen experience which is being opened after someone taps an ad on a mobile device. This format allows people to watch videos, swipe through carousel photos, view products in a catalogue, tap buttons which redirects them to other web page. (Meta Business Help Centre, n.d.).

Facebook Instant Experience example Source:Meta for business

A Collection ad includes a cover image or video with many products showcased under it. When this ad is being tapped, a full-screen Instant experience is being opened.

Facebook Collection Ad example Source: Meta for business

Carousel ads allows you to show up to ten images in a single ad, each of these having its own link, description or call to action. Some of the things you can do by using this type of ad are telling a story, explaining a process, highlighting the features of  product, or creating a larger canvas. (Meta Business Help Centre, n.d.).

This type of ad helps people to discover and purchase easier products directly from their mobile devices in a visual way. (Meta Business Help Centre, n.d.)

Using a slideshow format, you can tell a story by creating an ad similar to a video (using motion, tex and sound). These types of ads are easier to create, they load faster, and they are affordable. 

 Targeting audiences when creating a Facebook advertisement

Audience targeting helps you bring your ad in front of the people who most likely will find that ad relevant.

There are three audience selection tools: Core Audience, Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences. (Meta, n.d.)

The Core Audience can help you determine your audience taking into account criteria such as:

Location – allows you to advertise in areas where you want to develop your business;

Demographics – this audience is created based on age, gender, education, and other.

Interests – you can make your ads more relevant to some specific audience by adding interests of the people you want to reach.

Behaviour – you can define audiences according to consumers behaviours such as prior purchases.

Connections – an audience can be created by including people who likes your page or are connected to your event, or you may exclude them so you can find new audiences.

Custom audiences instead, are great tool for returning to people who already engaged with your business before.

By using Lookalike Audience tool, you can get to new people whose interests are similar to your current customers.

In other words, you can create Lookalike Audiences, and target your ad to people in these audiences. There is also the exclusion targeting option. This works by preventing a certain audience from seeing your ad. (Meta Business Help Centre, n.d.)

The key elements that make up a great Facebook advertisement.

There is no model that could apply to all ads for success.

The success of an ad comes along with many key element, and it is essential that you know your goals and objectives, but also to know well your audience and adjust your ad’s message accordingly. Knowing this is the key, depending on your goals, you should create different audiences. Furthermore, you can create a custom ad experience for the customers, depending on  the audiences you created.

For example, if you want to attract new customers, but also convince the existing ones to come back to your business, you can run different ads for each objective, with different strategy approaches.

Call to actions are important elements of a successful ad. Depending on the objective of your ad, it can be useful for people to be guided into what to do. (Facebook Help Center, n.d.)

Statistics demonstrates that Facebook post with quality images get more engagement, so this makes it clear that imagery is crucial for the success of on ad. When choosing an image for your ad, again it is important that you also keep in mind your audience’s interests. (Reach First, n.d.)

You should also observe the posts that resonate the most with your audience, and then transform them into successful ads to bring even more results.  

Testing the ads is a great idea to optimize performance. A good practice here would be to test a few ads with small audiences, and then depending on the results, run the best one in your campaign.

When running an ad, measuring the obtain results is desirable as you need to know if you reached your target. By measuring the results, you can also discovered what did not work and try to fix it for the future. (Christina Newberry, Stacey McLachlan, 2020)

 

 Reference List

Statista (2022), Social media marketing usage rate in the United States from 2013 to 2022, [online]. Available a: https://www.statista.com/statistics/203513/usage-trands-of-social-media-platforms-in-marketing/ [Accessed 15 July 2022];

Haylee Reed, (2022), Navigating Social Media Advertising in 2022: How to Choose the Right Platform and Ads for Your Brand, Big Commerce, [online]. Available at: https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/social-media-advertising/#what-is-social-media-advertising [Accessed 15 July 2022];

Rebecca Kowalewicz, (2020), What To Consider For Generation-Based Social Media Marketing, Forbes, [online]. Available at:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/01/09/what-to-consider-for-generation-based-social-media-marketing/?sh=796c06654242 [Accessed 16 July 2022];

Stacey McLachlan, Christina Newberry, (2021), 22 Benefits of Social Media for Business, Hootsuite, [online]. Available at: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-for-business/  Accessed 16 July 2022];

Sam Medlicott, (n.d.), 7 advantages of social media advertising for your business, Commonground, [online]. Available at: https://www.commonground.digital/paid-social/7-advantages-of-social-media-advertising-for-your-business/  [Accessed 16 July 2022];

Meta Business Help Centre, (n.d.), Choose the right objective, [online]. Available at: https://en-gb.facebook.com/business/help/1438417719786914 [Accessed 18 July 2022];

Meta Business Help Centre, (n.d.), About Image Ads, [online]. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/217010726413426?id=1240182842783684 [Accessed 18 July 2022];

Meta Business Help Centre, (n.d.), About Video Ads, [online]. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1381779698788633?id=603833089963720&locale=en_GB [Accessed 18 July 2022];

Meta Business Help Centre, (n.d.), About Carousel Ads, [online]. Available at:https://www.facebook.com/business/help/773889936018967?id=563305920700338&locale=en_GB [Accessed 18 July 2022];

Meta Business Help Centre, (n.d.), About Instant Experience, [online]. Available at:https://www.facebook.com/business/help/183469315334462?id=1633489293397055&locale=en_GB [Accessed 18 July 2022];

Meta Business Help Centre, (n.d.), About collection ads, [online]. Available at https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1128914607238107?id=370281743380548&locale=en_GB Accessed 18 July 2022];

Meta, (n.d.), Create lightweight, affordable video ads from images that you already have, [online]. Available at https://en-gb.facebook.com/business/ads/slideshow-ad-format [Accessed 18 July 2022];

Meta, (n.d.), Help your ads find the people who will love your business. [online]. Available at: https://en-gb.facebook.com/business/ads/ad-targeting [Accessed 19 July 2022];

Meta Business Help Centre, (n.d.) Using Custom or Lookalike Audiences, [online]. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/572787736078838?id=176276233019487&helpref=related&ref=related [Accessed 19 July 2022];

Facebook Business Help Centre, (n.d.), Tips to Make Your Ads Resonate, [online], Available at: https://www.facebook.com/help/840059356036765 [Accessed 19 July 2022];

Reach First, (n.d.), 7 Essential Ingredients of An Effective Facebook Ad Campaign, [online]. Available at: https://www.reachfirst.com/7-essential-ingredients-of-an-effective-facebook-ad-campaign/ [Accessed 20 July 2022];

Christina Newberry, Stacey McLachlan, (2020), Social Media Advertising 101: How to Get the Most Out of Your Ad Budget, [online]. Available at: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-advertising/ [Accessed 20 July 2022];