Facebook advertising is becoming increasingly popular for a number of different reasons. Some businesses and websites are looking for an intuitive approach to reaching their target demographics. Others appreciate the level of demographic selection that the Facebook advertising platform offers. Many report that the cost of using Facebook advertisements makes it perfect for small and large marketing campaigns alike. Whatever the reason, countless advertisers are using this service as a way to reach their customers. So what exactly does Facebook advertising entail? Below, we will cover the main features in order to give you better insight into how to use the platform to your advantage.

Using Sponsored Stories

Sponsored stories are great for reaching out to friends of those who have already engaged with your brand. Research shows that personal recommendations are the best way to gain additional followers, and the sponsored stories element uses this in large part to reach out to those friends of friends, informing them which friends of theirs have already liked your brand. For pinging your website on Facebook, this is the best solution when you already have an established following of users and want to broaden the base. This will also work in engaging more of your existing followers to follow your brand more closely.

Using Marketplace Advertisements

The first and most standard form of Facebook advertising, marketplace advertisements are the classic ads that we are used to seeing on the right hand side of the Facebook page. These are simple yet targeted advertisements that generally aim to connect with people who are not already affiliated with your brand but who have some form of common bond or interest. For growing your base or increasing sales, marketplace advertisements work best as they can effectively represent your brand and be tailored to be shown only to those who are most likely to buy, click, like or convert in some form.

Using Promoted Posts

Let’s face it: just because you ‘Like’ something, doesn’t mean that you keep tabs on that page constantly. Facebook metrics report that only 1 out of 6 people who like your page will see any one of its posts at a given time, so growing this clout may be to your advantage. Promoted posts allow you to appeal to those followers who may otherwise miss your story, and this in turn will create viral news feed stories whenever one of your fans interacts with the promoted post. While gaining new followers is great for exposure, promoted posts work to boost engagement of your existing followers.

Ways to Bid

Facebook advertising offers a variety of ways you can place bids for pinging your website on their network. CPC (cost per click) is where you are billed for each time a person clicks on your ad – the cost per click is higher than other options. CPM refers to cost per 1,000 impressions and is usually a lower rate overall than CPC. CPA (cost per action) gives you the choice to determine which action you want users to engage in and set a rate for such action. Finally, optimized CPM allows you to pinpoint what exactly your goals are for advertising and as such, Facebook will custom target individuals to get better responses when compared to traditional CPM.