Facebook Advertising Doesn’t have to be Hard
By Grant Kenney, TwoSix Digital Senior Digital Strategist
The time to advertise on Facebook is now. The social network has increasingly moved to stifle organic reach and made it difficult for brands and pages to reach fans without spending any money (they are a publicly traded company now, after all). That’s not to say that everyone needs to dump all of their marketing budgets into Facebook advertising (we are still big fans of a well-integrated campaign), but it’s becoming more and more important to use some of the money earmarked for marketing or advertising into the social network.
Despite what you may think, you don’t need to spend millions or even thousands to advertise on Facebook. In fact, it’s never been easier (or less expensive) to get your company, destination or brand message in front of more people than those who like your page. Simply put: Facebook advertising doesn’t have to be hard.
If you’re reading this post you may be wondering exactly how easy it is if you’ve never run an ad on Facebook before. The answer: very easy.
Do I have to spend a lot on Facebook ads to see any results?
No! If you have $5 in your pocket and want to advertise on Facebook you can do it. Granted, that’s just one ad but it’s a great way to get your feet wet and test out Facebook advertising.
If you’re feeling a bit behind or lost about advertising on Facebook the best thing you can do is experiment a little by boosting your posts with small amounts of money. Fortunately, Facebook has made it very easy to not blow a ton of money on an ad – making the entry into advertising on the platform very affordable.
Facebook advertising sounds really complicated…but it doesn’t have to be
Facebook advertising is as complicated as you want it to be. The caveat here is that you need to determine what your objective is and then select the ad type that works for you. For this example we’re going to focus on boosted posts, the easiest kind of ad you can run on Facebook.
When boosting a post on Facebook just go ahead and post on your page’s wall. We would recommend boosting a post that contains content or information that’s more important than normal (a great blog, information on an upcoming event, etc.). Once the post is up, click on the blue button in the bottom right corner of your post with the words “boost post.”
Once you hit that button you’ll be greeted with a new screen asking you to select your audience and budget based on how long you want your ad to run. You can also adjust payment options here.
The targeting option is limited, but it provides options like reaching people who like your page or people who like your page and their friends. You can also choose additional targeting options based upon other pages that people like and follow, but for the sake of simplicity we won’t worry about that in this post.
One of the nice things about boosting your posts is that you can also target and narrow down the geographic location you want your post to be seen by country, state or city.
Once you’ve checked everything over and set up your audience, the budget and how long you want your post to be boosted for you only have to hit the “Boost” button and your ad will be set! A note on ad duration, 1-2 days would probably suffice for the duration of the ad run.
This is the simplest and easiest way to jump in and experiment with Facebook advertising. Try doing this once a week or once every other week with a post you want to drive more eyes to along with helping you get familiar with the process.
You’re just getting started
There are several other types of ads and many other tools and options you can use to better reach new audiences that you may not even know exist! However, many of these require Facebook Business Manager to be set up and can easily and quickly become overwhelming .
If you’re interested in learning more about Facebook advertising or content promotion feel free to contact TwoSix Digital today.
