7/12/2010
10 Reasons Why Advertising on Facebook Is Simple and Profitable – Part 1
Simplicity and Profitability: A Marriage Made in Facebook Heaven
Simple and profitable: two words that would make any advertiser smile. Finding this winning combination in an advertising venue is one good indicator that that venue is one your business should seriously explore. Since both descriptors fit Facebook to a T, the world’s favorite social media site may also rank number one on your advertising venue list.
Let’s start out with five reasons why advertising on Facebook is profitable, because that will be your first consideration in deciding whether to even look into how easy it might be to place ads there.
Facebook Profitability Factors
In the following list, reasons one through five will relate to profitability, and reasons six through ten to ease of ad placement.
1. Site Popularity
Because Facebook is the number-one social media site on the Web today, with more than 400 million active users – a fan base that’s likely to grow even larger in the future – it offers real profit potential for your business. Facebook advertising revenues exceeded $700 million in 2009, and experts expect 2010 revenues to top $1 billion. These days, practically everyone has a Facebook account, and that simple fact can work to your business advantage.
2. Search Engine Ranking
Facebook’s immense popularity has given the site a high search engine ranking, which translates to more traffic referred via search engines. Since the site enjoys a Google Page Rank of 10 – the highest possible PR a site can have – you may be sure that Google and all the other major search engines pay a great deal of attention to the ads and other content posted there.
3. Interactive Marketing Opportunity
Facebook lets you engage customers and prospects through fan pages that provide both customer feedback and opportunities for marketing your product or service and promoting your company. This is a great way to increase the effectiveness of your ads and help create brand recognition and customer loyalty.
4. Ad Targeting
Facebook ads can easily be set up to target the demographic(s) you want to reach with your advertising. The ad setup process allows you to target by location, gender, age, birthday, likes and interests, education, and connections. This helps to ensure that your ad is displayed to the market segment to which it will be most relevant, increasing your likelihood of success.
5. Reader “Endorsements”
The Facebook “Like” button creates reader endorsements that can increase interest in your page and/or your ad. When users see that their Facebook friends have “Liked” an ad or a company page, it piques their curiosity, making them more likely to click the ad or visit the page. This factor can significantly increase your return on your advertising investment.
And That’s Only Half the Facebook Advertising Story
If you’ve found the above five factors compelling and believe that Facebook advertising might prove profitable for your business, you’ll definitely want to tune in for Part 2 of this two-part series, in which I’ll cover the five factors that make Facebook advertising so simple. You definitely owe it to yourself and your company to seriously consider an advertising venue that offers such incredible potential for success.
Over to You
How important are the above factors to you in selecting an advertising venue? Can you think of any other profitability factors Facebook offers that I may have left out? Are there any disadvantages you can think of to advertising there?
Straight North Can Help You Advertise on Facebook
Image Source: Facebook Advertising Web page (screenshot)
6 Responses to 10 Reasons Why Advertising on Facebook Is Simple and Profitable – Part 1
Jeanne, this is a timely post. Facebook advertising is not yet saturated and offers a unique opportunity to reach main street markets with highly targeted tactics. I have used FB ads and found them extremely easy to create and love the control you have over every aspect of your campaign. I look forward to your Part II.
Hi, Karen! By making its ads so easy to create and its ad campaigns so easy to control, Facebook has demonstrated real business savvy. Just think how many businesses and entrepreneurs might have given up before ever completing their ad setup or fully devising their ad campaign had that not been the case. The time and energy Facebook has obviously put into devising its own promotional model, as well as the comprehensive support pages it offers its advertisers to help them do the same, are paying huge dividends. Thanks so much for sharing your insight and experience with Facebook advertising!
Hi Brad – I haven’t looked into Facebook advertising before so I have no idea how the costs compare to the likes of Google Adwords.
The only problem could see would be if you’re advertising to folk in a specific location. When I joined FB – it allocated my closes major city as the place I’m from – Newcastle. Trouble is it is over fifty miles away.
Eventually I realised I could change it but a lot of folk didn’t. And I think that would be a problem for people who wanted to advertise in their local area. Ads could be shown to those who weren’t that local at all.
Hi Cath, Nowadays it’s super easy to target specific geographies with FB ads. In general, the targeting features of FB are as precise as anything I’ve seen.
I guess it may have changed if I was joining FB now then. Our closest city, Carlisle, is so small, it never seems to get listed anywhere though. It is only a city because it has a cathedral.
And I’ve always found marketing difficult in this area because there are few people and it’s so spread out – there are more sheep than people. You can advertise in a local paper and wind up having to do a 100 mile plus round trip just to go out and see a prospective client.
BTW, I’m sorry – I didn’t realise Jeanne had written this post.
No problem at all, Cath. Brad’s the real expert in these matters and really the right person to have addressed your question to. I’m more than happy to defer to his expertise. So, everything worked out fine. No apology needed.