When it comes to advertising and building brand awareness on social media, companies have a wide range of options. There’s Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Snapchat, just to name a few. Each one of these comes with its own unique advantages and challenges. Even in the face of all these new social media platforms, Facebook dominates the social media realm. With over 2 billion active users a month, there’s no better place to build social media presence and brand awareness. Facebook makes this incredibly easy with Facebook Advertising.
If social media presence and brand awareness sound just like what you need, then read on. We’ve compiled a few tips and tricks to help you get started and become a pro with Facebook Advertising.
The first step to Facebook Advertising is to create a Facebook Business Page. Facebook requires companies to have a business page to use Facebook Advertising, but they’re free and easy to use. They serve as a sort of digital storefront. You can customize the page to make it appealing to your audience and also fit the needs of your business with different tabs, templates and buttons. Just having a page alone is a great first step toward building brand awareness. After you have built your Facebook page, you can then begin to build your social media presence.
Pro Tip: Google can also index Facebook Business Pages, giving you the opportunity for double the exposure and awareness.
Think about who makes up your target audience and what they are like. Are they male or female? What ages are they? Think about their activities and lifestyles and begin to create content that will resonate with them. If you’re just posting content for the sake of posting, you won’t gain any traction on social media. The great thing about advertising with Facebook is they make it so simple to ensure you’re reaching exactly who you want to reach. They do this by providing a combination of tools and filters to help you target and connect with whoever you want to reach. Once you’ve decided who you want to reach, think about how you want to connect with them. Facebook offers two different ways to help you connect with your target audience.
Pro Tip: Create a marketing persona to help you better consider your audience’s wants and needs as real people, instead of just as a segment.
1.) Boost Posts
This is the easiest way to get into advertising on Facebook. A boosted post is exactly what it sounds like. It’s almost like paying Facebook to put your post through a megaphone. The post is sent to many more people than would normally see it. This is typically done on existing content, but you can also choose to boost a post immediately as you’re posting it. Boosted posts are a type of advertisement, but they differ from Facebook Ads. They aren’t created in Facebook’s Ad management tool, and they don’t have all the same customization features that a Facebook Ad has. Facebook optimizes boosted posts for generating engagement and awareness.
Pro Tip: The best posts to boost are posts that have already proven to be successful on their own.
2.) Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads are advertisements that have been created through Facebook’s Ad Manager tool. They offer much more customization than a boosted post and are more optimized for a call to action. You can customize them to allow users to click through to an app install, an email-capture form, an order form and more. Another useful feature of Facebook Ads is placement control. With placement control, you can specify exactly where you want people to see your ad. You can choose to place your ad in Facebook News Feed ads, Messenger ads, Instagram stories and more. You can also customize the format your ad appears in, and you get the option to use stock photos and content from Facebook for your ad.
Pro Tip: Boosted posts and Facebook Ads both give you the option to display the ad on Instagram. Take advantage of this to substantially increase your reach and brand awareness.
To sum up, advertising on Facebook is a must for any company. It can really help you build your social media presence and brand awareness. Boosted ads are the easiest way to start building a social media presence. Facebook Ads can help you reach even more people. Every business should have a strong social media presence and Facebook advertising is the best way to start.
