Facebook Advertising - Part 1


Posted By: Thomas Shaw, 1:32pm Saturday 03 January 2009

If you are like most online recruiters, then more than likely, you are concerned about how to grow traffic to your site and increase sales or placements. There are actually ways to do this that are easy and affordable. By simply taking advantage of the social networking site craze, you just might catapult your business to the next level.

How many times do you think I ask people - Are you on Facebook? This question was asked to me when I was at a retail store purchasing a book over Christmas. Usually stores will ask for your postcode or email address, but now they are targeting the social networking sites.

Facebook Ads is becoming the hottest advertising platform because of its laser targeting ability. With new improvements in its ad platform, Facebook http://www.facebook.com is becoming a serious rival to other ad platforms like Google AdWords http://www.google.com.au/adwords and Yahoo! http://sem.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/searchenginemarketing/ . Facebook will allow an advertiser to determine exactly what type of person is responding to an ad in ways that AdWords cannot.

Some advertisers stay away from Facebook because the site has many subscribers in the 18-25 age group. But I say "So what?" There are still plenty of subscribers in ALL age groups to make advertising in Facebook more than worthwhile. Plus, the 18-25 year old subscribers are consumers, too.

You can choose the exact audience they are looking to target. The system will ask a series of questions about the characteristics of the persons they are looking to advertise to. They are asked about that group's age, sex and are prompted to type in specific keywords.

Facebook will then calculate how many people fit those criteria. Individuals can pay per click or per impression. They have a choice of paying per action or per impression and how much they want to pay. Marketers can decide whether to run ads continuously or only during a certain times.

Facebook can be extremely effective because the website allows advertisers to target their market based on age, sex and by keywords. Facebook does a good job of placing ads where they catch the attention of viewers. Advertisements are placed in prominent positions so individuals have a great chance of actually viewing your website. They are placed in strategic spots of each Facebook page and also on each individual's feed.