Your products and services won’t sell, no matter how exceptional they are, if no one knows they exist. That’s where advertising comes into play. Yet for a small business with a limited budget, an ad placement in traditional media is costly. But thanks to Facebook's online platform, advertising is now more affordable.

Why advertise on Facebook?

Above all else, the cost-effectiveness of Facebook advertising sets it apart from other marketing channels. The starting cost is as low as $1 per day, which is ideal for SMBs that want to test small campaigns before investing more.

Beyond its affordability, Facebook advertising is also extremely effective. With 6 billion monthly active advertisers and the ability to nail down your audience to the most specific details — including their interests and online behavior — it’s no surprise that Facebook advertising has the best return on investment (ROI) compared with other social media platforms.

Before you get started

As with other traditional marketing campaigns, you need to determine your marketing objectives, audience, budget, and how you want your ads to look like. Once you have the answers to all those questions, you’re ready to create your first ad. Follow this step-by-step guide:

1. Choose your marketing objective
From your business profile page, click Ad Center from the top menu. Then, click Create Ad on the page that appears.

Choose your “marketing objective.” This is what you want people to do when they see your ads. You can pick only one from three options: brand awareness, lead generation, or store visits. Then, set up your advert account by selecting your account country, currency, and time zone.

2. Nail down your audience
You can tailor your audience based on location, age, gender, language, interest and behavior, and the kind of relationship they already have with your page, app, or website. It’s best to be as specific as possible when selecting your audience.

3. Set up your budget and posting schedule
Facebook allows you to set up a daily or lifetime budget. The latter is the maximum amount you plan to spend for an entire ad campaign. Then choose the frequency or the start and end dates in which your ads will appear.

4. Design how your ads will look
Choose how your ad posts will look like to your audience, such as whether they will appear as an image carousel, a single image, a video, a slideshow, or a “canvas” (a new format for mobile users that combines video, carousels, images, and text into one interactive ad). Note that your ad will consist of five parts: an image, a headline, a block of text, a link description, and a call to action button such as “Buy now,” “Sign up today,” and the like.

Tips on designing Facebook ads that grab people’s attention

Your ads will appear in people’s newsfeeds, so make sure your content is interesting and succinct enough to grab their attention as they scroll past it. Each component of your ad — the image, headline, link description, and call to action — must stand out when surrounded by vacation photos that rarely receive more than a few seconds of attention.

Creating a Facebook ad is simple, yet the beauty of it is that Facebook also allows for more advanced targeted advertising if you know how to take advantage of what the platform has to offer. Talk to our specialists today; they’ll be happy to share a few pointers on how to achieve the best results from your campaigns.

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Many business owners believe they should be promoting their organization in as many places as possible. Realistically, however, updating social media statuses without proper planning and strategy could do more harm than good. Read on to understand how timing is everything in social media marketing.

Social media has helped businesses not only to cut down on customer service costs, but also to cut corners in their marketing efforts. For you to get the most out of social media, you need to evaluate which tools work best in our industry, how much of your time a social media project is worth, and how to apply common best practices.

1. Choose the right platform

Since the internet offers a buffet of free, easy-to-use platforms, it’s tempting to sign up for all of them. Without due prudence, however, you might find yourself managing more accounts than you have time for.

Ask yourself these questions before choosing which platform to use:

• Who is my target customer and what channels do they use?
• What do I hope to gain by opening a social media account?
• What kind of content do I want to share and create?
• How much time can I devote to social media management?

Investing more time in fewer platforms helps you monitor the more important areas of your business.

2. Know when to update

Are most of your customers online at 8:00 am or 8:00 pm? With a better understanding of your target users’ habits, you can schedule your posts so they create more traffic, increase brand engagement and, eventually, generate new leads and customers.

Although the best time to post content changes based on your industry, location, and other factors, these are the most successful times on average:

• Facebook: 1:00 pm-3:00 pm on Thursday and Friday
• Twitter: 3:00 pm-8:00 pm, Monday to Friday for B2B and Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday for B2C organizations
• YouTube: 12:00 pm-3:00 pm, Thursday to Sunday
• LinkedIn: 8:00 am-5:00 pm, Monday to Friday

3. Use attractive, professional-looking visuals

One of the simplest ways to get followers to share your posts is by uploading high-quality photos, videos, and infographics along with your messages. Studies have shown that Facebook posts with images result in 39% more engagement, while tweets with images or videos create 200% more engagement.

4. Engage with your followers

It’s important for businesses to maintain a healthy back-and-forth on social media. This means beyond sharing useful content, you should also respond to their comments and private messages as quickly as possible. You can build stronger relationships with customers by writing thank you comments to anyone who shared positive experiences with your business and by addressing negative comments with personalized and helpful responses.

5. Pump the brakes on promotional materials

Although social media is a valuable tool, it’s important not to muddy the water with too many promotional posts. A rule of thumb for social media promotions is that 80% of your posts should be shareable and interactive content, while the remaining 20% should be about your business. This will result in more engagement, a more consistent brand image, and a healthier bottom line.

Social media can help your business succeed, but only if it’s used correctly and effectively. If you’re interested in adopting the right social media platform to increase engagement and create a stronger brand reputation, contact us today and we’ll help you get started.

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There are no one-size-fits-all options when it comes to the right social media platform for your small- or medium-sized business. Facebook might be the biggest name in social media networks, but there are trendier platforms like Instagram and Twitter that millennial customers usually prefer. Different platforms attract and cater to different people, and it’s essential for business owners to understand the pros and cons of each platform before settling on one.

Facebook

Research shows that 77% of consumers in the US have social media profiles and that Facebook is the most utilized social media platform by users younger than 50 years old. With over two billion users, Facebook offers the biggest audience and is the perfect place for companies that are looking to increase their brand awareness.

Apart from the huge user base, Facebook also increases customers’ trust by lending otherwise stiff businesses a human touch. Although you don't have to invest heavily in this platform, you should at least create a basic page. Setting up your company’s page takes only a few minutes and not having one could affect your reputation.

YouTube

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world with over 1.9 billion registered users. When properly utilized, it can bring in new customers and help you retain old ones. To increase your brand visibility and help viewers to get to know your company better, create a channel with videos about the products or services that you’re offering.

You can also encourage viewers to subscribe to your channel so they’ll be in the loop every time you upload a new video. Another huge advantage of using YouTube is that Google owns it, and videos from the site are more likely to appear on the first page of search results than other organic content.

Instagram

Launched in 2010, Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media platforms today. It boasts one billion registered users, mostly on the younger end of the scale (18-24 years old). Instagram is primarily for sharing photos and short videos, but it recently launched IGTV, an in-app tool for users and businesses to upload long-form videos.

Keep in mind that most users prefer to use Instagram for fun and creative content. The platform is known for beautiful photos, so choose aesthetic content over standoffish or corporate content.

To hit two birds with one stone, integrate your Instagram account with your Facebook page so every new picture or video on your profile will automatically post to your Facebook page.

Snapchat

Another trendy social media platform is Snapchat, which allows its 300+ million monthly users to share photos and videos that disappear within 24 hours. Businesses can use this platform to reach younger audiences through Snap ads, sponsored geofilters, and sponsored lenses.

Snap ads are 10-second full-screen videos with embedded links and calls to action that will appear on the timelines of targeted viewers. Sponsored geofilters and sponsored lenses, meanwhile, are custom filters that may contain elements relating to one’s brand. All these marketing options are available through AdManager, the app’s advertising platform.

Twitter

Twitter has 328 million active daily users. This number may be small compared to the other social media platforms on this list, but that’s precisely its charm: it gives users the feeling of security and coziness that comes from chatting with businesses directly and publicly. In fact, a whopping 85% of SMBs have Twitter accounts that they use to engage with current and potential customers. And because Twitter only allows up to 280 characters per tweet (excluding links), conversations between parties are straight to the point and results-oriented.

If you have more questions about social media platforms and how to use them strategically, contact us today.

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Facebook’s most recent monthly active users numbered over 2.3 billion. That’s almost one account for every three people on the planet! Many of your ideal customers use this platform to interact with businesses and creating a page for them to engage with yours costs almost nothing. Here are six free ways to get more eyes on your business’s Facebook page.

Focus on getting comments

In the beginning of 2018, Facebook announced broad changes to what it shows to users. Notably, the social platform now prioritizes posts from friends and family over those from businesses. Zuckerberg says the aim is for users to engage with their connections more often, and going forward, the number of comments a post has will be the biggest factor in how many newsfeeds it shows up in. Posts from businesses lost a lot of visibility, but the ones that generated the most conversation weren’t hit as hard.

Facebook-only promos

Another great strategy for boosting user engagement is to offer product or service discounts that are only available through Facebook. You want users to see value in your page, so avoid copying and pasting a special, such as a discount code, from another marketing channel. One popular option is to promise the release of a new promotion in your next live video broadcast. Announce the details during the broadcast and tell viewers to leave a comment if they want to be included. Then, you can send them a direct message with a confirmation and a thank you.

Facebook CTAs: Update them often

Businesses have several text options for the ‘call to action’ button on their Facebook page. Would ‘Contact Us’ get more clicks than ‘Learn More’ for your page? Experiment with the different options and where they link to until you find the most successful combination. You probably spent more than a few minutes working on the CTAs for your website — why wouldn’t you do the same on Facebook?

Don’t just post about yourself

If a user has already liked your page, they know you exist and they have a decent idea of what you sell. Occasionally take a break from posting links to your site and include news and information that relates to your products or services. Remember, Facebook places the most value on social posts, and limiting yourself to company updates and promotions will bore your followers.

Pin posts to the top of your page

When a post generates lots of engagement and holds users’ attentions for a long time, don’t let it get buried underneath less popular posts. Click the arrow in the upper-right corner of the post and select Pin to Top to make it one of the first things people see when they visit your page.

Be personal
Most importantly, always look for ways to make your company’s Facebook page more personal. Stiff and formal posts are a dime a dozen and rarely catch anyone’s attention. If you share fun, behind-the-scenes photos of your business, respond to comments in a conversational tone, and make jokes, your page will stand out from the rest.

A Facebook business profile may be free, but generating engagement will take some effort. We can help by installing and supporting communication and customer relationship management solutions that simplify the engagement process. Contact us today to find out more.

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