• 25 April 2022
• Tiffany Carey

Will Facebook Ads Work for Your Small Business?

If you’re looking to advertise your small business, you most likely have considered doing so on Facebook. It is the largest social media platform globally and has grown to 2.85 billion monthly active users. Over 92% of marketers say they use Facebook ads for advertising. But does that mean using Facebook for advertising will be effective for your small business too?

The short answer: Yes. The longer answer: With influence across an audience of that size, running ads on Facebook is a more involved process. For starters, it’s not like placing an advertisement in the newspaper and waiting for an inquiry. It takes defined targeting, setting clear goals, and engaging content. That can sound like a lot for a small business owner to take on, but Facebook advertising can work for you once you get into a routine. 

Know your target audience

Facebook allows small businesses to serve a specific target by creating a “buyer persona” or client avatar. When making your ad preferences on the platform, you can include characteristics such as age, gender, location, and language. It also allows you to add more details like relationship status, household income, education level, and much more.

Therein lies the rub. If you know too little about the person you’re trying to serve, your ads will be like needles in a haystack. If you pretend to know too much about them, you’ll serve a market too small to see a good ROI. Build your target audience by sticking with what you know is inevitable for your buyer persona. The more campaigns you run, the more detailed you can become.

PRO TIP: You’ll learn more about your buyer persona by A/B testing your campaigns. Test headlines, images/video, and copy. Run tests for at least 7-10 days. The analytics will help you better understand your target audience for your next campaign.

Set clear campaign goals

Not setting clear and measurable goals for your Facebook campaign will lead to poor results. A few examples of goals you might set are: creating general brand awareness, generating more traffic to your website, or receiving more booking requests. 

One way to measure ROI within Facebook is to use call-to-action (CTA) buttons customized to measure specific goals. Use buttons like “Learn More” and “Visit Website,” to help increase brand awareness and generate more online traffic to your site. Alternatively, the “Book Now” and “Buy Now” buttons should result in revenue growth. Setting benchmarks for click-throughs and conversions will help you create strategic and results-driven advertising.

PRO TIP: Avoid setting a goal to increase followers. Social media marketers consider your number of account followers a “vanity metric.” You could have hundreds of thousands of followers and produce very little revenue. The opposite is equally true. Fewer clients could also mean more financial growth. Instead, pay attention to your reach data. Reach gives you a measure of exactly how many people are exposed to your ad messaging and can be used to provide actionable next steps. 

Write click-worthy content

As we mentioned earlier, Facebook advertising isn’t like the “Mad Men” years. It goes beyond a punchy headline. Your headlines should be direct and compelling. Your audience should know instantly what it is you’re promoting. When advertising copy identifies a pain point and then offers a solution, it will resonate with potential buyers and entice them to want to take action.

Use keywords and phrases throughout your copy to make your ad “click-worthy.” Start by reading social posts and taking note of your customers' words and language. Observe how they describe their problems, needs, or desires, and use that same language in your ad copy.

PRO TIP: Align an ad campaign with organic posts on your company page. Create original content that educates, inspires, or entertains your audience. Post social proof, aka customer testimonials. By posting organically alongside an active ad campaign, you strengthen the know, like, and trust factors people use when deciding to buy.

Facebook remains a good source to consider for building brand awareness and generating revenue. Your Facebook campaign may show favorable results with a defined target audience, clear and measurable goals, and engaging content.