Facebook Advertising Tips for Your Small Business

Facebook is perhaps one of the best and most inexpensive marketing tools available to small businesses, especially businesses that exist solely or primarily online. I've advertised my Etsy store on Facebook several times now and have learned through trial and error what works and what doesn't. The first time I advertised on Facebook it was with much trepidation. After all, Facebook is huge. What if my ad looked ridiculous or I ended up spending thousands of dollars? The truth is that Facebook ads don't have to be intimidating or expensive, and I've had great success every time I've advertised on Facebook. Here's what you need to know to make Facebook work for you:

Pick a Striking Image
The best way to get someone to click on your ad is to pick an excellent image. If you're selling goods, this is simple. Find your most popular or most attractive item and get a truly spectacular photo of it. This is the time to pull out all the stops and get an amazing picture, so spend the time you need to in order to do it right. If you're selling services, choosing a photo can be a bit trickier. Choose something related to your product, and make it an image that is likely to pique someone's interest. Keep in mind that your image has to be interesting enough to pull someone away from their Facebook friends and updates for a few seconds, so think about what would get your attention.

Target Your Ad Appropriately
Facebook allows you to target your ad to certain demographics. While it may be tempting to target your ad to everyone, this is likely to turn your ad into an annoyance and maybe even get it marked as spam. You need to think carefully about who your target market is and think about the keywords they might have in their profile. Remember, people often don't have key words directly related to what they are interested in in their profile. For example, if you're targeting people who are about to get married, choosing "marriage" or "weddings" as keywords may not be your best bet. Words like, "love", "romance", etc. may work better and you may want to target people who are engaged or in a relationship. In my case, I sell handmade flower jewelry. I targeted people who were interested in "flowers", "handmade", "DIY", "crafts", "handmade jewelry", and "gardening". I also made sure to target only women, since my jewelry is not "fine jewelry", the kind that men typically buy for only the women in their lives.

Put a Link in the Text
Facebook will link to your online storefront when someone clicks on your ad, but if you want to get a few extra clicks, you should put your web address directly in the ad copy. People often have trouble remembering web addresses and are more likely to remember yours if they've seen it written out rather than just clicked on a link and been redirected to your site.

Advertise Your Site, Not Your Facebook
Many businesses have Facebook fan pages, and these can be great marketing tools. However, it's wasteful to use one marketing tool (advertising) to direct to another marketing tool (your fan page). Direct your advertisement directly to your online store, not your fan page, and you're more likely to get sales from your ad.

Pay For Clicks
Facebook offers two different payment options. You can pay for exposure, which means you pay a predetermined amount for every thousand people who view your ad, or you can pay for clicks. Paying for clicks is a much better option and ensures that the people who are seeing your ad actually like your stuff! There's no guarantee that any of the people who see your ad will ever visit your online shop, but paying for clicks ensures that you're actually paying for results. If you don't get any clicks, this is also a clue to you that you may need to change your ad content or re-target your ad to different Facebook users.

Tweak Your Ad
You should run your first Facebook ad with a low budget and use it as a learning experience. Facebook provides in-depth statistics on your ad's success and feedback, which means if you tweak your ad copy and image daily, you can get a good idea of what does well and what doesn't.

Set a Budget
Facebook allows you to set a daily budget. If you choose to pay for clicks, the actual cost of each click will vary, but will never exceed your maximum bid. You can then set a budget of the maximum you are willing to pay each day. As a general rule, it's better to run your ad for an extended period of time with a low daily budget as exposed to just one or two days with a high budget. This ensures that you are able to catch lots of different people with lots of different browsing habits and will also give you a good idea of times of the week, day, or year when your ads are most successful.

I've had great experiences with my Facebook ads and they always bring at least a few new buyers into my store. If you approach Facebook with an open mind and a willingness to learn, Facebook can be your best advertising friend and a substantially cheaper alternative to more costly advertising.