10 Things You Should Know About Facebook Ads

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If you want to break through all the noise on social media, it sometimes pays to advertise. And when it comes to social media advertising, Facebook is still the king.

But while the social media giant has made strides in simplifying its advertising platform, it’s still robust enough for certain features to slip through the cracks.

If you want to make the most of your Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) advertising efforts, then check out the 10 things you might not know about Facebook ads below.

Facebook Advertising Tips

1. You Can Use Facebook Ads for Different Purposes

Whether you want to get more likes for your page, add people to your email list or promote your content, Facebook ad targeting and design can accommodate your objectives at every stage of your marketing cycle.

This one-size-doesn’t-fit-all approach makes the Facebook ads platform powerful. Unfortunately, it also adds complexity, a delicate balance that the company has maintained thus far.

2. You Can Dynamically Modify Calls to Action in Your Ads Based on Location

Facebook’s “local awareness ads” are clever little beasties that allow businesses to automatically target the customers closest to them. Have more than one location? No problem. The ad will make sure that a customer is driven to the location closest to them at the time.

Handy, eh? Well what makes these local awareness ads so great is the fact that bits and pieces of them, the parts that call for action, can be switched out dynamically based on a customer’s location. This includes things like address, phone numbers and even ad copy.

In addition, along with these ads, Facebook upgraded its Page Insights so a company can find out the cumulative demographic and trends that are specific to the people in a specific location including:

The neighborhood’s busiest days of the week and times of day,
Aggregated demographics of the people nearby, including age, gender, tourist or local resident, and
The percentage of people nearby who have seen their ad.

3. You Can Automatically Target Ads Based on Store Visits and Purchases

In June of 2016, the local awareness ads offering got a serious upgrade. Now advertisers can track store visits and purchases that resulted from one of these ads, thus providing the most important aspect of any marketing campaign: results reporting.

4. You Can Create Slideshow Ad Videos Using Images, Clips and Sound

Facebook’s Slideshow ads are particularly popular right now, since they provide businesses with the opportunity to create really visual video ads without the need to produce a full video.

Even better, in August of 2016, Facebook upgraded the slideshow ad so you can start with one of their templates and include text and audio. That makes the process of creating a great video ad much easier.

5. You Can Target Your Ads Based on Your Customer’s Social Signals

In June of 2014, Facebook began to allow advertisers to target users based on the pages and posts that they’ve liked. For privacy reasons, users can opt out of this tracking system, however the ability to target customers based on actual stated preferences (via a like) remains a powerful tool in a Facebook advertiser’s arsenal.

6. You Can Sell Your App by Deep Linking From Your Facebook Ad

If you’re promoting a free, or selling a for-pay, mobile app, you can use Facebook’s App Ads. These ads use the “Install now” call to action and use deep links that allow a customer to install the app right there and then:

7. You Can Use Shutterstock Stock Photos to Make Your Ads Look Great

Facebook advertising is a visual medium and as such, you want to use images that grab and hold your target customers’ attention. Facebook made it easier for you to do so when it teamed up with Shutterstock back in 2013.

Now, as you create an ad, you can select an image from this huge library:

8. You Can Create a Facebook Ad Outside of Facebook

If you don’t like the Facebook ads interface, a growing number of external vendors have begun offering ways to create your ads outside of Facebook including:

Two of the benefits to taking this approach are centralization (as with Hootsuite) and offline/online marketing integration (as with Vistaprint).

9. You Can Get Started with Facebook Ads for Only $50

It doesn’t take a lot of investment to get started with Facebook ads. In fact, you can make a decent showing with only $50. The key lies in understanding your objectives and strategy going in.

10. You May Soon Be Able to Advertise on Facebook Messenger

That’s right, rumor has it that the popular Facebook Messenger app may soon be displaying ads. This would benefit you by:

Exposing your ads to new audiences; and
Expanding the number of potential customers who see your ads.

Wrapping It Up

Yep, Facebook’s the king and the Facebook advertising platform, with its robust features and flexibility, is its crown.

While its ad platform may seem like an almost impossibly deep frontier to explore, the best thing to do is give the Facebook advertising tips above a shot to see how they work for your business.

Whispers Photo via Shutterstock