2.9 billion. That’s how many monthly active users were on Facebook in 20221. No other platform on the planet comes close to achieving the popularity and reach of Mark Zuckerberg’s social network.
It’s also the social network that is the most prized by advertisers: 160 million businesses around the world use Facebook. Furthermore, 91% of B2B marketers and 96% of B2C marketers use the platform1.
This data proves that businesses should be investing in digital advertising on Facebook. In other words, you should be going where your prospects are – which is on Facebook!
Read on to learn more about Facebook Ads, an advertising management tool, and its many benefits for your business.
What are Facebook Ads?
Facebook Ads is an advertising tool that allows businesses to display ads on Facebook as well as Meta’s other services (Instagram, Messenger…). In addition to creating the ad itself, the advertiser must establish a goal, format, target, budget, and other parameters in order to deliver the right ad to the right person in the right location and at the right time.
5 good reasons to advertise on Facebook
1. Increase brand awareness, pique the interest of users, and convert them into prospects
Facebook Ads is an invaluable tool to increase the visibility of your posts. Organic posts have a very limited scope because they only appear in the newsfeeds of your subscribers. If users interact with your post (share, comment, like…), your content could potentially appear in their friends’ newsfeeds.
40% of Facebook users do not follow any businesses2. But with Facebook Ads, you’ll be able to show your content to an audience who hasn’t followed your company yet.
No matter what your marketing goals are, the ads manager will help you reach various objectives throughout your conversion funnel. For instance, it can:
- Increase your brand awareness: the ads will reach targeted and non-targeted audiences so they can learn more about your business, activities, and values.
- Generate interactions: these ads foster user engagement. They’ll drive them to take actions such as visit your Facebook page or website, interact with a post, watch a video, send a message, etc.
- Convert users into prospects or clients: the ads push users to take action outside of Facebook. This could mean they buy a product from your site, download an app or document, reach out to your company, etc.
2. Benefit from immersive ads
There is a significant advantage to investing in ads on social media: they are much less intrusive than traditional ads on TV or the radio. That’s because the ads are native, meaning they blend in naturally with the other content on Facebook.
Moreover, Facebook’s algorithm is designed to ensure a balance between organic content and sponsored content. That means a person’s feed won’t be overwhelmed by ads, ensuring a much more pleasant user experience.
Depending on your objectives, Facebook Ads might recommend you display ads in the following locations:
- In the user’s news and video feeds
- In the column on the right
- On Facebook Stories
- On Facebook Messenger, the platform’s instant messaging system
- On Facebook Instant Articles, where users can view articles without exiting the platform
- On Facebook Audience Network, a network of partner mobile apps
Thanks to Meta’s interconnected social media platforms, some ad formats can also be displayed on Instagram and Messenger.
3. Target highly specific audiences
Facebook Ads and other online ad platforms collect a lot of data on users, which makes them more effective than traditional ads because they can target a very specific audience.
In fact, Facebook Ads collects the data users post on Facebook and Instagram as well as information about their actions and the topics and content they are interested in.
Targeting should be kept top of mind when configuring your ad.
You can define myriad factors, such as:
- Geographic area, gender, age, language
- Employment, education, birth date, family situation, relationship status, financial status
- Interests: food, fashion, sports, music, technology, business, industry
- Behaviour: digital activities, buyer profile, traveller profile, mobile use, attendance to some events
The Lookalike option also allows you to automatically target audiences who are similar to your current clients and followers. Facebook will take into account the demography, interests, and behaviour of a specific segment to create a target audience.
Finally, with Facebook Ads you can create a remarketing campaign – meaning you can target people who have already visited your website, Facebook page, or Instagram account. This is a highly appealing option for your multiplatform campaigns!
4. Advertise online at a low cost
Advertising on Facebook is a low-cost way to increase the reach of your business and services.
Unsurprisingly, it remains much more cost-effective to advertise on Facebook than in traditional media (TV, magazine, outdoor signs). What may surprise you to learn is that Facebook is also less expensive than other digital platforms such as Google or LinkedIn.
Depending on your goals, you can bid on ad auctions. Here are the main indicators and their average cost on Facebook:
- Cost per click (CPC): $0.97. This is the amount you’ll pay when a user clicks on your ad.
- Cost per thousand (CPM): $7.19. This is the amount you’ll pay to display your ad 1,000 times.
- Cost per like (CPL): $1.07. This is the amount you pay when a user likes your page.
Read our article on the cost of advertising on social media.
These figures obviously depend on your goals, your message, where the ad is displayed, and your target. Your market and level of competition will also affect the price of your ads.
5. Easily determine your ROI to optimize your ads
With Facebook Ads, you’ll get access to a powerful advertising platform to analyze data about your ads so you can easily determine your return on investment (ROI). You can rely on dashboards and performance indicators to monitor your campaigns and make informed decisions about them.
Learn more about the best KPIs to monitor on Facebook Ads.
If you’re not satisfied with the results, this tool will provide you with the opportunity to optimize your ads: change your message, alter your visuals, refine your target, and adjust your budget.
Still not sure whether to launch your campaign? Use the A/B testing option to compare different versions of your ad. Depending on the results, you’ll be able to choose the most effective one.
Solocom: specialists in digital advertising
As you are now aware, advertising on Facebook is essential to help your company grow, reach new users, and stand out from competitors. Before you take the plunge, you may have to take on a few challenges. If you don’t have the skills or time to do so, working with a marketing agency can streamline the process for you.
Our team is available to help you integrate advertising on Facebook into your digital strategy in addition to other kinds of digital advertising. We’ll help you:
- Build a strategy and campaigns in line with your objectives and budget: formats, messages, visuals, target…
- Plan and align your ads with all your marketing actions.
- Analyze and interpret the results.
- Optimize the campaigns for better results.
