Professional Documents
Culture Documents
lue Paper
Where advertising meets social media
Let’s face it: Not all organizations have the budget to hire help from big ad
agencies or the marketing free-reign to dominate airwaves and billboards.
Thankfully, these tactics aren’t always necessary to make an impression; effective
advertising and deep pockets aren’t mutually exclusive.
In fact, a recent survey by Myers Publishing, LLC, named Facebook the top website
in providing “valuable targeted audiences” to advertisers, and marketers are
expected to spend upward of $1 billion on advertising through the site this year.1
The reason for this growth likely lies in the many benefits that Facebook
advertising offers:
• Facebook has a massive user base of more than 300 million people
worldwide. While originally heavy on the student population of
18- to 25-year-olds, the fastest growing demographic is now among
those 35 years and older.2 Chances are, members of your target
audience are logging in each day.
• Facebook has an uncluttered user interface. A white background,
consistent font and navigation, along with clearly designated ad
space throughout the site, allow ads to be noticed but tolerated by
1 Lawson, Matt. “Winning Facebook Tactics for Today’s Search Marketer.” MarketingProfs. 08 June 2010. Web.
01 July 2010. <http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2010/3680/winning-facebook-tactics-for-todays-search-
marketer>.
2 Handley, Ann, and Allen Weiss. “Facebook Success Stories.” MarketingProfs. Web. 01 June 2010. <http://www.
marketingprofs.com>.
3 Handley, Ann, and Allen Weiss. “Facebook Success Stories.” MarketingProfs. Web. 01 June 2010. <http://www.
marketingprofs.com>.
lue Paper
space for visual competition.
• Facebook ads are easy to create and implement. The site walks
through a step-by-step process to create the ad, while providing
access to tips and explanations along the way. Mistakes are easily
deleted, and campaigns can be paused or removed with the click
of a mouse.
In the realm of Facebook ads, there are two main goals businesses and
organizations can achieve in order to support a broader strategy: increased traffic
lue Paper
offers for ad payment:
Research has shown that the most effective Facebook ad campaigns are those
that either target existing Facebook users that have ‘liked’ a page or include a call
to action that revolves around a business’s presence on Facebook. For example,
urging users to ‘like a page’ or enter a contest through a Fan Page.4
“Facebook is about relationship marketing, not direct sales,” said Nick O’Neill,
editor of the All Facebook Blog. “That means it’s more important to build a
relationship with a potential client or an existing customer rather than closing a
sale right away.”5
4 K
eane, Meghan. “Nielsen: Facebook Ads Work Great — If You’ve Already Got Fans on the Network |
Econsultancy.” Econsultancy | Community of Digital Marketing and Ecommerce Professionals. 20 Apr. 2010.
Web. 01 July 2010.
<http://econsultancy.com/blog/5778-nielsen-facebook-ads-work-great-if-you-ve-already-got-tons-of-fans>.
5 O
’Neill, Nick. “10 Rules For Advertising On Facebook.” Business Insider. 16 July 2009. Web. 01 July 2010.
<http://www.businessinsider.com/10-rules-for-advertising-on-facebook-2009-7>.
6 “
Average Value of a Facebook Fan: $136.38.” MarketingProfs: Marketing Resources for Marketing
Professionals. 15 June 2010. Web. 01 July 2010.
<http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2010/3713/average-value-of-facebook-fan-13638>.
© 2010 4imprint, Inc. All rights reserved
The user’s manual
lue Paper
Once a business or organization decides on the purpose of its Facebook
advertising (and, this purpose complements the “bigger picture” business
strategy), it can move forward with ad creation, targeting and budgeting.
Designing the ad
Once navigated to Facebook ad creator, the first step is designing the ad. Follow
along with Figure 1 to begin this step.
Figure 17
The Destination URL is the web address for the website a business wishes to
advertise. By clicking the blue link below the Destination URL, the option to
advertise a Fan Page or group will also appear. Whatever is linked, make sure it
is the most relevant page to the content of the ad so users who click on the ad
don’t get lost or frustrated by a link they were not expecting. Following this link
is the ad content.
7 “
What Do You Want to Advertise? | Facebook.” Welcome to Facebook. Web. 01 July 2010.
<http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/?act=29614022>.
lue Paper
important to put a lot of thought into the message of the ad—conversion
depends on it. Be clear, concise and include a call to action. Explain the benefit of
click-through and grab the attention of Facebook users with simple wit. This can
be a challenge, but it can be done. Here are a few tips:
• Research other ads to get a feel for what businesses are offering
and where they are linking. Pay attention to other Facebook ads,
as well as search marketing ads’ titles and calls to action. This
preliminary research will provide both insight and inspiration.
• Make the title the call to action (“Like us”), the benefit (“Win a
laptop”) or the name of the page or business (“Smith Widgets”).
• Use the body text to go into further detail regarding what a brand,
product or service is, or what a website is all about. Save phone
numbers, contest details, etc. for the page or the website itself and
use the 135 character limit for only the important stuff.
Businesses that are unsure of what to make the call to action and how to
best combine text with a links that make the most sense, should take note
from 3M™ Canada.
3M™ Canada sought to increase brand champions online and encourage Facebook
users to drive friends to the site’s Facebook page on the brand’s behalf. It
launched a series of three ads: one that introduced a new shoe-shaped tape
dispenser, one that offered the chance to win a gift certificate to a shoe store and
one that promoted the shoe-shaped dispenser as a stocking stuffer. The brand
targeted the first two to women and the last to both women and men. In order
to win a free dispenser, users had to ‘like’ a page on post a comment on the wall,
while in order to win the gift certificate, users had to fill out a brief customer
survey. All in all, 3M Canada’s Facebook ads resulted in more than 1.5 million
impressions, 300,000 clicks, 250,000 new ‘likes’ and close to 200 comments on
the wall.8
8 H
andley, Ann, and Allen Weiss. “Facebook Success Stories.” MarketingProfs. Web. 01 June 2010.
<http://www.marketingprofs.com>.
lue Paper
attention to an ad9:
• Choose colorful and engaging images that are relevant to the text
of the ad.
Figure 210
9 L awson, Matt. “Winning Facebook Tactics for Today’s Search Marketer.” MarketingProfs: Marketing Resources
for Marketing Professionals. 08 June 2010. Web. 02 July 2010.
<http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2010/3680/winning-facebook-tactics-for-todays-search-marketer>.
10 “What Do You Want to Advertise? | Facebook.” Welcome to Facebook. Web. 01 July 2010.
<http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/?act=29614022>.
lue Paper
ad targeting with expanded reach. Really, though, the broader an ad is, the less
effective and more expensive it becomes because more people will be exposed to
the ad, which may drive up costs, but the fewer the ad will likely apply or appeal
to. Instead, consider creating a greater volume of ads that target fewer people11.
Facebook is known for its powerful and specific targeting power—use it.
11 O ’Neill, Nick. “10 Rules For Advertising On Facebook.” Business Insider. 16 July 2009. Web. 01 July 2010.
<http://www.businessinsider.com/10-rules-for-advertising-on-facebook-2009-7>.
12 O’Neill, Nick. “10 Rules For Advertising On Facebook.” Business Insider. 16 July 2009. Web. 01 July 2010.
<http://www.businessinsider.com/10-rules-for-advertising-on-facebook-2009-7>.
lue Paper
English. As a rule of thumb, the language filter should match the
language of the ad text.
13 L awson, Matt. “Winning Facebook Tactics for Today’s Search Marketer.” MarketingProfs: Marketing
Resources for Marketing Professionals. 08 June 2010. Web. 02 July 2010.
<http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2010/3680/winning-facebook-tactics-for-todays-search-marketer>.
lue Paper
the average user.14
Figure 315
Selecting the “Create a new campaign” option will require that a name is given
to an ad campaign. While the same ad can be used in multiple campaigns, each
campaign can have unique settings such as the targeting, pricing and scheduling.
Therefore, be as specific as possible in the name to help differentiate between
campaigns when the time comes for measurement.
Selecting a new campaign will also require setting some spending limits through
the Daily Budget and the Max Bid. Once the Daily Budget is reached, the ad will
no longer be shown that day and, therefore, advertisers will not be charged
beyond what they are willing to spend. The Max Bid is a way to increase the
effectiveness of an ad—the higher the bid, the more likely it is to appear to users.
14 “ Case Study: A Facebook Experiment in Ad Targeting.” MarketingProfs: Marketing Resources for Marketing
Professionals. Web. 05 July 2010. <http://www.marketingprofs.com/casestudy/152>.
15 “What Do You Want to Advertise? | Facebook.” Welcome to Facebook. Web. 01 July 2010.
<http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/?act=29614022>.
lue Paper
default cost per click is 30 cents and the default cost per impression is 70 cents.
These numbers have to jive with one another and ultimately depend upon a
business’s overall advertising, marketing or public relations budget. Budgets and
bids should be set with a goal in mind. Specifically, the goal established prior to
developing the Facebook ad. If the goal was to drive traffic, think about click
through and conversion rates. How many per day would constitute success or
return on investment for the campaign? If the goal was to increase impressions,
how many impressions per day would constitute success or return on investment?
When in doubt, CPC is almost always appropriate—in most cases it offers the
biggest bang for the buck.
After the cost piece has been taken care of, review the ad and launch it!
Facebook ads and pages have a built-in measurement dashboard with a myriad
tools for reporting to determine the value and effectiveness of campaigns. This
dashboard, also known as the Ads Manager, shows an overview of stats for all
ads can be seen through the “Campaigns” tab of the “Ads and Pages” link of the
page administrator. Statistics relating to individual ads can be seen through the
“My Ads” link.
The basic information provided in both covers the name of the ad, the status of
the ad, budget, clicks, impressions, click-through-rate (CTR), average cost-per-click
(CPC) and the dollars spent to date on the ad(s). There is also a graph visual that
illustrates the response of ads in comparison to the activity of the Fan Page.
lue Paper
changes based on the type of campaign that is being run (by impression versus
click-through) and targeting. In theory, the most successful ads have the highest
CTR—users see the ad and are clicking through to find more information or
engage in the call to action put forward by the ad. In smaller runs especially, this
number is likely to go down over time as a targeted population is exposed to an
ad—another reason to watch and tweak ads and content regularly.
Sometimes, people want more data and for this, Facebook offers Detailed
Reports. These reports can be generated for download or exported for
integration with measurement of comprehensive tactics of an overall advertising,
marketing or public relations campaign.
16 H andley, Ann, and Allen Weiss. “Facebook Success Stories.” MarketingProfs. Web. 01 June 2010.
<http://www.marketingprofs.com>.
17 “Help Center | Facebook.” Welcome to Facebook. Web. 05 July 2010.
<http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=866>.
lue Paper
the number of clickers who clicked on an ad that have a specific
interest, and rank against interests across all of Facebook
If measurements are in-line with goals and budget, businesses are well on their
way to becoming Facebook ad campaign success stories.
4imprint serves more than 100,000 businesses with innovative promotional items throughout the United States,
Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland. Its product offerings include giveaways, business gifts, personalized gifts,
embroidered apparel, promotional pens, travel mugs, tote bags, water bottles, Post-it Notes, custom calendars,
and many other promotional items. For additional information, log on to www.4imprint.com.