by Stacy Zemon
These days, it seems that everyone and their mother (including mine) has a Facebook page.
In the U.S. alone, about 100 million unique visitors flock to the social network every month.
Many DJ business owners are among them, using FB profiles to promote their companies and create client communities.
For some mobiles, ads on Facebook are an affordable alternative to the more costly Google AdWords.
While it’s not easy to make your ad stand out among the FB status updates, photos, videos, games and comments, here are four tips to help you get started.
1. Choose Your Target(s) Carefully
People who use social networks often divulge a plethora of personal information in their profiles, which can prove useful to advertisers.
Facebook lets you pick and choose which groups you would like your ads to reach. Companies can target ads based on a user’s profile information, such as age, gender, location, college, relationship status, and interests. You can choose to target people who are fans of your company’s FB page or friends of your fans.
You can also advertise only to Facebook users who mention certain words in their profiles or status messages (e.g., wedding, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Corporate Event Planning, engagement, etc.). Zeroing in on a specific audience lets you get the most “bang for your advertising buck.”
2. Test Which Kind of Advertising Works Best for You
Ad prices on Facebook are determined by auction, as they are on Google AdWords. You can pay based on either the number of times people see the ad or the number of times people actually click on it. The majority of FB advertisers choose the latter.
Still, it’s worth testing both payment types to see which is more cost effective. You may want to start out by spending about $20 or so for a small ad buy using both methods as it is very inexpensive to run tests.
3. Do Your Own Tracking
Facebook keeps tabs on how many times your ads are shown and the number of clicks they receive; however, it doesn’t track what users do after they click meaning – did they make a purchase or just browse and move on?
In my opinion, that’s the largest drawback of FB’s ad service because return on investment is not immediately trackable. Rumor has it though, that FB is working to include more information in its reporting tools. Until that happens, it’s critical to do your own tracking.
The beauty of microtargeting an ad buy based on location, age, and sex is the data you’re going to get out of that. I recommend that you check out two analytics programs: Google Analytics, which is free, and HitsLink, which starts at about $10 a month, to track which Facebook ads result in purchases. If you’re getting a return rate of 2 to 1, you’ve hit pay dirt!
4. Create Appealing Ads
Most DJ business owners design and write their own ads, which usually consists of a headline, copy and image. Then, if an ad doesn’t return the results they were expecting, the medium is blamed. Unless you are skilled in the advertising design and copywriting areas, don’t be “penny wise and pound foolish,” hire a professional. Ads must be crafted carefully, because it’s tough to get noticed.
On Facebook, typically three ads from different advertisers run next to one another. In addition, there is everything else on someone’s FB page competing for his/her attention.
Remember, FB is a social network, so if you put up a traditional ad, you’re going to be pushed to the side. So, you may want to create something irreverent or “outside the box” with your images and headlines to get noticed.
A List of Common Advertising Mistakes
If you’re even thinking about advertising on Facebook, you most absolutely read their list of common advertiser mistakes.
Have you run a successful FB ad campaign? If so, we’d love to hear how you did it!
Stacy Zemon, Publisher & Chief Scribe
From her efforts, Stacy Zemon has spawned more professional DJ business owners than any other person in the mobile entertainment industry! She is widely considered an authority on the disc jockey business, and has become a distinguished industry leader over the course of her illustrious 30+ year career as a DJ Entertainer. Stacy is author of the world’s best-selling DJ books: The Mobile DJ Handbook, The DJ Sales & Marketing Handbook and The Mobile DJ MBA, and is a longtime writer for DJ Times magazine. Stacy’s mission is to provide educational resources for DJs that support their professional growth and financial prosperity. Write to her c/o [email protected] or call 877-442-7170.
For the longer version of Stacy’s story, click here.
To learn about Stacy’s business consulting services, click here.
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