7 Reasons To Use Facebook Ads (And 3 Reasons Not To)

Facebook is all the rage right now. It seems like everyone on Earth is using Facebook, and spending all of their time there. If you own a business and use Facebook, you have probably considered using Facebook Ads.

“Should I use Facebook Ads?”

How do you know if using Facebook Ads is right for you? Facebook Ads is the new latest and greatest trend out there. Everyone is talking about it, and everything you hear is great. You will see a lot of articles promoting the platform and most of them will tell you that you have to be on Facebook or you will be left behind. You might feel pressured into running a Facebook ad campaign, but aren’t really sure how to start or whether it will actually work for you.

There are a lot of good reasons to use Facebook Ads, but there are some reasons you might not want to use it, especially if you aren’t aware of how it works and don’t have the time to spend figuring it out. You will need to understand how Facebook Ads works, and how you can use it’s strengths and weaknesses to succeed. This article will look at reasons why Facebook Ads is a great platform, and some reasons why you might want to consider a different marketing strategy instead.

7 Reasons to use FB Ads:

1) Lots of people use Facebook. Facebook is a huge platform with billions of users. Your target audience is most likely on Facebook.

2) People spend a lot of time on Facebook. As you probably know, it is very easy to go on Facebook looking for something specific, and then go down the rabbit hole and end up spending two hours looking at things you completely didn’t intend to do when you started. All of that time spent is an opportunity for you to get in front of your prospective customers.

3) It’s cheap. Facebook Ads can be much cheaper than other traditional or digital channels. You can pay only when someone clicks on your ad, and clicks can often cost 10 cents or less each.

4) Fantastic targeting options. You can target Facebook Ads to basically any information that people give to Facebook like demographics, relationship status, job title, interests, etc., or any action that they take, such as liking, commenting, or engaging with pages or people. You can tailor your ads very specifically to what each segment of your audience is looking for in order to be more persuasive to your prospective customers.

5) Remarketing is amazing. Remarketing refers to showing ads to people who have already interacted with your brand in some way. You can remarket to people who have interacted with your Company Page, or with your website. Same with targeting, there are so many options for segmenting your audience and advertising to their needs specifically. You can show ads specifically to people who added something to their shopping cart but then abandoned it, or people who have liked or commented on your company’s posts on Facebook. It’s another great way to talk directly to your prospective customers right where they are at, at just the right moment.

6) Organic reach is basically dead. If you post content on your Facebook Company Page, your audience might never see it without using ads, even if they have liked your page. Facebook is getting crowded. People follow a lot of different companies, groups, and other people. Facebook is also limiting the organic reach of pages and promoting the ad portion for companies who want to get in front of people. If you rely on posting organically, many of your followers will never see your posts.

7) Real-time results. You can review the performance of your campaigns in real-time (with a few hour delay). You can see if you are not getting the impressions, clicks, or leads that you were expecting, and update your settings, targeting or ads to fix issues without needing to wait and waste money without knowing why.

Sign me up! Sounds great, right? Not so fast.

3 Reasons You Might Not Want To Use Facebook Ads:

1) You don’t understand how Facebook Ads works. You can waste a lot of money on Facebook if you don’t know how it works going in. You need to have at least a basic understanding of your targeting options, how placement works, and how to create great ads before you can create a successful Facebook campaign. If you don’t have time, or don’t want to figure that out, Facebook Ads might not be right for you.

2) Your website has issues, or you don’t have a great landing page. You need to have a place to send people once they arrive on your site. It needs to be relevant to the ad and deliver on what you promised them before they clicked. It needs to have a great offer and tell the benefits of doing what you are asking them to do. If you aren’t able to create one, you should hold off on Facebook Ads at least until those issues are fixed.

3) You don’t have goals for your campaign and monitor to see if you are meeting those goals. Keep track of your campaigns. Facebook Ads provides fantastic data about what is happening at every step of the customer journey. Is your goal to get engagement with your posts? Pay attention to likes and comments. Want to get more followers? Track it. Do you want to get people to take some action on your site? Set up conversion tracking and monitor that. Make sure that your efforts are actually paying off and you are actually getting a return. You may be wasting money and not know it.

Bottom Line: Facebook Ads can be a ridiculously powerful platform for advertising, but it’s not one to use lightly. You need to know if you’re making money, or at least getting out what you expected. It is easy to get started with Facebook Ads, but it is also very easy to lose money.

If you are interested in Facebook Ads and want to get started, but aren’t sure how, give us a call. We will create a campaign for you and work with you to make it successful. We will also educate you on what to look for in a good Facebook campaign, and make suggestions on other options. Call us for more information!