Is Facebook’s Paid Advertising Worth It?

Chris Naff - September 9, 2014

This is part one of a two-part blog post series. In a previous blog post, we discussed the ability of a brand’s Facebook updates to reach its audience in an organic manner. To extend beyond organic and viral reach, Business Pages can utilize the advertising features within Facebook. Among the benefits of doing so is the chance for your updates and the brand itself to be exposed to a broader audience.

The first question a brand manager may have, however, is “Why would I pay to have a presence in Facebook?” Facebook has historically been a social media channel that allows you to reach prospects and existing customers free of cost. So why start paying now?

To answer that question, let’s look at the fundamental components of Facebook Ads:

• Ads can appear either on the right-hand side of the News Feed or within the News Feed itself.
• Allows you to potentially reach an audience beyond those who have already “Liked” your page.
• Have the ability to target very specific users and interest groups.
• Campaigns can be designed for a multitude of goals.

Expanding Your Reach

You can choose to pay Facebook so that your updates extend beyond organic reach. This can be done to previous updates you’ve made or new updates. For example, if you notice that a particular update you’ve made to your page is receiving engagement (a potential sign that your audience finds the update valuable), you could consider paying to expand the reach of that post. The new set of users who are exposed to the update may also find it valuable, increasing your chance of higher engagement.

Strength in Targeting

If you consider the amount of information users provide Facebook, the social network knows a lot about us, such as age, where we live, our profession, our interests, and what we like to do in our free time. As a result, if advertisers wish to target female teachers over the age of 35 who enjoy scrapbooking and live in the northeast, they can. If you want to identify 22-year-old college grads who are accountants Monday through Friday, but dominate the whiffle ball diamond on the weekends … you get the point. Facebook’s targeting capabilities are impressive.

Things to Consider

Before diving into the paid opportunities within Facebook, you first need to establish your goals. What action do you want the audience to take? Are you trying to increase registrations to your upcoming webinar? Do you want more people to read your latest white paper? Perhaps you simply want to gain more “Likes” to your page. In either case, properly identifying your goal is crucial to the success of your campaign.

Now that we’ve addressed why you should consider taking advantage of the paid capabilities within Facebook, part two of this series will cover how to execute great campaigns. Stay tuned!