How to Use Simple Targeting Filters to Target Facebook Ads to Your Audience.
Advertising on Facebook is a very effective way to engage people where they are already engaged. Currently, Facebook boasts somewhere in excess of 800 million users and growing. It allows you to put up ads to reach just about any group of people you can imagine. This is because Facebook ads are more flexible than Google Adwords or any other form of online advertising – offering you additional character length for ad descriptions and also providing you with the ability to create image-based ads.
A lot of smart business owners are already using this social network to promote their business. Facebook advertising has been proven to work extremely well and produce consistent results – therefore it is something not to overlook especially if you are interested in getting your word out. Even better, it allows you target your customers based on personal interests, age, gender, location, device, etc. More eyeballs mean plenty of exposure for your ads.Without a doubt, Facebook has an excellent paid platform that any business can leverage to get more qualified traffic, leads and fans for their business. Below are some of the ways you can target your ad campaigns for maximum result. Facebook Ad TargetingFacebook gives you the option to target your ads, which provides you with the opportunity to reach exactly who you want. You want to reach much-targeted audiences and get a specific message across to groups you know will want to hear them. For example, targeting your ad to a specific age group – say 25 to 56 may be too broad for your market. Therefore you may want to narrow this down by targeting certain interest group that will be excited about what you have to offer. Narrowing down your audience will ensure your ad is shown to the most relevant people. Below are some ad targeting techniques.
1) Age, Location and Gender When it comes to advertising, the more specific you are, the higher the likelihood that your campaign will find success. The location allows you to target users based on their country, state, zip code or city. Age and gender targeting should be based on your existing customers. If men between the ages of 32-50 are the bulk of your customers, you can start out by targeting them. However, if you have not been using Facebook ads to promote your business before, figure out exactly who is going to be the most responsive to your campaign (you can use a tool like: (Alexa or Compete to analyze demographics).
2) Precise Interests We are all unique. We’ve got our interests, tastes, friends, creative outlets, etc. This does not exempt your customers. When advertising on Facebook, you have to delve right into your customers’ minds by creating personas to help you get a better picture of what their interests are. Start by targeting potential customers who have likes and interests listed on their Timeline that are related to your own business.
3) Broad Categories Target ads to broad categories of interests, like: types of sports, musical genres and other activities such as photography. You can also target traditional precise interest as well as professional categories like real estate. According to Facebook, “you can use Broad Category targeting to reach out to groups of people that share similar traits and interests, including activities that are related to “Food and Dining”. These groups tend to draw from the authentic info people have added in their profiles, making it easy for you to reach your ideal audience.”
4) Socioeconomic Status According to Marketing 101, the best sales come when a customer quickly identifies the need for a service or product, and can easily afford it. When posting your ad on Facebook, you can look for those regions that are wealthier and enter their postal codes. Since the competition’s bidding price in these wealthy areas might be high, you can set your bids slightly higher. This goes without saying that if you want to sell in higher income markets, you have to be ready to offer something of high quality and value.
5) Connection Targeting Connection targeting gives your brand the ability to target their ad to only reach users who are: users of any of your Applications, members of any of your Groups, attendees of any of your Events and Fans of any of your Pages. It helps you control whether your ads are shown to people who already have a connection with you on Facebook by choosing whether or not to target them. For example, the 25% discount code will only be made available to Facebook users who have actually liked your brand’s page.
6) Friends of Connections This is a great way to incorporate some social proof and relevance in ads especially when you are trying to grow a Facebook audience for your brand or business. Ads that have this option activated show Facebook users which of their friends already like a page, event or an app on Facebook. Facebook allows businesses to target customers by making use of other advanced targeting options including: languages, workplaces, relationship status, etc. Go ahead and do your own part by making Facebook ads better for all of us by creating relevance and value. Though there is a little bit of learning curve to it, Facebook advertising is a great marketing channel for the right business. Always remember to target interests that are specific. Also, use eye-catching images to place ads and track virtually everything. You will be able to trigger a steady source of conversation from the world’s biggest social network after 1 – 2 weeks of learning what actually works for your brand/business.
