Demystifying Facebook Ads for Small Businesses

Facebook Advertising, like any type of advertising, is fickle—this is why having a marketing strategy is so important. Whether you’re using Facebook, radio or billboard advertising, there is no guarantee that your message will make it to the right people, that it will grab their attention or that they will take any sort of action.

Ninety percent of marketers use Facebook Ads to generate leads and 26 percent of small businesses have advertised on Facebook in the past few months. Facebook has done its best to add features that make it easier for small businesses and those with low marketing budgets to use the platform. The social media site recently launched a video editing tool specifically for creating video content for ads, an appointment booking tool allowing customers to book with you directly from an ad, and an automatic ad generator that creates up to six ads with provided content and visual elements to give you different options.

However, 62 percent of small businesses say their Facebook Ads are failing to see any ROI.

If you’re not seeing the results you want from your Facebook Ads, there are a couple of things you may be doing wrong.

Setting the wrong goals.

Before placing an ad, set the goals of the ad. Facebook ads for small businesses are not successful if you just “Boost” every post to try to gain traction. Having a goal and a strategy to match is key to the success of your ad. If making sales is your goal, you probably won’t be successful unless you have developed a key following and have a loyal customer base already on the platform. If you don’t have a following and are trying to grow your business, you must start by getting your name out there—this should become your primary goal and secondary is leads or sales. 

Misjudging your audience.

If you run your ads with generic audience parameters, you may not be reaching the people in your key audience and thus, you’ll waste your effort and your dollars. For instance, if you’re just targeting people who live in Cape Girardeau between the ages of 20 and 45, you will have a massive reach, but your ads may not gain much traction. Identifying key factors or the “habits” of your ideal audience will help you gain more clicks and leads for your product or service.

Creating ineffective content.

No matter how much money you put into advertising on any platform, it won’t work if your message is ineffective. Pushing poor content with Facebook Ads will just push poor content to more people. The visual content of your ad must be captivating enough to grab someone’s attention and the written content must match your visual. To keep the attention of your audience, you need to tell them a story they’ll care about.

If you find your Facebook advertising isn’t doing much for your business, don’t give up. Rooted Web can help your brand master the platform, increase your brand awareness, and, in turn, generate sales. The team at Rooted Web are experts in social media marketing. We can develop a strategy that aligns with your goals to make sure you get the most out of your investment. We can help you identify the audience that will appreciate your brand, and create beautiful content that tells your story. If you’re interested in making the most of your Facebook Ads for small businesses, contact Rooted Web today. We are proud to help small businesses in our community be successful.