1. The power of internetThe internet today is one of the most popular places for business to advertise in. With hundreds of millions of people visiting the internet on a daily basis from all over the world, you can be sure that advertising here will definitely increase your sales.
Internet advertising reached $99 billion in 2012, says a study from GroupM, which they say is representing a 16.2% increase over the previous year and accounting to 19.5% of all advertising expenditure that same year, worldwide.
According to internet world stats by the ICT the share of the world population using the internet has grown from 18% to 35% between 2006 and 2011. During this time the world population grew from 6.5 billion to 7 billion. The developing world has seen more of an increase in this 5 year study too, China increasing their share of internet users from 44% to 62% in the 5 years leading to 2011.
2. About FacebookToday there are 62 million people using social media site Facebook. The social networking site is now considered to the biggest and most widely known social networking website existing. As the spread of internet users increases, worldwide, there is a constant increase in new users becoming Facebook members.
Facebook is also one of the most evenly balanced social networking websites in terms of user age and gender.
In a study of American SNS users by Pew Internet, Facebook had the second highest score for ages 50-65, at 19%, second only to LinkedIn at 23% and higher then Twitter at 13%.
The study also says Facebook is used by 92% of all SNS (social networking sites) users, followed by MySpace at 29%. The interesting fact is though that people engage more on Facebook every day, some 52% in-fact, that’s higher then Twitter at 33% and far more frequent then MySpace 7% and LinkedIn 6%. Another way of looking at it is Facebook is the premium place for your company to showcase, advertise and network with their audience.
Facebook’s overall market research data suggests it is the most universal social networking site and it has the best results for users’ daily visits. MySpace and LinkedIn by comparison are only occasional places users visit.
3. Advertising on FacebookWithin your Facebook account you may set up a targeted advert. This may involve publishing your website URL, and attract new users or likes. You can set up event times with dates and places, such as summer concert. Each ad allows you to include a photo or a logo as a small icon.
It’s easy to create a new advert, you just log into the home page, click on the bar on the right-hand side, and look for the section marked “Sponsored” where the ads appear. A link that reads “Create an Ad” appears to the side of the “Sponsored” link.
Within the Create an Ad section, you can design and edit the look for the advertisement, with Facebook automatically creating a preview at the bottom of the pages, so you’ve got the assurance your advert will look great before proceeding forwards.
Destination In the Facebook Ad, you’ve got the Destination Tab and several options to direct the user. Then you can include the body of your ad copy and an image or log. Destinations include a website URL or your Facebook page, Sponsored Story is really a nice feature; you can choose to have either a Page “Like” Story, displaying to the user a friend who likes your page, with a “Like” call to action. Page Post Story shows the user the excerpt and image from your most recent Facebook post. The CTA here is to comment, “Like” and Share.
Goals
Facebook offers a range of other options for you as a company. You can select goals that cover the following:
- Promote Page Posts, for specific pages you’ve created, increasing chances of reaching their targeted audience.
- Get New Users, to target people that are likely to want to want what your website offers, sign up to newsletters, download your apps.
- Increase Attendance, for when you have an event, target people who may find your conference or event relevant to them.
- Get More Page Likes, when people like your page, they’re more likely to see your posts, and the more likes you have means that you have more people in the audience every time your posts are published on Facebook.
User Filtering
You can advertise to your demographic, using targeted marketing at your end user. This type of marketing is in smaller numbers, but with bigger and greater results, which are easier to manage for you as well!
- Advanced tartgeting includes demographics, such as age and weather you want to choose men, women or both
- Likes and interests allows you to advertise on the users’ pages who’ve publicised this date in their profile
- Location permits you to choose a city, province or country for where you’d like to send your advert out to
- Within the advanced targeting section you can choose to promote an advert for people on their birthdays, what languages they speak, education and relationship status
Payment strategy Choose with either a pay per click (CPC) or pay per impression (CPM), which both have great potential to boost user awareness. In the Campaigns, Pricing and Scheduling section you can choose the currency you want to use to pay for ads, daily budget, and dates and times when you would like to appear.
Finalizing your ad You will be required to do a final review of your ad before publishing, so you can check over your work, and have the chance to return to and edit any part of the ad you have designed. Then finally, you can check over your order, which you can pay for with credit card or PayPal. Now you’re away, you’ve created an advert and enhanced your chances of gaining more visitors and customers!
4. What we’re doing at the company where I workWorking within online marketing at The Genuine Gemstones Company, my business utilizes Facebook for online PR, for online marketing campaigns, getting the best of Facebook marketing for posts and advertising hand in hand.
A new promotion for
emerald rings on Gems TV gets sent out on a Thursday afternoon, and we need to get it to as many people as possible; with over 8,000 members and 4,027 likes on Facebook (and steady growing) we can have the best platform for our customers to see our ad campaign banner.
Our brands Gems TV and Rocks TV are strong in the UK and USA respectively and our online marketing team over here consistently are working, planning and communicating. Facebook is one of our key areas we would like to grow, with more users, journalists, companies and bloggers engaging with us every day that leverages a wider spread of users and shares name, our quality, our services, using Facebook.