Facebook Advertising - more than just a "like"

It's become no secret that Facebook ads perform about half as well as web banner ads, so why should you consider Facebook for advertising? With over 750 million active users, why not? Social media advertising on Facebook is not just the little block on the right side of your page.

According to a Mashable Article, the average click through rate, or CTR, on most ads in 2010 was around 0.05% - half as much as the industry standard of about 0.1%. However, if your business has a page that has fresh content and newsworthy information – giveaways, polls, etc. – people are more likely to recommend your page to their friends. Businesses that have a Facebook Page typically have higher CTRs than Facebook Ads. According to Facebook's Latest statistics, the average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events.

I have found that I tend to use Facebook as a one-stop information source for personal, business and "Pages" information. I love seeing news updates, the latest hospitality and tourism business posts and pictures, what's new in the Kindle library, as well getting a reminder about who's birthday it is. I am less likely to interact with a page or place that bombards me with updates every hour than I am with a daily update (unless it's breaking news), and the same goes for personal pages. The adults of my generation (Generation X) tend to be less concerned about song lyrics and mood swings 10 times a day than are the users of my son's age.

If I 'like' a page, I expect to see interesting facts or questions posed once in a while, as well as any updates that relate to that place or product.

Businesses can advertise on Facebook and be successful – more than just those small squares on the right of your page. You can now output events, and get people to sign up for more information or emails about your business. You can lead them right to your website, gaining new visits and potentially improving your web statistics. You can learn more about whom your target market is – and the best thing is if someone "likes" you, they can now recommend your business to their friends, all with a click of their mouse.

But, it's not as easy as it was a year ago to simply build a tab with an image on it. Facebook is almost constantly (or at least consistently) changing the way pages are coded making it difficult for a typical user to create the extra bells and whistles that were once known as "tabs", now known as "lists". To try and tackle designing and maintenance of these features after the next update takes place sounds like a full-time job. It's best to allow your digital marketing agency to take care of coding and re-coding, and monitoring Facebook for the next change. They'll stay on top of the behind-the-scenes stuff, while you can spend more time engaging with your fans and getting more "likes"!