Learning about the other side of the Facebook ad

• by joey , May 18, 2009

So – I purchased my first Facebook ad last week. Well, my organization bought it, but you know what I mean. The process is so straight forward, it’s scary. Yet, at the same time it is overwhelming.

Like Twitter, there is a character limitation on the title and body of the ad. When you’re trying to capture the attention of your target audience, this is a daunting task. I counted at least five drafts of a block of text only 125 characters long. I highly suggest practicing your Tweet skills before trying to write a Facebook ad.

Once we chose an image, the ad began to take shape, and I admit that there may have been some light jumping and quiet giggling in the office – out of excitement, of course. The questions begin to rise immediately. Is this the right image? Let’s try another one. Again, we changed the picture at least three times.

Targeting was the next hurdle. I am almost positive that I could have just had my Uncle Scott see this ad – and he could be the only one. The tools are fantastic, and the possibilities for this kind of marketing are incredible. Imagine being able to take one product, service or cause and writing ten different ads for it. Each ad would target a different age group, a different geographic area, different interests, etc. Instead of a generalized ad campaign, Facebook affords the opportunity to focus specifically on who you want to reach.

Pricing is interesting since there are so many options. You can pay per impression (how many times the ad is seen on a page) or per click (more self-explanatory). You compete with other advertisers to get seen. Like Ebay, it is a bidding system. Let’s suggest there is a 20 cent range of prices. If you bid on the low end and a higher bidder is offering, then your ad won’t get seen as much as the higher bidder.

The best feature of Facebook advertising? You set the price limit. Per day. For the whole campaign. You only pay for what you use. What a novel concept?

At this point, I am waiting for the completion of this “test” campaign to analyze the metrics. Did our ad get seen? Did people click on the ad? Did they do what we asked them to do? Is Facebook advertising worth creating a budget line? All that and more when I have results!