Social media is without doubt one of the most popular communication platforms. Since its rise in the early to mid 2000s, it has proven to be one of the greatest ways for a business to not only improve their brand, but increase reach and exposure. There are many features that enable this, with one of the best being Facebook Ads.
Facebook Ads is a way for businesses and users to get their content and advertisements seen by other users. There are two main types of advertising on Facebook: Ads and Featured Sponsored Stories.
Sponsored Stories is content created by Facebook users, usually through interaction with your Facebook Page, or content your company has posted (liking, sharing, etc.). Because actions like this show up on user newsfeeds, companies can pay to have these interactions featured on friends of the friends they originally interacted with. The idea here is to increase who can see your content in the hopes of finding new fans or more specifically, new customers.
Ads on the other hand is similar to traditional advertising in that you create and have more control over the advertising content. You can control the imagery, wording, title and even who sees the content. This gives you a great way to create targeted ads that specific customers and users respond to. Hopefully bringing them to your Facebook Page or even website. There are four different types of Ad:
- Standard ad – These are the ads found on the right-hand side of most Facebook pages, including: The home page, Photos, events, user profiles, Pages, etc. When you place the ad, you can decide who gets to see it, and where the ad will link to (your Facebook page, or say your website).
- Page post ad – These posts on your company’s Facebook Page, that can be sponsored to increase their reach, or in other words who can see them. When you create a Page post ad, it will usually show up on user newsfeeds, but can also show up on the right-hand side of the window. Users can then comment, share and like the post as they usual. The main difference is that more users will see the ad, which brings your Page potentially more exposure.
- Mobile app install – If you have created a mobile app that is available for download in the Google Play or Apple App Store, and have connected this with Facebook, you can pay to have the ad show up on certain user newsfeeds, when they browse Facebook using either an Android or Apple mobile device.
- Sponsored result – These are sponsored search results that show up in the drop-down box when a user initiates a search using Facebook’s new Graph Search bar. This type of ad is only available to companies who have signed up for Optimized CPM ads.
A common question many businesses ask is whether these ads are actually useful and do in fact pay out. A recent study conducted by Internet advertising company AdRoll, which looked at the benefits and click-through rates (the number of clicks on an ad divided by the times it’s shown) of social vs. traditional search advertising such as through Google, has found that yes, ads do work.
The study found that ads that show up on newsfeeds have a click-through rate 21 times higher than targeted Web ads. What’s interesting is that the newsfeed ads have a click-through rate 49 times higher than ads that are posted on the right-hand side of Facebook. What this means for you, and companies posting ads on Facebook, is that your content will achieve greater exposure if it’s posted on newsfeeds.
If you are looking to learn more about Facebook and how it can help your business, you need to contact us today.
