Facebook wants to make everybody happy with their advertisement system. What’s crazy is that they seem to be making it work.
When businesses purchase advertisements, they are trying to improve one of their key metrics. This usually comes in the form of traffic to their website, which can be converted into mailing list signups and product purchases.
Consumers, on the other hand, want to be entertained. They hope to see relevant, engaging content that makes them feel good. This can take many forms, ranging from personal photos to high-budget media projects.
Facebook’s self-serve advertising system is a brilliant combination of these factors. If you learn how it works, you’ll be able to get better value for your money.
The Facebook Ad Auction
When a user sees an ad show up in their Facebook feed, they expect it to be relevant to their interests. They have no idea just how much work goes into making this happen.
Facebook starts by looking at the user’s profile for helpful info. Once the gender, age, location, and other personal trivia are worked out, the server begins considering ads.
Facebook’s ads are already organized into categories based on their target demographics. All of the relevant ads for this user’s demographic are now measured against each other based on maximum ad price and relevance to the user.
Estimated action rates are an important part of this process. This number is Facebook’s best guess at how likely a user is to engage with your advertisement. The higher this chance is, the better your ad’s likelihood of winning the placement becomes.
After all of this work happens, the winning ad is delivered and that company’s account is billed for the balance.
Captions
On most social networks, you want to use captions all of the time. Even within Facebook’s own ecosystem, your business page can be filled with caption-laden photos. Viewers love that content because it’s so easy to comprehend.
Ads on Facebook are different. Any text in the photo’s frame sharply reduces its value in the ad auction process. Too much text can disqualify an ad entirely, such that it does not get displayed to anybody for any amount of money.
A good Facebook ad will consist of a clear, colorful photo. You ad copy goes into Facebook’s designated spot above this photo, not inside of it.
Set Your Budget
The great thing about Facebook advertising is how quickly you can adjust your spending. Your daily ad spend is controlled via a budget option in the ad creation interface. This amount can be adjusted instantly whenever you want.
If an ad does well and gets a better value than usual, increase the ad spend to take advantage. For ads that aren’t accomplishing their goals or are costing too much, reduce the budget. This system rewards people who are willing to keep an eye on their data and look closely for opportunities to save money.
The Real Opportunity
The truth is that anybody can use this information to get ahead, yet few people do. The real opportunity right now is to find the courage to give these ideas a try.
If you aren’t using Facebook advertising yet, it’s never too late to start. Everybody had to try their first few campaigns before they could become masters of social media. Use these tactics and you’ll be happy to watch as your ad money delivers real results for your business.
