Facebook CAN Reach YOUR Target Market

First of all, I would like to mention that comparing Facebook Ads with Google AdWords is not really appropriate. Google is a search engine and Facebook is a social networking site. The intent and engagement levels of the audience are completely different for both the sites. In Google people actively search for information and products and on Facebook they are looking to connect with their friends. Keeping these points in mind, I would like to give a brief summary of what advantages do Facebook Ads have over Google AdWords;

Usually Much Cheaper (specially for Small Businesses)
Google AdWords is quite expensive even if you bid on low or medium popularity keywords (and especially keywords related to buying online). Facebook is a new system wanting to jump into paid advertisement. If you hit the right niches, you can get traffic for a fraction of PPC pricing. Facebook ads are much more cost-effective and very good for small businesses trying to gain a presence online without a big budget.


Advantage of using Images/Photos in ads
Visual aid will be provided to your ad through this feature. An image is worth a thousand words and the ability to show images in ads is a huge advantage Facebook has over Google AdWords. You can use images in Google AdWords by creating your own image banners but they don't convert too well. In Facebook ads, it is easy to upload a small image along with your text, which helps drawing attention of your target user. It is also good if you want to show images of your brand or product. I believe this is the most powerful feature of Facebook ads.

More flexibility
Facebook ad descriptions can be up to 135 characters long (versus 75 at Google AdWords). More space for creativity. In Google AdWords you can't use exclamation marks (!) while Facebook allows you to use it, this creating more effect in the ad. Restrictions are also less when it comes using many different words (copyright issues) in Facebook. On the whole, setting up an ad campaign on Facebook is much less frustrating.

Highly Targeted Demographics/Keywords
Facebook advertising helps you target keywords and demographic much better. AdWords doesn't know as much about user searching (apart from their cookies and previous searches). Facebook has an advantage of getting more information about the user because we login to our profiles first and then see the ads, so you can be sure that your ads are shown to people with profiles that contain your targeted keywords and demographics. Facebook provides the following 11 targeting factors for advertisers;

Location
Age
Birthday - this one is more recent. Try wishing a user happy birthday and offer them something special
Sex
Keywords - these are based on a user's profile information including activities, TV shows, Movies, Favorite Books. Even job titles are included n this field.
Languages
Interested in
Education
Workplaces
Relationship
Connections - to avoid showing ads to people who have already joined a group or become a fan of a page etc.

Take advantage of these targeting factors, because if you're not then you're missing out on the huge advertising potential of Facebook. Increase targeting to make an advertisement more relevant.

Facebook advertising does have some troubles such as there is no conversion tracking option and undoubtedly AdWords is great for this. Also, there is no ability to show ads at a particular time of the day. Business-to-business advertising also becomes less likely on Facebook (keeping the friends' social networking concept in mind).

If you are using Google AdWords or any other paid search platform, it will be a great idea to try Facebook ads. You will be surprised by the outcome and scope.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adam_Ada

Facebook Advertising Advantages

Many small business owners are familiar with Google's pay per click (PPC) advertising platform, Google AdWords. AdWords is a very powerful way to drive highly targeted, motivated prospects to your business' website.

However, AdWords has grown has become a complex and competitive beast. While AdWords is still very much a excellent marketing tool for small businesses, it's not as easy or as relatively inexpensive as it used to be to run an AdWords campaign.

What you may not know is that Facebook has its own PPC advertising program. The program got a bad rap early on, but advertisers are starting to find it to be a very attractive option to drive prospects to their websites or Facebook Fan Pages. Here are 3 reasons that make Facebook PPC an attractive option, especially for small business owners:

1. Huge Numbers. Facebook has over 400 Million users worldwide. It gets 260 Billion (yes, with a "B") page views per month. It's estimated Facebook user spends about 7 hours per month on the site on average. Chances are your prospects are hanging out on Facebook, and spending a good amount of time there so it's a good place for you to be too.

2. (Relatively) Low Competition. Not many advertisers, especially small businesses, pay much attention to Facebook's PPC advertising program. What that means is competition isn't nearly as great as it is with AdWords and costs per click aren't as high. This presents a good opportunity for small businesses to take advantage of relatively cheap clicks before their competitors catch on.

3. Unparalleled Demographic targeting. This is the one that keeps me up at night thinking about the possibilities. Facebook has an incredible collection of demographic information about its users (think about the information you entered in your profile when you registered - college, martial status, employer, hobbies, etc.). Well all this information can be used by marketers to precisely target their ideal prospects.

Here are a few of the criteria you can use to target people: age, gender, marital status, relationship status (single, in a relationship, engaged, married), high school, in college, college grad, workplace, and more. Plus you can enter keywords which enable you to target people by hobby, favorite movie/book/music, etc.

Think about the possibilities. A Japanese restaurant owner can run ads for lunch specials targeting big employers nearby whose employees indicate they like sushi. A small business owner selling a green product who can target people whose favorite movie is the Inconvenient Truth. A jeweler who can run ads for engagement rings targeted to men "in a relationship."

The possibilities with demographic targeting on Facebook are very intriguing. Combine them with the (currently) low levels of competition and the huge numbers of users on Facebook and Facebook PPC advertising is definitely an option worth checking out for promoting your small business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adam_Kreitman

Facebook Advertising Basics

Social networking sites are gaining popularity with a very rapid pace because they provide us various features with the help of which we can find friends, compatible mates and dating partners. Some of the best networking websites that are operating on the internet these days are Facebook, Twitter, Hi5, Orkut and MySpace. They provide you options for chatting, gaming, creating forums, forming communities and advertising your products.

Various affiliates are now using Facebook to advertise their products and services because this social networking site is very popular amongst youth, children as well as adults. Facebook provides an option to the user with the help of which they can market their services. So, now let me tell you about some tricks with the help of which you can save a large amount of your hard earned money on advertising.

1. Creating a profile

If you want to carry out affiliate marketing on Facebook then you need to create your advertising profile. You must paste your picture is this profile as your picture will create a better impact on clients and other users. In this profile you have to fill out all your details regarding your location, age, work, fields of interest and important keywords that you use. In order to target the right people, you must make your profile interesting and informative.

2. Targeting the right people

With the help of this social networking website you can really target the people who are interested in your affiliate services. Using the right keywords and phrases is the key to your success. With the help of the right keywords you can track down the people who have mentioned affiliate marketing in their individual profiles. You can also target people on the basis of their work, relationship status and region.

3. Creating an advertisement

After you have created your profile and targeted the right people, the next step you need to follow is to create your advertisement. Your advertisement should only be meant for the people you have targeted as this would increase your chances of successfully promoting your services.

4. Price criteria

The price is very important for you if you really want to save money on advertising. Various options are provided to you for creating an advertisement. From these options you can easily choose the one that is most suitable for you. If you want you can either pay per click or you can also pay per thousand clicks.

With the help of a target network like Facebook you can easily save a huge amount of money on advertising.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jordan_Natalie_Freeman

How to Use Facebook For Marketing and Advertising

A lot of people online want to know how to use Facebook for marketing and advertising. Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites with over 250 million users who actively use it. Stats show that an average user on Facebook has nearly 125 buddies. Even though there are other competitive social networking sites, Facebook strives to have its own loyal users all over the world. Since there is so much traffic on this website, a lot can be done to make use of it to earn income. Hence, Facebook stands to be one of the best platforms to not only market but also to sell the products and generate good income.

In order to use Facebook for marketing and advertising to earn income, one should make sure that he or she has a good and an active profile that will be only used to market products and nothing else. Hence, it is advisable to make use of a new profile rather than using your regular Facebook profile. One of the most preferred ways of advertising any product on Facebook is to run ads. These ads can be used to target relevant users by age, education and geographic location. However, these ads do not come for cheap.

This is a known tendency that people usually buy from those people whom they now. Hence it is very important to market your products properly. The key is providing the users with the products and services on Facebook by marketing and advertising. This way you can earn when ads show up on Facebook or when there is sale of any products or services. One of the best ways to promote any products online is through affiliate marketing. The online merchants may ask people who own websites or blog to advertise or promote his products. After this, the person who has a blog or a website places an ad about the products and services offered by the online merchant. If there is any sale, the blog or website owner gets commission.

Like affiliate marketing, two-tier affiliate marketing is also one of the best ways to earn income steadily. Two-tier affiliate marketing can significantly improve the business of the online merchant. He not only gets increased traffic but also finds increase in the sales. Here is how it works. All you need to do is to affiliate with an online merchant.

The next step is to introduce more affiliates to the online merchant who are not direct affiliate but are sub-affiliates under you. You can then earn through the commission that is produced when there is any sales done by any of your sub-affiliates. The more sub-affiliates you introduce, the higher profits online merchants will make and more you will earn through the commissions.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Troy_Pryczek