Facebook Ads: Online Advertising Alternative, Part II

In the first part of the delivery of Facebook Ads, we discussed how to create advertising campaigns on Facebook. The immediate question would be why we would want to use Facebook Ads, as an online advertising medium, instead of, for example, Google Adwords.

Actually, Facebook Ads present some advantages to advertisers, which are almost obvious and others not very visible at first glance. As is to be expected, it also has some point that it disadvantages.

Advantages of Facebook Ads as Online Advertising Medium

1. High Targeting of Ads.

   One of the huge disadvantages of contextual advertising today is the relative difficulty of reaching the right audience with high precision. For example, Adwords, which has advanced algorithms to place ads, cannot assure the advertiser that 100% of their ads will reach the right pages. Facebook Ads surpasses this limitation and allows reaching the right audience, through advanced Geo-Targetting and based on the extensive information of profiles and preferences of the users of the social network. You can get so specific in your criteria as to limit to a few tens or play with various combinations to reach a few thousand. In any case, the conversion of objectives would be much higher.

2. Comfortable price.

   As in the entire market of the advertising contextual social advertising, the market is the one that is regulated to place the best price of the ads. That depends on the demand for the keywords, basically. Fortunately, for the Spanish market, it is still very economical to get ads to be presented to Facebook users.

3. Generation of Collateral Advertising, sometimes Viral.

   If the advertised service reaches the right readers - which is more likely through "social" advertising - it is also very likely that free, "word of mouth" or "word-of-mouth" advertising will be generated in English. There is also a small probability that the effect will go viral, and massive exposure of the service or product will be achieved. This probability, although small, is still higher than in the case of traditional contextual advertising.

4. Integration of Advertising in the Content.

   Facebook has surely invested millions in ensuring that advertising is not "offensive" or "intrusive" for its users. This benefits the advertiser in many ways. To name one, it will no longer happen that the ad is published at the bottom of the page, as was the case with traditional print advertising. Another is that - at least for the moment - it has the advantage of not falling into "ad blindness."

5. Probability of Obtaining More Specific Reports.

   Especially in Pay Per Click, it occurs to me that it could be possible to present who clicked on which ad and when. That could lead to getting a comprehensive look at what action the user took once they reached the page we advertise. In addition to the most accurate calculations of return on advertising investment and the effectiveness of campaigns.

6. Put a Face in Front of the Ad.

   Facebook ads are accompanied by a link to the profile of the person who creates them. This has the effect of making our own contacts and the interaction created with them, make the ad more relevant. Many people like getting to know the people behind the advertised business more. Through Facebook Ads, this is not only possible, it is even desirable.

7. Dynamically Modify Campaigns.

   Creating new ads, or modifying existing ones. It is simple and it is also recommended. Knowing the tastes and preferences of the users who have selected the service - after clicking on the ad - it is possible to clearly determine which market segment is being reached, where it is better to advertise and which product lines need reinforcement.

8. Easy to use.

   As we saw in the previous article in the series, ad creation is really dynamic, intuitive and simple. You don't need advanced technical knowledge, just a little skill in choosing the right keywords so that your ad reaches the right users.

Disadvantages of Social Ads (via Facebook Ads).

1. Mass of users reduced compared to search engine users.

   Logically; Google, Yahoo, and the other search engines have the advantage of hundreds of millions of users who use them to find information. Still.

2. Profile information may not be 100% reliable.

   There are many users who deliberately - and for strange reasons - do not put the profile information, or alter it. Fortunately, they are not the majority.

3. Restriction of Certain Terms.

   For example, "facebook" is a term that cannot go, neither in the title, nor in the body of the ad. There are other terms that have also been restricted, in order to avoid complications, surely.

Although it is still very premature, it is almost certain that this type of advertising will gain market space. The possibility of reaching the market - although smaller, also more specific - of users of social networks with total transparency, is very attractive to pass up.

In the next installment of the series, we will publish a small spreadsheet that can help us create and control the budget and conversion of social advertising via Facebook.