{"id":1571,"date":"2016-09-07T10:58:18","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T10:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/2016\/09\/07\/how-to-master-facebook-advertising-and-targeting\/"},"modified":"2020-01-14T03:04:27","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T03:04:27","slug":"how-to-master-facebook-advertising-and-targeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2016\/09\/07\/how-to-master-facebook-advertising-and-targeting\/","title":{"rendered":"How to master Facebook advertising and targeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facebook advertising<\/a>\u00a0is becoming very useful, especially when you explore its potential and all its targeting options<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Greg Gifford<\/a>, Director of Search and Social at DealerOn, delivered a very informative presentation at\u00a0Brighton SEO<\/a> last week, describing\u00a0all the advertising options that Facebook offers along with the impressive targeting you can\u00a0achieve.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Greg Gifford,\u00a0Facebook used to be “the drunk guy who showed up late to the party and annoyed everyone”, but now it’s managed to become the “cool mofo that everyone wants to party with” in social advertising.<\/p>\n

It did this by taking advantage of its popularity to create a very cost-effective advertising platform.<\/p>\n

It\u00a0makes sense for your brand to explore Facebook’s advertising options, as this is the platform that most users<\/a> spend their time on while using their mobile devices.<\/p>\n

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Starting with the basics, here are all the advertising types you can create on Facebook:<\/p>\n

Facebook Ad Types<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Page post engagement<\/span><\/h3>\n

One of the most popular ad types. It’s good for boosting your content’s reach, while it works both with published or unpublished posts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Page Likes<\/span><\/h3>\n

This is another popular option, though its popularity is not always reflected in its success. Many Facebook Pages use this ad type to grow their audience, but the lack of proper targeting and\u00a0engagement (comments, shares, clicks to the site),\u00a0may lead to a waste of your\u00a0budget.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clicks to website<\/span><\/h3>\n

This ad type can be very useful when you’re trying to increase the traffic to your site, or when you want to drive users to a specific landing page<\/a> to promote a campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Website conversions<\/span><\/h3>\n

This is a great option for lead generation and ecommerce<\/a> which requires the installation of a tracking pixel to the site to measure the number of visitors that turned into customers, coming directly from Facebook.<\/span><\/p>\n

App installs<\/span><\/h3>\n

If your brand wants to promote an application, then this is a great option, as it may lead users directly to the app store, combining promotion with effectiveness.<\/span><\/p>\n

App engagement<\/span><\/h3>\n

If you want to take app promotion to the next level, you may experiment with app engagement, trying to connect with existing app owners and make them re-engage with your\u00a0app.<\/span><\/p>\n

Offer claims<\/span><\/h3>\n

If you just launched an offer on your Facebook page, then this ad type may help you drive more users to your Facebook page to ensure a larger participation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Video views<\/span><\/h3>\n

The domination of video in Facebook<\/a>\u00a0has made this option very popular, helping video producers promote their content directly to the most relevant audience. It\u00a0supports .mov, .mp4, or .avi files and the ratio is 16:9.<\/span><\/p>\n

Local awareness<\/span><\/h3>\n

Last but not least, local awareness is about advertising on mobile devices, according to a set location and it can be very useful\u00a0for a local business trying to beat its competitors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Targeting opportunities<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

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Facebook’s deep\u00a0targeting allows you to create an ad that\u00a0reaches a very specific audience,\u00a0and it goes beyond the expected demographics, by even targeting particular life events, political beliefs, parents (even defining the age of children), or friends of people celebrating life events.<\/p>\n

This increases the chances of spreading your message to the right audience, which is also cost-effective, as you won’t spend your budget on users who are not interested in your product.<\/span><\/p>\n

More options for targeting<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Custom Audiences<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"custom<\/a><\/p>\n

Custom audiences<\/a> consist of email contacts you already have and it may be a great alternative to the limitations of email marketing. There are no opt-ins, no unsubscribers – only people who are relevant to your product who would otherwise miss your email.<\/p>\n

Custom audiences can be very useful for lead nurturing, while they may be used in more creative ways, such as:<\/p>\n