As a small business owner, you know that you need to market your brand. At the RISBDC we understand that it can be challenging to figure out where to start, and choose where to put your marketing energy (and dollars!) for the highest ROI.
This post will give you a sense of what social media ads can do for your business, and empower you with easy steps to get started with Facebook ads to maximize your business growth.
Read on for an overview of the benefits of paid Facebook ads from J. Scott Marketing Principal Julia Scott and Marketing Manager Ashlie Woods.
Benefits of paid Facebook ads
One attractive benefit of having a social media presence is the cost (free!). If you’ve been active on social media, sharing updates and interacting with your followers, you may be wondering why you should consider investing in paid ads on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Unfortunately, social media also contains a lot of “noise.” Users have no shortage of content to sift through, from friends and family as well as from brands they follow. The infamous Facebook algorithm, though constantly changing, doesn’t prioritize content from businesses. In fact, Ignite Social Media reports that organic content is generally presented to only about 5% of a brand’s followers.
But the algorithm prioritizes paid ads.
Directing a small portion of your marketing budget to paid social media advertising gets you to show up in your users’ newsfeed.
Once there, paid ads can
- Significantly increase brand awareness and name recognition—whether or not your target audience actually takes action directly on the ad.
- Drive traffic to your website when users do take the simple action of clicking your CTA (call to action). More website visitors = a boost to your search engine ranking.
- Target your audience very specifically. While a print ad or billboard casts a wide net, paid Facebook ads allow you to drill down into age, gender, interests, and more to target the users most likely to take action.
- Remarket to your website visitors.
- Keep you competitive. Your competitors are buying Facebook ads to get in front of your target audience—you need to stay active and relevant.
- Capture leads and build your email list.
- Give you vast data on ROI through the Insights feature.
- Increase organic reach. Once users click on your paid ads, the Facebook algorithm knows they have shown interest and will boost your organic content in their feed.
How much should you budget for paid Facebook ads?
Thankfully, social media can be one of the economical forms of advertising. A 2020 study from AdEspresso showed that businesses were paying just 39 cents per link click on average—far below the cost per lead for radio, TV, print, or a conference sponsorship.
While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to the question “How much should my paid Facebook ad budget be?”, we can give you some guidelines to get started.
If you’re managing ads yourself, start with $100 per month. If you’re working with a marketing team to manage the ads, starting with a minimum budget of $300 per month will give you the most bang for your buck,—then you can increase the budget from there once you’re getting the results you want.
Daily budget and lifetime budget
You have two options for how to spend your ad dollars:
- A daily budget spends the exact amount you specify each day the ad is active.
- A lifetime budget allows Facebook to vary the amount spent each day as long as the total budget is spent over the life of the ad.
We recommend choosing a lifetime budget because it allows Facebook to spend more when your target audience is active and engaging with the ad and spend less when it is not performing as well. This may mean that you spend $20 one day and $2 another day during the timeframe your ad is active, but your ROI for total investment will likely be much higher.
Starting with an even smaller budget? If $100 a month is a stretch, consider boosting individual posts, which is less time consuming than running ads through the ad manager.
Quick Tips to Get Started with Facebook Ads
Whether you’re working on your own or with a marketing partner, it’s important to spend your ad dollars strategically. Be intentional about the ads you create and always choose topics that promote your bottom line.
Make sure that your content
- Has clear messaging—What do you want the viewer to know?
- Features a clear call to action—What do you want the viewer to do?
- Uses quality images
- Represents your brand impeccably by avoiding spelling, grammatical, and factual errors
When you’re ready to start creating ads, Facebook’s ad guide can walk you through the steps.
You’re not alone
If these benefits and basic tips have you excited about marketing but still wanting support, reach out to the RISBDC for additional guidance. Check out our webinar schedule to join an upcoming webinar or browse our library of recorded webinars, including many on social media topics.
