Facebook ads are advertisements run through the Facebook Platform. Long ago, businesses easily survived without online advertising. Companies didn’t have departments set up for online customer relationship management and nobody needed an online footprint.
With the rise of the internet and the availability of gadgets, almost everyone is now online. That also means, almost everything is done online – including shopping. That is why platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google are finding ways to help businesses reach this massive number of people who can potentially purchase their products.
Facebook is not just an advertising platform. Founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, Facebook is the most popular social media platform with 2.9 billion registered users across the globe. It lets you connect with people via messenger, post statuses about your life, and shop around. The popularity of Facebook makes it a tremendous marketing tool for digital advertisers. As the new notion goes, “if you don’t have Facebook, you don’t exist”, so you better create a Facebook page for your business now.
However, if you want to increase the visibility of your business throughout Facebook, you can run ads via its own Business Suite. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of Facebook ads for your business.
Pros
It helps you select your audience
Facebook has microtargeting features that let you select who can see your advertisement. When you run an ad, you can select a specific address or audience behavior. You can target the smallest geolocation like a country, state, or city. However, Facebook also has a smart audience that you can select to control your ad views to people who are more likely to click on your advertisement.
Facebook Ads are affordable
Facebook probably offers the most affordable advertising plan. With just $1 a day, you can run sponsored posts for a week and reach over 21,000-60,000 users on Facebook within a day. Unlike Google Ads, it doesn’t charge per click. It will exhaust your budget for the day and will reach as many audiences as it can give your budget.
People go to Facebook to shop
As we have said, Facebook is not just a popular social media platform. Nowadays, people have been using Facebook to post items for sale – not just in the marketplace but also on their walls. Various international business has utilized the LIVE button to do live selling. If you want to grow your business followers in a shorter time span, you can skip all the hassle and run a Facebook ad.
There are a lot of ad layouts on Facebook
Fortunately, Facebook offers several advertising units for your business. It has right-side reel ads, promoted posts, carousel ads, canvas ads, video ads, and Instagram-specific ads. You can choose to run ads just on your Stories or Reels, or promote an entire business page. You can even create offers and link your ad to your website. The variety of ad layouts on Facebook provides marketers the flexibility to become creative with their ads.
You don’t need another website
Facebook could be a great place to start a business. If you have a small and still cannot afford a website, you can Create a Page on Facebook, which is free. As a page owner, you can set up your Facebook Shop where you can add your items. That’s right! You don’t need an e-commerce site to set up your own shop or a third-party plugin. Facebook helps you build an ideal business just for free as long as you are a Facebook user. There is also an option to advertise just one product or advertise your entire shop for more visibility.
Cons
Diminishing Organic Reach
Unless you are paying Facebook for ads, it would be hard to market your page using only organic reach. Many marketers who stick with t traditional advertising will not be able to benefit much from the platform.
Mistakes in insights and reports
There have been many complaints circulating around Facebook about the advertising metrics aren’t always correct. Some of the common complaints include the following:
- Exaggerating video play metric
- Misreporting instant articles metrics
- Miscalculating app referrals
- Since repeat visits are not removed, the organic reach isn’t reported precisely
It can get expensive
If you want to reach more audience, you need to improve your budget and run it for a couple of months. Even so, Facebook will not guarantee that you will make a lot of sales. Several factors will need to consider such as having an attractive advertisement (image, video, or text) and selling the right products to the right audience. If your product is not at all relevant, you will find it hard to reach more audiences on Facebook no matter how many times you try to advertise.
The ads are limited only to Facebook users
Your ads could only be seen by those who are logged in to Facebook within the duration of your ad. Unless you cross-post with Instagram, your ad will also show on the platform. But your ad is never going to show anywhere else, such as on Google or other platforms. Users need to first view their Facebook Fed before they can see your ads. Because of this restriction, you need to use it wisely.
Heavy Competition
More and more companies are using Facebook Ads nowadays. That means the market is already saturated. If you run an ad, you could be competing with hundreds of other companies out there with similar products. The market saturation makes it hard to catch people’s attention and stick to your product.
Does it have any cost?
Creating a Facebook account is entirely free. Once you have your personal account, you can create a Page for your business and start running ads. You need at least $5 to run an ad for a week and get as many people as you can. However, you can increase your budget to get more exposure. Depending on your goals, you can run multiple ads in one single day or stagger the schedule throughout the month. Just like traditional advertising, you need to find the perfect timing and create the budget to yield successful results.
Recommendation for small business
In general, Facebook is a great marketing tool for advertising managers. Since everyone is now on Facebook, you can take advantage of this tool to increase the visibility of your business and your sales.
Like every other advertising method, Facebook ads have their own pros and cons. But we can say the advantages are more than worth considering. As a business owner, you want to gain more by utilizing Facebook ads, as opposed to not doing so.