Facebook Advertising – What’s not to like?

Advertising on social media platforms should be part of any business’s digital marketing strategy. This is because it allows you to share content, build links and drive engagement, often at a relatively low cost with a potentially huge audience. I

Should I use Facebook for advertising if I’m a professional services organisation?

We get asked this a lot by clients at Scala as they start to dip their toe into social media advertising, and the answer is yes! Professional services organisations may instinctively believe that Facebook isn’t ‘professional’ enough for them to use to promote their business when in fact it’s the perfect platform to communicate your expertise and promote your brand. Since its launch in 2004 (making it one of the oldest social media platforms out there), Facebook has gained huge popularity and has an enormous audience worldwide. And by enormous, we mean enormous! As of December 2018, Facebook had 1.52 billion daily active users and 2.32 billion monthly active users*. Not bad for a platform that was initially created to connect college students!

Our top 5 reasons to advertise on Facebook

1. Low Cost

With a Facebook ad, you are in control of the budget right from the very start, and this can be set to suit any budget. There are two kinds of budgets available on Facebook:

• Daily – average amount you wish to spend per day
• Lifetime – the amount you wish to spend over the entire run-time of your ad

Once your budget amount has been reached, your advert will stop. And obviously, the higher the budget, the more people you will reach. By setting your budget this way, you’re in complete control and won’t overspend. And if the ad just isn’t working, you can pause it (and change it) or stop it at any time too.

You can use this budget in one of two ways: either by creating a pop-up advert or by paying to boost a post. Paying to boost a post is a very effective way of harnessing engagement (and the all important click through to your website) because you are helping to inform your reader on a legal topic that is of interest to them. For example, one client paid £60 to boost a post entitled “When can step-children challenge the stepparent’s will?” Over a period of one month it reached 9,116 people and attracted 342 clicks. Adverts also work extremely well to promote your firms’ brand particularly if you advertise using a video.

2. Target Audience

Facebook is a very clever platform and gathers a wealth of information about each and every user, which you can then use to your benefit. Once you have identified your target audience and created the right content that will resonate with them, it’s time to put it in front of them. Facebook has a number of options available that will help you segment your audiences, ensuring your content is only delivered to the users who are most likely to convert into clients.

The options available are:

• Location – here you can specify a region, country or city
• Demographics – age, gender, languages
• Interests & Behaviours – including industry, entertainment, family, hobbies, charitable donations, job role and purchase behaviour

3. Videos

A recent Facebook study found that people spend 5 times longer watching video content when compared to traditional static ads, and with the video ad feature on Facebook it’s never been easier to share your latest content. Once you have your chosen video, upload it, add a short description, choose your audience, budget and you’re good to go.

Its best to keep videos short and get straight to the point, your average viewer is unlikely to keep watching for longer than around 30 seconds. In previous Facebook ad campaigns, we’ve shared client testimonials and even company-wide promotional videos. Don’t worry if you haven’t got a video, or your struggling to think what the content of that video could be might be…we can help with that too!

4. Increase your website traffic

Unless you’re a Kardashian, you need more than just likes, shares and comments when you post an ad on Facebook.

What we aim to do when creating ads is drive more, relevant traffic to your website. What’s great about Facebook ads is that you can decide exactly where to send your audience. For example, if the aim of the advert is to build awareness of your company or generally promote your website, you’d send your audience to your homepage. However, if you’re promoting a more specific area of expertise, for example, clinical negligence, you would send them to the clinical negligence page.

By sending your audience directly to a relevant page based on the content of your ad, you’re more likely to see them convert from ‘audience’ to ‘client’.

5. Analytics

As with most social media platforms, Facebook provides useful analytics on every post you share. These analytics can be monitored in real-time, allowing changes to be made if necessary. Analytics from Facebook include the number of impressions, reach, likes, shares and comments, and allow us to monitor which content is performing the best.

For example, a previous Facebook advert for a healthcare client reached 68,688 people and had an impressive 1,311 link clicks, this on a relatively modest budget of £50!
Using this information is a great tool for planning effective future Facebook ads, ensuring you get the most for your money, whatever your budget.

If you require any help with a digital marketing strategy, including Facebook advertising, contact us on 0114 4070159.
office@scala.uk.com

*Facebook Newsroom