Once you have a Page on Facebook, how do you promote it? Don’t forget free ways to promote your Page such as asking your real-world customers to “like” you on Facebook, or cross-posting your Facebook to/from your website, your Facebook to/from your Twitter, etc. However, there’s also advertising on Facebook. In this video, I will walk you through the basic ways you can advertise on Facebook. Let’s get started!
- Watch the Video
- Links and Resources (scroll down below the video)
Watch ‘How to Advertise on Facebook‘ on YouTube!
Facebook Advertising Resources
We’ll assume you already have a business Page on Facebook. Next, spend some time checking out Facebook’s official how to advertise on Facebook mega site as well as their informational site Facebook Business. They also have a ‘help’ website on Facebook advertising, here. It’s a lot of information, so I am going to give you the basics.
Advertise Your Facebook Page
Especially if you are a ‘local’ business, advertising your Facebook Page can be a great idea. It’s not very expensive, and you can micro-target it to get your Page in front of nearby customers. Even better you can, first, advertise your Page and then use organic tactics to leverage people who “liked” your Page because of advertising, so that they grow in their engagement. Don’t think of Facebook as organic VERSUS advertising, but rather think of it as advertising AND organic. They should work together.
- Promote Your Page – official ‘how to’ explanation on Facebook, namely –
- Log into Facebook, and find your Page (left side, Pages feed)
- Under your Page profile picture, scroll down, and click on Promote
- Follow the instructions to ‘Promote the Page,’ including creating a target audience. You can type in keywords or even competitor pages to identify the “audience” of competitive Facebook Pages. Pages will sell any Page down the river to another advertiser! (Begin evil laugh).
Boost a Facebook Post
In this scenario, you post something to Facebook like an update, an offer, or something fun and exciting. Now, Facebook’s ‘organic’ reach isn’t very strong these days, so it is pretty much ‘pay to play.’ Thus, in this scenario, you want to ‘boost’ your Post. You can ‘boost it’ (a.k.a., advertise it) to an audience, such as people who already ‘like’ your Page, or to a specific ‘new audience.’ Here’s how.
- Create or find a Post you want to ‘boost.’ (For the official Facebook help file, go here.)
- Click the blue ‘Boost Post’ button on the far right, underneath the Post.
- Identify a desired target audience. Note: you can even use a competitor Facebook Page as your desired target!
- Set a budget, choose an image if necessary, and start advertising!
Advertise Your Website or a Web Page on Facebook
In this scenario, you want to use Facebook to promote something ‘off of’ Facebook, such as a product page on your website, a webinar, or even a book on Amazon. So you are using Facebook sort of like you’d use a TV commercial: to put your message in front of a demographic target. Here’s how –
- Identify something you want to advertise, such as a product, service, webinar, sign up for your newsletter, etc. It works best with something pretty focused! (For example, my book on Amazon at http://amzn.to/2c6YFaB). It does NOT have to be on your website, but it could be – for example, a product on your website.
- On Facebook click on the top right, downward chevron, then ‘create ads.’ Or on a Facebook Page, find the blue ‘Promote’ button on the far left, underneath your Page profile picture.
- Follow the instructions to create an ad on Facebook, remember to use Facebook’s demographic targeting to select precisely who you want to advertise to.
- You can advertise on Facebook desktop or mobile, as well as Instagram. All or just one of them!
Once you’re advertising, use Facebook Insights at the top middle of the your Facebook page to see how your ads are performing. You can also use Google Analytics in combination with Facebook to measure traffic FROM Facebook TO your website.
Photo credit: Sarah.Marshall via Foter.com / CC BY
